If you’re a news junkie like I am, you may have come across the startling new study that found over 40% of food is wasted in the United States!  The numbers are astounding – as much as 20 pounds of food per person, per month is thrown in the trash.  Americans are spending over $2200 on food they don’t even end up eating!  In one year $165 billion worth of food is just wasted.  I find this statistic the most shocking:  if that 40% of wasted food was reduced by as little as 15%, 25 million Americans could be fed!  This is completely and utterly shameful. It’s shameful because we complain about the rise in the cost of food and how fresh food is so much more costly than packaged food.  When buying fresh produce we look past spotted and blemished apples and buy full-size carrots that are whittled down and called “baby” carrots!  We have so much when so many have so little, yet we continue to partake in this expendable lifestyle, where if you don’t need it, just chuck it!

So this morning on Metro Morning (99.1 FM in the GTA), my AM staple, film maker Grant Baldwin was on discussing this study and the documentary film he and his partner, Jennifer Rustemeyer are creatin,g called Just Eat It – A Food Waste Story.  Their main goal is to uncover how food is wasted, “from the farm to the back of the fridge.” All the while they are researching and filming, they have decided to experiment on solely living off of food waste.  Yes, those things that others are throwing away in their garbage, they are picking through it and salvaging what is edible.  On the interview he spoke about rescuing over $5700 worth of organic chocolate that expires in October 2012!  Somone just through all of that out in the trash – insane!  Now I wouldn’t recommend you picking through your neighbours’ garbage, but I would suggest to keep your eyes and ears open for their film.  I am sure they will uncover many shocking aspects to our dirty little habit.

Both of my parents grew up on farms, not only that they grew up on farms in a poor, Communist country and not only that, but they grew up on farms in poor Communist countries in the 1960′s.  These three points can explain a lot of things if you know anyone of eastern European decent and wonder why those people do the things they do.  Ever get a doggie bag of some left over kolače (pastries) from your grandparents in an old sour cream container with a mismatched lid?  Or did your mother ever send you to school, not with a brown paper bag, but an old toast bag filled with your lunch?  Maybe your parents or grandparents saved the napkins from all of the fast food places they frequented – which really wasn’t that frequent at all because why eat out when you have perfectly good food at home – and reused them at their dinner table.  These are all signs your family is from a Communist country – ok maybe not from a Communist country but you get my drift.  I think you can all understand that these practices are from a time when many goods were not available and you had to do with what you had, without being wasteful.

I think there are a lot of problems with our “expendable society”, portion sizes is a huge one.  ”You can supersize your fries for only 50 cents more!”  Yes, but do you really need all those extra fries and more importantly, are you really going to eat it all?  Personally, I would rather not get my money’s worth and go for the smaller portion.  These huge portions, especially at chain restaurants (you know who you are) that try to appeal to those people who have eyes bigger than their stomachs, are not only contributing to this problem by creating excessive waste, but by fueling the obesity epidemic as well.

Expiry dates is another one.  Personally, I don’t throw it out unless it smells bad and that goes for leftovers too.  Did you ever open up a tub of sour cream only to find a fuzzy green growth taking over a corner of the container, then throw it out thinking it has gone bad and that you better get rid of it before someone eats it and contracts some lethal sickness?  It’s a common practice.  Me on the other hand, I scoop out the green stuff and I’m good to go.  Same with cheese; you don’t need to throw out a brick of cheese if it has a little mold growing on it.  Cheese is made from sour milk anyway!  Then there’s leftovers, some people really dislike leftovers.  My husband and I, we love them!  I think it’s from a seemingly lifetime’s worth of boring sandwiches growing up.  We pack up leftovers and have them for lunch the next day, no waste there!

There are really countless ways to save when it comes to food, buying only what you need is key, freezing, repurposing or reheating those leftovers.  Not being squeamish and tossing out whole lettuce leaves when just the tip is starting to brown, simply tear that section out.  This of course can be applied to countless other types of produce as well.  Sometimes I wish I had a pig.  If pigs weren’t as smelly as they tend to be and didn’t grow to be the size of small cars and let’s be honest here, if I knew I wouldn’t get attached to the thing, I would get myself a pig.  Why you ask, well my grandmother in Croatia has a pig, a few of them and they are mainly fed the scraps from the kitchen.  Whenever a meal is prepared, scarps are collected and fed to the pigs.  When the dishes and pots are cleaned, they’re rinsed in a tub of cool water that is then given to the pigs to drink.  Not only does this ensure there is no waste, but it also provides an outstanding diet to those pigs.  Just think about how tasty those pork chops are after being fed a diet like that, rather than the corn that North American pigs get.  Alas, most of us, including myself have neighbours that wouldn’t appreciate a smelly pig running around next door.  The next best thing is to try to take those old practices of being frugal, reusing and conserving as much as possible, especially when it comes to food.  Simply said, we can all do with at lot less, so why not try.

This recipe for Cheddar and Zucchini Scones started off with a question related to today’s topic, “I have a zucchini, what do I do with it?”  I have probably harvested close to 20 zucchini from my little garden.  I have shared with you three recipes for zucchini and I’m throwing another at you today.  Zucchini scones isn’t something you hear about quite often, not like its cousin zucchini bread, but I was feeling like something savoury rather than sweet so I thought I should go for it.  I wasn’t even sure if it was possible, but then I thought to myself, “Anything is possible!”  So after researching some classic scones recipes I tweaked and altered a few things and came up with this and it’s fantastic!  It’s not as flaky as some scones and I think it’s because each time I made it I had two fairly large zucchini I wanted to use up (I’m trying to be waste conscious here) so the extra moisture changed the texture a bit.  Nonetheless, these are good scones, no they’re great scones!  They’re packed with zucchini goodness, little chunks of cheddar and it makes me feel good that I didn’t let any of that zucchini go to waste (ok, maybe just the seeds)!

Zucchini Cheddar Scones

2 medium zucchini, seeds removed and grated

3 green onions, diced

1 cup sharp cheddar, cut into little cubes

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) cold butter, cubed

1 cup buttermilk

3 eggs (2 for inside, 1 for the outside)

Trim the zucchini at each end and cut it lengthwise.  Cut each half lengthwise into quarters.  Remove the seeds by running a pairing knife along the length of each quarter, effectively removing not only the seeds, but the spongy interior as well.  Grate the zucchini using a box grater or a food processor.  Spread the grated zucchini out on a clean dish towel and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and set aside for 10 minutes, this will draw out some of the moisture from the zucchini.  After 10 minutes has passed, using the dish towel ring out any excess liquid and set aside.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit.  Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.  In a food processor with the dough attachment (this can also be done in a bowl with a pastry cutter or two knives) combine the dry ingredients, flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda with the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs and the butter has broken down into pieces no larger than the size of peas.  Transfer the flour and butter mixture to a large bowl, add the zucchini, cheddar, and green onions and 2 eggs, beaten.  With a wooden spoon, combine the ingredients and when it begins to come together, turn out the contents of the bowl onto a thoroughly floured surface.  Knead a few times simply to combine the ingredients and bring them together into a large ball.  Be careful not to overwork the dough or the scones will be tough.  Put the dough on the baking sheet you covered with parchment paper and flatten out into a large disk, about 3/4 to 1 inch thick.  Using a knife or bench scraper, cut into 8 pieces and brush the surface with an egg wash (1 egg beaten with a little water).  Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until the top is golden and the centre is set.  Serve warm or at room temperature.