Compost Isn’t the Only Use for Veggie Peelings

By Granny Spear

You all know by now that I loathe waste, always have done. As a young wife and mother money wasn’t just tight it was almost non-existent. If it hadn’t been for the tried and tested methods my mother passed down to me we really would have had times when the kids went to bed hungry or as a family we suffered from malnutrition!

Frugality was a way of life but it made good nutritional sense as well, there was no point throwing something onto the compost heap if there was still some nutritional value in it.

There is an awful lot of value in vegetable peelings yet most people toss them onto the compost heap without a second thought, worse still they put them in the bin…what a waste.

Vegetable peelings can make a very good vegetable stock that keeps well in the fridge and for months in the freezer. The key to getting a really good flavour is not adding too much water and keeping the lid on the pan so the steam drops back into the mix, that steam was made by veggie water so no point letting it escape.

Put all the peelings in a large pan with enough water to cover them by about an inch. Bring to the boil and then turn down to a simmer and put the lid on. Adding an onion and some seasoning makes the stock better still.

We don’t actually remove the peelings from our stock, we let it cool and put it into a liquidiser thing and pulp it all up together. It makes an excellent base for simple soups and gravy and is full of goodness.

We used to fish the peelings out of the stock, but with a combined age of over 160 years, Edith and I don’t do that much gardening anymore so better the vitamins are inside us rather than inside the compost heap I think.

Thank you for asking about Edith’s hip Tess, she’s doing very well but with two walking frames moving around the place we have to coordinate our movements to avoid colliding with each other. We have only had one major incident. I have a push along wheelie walker, Edith’s is more of a frame with two small wheels and it’s very light to pick up. She was doing the pickup and move forward thing, but she put the damn thing down as I pushed mine forward. The walkers got tangled up together and it was a devil to sort out because we were laughing so hard. We managed it eventually, and without either of us falling over I’m glad to say.

Well, I’ll write soon, love to the family,

Regards,

Maud