A Low-Waste Festive Season: How to Handle Holiday Leftovers
The festive season in South Africa means full tables, family braais, Christmas gammon and more food than anyone can finish. It also means overflowing dustbins baking in the summer sun until the next collection day.
With a little planning, you can enjoy every bit of the celebrations and waste far less. Here are five simple ways to do it.
1. Buy less, plan more
The less we buy, the less we waste, and the more we save. Before you shop:
- Plan your menus for Christmas Day and the days around it, and write a shopping list.
- Count your guests and cook for the people coming, not for a crowd.
- Check your fridge and freezer first so you don’t buy what you already have.
- Plan your leftovers in advance. Decide now what Boxing Day lunch will be.
2. Turn leftovers into tomorrow’s meals
Christmas leftovers make some of the best meals of the year.
- Toss leftover gammon through pasta.
- Serve cold meats with fresh summer salads.
- Fry leftover roast vegetables with garlic, olive oil, a dash of soy sauce and a little coconut milk.
Store leftovers in clear containers where you can see them, and eat them before buying anything new. Anything you won’t get to in a day or two can go in the freezer.
3. Make a soup base
Gently simmer leftover meat, bones and vegetables to draw out all the flavour and nutrients. Freeze the stock in portions, and you’ll have the start of a good soup ready for winter.
4. Share what you can’t use
If you’ve over-catered, share the surplus with neighbours, staff or friends, or contact a local food bank or soup kitchen to ask whether they accept donations.
5. Bokashi everything else
Some waste can’t be eaten or shared: gammon skin, braai bones, prawn shells, peels, eggshells, coffee grounds and plate scrapings. Instead of sending it to the dustbin, put it in your bokashi bucket.
A sprinkle of Bokashi Bran® over each layer ferments the waste instead of letting it rot, so there’s no smell, no flies and no maggots, even in the December heat. Once the bucket is full and has rested for two weeks, bury the pre-compost in the garden or add it to your compost heap, where it becomes rich soil for next season’s planting.
New to bokashi? Our beginner’s guide explains everything in five minutes.
Keeping up with the extra holiday scraps
Big family meals mean your bucket fills faster than usual. A few tips:
- Have a second bucket ready. While one full bucket rests, you keep filling the other.
- Add a little extra bokashi over bones, meat and gammon skin.
- Cut large scraps smaller and press them down with a potato masher to make room.
- Empty your counter caddy into the bucket daily. Scraps left in the caddy in hot weather start to rot.
- Drain the bokashi tea regularly, especially when the bucket is filling quickly.
- Going away? Drain the tea, seal the lid tightly and keep the bucket out of the sun while you’re on holiday.
A gift that keeps giving
Looking for a meaningful present for the gardener, the eco-conscious friend or the family that has everything? A bokashi kit is a gift they’ll use every day.
Our Deluxe range pairs the stylish 6-litre Deluxe Counter Caddy, with its charcoal filter lid to trap odours, with either the 25-litre black Obsidian bucket or the 20-litre white Alba bucket. For someone who already has a bucket, the Deluxe Caddy Bundle adds the caddy, two 1kg boxes of Bokashi Bran® and a scoop.
To make sure your gift arrives in time, please order early in December. Questions? Email info@bokashibran.co.za or call 082 456 9225.
Looking for greener wrapping, cards and decorations too? Read Have Yourself an Eco-Friendly Christmas.