Welcome to the summer edition of Derbyshire Kitchen
You can read our top picnic tips, try our tasty recipes, enter our competition to win £100 vouchers and more!
Win! A picnic backpack
We love a good picnic – and now summer’s here it’s the perfect excuse to get out in the Derbyshire countryside.
But before you reach for your picnic blanket, check out our top five tips for keeping your pack-up fresh and help reduce the amount of food ending up in the bin. It will help cut down the cost of dealing with your food waste and help you to save money too.
Top 5 tips
Cool boxes and bags are great for helping picnics to stay fresh but if you don’t have a cool pack try freezing a bottle of water instead
Try making your sandwiches with frozen bread. They will defrost in time for your picnic and stay extra fresh
Pack a few extra airtight containers before leaving the house. Leftovers keep much better in a container rather than left to go soggy in their packets. And if you haven't got room for containers, try bag clips instead.
Help prevent cheese from sweating by grating it frozen to your salads or sandwiches
Take fruit and salad items whole as they keep longer than when they're cut up.
Giveaway!
We’ve got five stylish picnic backpacks to give away to help make sure your picnics are perfect!
As well as keeping your food cool and fresh they come complete with picnicware for four.
Limp lettuce? Sprouting potatoes? Soft cereal? Check out our campaign promoting ‘50 ways to make food go further’.
Nearly 20% of the food we buy is wasted – that’s like throwing away one bag of shopping out of every five bought – costing the average household around £70 each month.
But there’s loads you can do to help make your food last longer and make sure it gets used instead of ending up in the bin.
Pick up your free, handy guide packed with 50 ways to make food go further from your local library or find out more on our website.
Here’s a recipe for Spanish potato tortillas which are great for using up leftovers. You can throw in any spare veg, as well as odd bits of cheese or cooked meat. See the recipe here
WIN £100!
Would you like to win £100 in vouchers towards the cost of your weekly shop?
Take part in our food waste quiz online for a chance to win and pick up some great hints and tips for making food go further.
But don’t delay – the closing date for the quiz is midnight on Saturday 31 August 2019.
It’s Wimbledon final weekend – which means fast serves, marathon rallies and…. lots of strawberries.
Around 166,000 portions of strawberries and cream are expected to have been consumed at the All England Club during this year’s championships.
And if you’re planning to serve up your own portion as you settle down in front of the tele for this year’s final, here’s some inspiration for using up any leftovers.
Have you ever thought of composting your kitchen waste at home?
Plenty of people in Derbyshire already do and many have taken up our offer of a discounted compost bin.
Composting at home is a great way to reduce your food waste and generate a free supply of compost to keep your garden blooming.
Order yours online and get composting this summer. And to get you started here are our top five tips for creating great compost:
• Pick the right spot – stand your bin in an area of the garden with partial sun
• Get the right mix – aim for a 50/50 mix of “wet” material such as veg and fruit peelings, tea bags and grass cuttings and “dry” material such as scrunched up cardboard, paper and egg shells.
• If the bin is fairly empty, lie flattened cardboard over the top of your compost mix to keep the heat in which will help the composting process.
• Add a little water to your compost bin if it looks to dry. Compost should be moist like a wet sponge.
• Make sure your compost is getting enough air – stick a fork or broom handle into the mix as far as possible and give it a good wiggle.
Date for diaries - Chesterfield Food Fest!
It’s Chesterfield Food and Drink Festival next month and if you’re heading down to sample some of the tasty delights on offer, why not pop and see us.
We’ll be at Queen’s Park for the event with our “Love Food, Hate Waste Kitchen” on Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 August from 10am onwards.
As well as giving away delicious food samples and offering advice, hints and tips to help you reduce your food waste, we’ll be giving a cookery demonstration at 12pm on Saturday in the Demo Kitchen – a platform for local chefs to showcase their skills and inspire the audience with creative cookery.
