You Pinspire Me
Disclaimer: I was provided with a KitchenAid Produce Preserver & Gift Card for Produce in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts & opinions are my own.
According to the David Suzuki Foundation, one in four produce items in the average Canadian household gets thrown in the garbage. That’s crazy! That’s like throwing out $600 every year! TWENTY FIVE PERCENT of produce that’s purchased or grown or gifted gets tossed! Besides the fact that HEY! That’s a LOT OF MONEY that’s being wasted, that’s also a really huge ecological footprint for absolutely no reason. Think about it – you’re not just wasting a pint of raspberries, you’re wasting the fuel used in transporting the raspberries, the water it took to grow the raspberries, the field space that those raspberry bushes took up, and the greenhouse emissions that result from dealing with the once-food-now-trash raspberries when they’ve expired.
I’ll be honest – I rarely use a whole bag of carrots. I’d say that at least 1/4 of the bag gets tossed (hopefully into the compost, if they’re not too far gone (meaning, not super gross to deal with). Most of the time I use about 50% of a cabbage & then forget about it until it’s liquid. Tomatoes go fast in our house, but even when we use them every day they don’t always last a week (given the state of the other veg in the fridge). I am absolutely just as guilty as everyone else here in Canada when it comes to food wastage – I realize that, and that’s something that I’m trying to change. I buy fewer groceries weekly so that I’m forced to use up the odds & ends in the fridge, and I’ve learned to store produce in the proper way to help them last longer (potatoes, onions, & apples go into the pantry – aka the coat closet- apples go in a separate crisper drawer in the fridge than most other produce, etc.).
This past month, however, I got the chance to try out a new product for my fridge – the KitchenAid Produce Preserver – and I’ve noticed a drastic difference in the lifespan of my fruits & veggies. As fruits & vegetables ripen, they produce something called ethylene gas, something that encourages further ripening in other produce – and the further on in the ‘ripening process’ they are, the more they produce. You know that saying, “One bad apple spoils the bunch”? It’s not just because that apple is being a bad example to his classmates – er – bushel-mates…. it’s literally sharing it’s cooties with the other apples, carrots, strawberries, etc, that it breathes on.
The Produce Preserver, which is not much bigger than a deck of cards, contains these magic little Keep Fresh Packets
Last month, I saw my very ripe tomatoes stay just perfect for way longer than they should have – certainly longer than the KitchenAid claim – and I haven’t tossed any veg since I installed the Produce Preserver, either. Besides absorbing the ethylene, this new gadget actually serves as a visual reminder to me that I need to start thinking about what to do with those veggies that I bought on last week‘s trip to the grocery store before they turn the corner. I love reducing the waste coming out of our kitchen just as much as I love being thrifty – so this product is a double-win for me.
The initial investment is $16.99 for the starter kit and the ongoing cost is $12.99 every 6 months after. Considering the kind of numbers that we were talking about at the beginning of this post, I’d say that this is a pretty minimal investment for your grocery budget!
Do you want to try one of your own? My awesome friends at KitchenAid want to give you the opportunity to challenge the Produce Preserver – they’ve asked us to give away 1 Produce Preserver Starter Kit and a $50 Visa Giftcard to stock your crispers. Are you ready for the challenge?
Must be 18+ & Canadian to qualify. Contest runs from Oct 7 (12AM) – Oct 28 (11:59PM). Winner will be contacted via email once contest closes and will have 48 hours to respond to the email before being passed over.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Jenn vanOosten
Latest posts by Jenn vanOosten (see all)
- How I Epically Failed the #RenewLife 30 Day Challenge… and Why that Failure is Helping Me Kick Off a Great 2018 - January 8, 2018
- What to Watch on Netflix: Jenn’s Top Picks from 2017 #StreamTeam - January 2, 2018
- I’ll take my Netflix To Go, Please! - December 5, 2017
I seem to throw away lettuce and celery. They are the two things no one else will eat in the house!
I hate throwing away food….cucumbers are one thing that go mouldy around here!
Not too often
New to your site and would love to win!
Welcome, Sam – we hope that you come back soon! Good luck on the contest! 🙂
Food at our house gets thrown out weekly. I hate it, but can’t seem to use it fast enough.
We tend to use most of our produce up – but there are some weeks that we don’t. It would be fun to try out this produce saver to see if we could reduce even more going in the Green Bin 🙂
I’m pretty good about not throwing out too much produce. I would say about about twice a month I have to throw something away.
Not as often as it should be. Just the other day we found rotting produce in the fridge that had probably been there for a few weeks.
I throw stuff out on a weekly basis
i just threw a bunch of stuff out yesterday 🙁 its a weekly event
Constantly. It’s actually embarrassing
I used to throw out a lot but since I have started meal planning and only buying what we need for the meals its been a lot less. I still do throw out things weekly though.
I end up throwing out spoiled produce ever single week. It’s horribly depressing.
Too often it seems. probably twice a month something goes. I really hate it to waste stuff too. Have gotten better but still irks me.
quite often,,I`m theonly one that likes to eat fruits and veggies,,so it often goes to waste,,especially lettuce.
we throw out way to much produce! I tent to be really good the first couple days and than promptly forget until it goes bad. 🙁
Today I just threw out Strawberries. They went rotten so quickly. I throw out food TOO o ften!
I was always throwing out produce and then my husband become very ill and has not worked in two years. Now I use up everything and even when our income goes back up when he hopefully returns to work I will keep it up. When every penny counts you become very creative!
We throw produce it our weekly.
way too much
Almost every week I find myself throwing away produce that we didn’t consume fast enough.
Every week
We throw produce out almost every week
too often! I feel like I am always wasting!
We usually throw out produce every couple of weeks.
I feel like I’m always throwing out produce, at least once a week!
ALL the time. Always such a waste. HATE it!
Quite a bit also…..such a sin!
Id say apples and cucumbers get thrown out a lot in our house. We all say we’ll eat but then forget and this happens on the regular!
I would say about every two weeks we throw out spoiled produce from our fridge! 🙁
On a daily basis, what a waste!
Unfortunetly it get thrown out far too often.
All the time.
About once a week I am throwing something out
Horrible :/ I throw produce away weekly.
More often than I would like to admit!
Had to throw out wilted veggies today- usually once a week.
Not as often as before, but still too often for my liking..probably every week and a half
More weekly kinda sad to see it get thrown out
Every few weeks
I hate to admit it, but weekly 🙁 We try to eat everything, but sometimes we forget or the kids just don’t want things…
I do a once a week clear out of produce- but I do slack off with other leftovers. Oops!
Very rarely. My wife’s family is Filipinos and they eat vegetables daily. Steamed, Boiled, Mixed, anyway.
We clean the fridge about every two weeks, and there is typically a couple items that need to be tossed.
Unfortunately, once a week. Usually not much but still, I hate wasting
There’s usually something going out weekly
I throw out bad produce weekly.
Every week there is something that goes out
multiple times a week, the strawberries don’t hold, the raspberries have gone bad, what happened to the celery? The joys of my fridge.
Not too much, rule in house is to eat what goes bad first in fridge and on counter which means the healthier stuff. Win win situation, less waste, better diet…:)
Since I’ve started focusing on eating healthier; I don’t throw out too much produce any more. But I still end up throwing out some form of produce every few weeks or so, but not very much of it.
almost never, however, my mother is a different story so this would be for her
About once a aweek
Once a week for sure
not often enough
Way too often 🙁
Occassionally!
Every week
Every week when I bring in the fresh groceries, I check the stuff that’s in the fridge. I put the newer stuff at the back/bottom and try to use up what I have. However, maybe every other week, I have to throw something out. I’d love to get one of these!
Nowadays since we changed our way of eating not often at all. Five months ago or so once or twice a month.
I’m throwing out veggies every week .
I throw them out on garbage day.
Unfortunately, I have been guilty of this.
I am ashamed to say that I do throw out spoiled veggies the most, although we feed our rabbit and we make a lot of stews and soups, it just doesn’t last long enough in the fridge! 🙂
Once a week
We really try hard to not let this happen but it still does. sometimes 2x a month, almost always a mushy cucumber or tomato.
Usually about once a week
spoiled produce, rarely I buy what I need for the week so I don’t waste it, on a tight budget so I watch what I buy
Not too often but it still happens!
I probably throw a little bit of produce away almost weekly…somethings are cheaper to buy big, even if some is wasted
Way too often! It’s like every week almost 🙁
About twice a month.
At least once a week. NOt good!
I try to do it when I see it, but otherwise every 2 weeks I try to keep it clean..
It does happen occasionally, but I throw out very little fresh produce. Fruit gets eat fast in my house and any leftover veggies get made into a quick soup for my lunch.
Unfortunately, I throw out food regularly.
I would say once a week and it drives me crazy but certain things just dont seem to last long enough
Pretty often. I always buy too much when it goes on sale and it never lasts.
I seem to throw out produce probably every 2 – 3 weeks..it used to be worse..we are getting better.
Definitely every few days, I need to throw produce out. I buy too much, don’t eat enough. What a waste.
Honestly – once a week I buy healthy but sadly if I don’t wash/clean it right away it doesn’t get eaten.
Not too often
I throw out too much. Every week I empty out spoiled food from the fridge drawers.
I throw things out way too often.
I don’t throw out too much.
I would say once a week maybe, some of whatever is left of lettuce or spinich or onions maybe tomatoes.
we are always throwing away something, sometimes it a bad apple or orange…but it’s frustrating. Lettuce seems to go bad very quickly and I try to only pick what we need.