Wasted Vegetables and Healthy Scraps

There is no such thing as wasted vegetables. They are all good for something.

It may not be 5 star restaurant quality, but it's still going to be good and healthy. (Besides, who want to eat perfect foods all the time, that produces much more waste than even these suggestions can handle!)

I do 3 big things with vegetable scraps and wasted vegetables.

1. Make broth & soup

2. Feed the animals

3. Compost

Most vegetable scraps can made into a delicious soup. Onion tops, carrot tops, turnip skins, cabbage heart and everything else. They all contain a huge amount of nutrients, but they aren't the tastiest on the plate. But, in a broth, they are divine.

What I do is place all the scraps in a freezer bag as I create them. Once I have a bag full, I put the scraps in a cheesecloth bag ($0.50) and simmer for a few hours. The dark broth is now perfect for making rice, gravy, and any other dish that calls for broth. Freeze the broth in ice cubes, then store in a freezer bag.

You can season this broth with lots of herbs and spice, or not. If you want chicken or beef broth, make that simply as well. Just take the chicken bones and scraps from a whole chicken (plus the innards), and cook with the vegetable scraps.

I also take stems from herbs and spices and add them to the scrap bag. While not as potent as the leaves, the stems have lots of flavor. Just be sure to know you are using cooking herbs: some herbs have a few more toxins in the stems.

Now, you have a broth that is hundreds of times healthier, lower sodium, and much, much cheaper.

For the bit bigger pieces, I see if the animals would like them. I have a dog and cats. But some people have chickens and goats. Many animals will eat scraps as long as they aren't bad. My dog eats the scraps from the broth, apparently, even these are still good!

Otherwise, if the scraps are truly not fit for stock or animal, they go in the compost. Then, the compost goes in the garden. There are lots of websites to tell you how to make good compost.

I've taken my garbage to 1 bag per month. No food goes in the garbage, so no smell. And because I focus on farmer's markets, I have very little plastic waste to throw away (I do recycle what I can)