THE KITCHEN ACTIVIST

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Eat Less Water Opportunity
COOK WITH ME. Join me for a virtual live pizza party.  l will talk about how I choose ingredients to save water, offer batch cooking ideas, recipes, shopping list, with plant-based pizza topping ideas. I will provide you will a invitation template so you can invite friends over to join you. Here is a link to learn more.

Episode Summary
Eating and shopping for organic food is an integral component to eating less water and growing well-being for the planet. BUT quite frankly, the one thing we can all do regardless of our food budgets is to waste less food. That one action would make waves in water systems around the world.

We throw away so much food at every stop of the food chain. The statistic I've come across is we collectively throw away between 30 to 50% of all food. And food waste is not a United States problem. These totals are mirrored around the world.

While plenty of the food waste happens at the farm, grocery store, restaurants and cafeterias (think school cafeteria), amen of us don’t have direct influence over the policies in these spaces. I can tell you where we have complete control to implement strategies to waste less food— our own kitchens.

And focusing on places we can control feels empowering. The anxiety tied to the massive problems we face in our environment creeps in when the focus is on things we have little control over.

In today’s podcast I share tips and strategies to waste less food in your kitchen beginning today.

Take a listen and send me other ideas you implement in your kitchen.

When we merge our influence we can change the world one meal at a time.

Be resplendent,

Florencia

Links and resources:
Download FREE the TEN TIPS to EAT LESS WATER SUMMER PARTY PLANNING GUIDE for all the tips, steps, and info on how to celebrate like a kitchen activist with your friends and family.

Join me for a LIVE VIRTUAL PIZZA PARTY on July 30 or August 1. Come alone or invite friends and family to help you mix, knead, roll, and garnish pizzas that save water, grow well-being, and are delicious. LAST DAY TO PURCHASE TICKETS IS SATURDAY, JULY 23.

Find gifts designed to serve well-being at the Eat Less Water Shop.

Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book

Celebrate summer with DRY FARM WINE. They curate delicious, low sugar, organic wine from biodynamic farms around the globe. Learn more in my podcast episode HOW TO BUY YOUR NEXT BOTTLE OF WINE.

Sign up with this link to receive an extra bottle for one penny with your first order!

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on future episodes released every Monday and (water) Wednesday.

RESOURCES + LINKS

•  Watch the PBS segment on Kitchen Activism 
•  Join the 4-week Kitchen Activist group (closes Sunday) 
•  Preorder The Kitchen Activist 
• Start Meal Planning to Save the Planet and Money! started.
• Sign up for my weekly newsletter. 
• Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book.
  
  Reach Florencia Ramirez at [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

Eat Less Water Opportunity
COOK WITH ME. Join me for a virtual live pizza party.  l will talk about how I choose ingredients to save water, offer batch cooking ideas, recipes, shopping list, with plant-based pizza topping ideas. I will provide you will a invitation template so you can invite friends over to join you. Here is a link to learn more. 

Episode Summary
Coffee is such an important ingredient to discuss because for many of us it's part of our daily routine. At my coffee grinding, and brewing is a morning ritual. How often do we really think about what's served in our mugs? And did you know coffee is the third, most heavily sprayed crop in the world behind cotton and corn with chemicals so toxic they are banned for use in the United States. But in areas where coffee is grown outside Hawaii, these chemicals are widely used and likely served in your cup of Joe.

Coffee needs high elevation, a temperate climate, and upwards of 60 inches of rain to flourish. The state of Hawaii is the only place in the United States that meets all of those requirements. This is why when I wrote about coffee in my book, EAT LESS WATER, I found myself on the dormant volcano of the Mauna Kea and met with Hillary and Eric who are the owners of the Hawaiian Cloud Forest Coffee Farm. They were a phenomenal introduction on coffee growing, coffee roasting, and set out a blueprint of how to be stewards of the forest.  

Coffee is an understory tree.  Just like the cacao bean scientists and farmers realize if they remove the coffee tree out from under the shade, the yield would increase. But when coffee is grown as its intended, which means under the shade of another tree the quality is better, the fruit is bigger, lusher and tastier.  And the tree is better positioned to naturally defend itself against pests. 

During this episode you will learn why coffee is a powerful place we can grow our forests by simply choosing to support coffee brands who, like Hawaiian Cloud Forest Coffee are stewards of the forest and actively working to replant the forest canopy with indigenous trees.

This week's action tips:

1. Buy organic coffee beans.
2. Skip the K-Cup. The number of mostly non-recyclable Single K-Cups sold in one year can wrap around the earth equator more than 12 times. 
3. Find and support shade grown coffee.
4. When you purchase coffee grown outside the U.S., look for fair trade certified coffee.

Links and resources:

• Download the 10 TIPS to EAT LESS WATER and SAVE WATER during your SUMMER GATHERINGS
• Follow me on Instagram:@eatlesshttps://www.instagram.com/eatlesswater/?hl=enwater
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.
• Receive 15% off your first purchase at the Eat Less Water Shop

Order your bag of Hawaiian Cloud Forest Coffee.

If you need ideas for wine to serve at your next party of gathering  that save water, build soil, and are delicious you can't go wrong with any of the following:

Biodynamic wine

• Dryfarmwine.com Use this link at receive an extra bottle for 1 cent  with your first order

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on future episodes released every Monday and (water) Wednesda

RESOURCES + LINKS

•  Watch the PBS segment on Kitchen Activism 
•  Join the 4-week Kitchen Activist group (closes Sunday) 
•  Preorder The Kitchen Activist 
• Start Meal Planning to Save the Planet and Money! started.
• Sign up for my weekly newsletter. 
• Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book.
  
  Reach Florencia Ramirez at [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

Eat Less Water Opportunity
COOK WITH ME. Join me for a virtual live pizza party.  l will talk about how I choose ingredients to save water, offer batch cooking ideas, recipes, shopping list, with plant-based pizza topping ideas. I will provide you will a invitation template so you can invite friends over to join you. Here is a link to learn more. 

Episode Summary
The refined and processed foods that make up the Standard American Diet (SAD) has extracted a heavy toll on our health. How many people do you have in your family who have difficulty regulating blood sugar levels, reduced immunity, and struggle with chronic ailments such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.?

Our declining collective health comes more into focus when you examine these numbers. 

• During the turn of the last century the average American ate 5 lbs sugar today the average is 190 lbs a year 
• In 1900 each  American consumed 4 lbs of oils and fat each year on average, today we eat 74.1 lb a  year
• In 1900 Americans ate on average 2 lbs of cheese and 140 lbs of meat, today the average is 30 lbs cheese and 210 lbs meat per year
• Each American drinks on average 53 gallons of soft drinks each year compared to 0 in 1900.

And our nutrient density had decreased by 40-60 percent. According to the USDA nutritional composition tables, fruits and vegetables have fewer vitamins and mineral than they did in 1975. Broccoli has lost 54% of its calcium. Iron levels are down 60% in cauliflower and apples, bananas have 485 less phosphorus. These are overall decline on every fruit and vegetable.

What is happening to our human health is mirrored in the health of the planet too. Soil health has diminished on farms across America because of pesticide sprays and petroleum based fertilizers.

The good news, is we hold the solution. You and I can reverse the SAD food trends beginning in our kitchen starting NOW.

It requires us to return to the best practices from our grandmothers and great grandmothers kitchens, like cooking from scratch and using organic seasonal and local ingredients from the farmers market, grocery store, or your own garden. 

To achieve this means we need to slow down, to be intentional with the shopping, planning, and preparation of our food. We are attracted to fast food because it mirrors a fast lifestyle. A lifestyle that offers little time to spend time choosing our fruit and vegetables at the farmers market, little time to map out our meals each week, and forget cooking from scratch because we are collectively too tired by the end of the day.

This week's action tip:

1. Reflect on your own diet. What have you been putting in your mouth? Does it serve you? Does it serve the planet? The answer is always the same…either yes to both or no to both because we are each tiny replicas of this planet, each born with 70% water just like the planet earth.
2. Institute one new action tip  you commit too. Maybe it means you start going to the farmers' market before the grocery store. Maybe that means you will sit down and plan your upcoming weeks meals, or that means you will cook from scratch more times than you do now. 

The goal is not perfection but to do more than what you do now.  Small changes all add up and will be reflected in your health and the health of the planet.

Links and resources:

• COOK WITH ME. Join me for a virtual live pizza party.  l will talk about how I choose ingredients to save water, offer batch cooking ideas, recipes, shopping list, with plant-based pizza topping ideas. I will provide you will a invitation template so you can invite friends over to join you. Here is a link to

RESOURCES + LINKS

•  Watch the PBS segment on Kitchen Activism 
•  Join the 4-week Kitchen Activist group (closes Sunday) 
•  Preorder The Kitchen Activist 
• Start Meal Planning to Save the Planet and Money! started.
• Sign up for my weekly newsletter. 
• Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book.
  
  Reach Florencia Ramirez at [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

Episode Summary
Tomorrow is world chocolate day, July 7th. I don’t need much reason to celebrate chocolate I always have bars of chocolate in my pantry ready for an afternoon nibble. When my kids, who are now teenagers,  were babies, I held their tiny hands within mine and rubbed them together like they held the wooden handle of a molinillo, a chocolate whisk. We sang the same Spanish nursery rhyme my mother sang with me, cho-co-late cho-co-late bate bate chocolate.

I think it's safe to say we each hold our own precious chocolate story. It is one of those foods that that has the power to incite emotion, and to elevate an ordinary moment, especially when you take a square of chocolate, place it on your tongue, resist the urge to chew and instead let the flavors wash over your taste buds. It reminds me of another song I love by the Wood Brothers, the chorus goes,  If I die young at least I got some chocolate on my tongue. 

The chocolate that finds its way to my tongue is organic, direct traded, and made with NO palm oil. Which leads me nicely to the action tips. When you buy chocolate, whether it is in a bar form, or powder for hot chocolate or baking support the brands who are 

The chocolate I purchase is:
1. organic, 
2. direct trade or fair trade, or bean to bar, 
3. contains NO PALM OIL

Links and resources:

• Download the 10 TIPS to EAT LESS WATER and SAVE WATER during your SUMMER GATHERINGS
• Follow me on Instagram:@eatlesshttps://www.instagram.com/eatlesswater/?hl=enwater
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.
• Receive 15% off your first purchase at the Eat Less Water Shop

If you need ideas for wine to serve at your next party of gathering  that save water, build soil, and are delicious you can't go wrong with any of the following:

Biodynamic wine

• Dryfarmwine.com Use this link at receive an extra bottle for 1 cent  with your first order

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on future episodes released every Monday and (water) Wednesday.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and review. It helps this podcast to be discovered by others who are ready to dig in too.

There is power in the collective,

Florencia

RESOURCES + LINKS

•  Watch the PBS segment on Kitchen Activism 
•  Join the 4-week Kitchen Activist group (closes Sunday) 
•  Preorder The Kitchen Activist 
• Start Meal Planning to Save the Planet and Money! started.
• Sign up for my weekly newsletter. 
• Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book.
  
  Reach Florencia Ramirez at [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

Eat Less Water Opportunity
COOK WITH ME. Join me for a virtual live pizza party.  l will talk about how I choose ingredients to save water, offer batch cooking ideas, recipes, shopping list, with plant-based pizza topping ideas. I will provide you will a invitation template so you can invite friends over to join you. Here is a link to learn more.

Episode Summary
You are either listening to this episode on July 4th, pre-party or post-party. Either way, I want to give you some tips that will help you save water and grow well-being for you, your guests, and the planet during the party. 

These action tips are useful  whether you're the host or the guest. In the guide, The 10 TIPS to EAT LESS WATER and SAVE WATER during your SUMMER GATHERINGS I break it down into three parts, the planning, which I talk about in episode six, the shopping part, and the party time. 

In this episode 

• I will share action tips to save water, save food, and money during the party whether you are the host or the guest.
• Offer ideas to set out the food
• Ways to reduce waste, from the dishware, to the leftovers 

Links and resources:

• COOK WITH ME. Join me for a virtual live pizza party.  l will talk about how I choose ingredients to save water, offer batch cooking ideas, recipes, shopping list, with plant-based pizza topping ideas. I will provide you will a invitation template so you can invite friends over to join you. Here is a link to learn more.
• Download the 10 TIPS to EAT LESS WATER and SAVE WATER during your SUMMER GATHERINGS
• Follow me on Instagram:@eatlesshttps://www.instagram.com/eatlesswater/?hl=enwater
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.
• Visit the Eat Less Water Shop

If you need ideas for wine to serve at your next party of gathering  that save water, build soil, and are delicious you can't go wrong with any of the following:

Biodynamic wine

• Dryfarmwine.com Use this link at receive an extra bottle for 1 cent  with your first order

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on future episodes released every Monday and (water) Wednesday.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and review. It helps this podcast to be discovered by others who are ready to dig in too.

There is power in the collective,

Florencia

RESOURCES + LINKS

•  Watch the PBS segment on Kitchen Activism 
•  Join the 4-week Kitchen Activist group (closes Sunday) 
•  Preorder The Kitchen Activist 
• Start Meal Planning to Save the Planet and Money! started.
• Sign up for my weekly newsletter. 
• Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book.
  
  Reach Florencia Ramirez at [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

Eat Less Water Opportunity
COOK WITH ME. Join me for a virtual live pizza party.  l will talk about how I choose ingredients to save water, offer batch cooking ideas, recipes, shopping list, with plant-based pizza topping ideas. I will provide you will a invitation template so you can invite friends over to join you. Here is a link to learn more.

Episode Summary
This episode may seem a little technical at first but stay with me because it will change the way you shop for food. The concepts i present in this episode is at the basis of eating less water. Understanding the three colors of water truly has the power to reframe the way food is grown around the world.

Links and resources:

• Eat Less Water Opportunity
  COOK WITH ME. Join me for a virtual live pizza party.  l will talk about how I choose ingredients to save water, offer batch cooking ideas, recipes, shopping list, with plant-based pizza topping ideas. I will provide you will a invitation template so you can invite friends over to join you. Here is a link to learn more.
• Download the 10 TIPS to EAT LESS WATER and SAVE WATER during your SUMMER GATHERINGS
• Follow me on Instagram:@eatlesshttps://www.instagram.com/eatlesswater/?hl=enwater
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.
• Visit the Eat Less Water Shop

If you need ideas for wine to serve at your next party of gathering  that save water, build soil, and are delicious you can't go wrong with any of the following:

Biodynamic wine

• Dryfarmwine.com Use this link at receive an extra bottle free with your first order

RESOURCES + LINKS

•  Watch the PBS segment on Kitchen Activism 
•  Join the 4-week Kitchen Activist group (closes Sunday) 
•  Preorder The Kitchen Activist 
• Start Meal Planning to Save the Planet and Money! started.
• Sign up for my weekly newsletter. 
• Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book.
  
  Reach Florencia Ramirez at [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

Many of us are setting out on road trips this summer. I’m getting ready for my own. I will travel 900 miles stretching from where I sit now in Oxnard, California to Santa Fe New Mexico. It takes about 15 hours and three meals to get there. 

The roads that lead us from here to there regardless of where are dotted with fast food joints. They serve food that is not the best for water, you can even argue fast food chains represent some of the worst foods for water, as the food relies on big corporate farms whose concern is not to grow wellbeing but to grow big yields and big profits. 

But there you are on your road trip, starving, with few options. Believe me I’ve been there. And will likely find myself there again. But when I do just a little planning on the front end, I don’t find myself stranded along the road with nothing good to eat. 

In this episode 

• I will share action tips to feed yourself while being kind to my body and the planet.
• Offer ideas to pack food from home
• To find better options for fast food and restaurants.
• Treat the grocery store along the way as a fast food joint.

The difference in my body when I eat either all of my food from home or a combination of both home food and out versus just eating whatever is close to the gas station where we stop is night and day.

When you eat less water the rewards keep flowing.

Links and resources:

• Download the 10 TIPS to EAT LESS WATER and SAVE WATER during your SUMMER GATHERINGS
• Follow me on Instagram:@eatlesshttps://www.instagram.com/eatlesswater/?hl=enwater
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.
• Receive 15% off your first purchase at the Eat Less Water Shop

If you need ideas for wine to serve at your next party of gathering  that save water, build soil, and are delicious you can't go wrong with any of the following:

Biodynamic wine

• Dryfarmwine.com Use this link at receive an extra bottle free with your first order
• Tablas Creek
• Beckman

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on future episodes released every Monday and (water) Wednesday.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and review. It helps this podcast to be discovered by others who are ready to dig in too.

There is power in the collective,

Florencia

RESOURCES + LINKS

•  Watch the PBS segment on Kitchen Activism 
•  Join the 4-week Kitchen Activist group (closes Sunday) 
•  Preorder The Kitchen Activist 
• Start Meal Planning to Save the Planet and Money! started.
• Sign up for my weekly newsletter. 
• Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book.
  
  Reach Florencia Ramirez at [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode get ready to plan your next summer gathering or party Eat Less Water style. I will introduce the first tip from the FREE 14-page Eat Less Water Summer Party Planning Guide: Plan your Menu and Incorporate more Plant-Based Dishes. 

Writing a menu plan for parties both large and small is something you likely do already. But what makes it an eat less water menu plan different is the three following steps:

• I shop my kitchen and garden first  to minimize food waste
• I consider what is in season. 
• I incorporate a higher number of plant-based dishes

I will expand and give examples for each step. I will also give you the list of fruits and vegetables that are in season. And give tried and true strategies to get the ideas flowing for more plant-based dishes. 

If you need ideas for wine to serve at your next party of gathering  that save water, build soil, and are delicious you can't go wrong with any of the following:

Biodynamic wine

• Dryfarmwine.com Use this link at receive an extra bottle free with your first order
• Tablas Creek
• Beckman

Links and resources:

• Download the 10 TIPS to EAT LESS WATER and SAVE WATER during your SUMMER GATHERINGS
• Receive 15% off your first order at the Eat Less Water Shop
• Follow me on Instagram:@eatlesswater https://www.instagram.com/eatlesswater/?hl=en
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on future episodes released every Monday and (water) Wednesday.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and review. It helps this podcast to be discovered by others who are ready to dig in too.

There is power in the collective,

Florencia

RESOURCES + LINKS

•  Watch the PBS segment on Kitchen Activism 
•  Join the 4-week Kitchen Activist group (closes Sunday) 
•  Preorder The Kitchen Activist 
• Start Meal Planning to Save the Planet and Money! started.
• Sign up for my weekly newsletter. 
• Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book.
  
  Reach Florencia Ramirez at [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

Eat Less Water Opportunity

COOK WITH ME. Join me for a virtual live pizza party.  l will talk about how I choose ingredients to save water, offer batch cooking ideas, recipes, shopping list, with plant-based pizza topping ideas. I will provide you will a invitation template so you can invite friends over to join you. Here is a link to learn more.

EPISODE SUMMARY

Drops of water saved my father’s life. This episode is dedicated to all the fathers, especially mine. I will read to you the prologue from my book, Drops of Water, which is based on the true story of the first days of my father's life.

Links and resources:

• COOK WITH ME. Join me for a virtual live pizza party.  l will talk about how I choose ingredients to save water, offer batch cooking ideas, recipes, shopping list, with plant-based pizza topping ideas. I will provide you will a invitation template so you can invite friends over to join you. Here is a link to learn more.
• Download the 10 TIPS to EAT LESS WATER GUIDE for SUMMER PARTY PLANNING
• Follow me on Instagram:@eatlesswater https://www.instagram.com/eatlesswater/?hl=en
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.
• Visit the EAT LESS WATER shop 

If you need ideas for wine to serve at your next party or gathering  that saves water, builds soil and is delicious you can't go wrong with any of the following:

Biodynamic wine

• Dryfarmwine.com Use this link to receive an extra bottle free with your first order

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on future episodes released every Monday and (water) Wednesday.

And, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and review. It helps this podcast to be discovered by others who are ready to dig in too.

There is power in the collective,

Florencia

RESOURCES + LINKS

•  Watch the PBS segment on Kitchen Activism 
•  Join the 4-week Kitchen Activist group (closes Sunday) 
•  Preorder The Kitchen Activist 
• Start Meal Planning to Save the Planet and Money! started.
• Sign up for my weekly newsletter. 
• Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book.
  
  Reach Florencia Ramirez at [email protected]

Send us Fan Mail

Consider this one glass of white wine is equivalent to 29 gallons of water. And one glass of red wine is 32 gallons of water. 

If you look at the entire wine region area in the U S wine grapes sipped a little over 1 trillion gallons of water from wells and rivers in one year alone.

Climate change is going to increase the need for irrigation. We're already beginning to see that as summers become longer and hotter, and the winters become colder.  One study found  worldwide viticulture acreage will not be suitable for wine production by 2050.

In California, where most of our grape-growing occurs in the United States. It's predicted wine grapes will decrease between 50-63% by 2050.

The good news is there are ways to farm wine grapes that use less water and are more climate resilient. I learned this when I spent the day with Mike Benzinger, who was my tour guide and the founder of Benzinger family wines.

On this episode you will: 

• Gain action tips to buy your next bottle of wine
• You will learn why long root systems matter to save water
• You will get a simple introduction to biodynamic wine
• You will gain simple strategies to find biodynamic wine

Biodynamic wine

• Dryfarmwine.com Use this link at receive an extra bottle free with your first order
• Tablas Creek
• Beckman

Links and resources:

• Receive 15% off your next purchase at the EAT LESS WATER shop and the 10 TIPS to EAT LESS WATER and SAVE WATER during your SUMMER GATHERINGS
• Follow me on Instagram: @eatlesshttps://www.instagram.com/eatlesswater/?hl=enwater
• For more about me and what I do, check out my website.

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on future episodes released every Monday and (water) Wednesday.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a rating and review. It helps this podcast to be discovered by others who are ready to dig in too.

There is power in the collective,

Florencia

RESOURCES + LINKS

•  Watch the PBS segment on Kitchen Activism 
•  Join the 4-week Kitchen Activist group (closes Sunday) 
•  Preorder The Kitchen Activist 
• Start Meal Planning to Save the Planet and Money! started.
• Sign up for my weekly newsletter. 
• Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book.
  
  Reach Florencia Ramirez at [email protected]