One of the biggest challenges of shifting my family’s eating habits from grocery to farm fresh is the amount of waste.
When I buy fresh beets at the local Jewel, I don’t often find them attached to their same-colored stems and leafy greens. That’s a shame, because those greens, as I have recently learned, are edible.
So is so much of what gets tossed in the name of convenience and efficiency in order to display it to us in clean piles or neatly wrapped packages.
I didn’t really know what to do with all these extras either. And I admit that I don’t always feel inspired to find out how.
That’s one advantage to the folks who are already composting. Those veggie extras make for excellent soil.
I haven’t started composting yet, but I am saving many of the extra stems, leaves, etc., and turning those into veggie and/or extra rich chicken stock for soups later.
BTW, the above photo is of the completed version of this easy recipe for sauteed beet greens from Simply Recipes, one of my favorite spots for kitchen how-tos.
VFG Test Kitchen Notes: To kick it up a notch, use extra red pepper flakes. I used a torpedo onion, which is pretty sweet when sauteed. Doing it over again, I’d cut the sugar in half.
Virtual Farmgirl 