20 Things Farm Kitchens Never Threw Away, and What They Did With Them

20 Things Farm Kitchens Never Threw Away, and What They Did With Them There is a bag under your sink with most of yesterday's supper in it. Peels, a few bones, the heel of the loaf, a jar with an inch of jam dried in the bottom. In a farm kitchen, almost none of that went out the door, because every single thing in that bag still had one more job left in it. These are twenty of them, and what those women did with each one. The fat the store sells back to you in a tub for seven dollars. The part of the broccoli that is sweeter than the part you eat. The cloudy water that makes bread rise higher. The peel that is sold dried in a little jar for six dollars. The old sour milk trick that does not work anymore, and what to do instead. And the reason your dish towel is still called a flour sack towel. Nothing here needs a gadget, a subscription, or a single thing you do not already have. WHAT I MENTION → Except for infant formula, the date on a package is about quality and not safety. Sell by is a message to the store, and best if used by is about flavor. → The Food and Drug Administration puts about a fifth of household food waste down to confusion over those dates. → Used coffee grounds are not acidic. The acid in coffee is water soluble and ends up in your cup, so the grounds come out close to neutral. → Raw milk soured and was safe to bake with. Pasteurized milk spoils instead, so a tablespoon of vinegar in a cup of fresh milk is what those old recipes actually need. → In the nineteen twenties and thirties, flour and feed came in cotton sacks that women sewed into towels, curtains and dresses. The companies began printing patterns on them on purpose, and in nineteen thirty three the Textile Bag Manufacturers Association published a booklet on sewing with cotton bags. → Green under a potato peel does not cook out. That one goes in the trash. SOURCES → United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, on food product dating → Oregon State University Extension, on coffee grounds in soil and compost → Smithsonian and Saturday Evening Post accounts of feed sack and flour sack clothing → United States Department of Agriculture, on the two hour rule for cooked food left out Tell me in the comments what your mother never threw away. There is always one thing in every family, and half of what I know came from women writing to me about theirs. And tell me what part of the country you are writing from. I read every one. Nothing here is lost. Just untaught. #frugalliving #farmhouse #oldways #kitchentips #nowaste