Do you know that an average 30% of the food is thrown away, sometimes not even making it to supermarkets?
In Toronto (Canada) a single family household discards about 275 kilos of food every year!
Food waste is a huge problem for the environment (around 20% of Canada methane emissions come from food in the landfills)…but is also a gigantic ethical problem when (according to Food Banks Canada) close to 850,000 Canadians are assisted by food banks every month, and 36.4% of those helped are children and youth!
When food is wasted, we are also throwing away all the water, nutrients, energy and work put on producing those crops…with food prices expected to go up due to the California (and now the BC) droughts, preserving food is becoming a must.
When you preserve food, your impact multiplies: it reduces waste and emissions, it reduces your grocery bills (because you’ll be buying seasonal and local food and preserving it to last for the entire year) your family health will improve and your meals will be tastier and unique (many preservation methods increase the content of probiotics/good bacteria and make food tastier)
Food preservation is an ancient skill developed by almost every culture in the world and covers from cold storage and solar drying to fermenting and preserving in salt, sugar, vinegar and oil.
The use of “food waste” is also very old: scraps have been used to make vinegar, cakes and many other delicious meals. Historically, they have also returned to the garden to enrich the soil or as meal for household pets and farm animals.
Food waste is a new concept that we, at the Surrey/White Rock Food Action Coalition want to eradicate.
How?
We are recruiting you!
We want community and family champions to come and join us to learn and share the fun and inspiration of cooking and preserving together…and then, go back to your homes and communities and share what you learned, experiment and continue the path to completely eradicate food waste and hunger.
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Here is what you’ll learn:
Intro to Food Preservation: together, we will review the history and methods of food preservation used by different cultures. You will learn what method works better for what type of food and what are the seasonal and local foods in our region (Lower Mainland/Metro Vancouver). You’ll learn about the “must have” ingredients in every resilient and sustainable kitchen.
We will quickly review food safety measures, supplies needed and ideas to reduce food waste and cost.
Finally, you’ll have the chance to see some of my experiments making vinegar, fermenting vegetables and preservation through drying and/or oil and salt and ask questions.
Your take home will include resources for you to explore further and handouts with tips, methods and recipes.
Due to the nature of this introductory workshop, it is highly recommended that you take it before taking any of the other workshops in the series.
Detailed information on what you’ll learn at the Fermentation, Pickling and Canning workshops will come coon, stay tuned!