{"id":885,"date":"2012-07-18T12:48:37","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T16:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=885"},"modified":"2014-09-03T21:46:56","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T01:46:56","slug":"dont-let-your-extra-food-go-to-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=885","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Let Your Extra Food Go to Waste"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your local grocery store has a large variety of fruits and veggies all year long. \u00a0If you need a tomato in January, no problem. \u00a0We have all become accustomed to just walking into the store and picking up whatever we need and forgotten that there are seasons for things. \u00a0And when you want something that isn’t in season, it has to be shipped from where it is in season. \u00a0Since I have tried to buy local more and more I have been reminded that to get things off the local farm means eating what is ripe right now.<\/p>\n

This goes of course for my garden too. \u00a0The cucumbers are ready when they are ready. \u00a0And you will wait for them. \u00a0And then when they are ready you get about a hundred cucumbers a day that need to be eaten or will go bad. \u00a0This is the nature of the beast.<\/p>\n

Last year was our first year dealing with this whole process. \u00a0Since two people can only eat so many of whatever a day (see last year’s story about pesto<\/a>) there was a lot of produce that got wasted. \u00a0Even if you are the weird person who pushes cucs and tomatoes on everyone you know, it’s still not enough. \u00a0I am sad to say that a lot of stuff we worked hard to grow went bad and got thrown into the compost. \u00a0I hate throwing food away.<\/p>\n

So this year I started looking around for somewhere to donate our extra garden treasures. \u00a0 Most places won’t take stuff you have grown in your garden. \u00a0What I found was the local soup kitchen in Red Bank, Lunch Break, would love to have your veggies. \u00a0In fact they have set up a sort of farmers market there on Tuesday mornings where people who need fresh veggies can come and get them. \u00a0I think it’s a pretty great idea. \u00a0I have extras and someone can use them. \u00a0And they are also not getting some crappy canned thing, but fresh local food.<\/p>\n

I am writing this post today in hopes that others with extra food will know there is somewhere to bring it. \u00a0So every Monday you can bring your veggies in and they will have them at the Gardener’s Market on Tuesday morning. \u00a0This is what I brought over this Monday. \u00a0There are about 20 cucumbers, 2 large bunches of basil and a bunch of parsley. \u00a0And I don’t even think I made a dent in our supply.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Before we planted the garden this year I was reading an article about how to “Grow A Row” for those in need. \u00a0Basically you plant a little extra and donate it. \u00a0It doesn’t cost any more if you are starting with seeds since the seed pack always contains more than you need. \u00a0So instead of keeping only two of the cucumber sprouts like we did last year, we kept six. \u00a0Doesn’t cost anything but time trying to manage the wild beasts.<\/p>\n

So if you have extra garden goodies and are local to Red Bank, NJ then check out the Lunch Break site here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the article from Earth Easy (and other great stuff about organic gardening) check there site out here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your local grocery store has a large variety of fruits and veggies all year long. \u00a0If you need a tomato in January, no problem. \u00a0We have all become accustomed to just walking into the store and picking up whatever we…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19],"tags":[155,156,157,154,82],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/lunch-break-wk-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1J4KT-eh","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2551,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2551","url_meta":{"origin":885,"position":0},"title":"Garden Update for June","date":"June 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"With all the trouble I had getting started this year I am so happy to see everything finally kicking in. Here is how the garden is doing. I pulled the shallots yesterday and hung them up to dry today. \u00a0They can be used right away but need to be cured\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Ridiculous-redhead-shallots-6.23.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2067,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=2067","url_meta":{"origin":885,"position":1},"title":"End of July Garden Update","date":"July 31, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the best things about our garden is how little upkeep it requires. \u00a0Since we don't use any pesticides or chemical fertilizers I don't need to know anything complicated. \u00a0Add compost. \u00a0Add water. \u00a0And things grow. There are of course lots of little things that can make you life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Ridiculous-Redhead-Carrots.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1513,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=1513","url_meta":{"origin":885,"position":2},"title":"Spring is here. It’s time to garden.","date":"May 3, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"You may have noticed there have been no seed starting\/winter sowing posts this year. \u00a0No mid February excitement about tiny leaves popping up. \u00a0No posts about Opie knocking dirt everywhere. This year we changed it up a bit for a two main reasons. 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Grow it yourself!! OK, don't freak out and panic.\u00a0 Stay with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/Lettuce-9.25.17-RR.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":717,"url":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/?p=717","url_meta":{"origin":885,"position":5},"title":"How to build a cucumber frame","date":"May 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"So as mentioned yesterday, I built a frame\/trellis thing to keep the cucumbers from growing everywhere and taking over everything. \u00a0 There are so many different options from cheap DIY to crazy expensive. \u00a0Here is an article that gives a few different ideas on what's out there. \u00a0 I took\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Garden"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ridiculousredhead.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/cuc-frame-7.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=885"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":888,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885\/revisions\/888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ridiculousredhead.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}