Updates From The MetaEfficient Kitchen Labs

This summer I’ve been working on food-related optimization projects, here are some updates:

I now have subscriptions with two local farmers (through a CSA or Community Support Agriculture). One farmer provides me with raw milk, raw butter and eggs, the other farmer provides vegetables and fruit. They both happen to deliver to same street in my neighborhood, so I ride my bike about one kilometer and pick up both deliveries using a bike trailer.

I bake fresh bread throughout the week using the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day method. This involves creating enough dough for a week, and storing it in the refrigerator. You can take out batches of dough as needed, and cook fresh bread.

I am buying raw (green) organic fair-trade and farm-gate coffees from Sweet Maria’s, and roasting it on my stovetop using a $22 Whirley-Pop Stovetop Popcorn Popper. This makes enough roasted coffee for about two weeks. See the book Home Coffee Roasting: Romance and Revival for more information.

I have been taking all the plastic wraps off my cheese as soon as I get it home. Plastic “suffocates” cheese and traps too much moisture, making the cheese susceptible to mold. I started re-wrapping my cheese in special cheese-wrapping paper, but now I just use wax paper.

I am growing tomatoes and peppers in self-watering containers, and I grow herbs in regular containers since they do not like constant watering.

I’m still investigating different methods of water purification. I came across a useful introductory book on this subject called Don’t Drink The Water: The Essential Guide To Our Contaminated Drinking Water and What You Can Do About It. The author recommends a KDF-Carbon Block Filtration System for household filtration. This combination system get high marks because it is relatively inexpensive and it performs as well as a reverse-osmosis system (but it is much less wasteful).

Read more! Related stories:

1. Notes From The MetaEfficient Labs
2. Green Coffee Beans
3. Innovation: Biodegradeable Coffee Cups!
4. Incredible Vegetables from Self-Watering Containers
5. New Mexican Pinon Coffee