Sunday 13 January 2013

Waste Not, Want Not



Because I live in a big city and just have a few pitiful plants, all my food scraps get thrown away. Sometimes I feed them a bit of tea, but that's about all. I've mentioned in another post how other cities in Spain have bins where you can throw your organic stuff. Madrid has yet to provide any of those, so I was most happy the other day when I found a use for my citrus rinds. I don't really like using bleach. The fumes are overpowering and dangerous, and I know smokers don't like using bleach because it makes their cigarettes taste funny. Luckily, I'm not one of them. Instead of bleach, I use vinegar as much as I can. I found a recipe on pinterest that simply adds orange peels to the vinegar for a pleasant smell. It's the season for mandarin oranges and that's what I've used in mine. A simple recipe for a good cleaner. Still, I wish I didn't have to throw away my egg shells (crushed) as they are good to put around the plants that slugs like. When one of my friends used to keep a garden I always saved the shells for her.

The reason I chose 'waste not, want not' as the title is the mandarins I bought were on offer, and I could tell that some of them were a bit squashed. Checking the bag, I couldn't see any that looked bad and haven't found any. They're just not perfect. The other day there was a report about how much of our food ends up in the rubbish both because we buy more than we need and farmers destroy those products that have some defect. In other words, those whose aspect isn't perfect. When I was younger I lived on a farm. We never threw away an apple that had been bruised or that had a different shape or a spot. Some Spanish people, for whatever reason, refuse to ask for the food they've ordered in a restaurant but haven't eaten. Every week my friend Chris takes home the leftovers from the Chinese.

Last week I said I was going to ask a question about photography. I put the camera card from my old camera into the one I got at Christmas. I wasn't going to waste the rest of the space on the card. Well, every time I download photos to my computer, a sound file also downloads at the end. Once it contained the video - one that by accident I'd recorded using the old camera and had deleted over a year ago. Why does something which has been deleted and never appeared in the albums from the other camera, keep appearing using the new camera? The file isn't on the card when I review the photos I've taken. Yet, like I say, it appears in albums using the new camera. Anybody know?

Before I say I hope everybody has a good week, I'd like to put a link to one of my friends' blog and hope that some of you will add her too. I've been connected to Diana since the Y360 days. She does the 10 Thoughts Tuesdays, likes gardening and writing poetry. She's just starting out on blogger and has lots of doubts that hopefully some of you will be able to clear up. Please add her, and have a good week.  

http://dianahopeless1.blogspot.com 



5 comments:

  1. I use my lemon rinds to clean cutting boards, and then grind whats leftover down into the garbage disposal to sanitize the drain. Citric acid is good for many uses.

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  2. Brenda, I will be happy to add your friend, and will do it as soon as I post this comment. You are right that we throw out far too much food. I remember my grandparent's farm, when I was little, and all the 'garbage' went to the pigs. Now, ours goes in the trash. We are eating a lot of mandarins now, too. An interesting use for the peels. Vinegar is a great all-purpose cleaner, and I'm sure it would smell nicer with the orange scent!

    As to your SD card problem, I'm sorry that I haven't a clue. Seems like if it was deleted, it should be gone. Crazy!

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  3. This seems like a great idea Brenda. I'm curious. do you dry the peels before adding the vinegar? I just used 2 large lemons that came off of my lemon tree. And I picked about 8 key limes this afternoon. I would love to use those peels for something besides compost.

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  4. No, Diana, you don't have to dry them. The vinegar pickles them. Thanks, Terri.

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  5. I though I'd already clicked on Dianna to follow her but for some reason...........I'm not, so I'll try again. Like your idea with the orange peel, I try to use natural cleaning whenever possible and this will make a good addition. Especially as I'm eating a lot more oranges than I used to in the hope of boosting my vit C intake.

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