Katherine Boyce

ACW Climate Action Team

"Waste less, taste more! "

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
1,022 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

84

pounds of CO2

have been saved
UP TO

15

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

28

pounds

food waste prevented

Katherine's actions

Shopping

Glean or Forage

I will learn about the foods that grow locally and try gleaning or foraging.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Storage

Properly Store Berries

To keep berries fresh, place them on top of a paper towel in a sealed container to absorb excess moisture and reduce chances of molding. I will properly store 4 packs of berries.

COMPLETED 7
DAILY ACTIONS

Storage

Properly Store Leafy Greens

I will roll unwashed lettuce in a dry towel, then store it in a sealed bag in the refrigerator. I will properly store 4 bunches of leafy greens.

COMPLETED 3
DAILY ACTIONS

Storage

Learn About Food Storage

I will learn about food storage and store food based on best practices to keep it from spoiling before it is used.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Planning

Plan to Use My Garden or CSA Produce

I will check to see what will be ready to eat in my garden or CSA box this week and plan recipes that use these ingredients.

COMPLETED 21
DAILY ACTIONS

Storage

Preserve food

I will try a new method of food preservation, such as canning, pickling, drying or making jam. I will try 1 preservation techniques.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Storage

Properly Store Apples

I will properly store apples by keeping them on the counter for up to 7 days and then moving them to the refrigerator.I will keep them away from bananas and avocados, since those speed ripening. I will properly store 5 apples.

COMPLETED 7
DAILY ACTIONS

Cooking

Use the Edible Portion

I will learn about what food is still safe to eat if portions have gone bad and make sure to utilize the edible portions if I can.

COMPLETED 16
DAILY ACTIONS

Planning

Learn About and Choose a Meal Plan Style

I will explore different meal plan techniques and choose one that works for my household.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Planning

Create a Household Cookbook

I will create a cookbook or recipe collection of go-to meals for my household to make meal planning easier.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

Katherine Boyce 8/30/2024 1:33 PM
This has been a fun challenge. Next year, I want to grow more of my own produce, especially green beans, tomatoes, and carrots.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Planning

Was it hard or easy to create a list of recipes that everyone in your household will eat? How did it work best for you to organize them?
Katherine Boyce 8/29/2024 5:06 PM
I save recipes in a folder on my computer. A new thing I do when I find a recipe online but don't want to scroll through the exhaustive paragraphs about their family life and childhood memories is hit Print. It collapses the recipe into a single page of the necessary information. :)

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- Layl McDill 8/29/2024 7:09 PM
  Brilliant! I find that so frustrating! Thanks for the tip!
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Shopping

Did you know what "gleaning" was before you joined this challenge? Have you noticed any fruits trees or berry patches in your neighborhood that produce more than is being used up?
Katherine Boyce 8/28/2024 5:57 PM
I've noticed a lot of mulberry trees near me, and eaten some of those. I've also found Chicken of the Woods. But I don't trust my knowledge with most mushrooms and berries I see, so I don't end up foraging much! For gleaning, I have discovered an app called Too Good to Go, which sells leftover food from restaurants at a discount...though I'm a little unsure whether it's really leftover or simply another sales outlet for some? If you use it, I recommend having enough people to feed that the larger quantities don't go to waste.

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- Katherine Boyce 8/29/2024 5:00 PM
  Margo, Too Good to Go is pretty sparse near me as well. Intown Sushi always has something, which is part of what makes me think it's not a leftovers thing so much as a regular sales outlet...which isn't necessarily bad, but ambiguous.
  
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- Margo Ashmore 8/29/2024 5:51 AM
  Do you find the Too Good to Go has enough restaurants in your area to make it worth looking at? I put it on my phone, then found that there is hardly anything in my neighborhood (which is rich with restaurants) and I suspect what you said, it's just another sales outlet. Wonder if it is working for those select few. I'm guessing the other restaurants have found charities to supply, and/or they've gotten good at figuring out how not to waste.
  
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Katherine Boyce 8/27/2024 6:41 PM
One of the ways I think I avoid a lot of food waste is...I bike to the grocery store. It dramatically limits the amount I can get each trip, which is not why I bike, just a consequence of it. It's frankly pretty inconvenient. I find I daydream a lot about living in one of those European countries where everyone bikes and stops at little corner groceries on their way home from for the needs of each day.

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- Layl McDill 8/28/2024 8:20 AM
  I agree with you completely! We are super lucky to live 2 blocks from the coop so we get to live that European lifestyle of stopping there everyday to get just what we need. And if we forget something we can go back super easily. I think of the coop as my "pantry" that is just a short walk away.
  
  Read More
REFLECTION QUESTION
Planning

What meal plan method works for you and why? Have you tried some in the past that didn't work?
Katherine Boyce 8/27/2024 8:07 AM
The category-based meal plan works best for me: grain bowl night, stir fry night, pasta night, etc. It helps me make sure I don't have too many high-effort meals planned in a week, and helps me make sure we're eating a decent variety of plants. That said, I would like to expand my menu a little, but I'm often too tired! I would likely need to set aside a pre-shopping-trip moment to research some new recipes.

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- Katherine Boyce 8/28/2024 6:03 PM
  Understandable, Layl! The majority of American recipes are oriented around the meat! We aren't strictly vegetarian, but we don't eat meat at home, so that has helped expand the variety of plants on the menu.
  
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- Layl McDill 8/28/2024 8:23 AM
  I love this idea! I have the bad habit of basing my meal plan on meat which is not really my goal! We try to eat very little meat but my go is to think of what the meat of the meal will be! I like switching to this starting point! Sometimes I start with what I have that needs to get used up and that helps too!
  
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Katherine Boyce 8/25/2024 7:55 AM
I've got a ton of sage that I need to harvest and preserve somehow so I can retire my aerogarden until winter. Any good ideas for using or storing a ton of sage?

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- Margo Ashmore 8/25/2024 3:44 PM
  https://www.spiceography.com/how-to-store-sage/ This sums up well what I would have suggested, plus several more tips I hadn't thought of.
  
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REFLECTION QUESTION
Storage

Canning and pickling food is a great way to have delicious summer fruits and vegetables all year round. What are some foods you would like to preserve and enjoy later?
Katherine Boyce 8/25/2024 7:53 AM
I have a dehydrator that I use primarily to make backpacking food, but I'd like to use it to preserve my excess garden produce.

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Katherine Boyce 8/23/2024 1:48 PM
I tried juicing this week, just to try to move through a bit more of my garden produce. But, I'm not sure I love it. It generates a lot of pulp and cleanup, and no matter what I put in, the juice just tastes pretty earthy and bitter. I'm sure I'm not doing it right.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Cooking

Have you previously learned about what food is still safe to eat if a portion of it goes bad? Who taught you this information?
Katherine Boyce 8/23/2024 1:46 PM
I don't think anyone taught me this...just a whole lot of googling.

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Storage

Did you find that you were storing food incorrectly? Which items have you changed?
Katherine Boyce 8/23/2024 1:45 PM
I haven't been storing berries correctly, leaving them in the silly plastic cartons they come in. They were going bad too quickly; now that I put them on a paper towel in a closed container, I notice they stay fresher longer

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