Ahead of the plasterer starting on Monday, we had to tidy off all the work surfaces and tops of cupboards – quite a challenge for hoarders like us with many, many culinary hobbies! Anyway, among our tidying, I found a couple of half-used bags of coffee beans in an old biscuit tin. My boyfriend John bought them from an expensive coffee bean shop but didn’t really like them – he couldn’t bring himself to throw them away though, better to keep them as a back-up just in case he runs out of his preferred ones. That sounds like a good plan, doesn’t it? Except they’ve been waiting in reserve for quite a while now. So long so that I had to search my old email to find out when we went to the place we bought the beans from (Lincoln). 2007. Five years. Gosh.

They do still smell quite coffee-ish but I suspect they’re long, long, long past their prime!

They could go on the compost heap but I’d rather reuse them in some other way rather than just letting them rot.

They could be ground and used in the same way you can reuse any coffee grounds — the magical internet tells me I can use it for dyeing fabric/yarn or even my hair, and I imagine these virgin beans would result in a deeper colour than already used once ones.

But does anyone have any ideas for ways I could use them whole? Crafty ideas or practical ones?

Good thick chips not just tiny hard scraps. It’s such a waste. Can anything be done with them?

Obviously the first thing here is to reduce the amount she & her family buy in the first place – but I realise chip portions are a variable thing. I read about a study recently that found that portion sizes could vary from between 250g (half a pound) to 1kg (2.2lbs!) depending on the shop and server. I think most families would have leftovers even if they bought just one bag of the latter!

Whenever my father (not) in law has leftover chips, he wraps them back up in their paper again and freezes them for a snack at a later time. I’m not sure how he defrosts/reheats them (and admittedly, he’s not got particularly high standards when it comes to cooking) but it might be worth experimenting with if you have them leftover regularly.

At the end of the day though, they’re just leftover fried potato – and can be reused like any other leftover potato. Mash up the softer ones – they could be used in fish cakes or a hash/bubble & squeak. The little hard ones could be chopped up and used as a crispy coating/topping.

Here, they’d go in our “misc stuff for the chickens” pile.

What would you do with leftover chips?

But care should be taken with cooked veg and the like – if it’s been cooked with meat, fish or dairy, or soaked in a rich meaty gravy etc, the smell of that may attract undesirable vermin to the pile. Some people (particularly people with sealed bins or wormeries) are happy to chance it but other people are more cautious.

Anyway, we all know it’s much better to use them up in some other way first rather than just slinging them into the compost.

Sunday roast leftovers were always the basis of Monday night dinner in my house when I was growing up. The meat would be the star of another meal – chicken curry sticks in my mind most clearly but there were other things too – and I remember my mum used any leftover veg to make bubble and squeak.

What do you make with your Sunday roast/Christmas dinner leftovers?

We’re not really roast eaters now and steamed/boiled veg is an area in which we’re actually pretty good at only cooking what we need – but any leftovers we do have usually go down to the chickens as treats. I’ve heard you can also use them in homemade dog food.

Do you do anything else with your leftovers?

We don’t eat celery here very often (because my boyfriend John has … issues with it) but if it looks like I’m not going to eat it all before the floppy stage kicks in, I slice it into small rounds and freeze it to include in the mix next time I’m making stock. If John didn’t have his issues with it, I’d probably be happy to include no longer crisp celery in a stew/casserole – since it’ll soften up during cooking anyway. (I don’t tell him about putting it in stock, ssssh, don’t tell him!)

There is some debate on whether/how it should be fed to chickens – some people advocate chopping it up first so the “strings” don’t get caught in the chicken’s crop, others say they enjoy the challenge of breaking it up themselves. The similar yes/no debate seems to exist for rabbits and other small furry pets – just because like with people, some animals like it more than others – but all advocate that it should just be used as a treat in addition to other food, not in large quantities.

A good few people around the ol’ interweb also say you can revive soggy celery by leave it to stand in some ice water for a while – or more effectively, slice into smaller sticks and float them in a bowl of the same.

(If it’s too far gone for reviving or even cooking, it can, of course, be composted.)

What do you do with floppy celery sticks?

Thankfully, we had a newly bought pack that I could use for my soup but I’m left in a typical Recycle This situation with the others: what else can I use the old lentils for?

Given dried beans & pulses do generally last forever, I’ll probably try the ones from the sealed pack but the open-for-God-knows-how-long pack are definitely passed being cooked & eaten.

So what else can I use them for instead of just throwing them in the compost bin?

Apparently, they can be used to make exfoliating facemasks – crushed and mixed with a little water until they reach an “oatmeal like consistency”, then rubbed onto the face and left for about half an hour. Similarly, Lush sell a “lentil shampoo bar” – not sure whether there are actually lentils in it or just the water from soaking them for about half an hour but the latter is a technique used as a conditioner in India – so either using the water in a shampoo bar or just as a rinse are options too.

Any other ideas?

This sounds so cheap but I regularly “steal” the last of the sandwiches after meetings at work because they’d go in the bin if I didn’t take them. I eat some fresh, freeze others to eat later and grill the cheese ones. I rarely make my own sarnies these days!

Ah yes, free lunches. I used to organise academic conferences & courses as part of my job and the scavenger in me loved the leftover buffet. The best I managed was a very fancy meeting which included both sushi & steak (in too-big-to-be-easy-finger-food pieces, so very little was eaten). Later on in my buffet foraging career though, the catering people started getting more aggressive about health & safety and we weren’t allowed to take anything unless we could promise it would be eaten immediately — and that is something to consider when taking sandwiches or whatever: they’ve already been out of a fridge for several hours so some fillings may already be getting a bit past it. Consume at your own risk.

Assuming they’re still good though, I like Jos’ idea of grilling some of them and certain flavours may lend themselves to being made into an interesting bread and butter pudding (perhaps not egg mayo but we used to get wacky fillings like cream cheese & strawberry, which would be quirky but not insane in a pudding).

Anyone else a buffet womble? Do you eat them fresh or revamp them?

I found some part-used bags of frozen peas, sweetcorn and broccoli at the bottom of my chest freezer – expiry date 2009! My hubs is happy to ignore expiry dates but we tried some of the peas and they were tough and tasted washed out, not good! Any other options than just giving them to my worms?

I know what you mean with “washed out” – even stuff in date sometimes ends up tasting like freezer ice in our freezer.

If I was sure it was just a texture/taste issue, I’d probably give the veggies to our chickens and let them turn them into more palatable-for-us eggs. Wild birds would probably nom them up too.

Depending on quite how “freezer” they taste, they might still be fine for turning into soup or for use in long-cooked casseroles. Any washed-out flavour disguising recipe suggestions?

If you’ve got the freezer space to spare, it might be worth keeping the peas or sweetcorn as an emergency cold-pack for injuries – they could then be given to birds/added to a wormery afterwards.

Any other ideas?

So the main meat portions have been eaten or frozen to be eaten later this month, the giblets & skin cooked into a pate for the cats, and the carcass has been picked over for meat then slow cooked into a stock. But is there anything I can do with the bones after the stock?

I know some people with sealed composting systems/bokashi bins add bones to that. As we have an open (or at least not full sealed) bin and live near woodland, I’d worry about foxes (especially as our live and considerably more meaty chickens are nearby). But to get the bones into the garden, I know some people make their own bonemeal fertiliser from old chicken/other animal bones — has anyone done that? If so, any advice or things to avoid?

I’ve also heard about people using chicken carcasses for catching fish or crayfish – but I think the idea is that they’re raw and a bit stinky; these picked-clean cooked bones might not be enticing enough. Again, anyone know?

Any other suggestions?

Hi! I found out of date instant soup packets. Any ideas?

I presume by “out of date” Karen means its beyond the “best before” date – and if so, chances are, that soup is just fine and will be just fine for a good while after the marked date. (The UK government has announced they’re going to get rid of “best before” dates to reduce food waste – let people make their own judgements about whether stuff is fine to eat/drink or not, however long it is since it was produced. “Use by” dates on fresh food will remain but “best before” and “display until” [a stock rotation guide for shops] are disappearing. Anyway, back to Karen’s soup…)

If the soup is still good despite being “out of date”, then as well as being used as just soup, it could be used in place of stock in certain recipes – the flavour of the soup will obviously dictate where it can/should be used but it’s quite commonly used in casseroles and Google tells me that some people use (presumably beef-y, onion or mushroom) mixes to add flavour to meat when making hamburgers or tacos etc.

I know a lot of people reading this will prefer to make soups from scratch at home but does anyone have any other ideas for things Karen could do with the soup?

I love your site – it really inspires me to go to lengths to reuse and recycle things I never thought I could, and since I’m a student, that’s wisely frugal too!

I have a bit of a blind spot with cake baking, and they always come out unrisen and heavy, and doughy in the middle. Any ideas how I can reuse this (and other) lemon flavoured brick-cake?

You did cakes before, but focussed mainly on dry and stale cakes (breadcrumbs, biscotti etc)…obviously this is not going to work for me :D

Since the 3Rs always starts with reducing, we should think about reducing the occurrences of these sad brick-cakes ;)

I don’t make sponges that often so can’t be specific with my advice but one thing I will say that’s good general baking advice is check the temperature of your oven with a separate thermometer. Borrow one if you can but they’re only a couple of ££/$$ on eBay if you have to buy one – and they’re well worth it — everyone I know who has used one found that their oven thermostat was rather wrong: ours was off by about 30°C! That sort of temperature difference can make a heck of a difference when baking. Any more cake-specific advice on why Janet might be hitting the not-rising/doughy middle problem a lot?

As for reuses, could they be served as a heavy tart like pudding with cream? Or warm with custard as a pudding? A few sites also suggest bodging it by slicing the cake in half then stacking one piece on top of the other and adding a layer of cream & jam or buttercream in the middle to fake a bit of height. It still would be rather dense though.

Any other suggestions for using it up?

Do you know if there is any use for out of date chocolate?

I guess it depends quite how out of date it is. Chocolate tends to have a “best before” date (rather than a “use by”) and it is often fine to eat for a good while after that. In my experience, cheap chocolate goes off – tastes funny and gets white spots – far quicker than better quality stuff, so if it was nice chocolate to start with, I would definitely try eating it.

If it is past the enjoyably-edible stage though, I’m not sure what I’d do with it. Chocolate-scented soaps or candles aren’t usually made with chocolate – they either use cocoa butter or a chocolate fragrance – so that’s not an option.

I personally wouldn’t want to compost it – it would compost but I’d worry about it attracting undesirable vermin to the heap in the meantime or would be snaffled by our dog who likes routing around in there (and smells delightful after doing so). Other people may compost it though – especially people with sealed bins and less greedy/nosey dogs.

Can you think of any reuses?

Bake fruity breads, cakes and muffins

I’m pretty sure everyone knows that overripe bananas make THE BEST banana bread, right? When they’re brown and soft, they are easier to mush, sweeter and more banana-y. There are thousands of banana bread recipes out there from the simple to the … well, not complex but slightly less simple.

Other verging-on-too-soft fruit can used for baking too – orange muffins, summer berries including strawberries can be used for an oat-topped “crisp” pudding, and of course apples can be crumbled, pie-d or stewed.

Freeze citrus fruit juice

Citrus fruits don’t follow the same sliding scale of ripeness as other fruit – they’re either good or they’re bad, no real inbetween.

If you’ve had some oranges, lemons or limes in your fruit bowl for a while and don’t think they’ll last much longer – act now! Squeeze the juice out of them and freeze it in ice cube trays for use in future cooking.

Or if that’s too much, cut them into wedges or slices and freeze them separated out on a cookie sheet (once they’re frozen, you can put them in a bag or box – but freezing them separately prevents them from sticking together so much). They can them be used in drinks – working as both fruit and ice cubes.

Turn it into a smoothie, pureed sauce or jam

If the fruit is already going soft, why not take advantage of that and turn it into a smoothie, pureed sauce to have with yoghurt or ice cream, or a jam?

Overripe fruit is fine for this type of thing – but cut out bits that are seriously bruised.

(Also for jam making, note that the fruit loses pectin the more ripe it gets, so don’t rely on the fruit alone to do the jamming – use a jam sugar with added pectin, or liquid pectin as needed.)

Turn it into nourishing facial masks or hair conditioners

If the fruit is past the stage where you’d happily eat it, how about using it for a home facial instead?

Overripe mangoes make great facial masks – add oats for an exfoliating element.

How about overripe bananas & avocados instead? Avocado also makes a great hair deep conditioner for dry hair.

Ripen other fruit

Bananas, apples, peaches and pears give off ethylene gas when ripe (and overripe) – which causes other fruit (except for citrus fruits) to ripen faster. Pop a ripe-to-overripe banana or apple in paper bag with unripe fruits or veg like tomatoes – and they’ll ripen faster.

And don’t forget that non-edible skins can also be used for different things too – such as orange peel as firelighters, banana skins for nourishing leather or dry lemon rind in pot pourri or as a garbage disposal/bin freshner.

What do you do with overripe fruit? Any favourite recipes?

(Photos by monkie1013, stevekrh19, aschaeffer, Brybs and rolfa)

We jumped onto the goose fat bandwagon at Christmas because everyone was saying it was the best way to make roast potatoes but they were awful!! Not sure if it was my fault or the fat but either way they’re off the menu here now!! We’ve got a nearly full jar full what can we do with it? Compost?

I wouldn’t compost it – our compost bins aren’t sealed and I’d worry about it attracting vermin/animals to the area — too many downsides for not that much compost “profit”.

If I was you, I’d probably see if a friend wanted it. There are lots of other things to cook with goose fat aside from roast potatoes apparently – but I guess they’re not much good if the potatoes were “awful” because of the fat’s flavour. Someone else might be able to use it up though.

Aside from that, the consensus seems to be that it’s ok to use to make fat balls for birds. It’s not supposed to be as good as more solid lard but will make a calorific – and expensive – dinner for the local wildlife.

Any other suggestions – recipes or other uses?

Her question was:

How could I use completely dry fudge? I have two big boxes of completely dry Irish fudge that I’d like to find a use for. The fudge isn’t crumbly but dry and hard – hard enough that I don’t want to risk my coffee grinder with it.

Is there a way to make it soft again? Or just break it to small pieces somehow or soak in coffee or something.

Mmm, fudge. Between my misunderstanding about crackers on Tuesday and yesterday’s leftover turkey recipe round-up, Recycle This has conspired to make me feel hungry all week!

Could it be grated with a cheese grater and used as sprinkling on top of cakes/foam-y drinks?

This “failed fudge fool” recipe might work too – make it into a creamy dessert.

Any other ideas?

Individual turkey and stilton pies

I love this idea since a lot of people have leftover stilton around at Christmas too. The already cooked turkey won’t need as long in the frying pan though – add it with the mushrooms rather than before the sweet potato.

Making individual pies are also a great idea for this time of year when people are extra busy – these guys can be frozen then defrosted and cooked as needed rather than a big pie which has to be eaten all at once.

• Phil Vickery’s Individual Turkey and stilton pies

Hearty leftover turkey broth with bacon croutons

Come on, you just drooled reading that title didn’t you? I certainly did! *wipes keyboard*

Another fab recipe because you’ll have most, if not all, of the ingredients on hand from Christmas dinner preparations – such as root veg and streaky bacon – and the croutons also use up day-old/going-stale bread. If you’re really organised you can make the stock from the turkey carcass first too (see side panel below).

• Hearty leftover turkey broth with bacon croutons @ BritishTurkey

Leftover turkey enchiladas

After stodgy roasts and puddings (mmm stodgy food), this recipe is refreshingly light. Not at all seasonal with the courgette and peppers but still, mmm! If you haven’t quite got enough turkey, pad it out with pinto or kidney beans.

(I also like the idea of stacking them like a pie rather than in rolls.)

• Turkey enchiladas @ BBCFood

Turkey Jambalaya

And keep with New World flavours, this is awesome and I’m drooling again at the thought of it. Leftover turkey, rings of some sort of smoked/spicy sausage, colourful veg and spices – a surprisingly quick but delicious option.

• Turkey jambalaya @ Savoury Notebook

Turkey & Chickpea (Coconut) Curry

Finally, I couldn’t do a leftover turkey round-up without including a curry – firstly, because turkey curry is a delicious cliche and secondly because I’m all about spiceness!

This recipe from the wonderful people at LoveFoodHateWaste is effectively two curries in one – yummy enough on its own but transformed into something a bit more Thai flavoured with the addition of coconut milk.

• Turkey & Chickpea (Coconut) Curry @ LoveFoodHateWaste

What will you do with your leftover turkey? What are your favourite recipes?

Any ideas for the big brussels sprout stalk things? Oh, and can you eat the leaves that are sometimes on top?

I think the easiest thing to do here would be to reduce in the first place – don’t buy sprouts in the first place, they’re horrible ;)

If you do insist on eating them though, apparently the leaves can be cooked like cabbage. I’ve had less success finding out anything about the stalk though… Other stalks in the Brassica family (like broccoli) can be eaten so it wouldn’t surprise me if you could eat them – just I can’t find any recipes for doing so. Anyone got any suggestions?

As for other reusing ideas, apparently chickens love playing with them – pecking off all the last bits of sprouts. Does anyone know if other small animals (rabbits etc) could nibble at the stalk too?

Any other ideas?

Food safety warning: bacteria, specifically Bacillus cereus, loves cooked rice – and it can quickly grow to dangerous levels. Minimise it’s growth by cooling it quickly, put it in the fridge as soon as possible then use it with a day or so.

1. Rice pudding

Rice pudding is eaten all over the world in one form or another. The general principle is the same – cook the rice in milk then when it’s tender, add a sweetener (sugar, honey or fruit syrup) and something to give it a bit more flavour such as cream, egg yolk, fruit or nuts and spices such nutmeg & cinnamon. There are thousands of different ways to make it – experiment to find your favourite!

Leftover cooked rice can be used in place of dry rice – particularly if you’re happy to have a mushier pudding in the end. When making it fresh, most people use short grain rice but anything will do – white or brown, long or short, basmati, jasmine – whatever you’ve got on the go.

One of my favourite rice pudding recipes is with coconut and mango – yum!

2. Add it to soup

Leftover rice – again, any time – is great as a bulking agent in soup. Added early on, it breaks down and makes the whole soup thicker; added towards the end, it provides scoopable particles to chase around the bowl.

Add it to a hearty minestrone, or a tasty Moroccan veg soup – or add it to a simple chicken soup for those days when your belly needs something nice and bland.

3. Stuffed peppers (or marrow)

You can quickly make a tasty dinner by stuffing bell pepper or marrow rings with leftover rice.

Cut the top off the bell pepper and remove any seeds/white bits, then mix the rice with any meat, veggies or herbs you fancy, top with a bit of cheese and bake in a medium oven for about half an hour.

As with rice pudding, everyone has their own way of making them with their own favourite ingredients. Some great examples to get you started: beans and rice stuffed peppers; courgette, basil and rice ones; and super saucy tomato and beef mince ones.

To be extra frugal, use whatever meat or veggies you’ve got leftover alongside the rice – a little chilli con carne or casserole is perfect to stir in and lightly flavour the rice.

4. Bake it into bread – or muffins

Have you ever tried rice bread? Not rice cakes, those boring puffy white things but actual proper bread? If not, you should – it’s great and since you need to cook the rice down into a mush, starting with leftover cooked rice will save you time as well as preventing waste.

Check out this video how-to to see how it’s done.

Alternately, fancy something sweeter? Then I give you vanilla rice muffins.

5. Fried rice

Finally, no “uses for leftover rice” list would be complete without fried rice. Fried rice is best made with cooked rice left to go cold so it’s perfect for using up leftovers.

Again, there are a billion varieties and flavours. A simple recipe makes a good side dish but a couple more ingredients – some meat, fish, tofu or exciting veg – and you’ve got yourself a tasty main meal. Try this flavourful chicken and prawns recipe.

What’s your favourite thing to do with leftover rice?

It’s about how to reduce food waste and having to rely on supermarket supplies by getting the most out of each home baking session – how to make baked goods that’ll last.

Do you have any tricks to stop bread, biscuits, cakes etc from quickly going stale?

Do you freeze dough or part-baked/fully baked items? Any tricks or tips?

Any special ingredients to include or avoid to make things last that little bit longer?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

So many people in my (geeky) world are going nuts for these at the moment and it makes me want to cry — all the packaging, all the waste.

Graze boxes are designed to lure people away from vending machines and sugary snacks at work and get them eating more natural, healthier alternative instead. For £3.29 a pop, you get a box of snacks delivered to your desk instead – four different snacks (such as dried fruit, nuts, seeds, olives or crackers) inside little film-covered plastic tubs and encased in a cardboard box. The idea is to have them delivered regularly – several times a week – so you’re never tempted by that Mars bar or long-life vacuum-sealed muffin.

Graze’s claim to have thought carefully about the packaging – the cardboard is from a sustainable forest, is designed to be use as little material as possible & can easily be recycled again, and Mrs G from My Zero Waste asked about the plastic of the pots and it’s apparently PETE (resin code 1) which is widely recyclable where plastics are recycled.

Yes, it’s good news that the plastic is widely recyclable plastic – but getting a pack of it delivered to your door is hardly reducing waste (the first and most important of the 3Rs) and it’s not obviously reusable either. Where plastics aren’t kerbside recyclable, that PETE is likely to end up in the bin – and even the cardboard might too since offices don’t always have full recycling facilities.

(I’ll try to remain on topic with my rant here and not get into: i. how much energy is wasted transporting these light but bulky items around the country; ii. how much more expensive they are than buying the items directly; iii. how it’s easier to buy something than make a genuine lifestyle change.)

Anyway, I think you probably get the gist of my annoyance so let’s get constructive instead: the packaging can be recycled where facilities are available, any reuse suggestions though?

And what about reducing people’s use of them? Do you have any tips or suggestions how people could have the same healthy snacking experience without so much packaging?

(PS. sorry for the ranting ;) )

(CCA Photo by philcampbell)

How do you test for the set point? The most common method seems to be the “when it wrinkles on a cold plate” test but anyone use any other methods?

What do you do if it’s too runny once in jars? Or too solid?

And, not quite in the question but related, do you use/reuse anything interesting instead of commercial-bought pectin?

And any tips for reusing old jars? Reusable alternatives for waxed discs?

Finally, what do you do with jam that can’t be saved – stuff that burnt in the pan for example?

(“Why is this on Recycle This?” I hear you ask because it is a little tenuous as a “repair”. Well, one, because with the giant piles of fruit in our kitchen at the moment, I’ve got jam on my mind. And two, because jam failures may lead to food waste – and if we can save some rescueable jam from going in the bin, that’s a good thing.)

The recipe needs the oven to be hot (230C/450F/Gas mark 8) and in addition to the 40-50 minute cooking time, it needs to be well pre-heated (the cast iron casserole dish needs to be sizzling or the bread will stick) – so a lot of heat for a long time. We don’t generally eat enough bread to warrant making multiple loaves at once so I try to use the other space for other things. I’ve made scones/biscuits a few times and we nearly always have egg shells that need baking before crushing & returning to the chickens as grit.

Any other suggestions for things I could cook/bake alongside the bread? It’s not a huge oven and the casserole for the bread takes up quite a bit of space but there is a spare rack for things no more than 6cm/3″ high, a narrow strip next to the casserole, and the oven floor too.

(We usually bake mid-morning so we have cooled fresh bread for sandwiches at lunchtime. Since I’m usually working then, I don’t have a lot of time to make things from scratch and also it’s not a suitable time to make things that need to be eaten immediately after cooking. The oven is too hot for slow-cooking anything for lunch/dinner. Any suggestions would be welcome but suggestions taking these points into account would be especially great!)

It’s advised not to compost walnuts/walnut shells because the trees contain a chemical called juglone, which is toxic to some trees, plants and vegetables (especially members of the Solanaceae family – aubergine, tomatoes & potatoes) so better safe and than sorry when it comes to composting them.

Walnut shells have a number of industrial uses – a thickener in the paints & plastics industries, as a filler in explosives, and for cleaning/polishing – but less re-uses in the domestic setting. I’ve used exfoliating soaps and cleansers with tiny walnut shell particles as the abrasive element so home soap makers could use them up – but what about other reuses?

Due to a combination of a underestimation of seed germination rates, disorganisation/ignoring plans and demon slugs, my growing hasn’t gone quite as I thought it might but we’re doing ok and I’ve learned a lot about growing here.

One thing definitely on my list for next year – well, technically later this year – is to give my beds a good old fashioned manure boost in late autumn. The soil here is very poor but since I reclaimed the beds from the weeds in early spring, I couldn’t do a manure feed this year and I think our output has suffered as a result. I’ve been feeding the seedlings/growing plants since then but I think better soil to start with would have helped overall. Ah well, live and learn.

Anyway, homemade plant/vegetable fertilisers. I’m sure everyone reading this has a bulging compost heap for general compost goodness (if not, start one today!) but I thought it might be interesting to hear what kitchen scraps/plants/garden waste/household waste people use for specific fertilising/feeding plants at this time of year.

I’ve been making/using a lot of liquid fertiliser from nettles this year because we have so many in the field next door to our house. Coffee grinds are also popular as a mid-season fertiliser, as are potash and bonemeal.

What are your favourite produced-at-home fertilizers? Do you have any tips for particular plants?

I’ve reached the end … of my shampoo bottle and our mayonnaise jar. And it made me wonder…

Every vaguely-frugal/green family has their own tricks for getting those last bits of gloop, sauce, oil or whatever out of jars and bottles – but what are your top tips?

Most bottles – from condiments to shampoo – are easily emptied by standing them upside down for a few hours.

Cooking sauces – jars/cans of tomatoes – are easy too: a little squish of water around to pull off the last of the sauce/juice then into the pan it goes to be reduced off.

Cooking oils bottles and jams & honey jars get left in a bowl of hot water to make the remaining contents a little runny and easier to pour out.

Metal squeezy tubes – like tomato puree and old school toothpaste – can be rolled up and squeezed, but the new plastic toothpaste tubes aren’t so rollable – cutting them open seems the only option.

What other methods do you use?

Hi. Is there ANYTHING I can do with expired meat? I’ve read you can’t compost it but it’s such a waste to throw it away?

Yes, it is a waste! As I’m sure you know, it takes a whole lot of energy to produce a kilogram of meat, to ship it to your local supermarket and refrigerate it there & at your home – so it really would be better to reduce the amount of meat you buy or which goes off on your watch. One thing to remember is that just because the date on the packaging says it’s off, it doesn’t mean it’s actually off – learn what it should smell & look like (in terms of colour/texture) and judge it yourself each time. Don’t take any undue risks but don’t be a slave to the label either.

Of course even the most organised of us make mistakes and things expire from time to time, and Amy is right, it shouldn’t be composted in most compost bins/heaps in case it attracts vermin. (Some sealed units and wormeries advertise that they can compost it though.)

I suspect this might be one that stumps us but any ideas?

I’ve heard some people using little bits of bait to attract fish or animals – but I neither hunt or fish so don’t know if expired meat would be good for that. Anyone know?

i have so many, what can i do with them?

There’s a wide variety of uses for tuna cans:

I know some people use them to make “buddy burner” candles and you can use them as candle holders too – but make sure you put a bit of sand in the bottom first to absorb the heat from the candle rather than it heating the metal.

Some people clean them up and use them as “cookie cutters” for making large biscuits/cookies, and because everything in this house gets commandeered for the purpose sooner or later, I’ve used them as drip saucers under plant pots (pull the label off and leave them silver for an industrial look, paint them to make them look prettier – shiny white or cream gloss gives a pseudo-vintage enamel look).

Since they’re essentially just a small pot with a low centre of gravity, they’re useful for holding small quantities of paint/glue. Or as students have been known to do – use them as makeshift ashtrays.

Any other suggestions?

(Photo by TanjaS)

The ones I’m thinking of are used in the UK for sliced meats such as ham or roast beef/chicken, “continental sausages” (ie chorizo, salami etc), or wafer thin water-injected animal shavings (mmm!). The packaging has a semi-rigid shallow plastic tray and is covered with heat sealed plastic film. According to the misc pack of salami we have the in the fridge, the packing “currently isn’t recyclable (but because we care about the environment, we’re working on it)”. (Uh huh).

There is obviously a reduce option – although depending on the alternative provision, you might end up with as much plastic anyway.

Most packs only contain a single layer or a few slices max so the plastic tray is a little too shallow to use in the usual plastic tray ways – a saucer under plant pots, a paint palette for budding Monets – so are there any other ways they could be reused instead?

We’ve both actually been vegetarian for extended periods over the last decade (frustratingly not always at the same time!) so personally have an assortment of meat-free meals in our repetoire – but I thought it might be interesting to hear what other people do/have done to cut down their meat consumption.

As I’m sure everyone who is green enough to read this site knows, meat production has a huge impact on the environment before you even start to think about animal welfare. As meat has got cheaper over the years, a generation or two has forgotten that most meat used to be a luxury item, not an at-every-meal basic for everyone. At every point along the meat’s journey from field/pen to plate, it has direct and indirect environmental costs – so whatever we can do to cut down is a good thing.

Do you have meat-free days? Or the other way around, only eat meat on certain days/at certain events?

Do you avoid one particular type of meat/only eat one type of meat? Why?

On a blog recently – I can’t find the precise post, Google Reader Search is failing me – someone mentioned using meat as flavouring in a meal instead of a core ingredient: for example, a little chorizo goes a long way in an otherwise veg/bean heavy dish. I thought that was a good idea.

I remember a friend of ours who went veggie a few years ago told us one of his biggest problems was finding variety for sandwich fillings – he didn’t want to eat tuna but he felt that was his own non-cheese option. He had an “of course!” moment when we mentioned hummus and egg mayo (not together, yick!), because they both had a similar mouthfeel to tuna — but any other suggestions for sandwich fillings/packed lunch ideas?

If you have cut down/are veggie, what were the hardest challenges for you? How did you overcome them? If you haven’t overcome then yet – tell us what they are to see if we can offer any suggestions!

The first idea thing that came to mind – as happens a lot – is that when we FINALLY get chickens, they’ll like the green snack. (It’s been a year since we decided to get chickens, a year since I went on a course to learn all about keeping them but circumstances have conspired against us so far – we should have them soon though. A very frustrating wait!)

The next thing I wondered was if the leaves are edible – well, not just edible but enjoyable edible – by humans — and apparently they are. I found suggestions to use them instead of cabbage in bubble & squeak type dishes, a recipe for soup, and (my personal favourite) recipes for putting them in pakoras or bhajis. As an absolute minimum, I should be adding them to my stock box in the freezer instead of putting them in the compost. It’s brocolli stalks all over again – a versatile vegetable that we silly wasteful people throw away because we don’t know any better.

What do you do with your cauliflower leaves?

On Sunday, we went to the Leeds Farmers Market (held on the 1st & 3rd Sundays of each month in the outside market bit) and amongst the other yummables, I got some dressed crabs one of the Whitby fish guys – mmm, meat in served its own carcass (or at least, the carcass of its prettiest unlucky fellow species-mate).

They’ve already been reused once already as a kooky serving dish but any ideas for reuses or recycling ideas now? I suspect there will be some overlap with mussel shells – and like with those, there will be different answers for people who only have them occasionally (like me) and people who have a lot to get rid of regularly (like restaurants).

So any suggestions?

(Photo by david.nikonvscanon)