THE KITCHEN ACTIVIST

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Find unique and sustainable kitchen products in the The Eat Less Water Holiday Pop-Up Shop located inside Truth & Love Beauty at the Paseo Nuevo Shopping Center located at 651 Paseo Nuevo in Santa Barbara, California. Or shop on line at www.eatlesswater.com.


Links and resources:
Click here for the free How to Eat Less Water CONDIMENT STORAGE TABLE. It is a printable list of popular condiments that belong in the pantry and those in the refrigerator that can be hung in your kitchen for easy reference.

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.

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

Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book

Make sure you hit SUBSCRIBE so you don’t miss out on future episodes released every (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

Links and resources:
Click here for the free How to Eat Less Water CONDIMENT STORAGE TABLE. It is a printable list of popular condiments that belong in the pantry and those in the refrigerator that can be hung in your kitchen for easy reference.

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.

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

Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book

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

Episode Summary:
My recycle bin has less plastic this week and more paper, glass, and aluminum, all materials with much higher recycling rates. My behavior changes around single-use plastic is in direct correlation with my conversation with Kathi King, Director of Climate Education and Leadership at the Community Environmental Council. 

In this week’s episode, Kathi and I add to the conversation we started in last week's episode on plastic in the kitchen. This episode adds more actionable tips to reduce our single-use plastic waste in the bathroom and laundry room.

During the conversation, she offers suggestions of companies who work to provide alternative packaging solutions were offered like Blueland, Plain Products, and SF Sustainable.

I mentioned the companies I use to reduce my plastic, What the Crap for toilet paper (use the link for $10 off), and Grove Collaborative (use the link for a free gift).

Links and resources:
Click here for the free How to Eat Less Water CONDIMENT STORAGE TABLE. It is a printable list of popular condiments that belong in the pantry and those in the refrigerator that can be hung in your kitchen for easy reference.

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.

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

Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book

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

In this episode, I argue that kids should play with knives…to chop, dice, and slice in the kitchen. Food education begins at an early age if we are to foster a new generation of home cooks. In the cover art for this episode is daughter Estrella several years ago.  She is now 15 and still plays with knives. 

When we teach the kids in our lives to cook, we empower them to be the solution and grow well-being for themselves and the planet, plus sometimes they cook for us too! 

Cooks are not born. They are made.

Links and resources:
Click here for the free How to Eat Less Water CONDIMENT STORAGE TABLE. It is a printable list of popular condiments that belong in the pantry and those in the refrigerator that can be hung in your kitchen for easy reference.

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.

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

Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book

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

Episode Summary:
Did you know 

• The average person's plastic use adds up to about 27,000 gallons of water a year.
• And on 9% (last year it dropped down to 5%) of plastic that makes it to the recycle bin ever really gets recycled.
• About 40% of all the plastic that's being produced now is single-use and gets disposed of within about 12 minutes.
• 8 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year.

In this episode, I’m joined by Kathy King, Director of Climate Education and Leadership at the Community Environmental Council in Santa Barbara, California. She shares simple and doable tips to reduce our plastic starting today when we shop for food.

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

Episode Summary
September marks the beginning of Hispanic, LatinX Heritage Month. Each year Americans observe this time from September 15th to October 15th, to celebrate the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose ancestry comes from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. 

In this podcast episode, I celebrate the contributions of farm workers as 83% of farm workers in the United States are Latino. In California, where I was born and raised, the percentage is much higher. 92%. 

I am so proud to have the endorsement of Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farmworkers union with Cesar Chavez printed on the cover of my book, Eat Less Water. She dedicated decades of her life to fighting for basic protections for farm workers. 

But there's still much more work to do. The food we choose has the power to contribute, to clean and abundant water systems around the world. So much of the way food is grown and cultivated around this nation and the world causes harm, not only to the river as nearly half the rivers in the U.S are too polluted with nitrates to support aquatic life. But to the people who work to cultivate and harvest the food that makes its way into our refrigerators and pantries. 

You and I may be able to wash off the residue of chemicals sprayed on our food but it can't be washed away when it is ingested by the farm worker that must work on the land.

My appreciation for the contribution and continued plight of farm workers is due in part to my father. He worked as a farm worker as a child. He took me to marches and actions to stand in solidarity with the United Farm Workers. I didn't eat grapes for most of my childhood because of the grape boycott.  I invited my father onto this episode to share some of his stories with us as he inspires so much of the work I do.

In this episode, my pa shares his involvement in the upcoming performance of El Bracero A Mariachi Musical. Below find a link to purchase tickets. If you share the link to this episode with friends and family on social media tag me and enter to win two tickets for the September 17 performance in Oxnard, California, where my father will be on stage in all his resplendence. 

Tickets to El Bracero: A Mariachi Opera

Center for Farm Worker Families

Links and resources:
Click here for the free How to Eat Less Water CONDIMENT STORAGE TABLE. It is a printable list of popular condiments that belong in the pantry and those in the refrigerator that can be hung in your kitchen for easy reference.

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.

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

Get a copy of the EAT LESS WATER book

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

Is your refrigerator bursting to the brim with sauces and condiments, crowding out your other food? What if I told you at least half of them don't belong in your refrigerator? 

The refrigerator is the best place to minimize food waste, as 43% of all food loss happens in home kitchens. The best way to free-up space in the fridge is with this handy guide on what really needs to go in the fridge for condiments and sauces.

By the end of the episode, you will have all the info you need to; 1) decide which condiments can be moved from your refrigerator to the pantry, and 2) have what you need to know how to discern based on PH level and Water Activity value which condiments can be stored in the pantry after opening.

Click here for the free How to Eat Less Water CONDIMENT STORAGE TABLE. It is a printable list of popular condiments that belong in the pantry and those in the refrigerator that can be hung in your kitchen for easy reference. 

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.

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

Episode Summary
This episode is the first in a series of Q & A with myself and my team member extraordinaire, Alana. These questions were chosen from those sent in by listeners. If you have a question you'd like answered in a future episode, email [email protected]. Your questions are answered in the last episode of every month.

Contact for Alana
www.instagram.com/theterritoryshop or email [email protected]

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.

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

Episode Summary
Imagine you just went shopping at the grocery store or farmer's market. You bought enough food to fill three shopping bags. You place the shopping bags in the grocery cart. You walk toward your car and on the way take one of those bags, the one that has the most perishable things, and throw it into the trash can.

This is not too far from the truth. The only thing that is off is the timing. Because what really occurs is we take that third grocery bag, unpack the contents into our refrigerator, forget about it until it's gone bad, then place it into the trash.

The average person throws away a third of their food. This total is based on the following statistic: 1/3 (1.3 billion tons) of food produced worldwide is lost or wasted.

The way it translates for the individual family of four is about $1,800 worth of food is thrown out. So in one decade, a family throws away $18,000 of food. It's easy for us to measure it in terms of $$ and tons. But we also throw out the water, soil, and energy with all that food.

When we talk about food waste, we have a tendency to think about it as food loss that happens someplace else, like at the farm, grocery store, restaurant, or schools. But as it turns out, 43% of all food waste happens in our kitchens. And specifically in our refrigerator.

I read somewhere that a refrigerator is a place where food goes to die. It is a sad way to put it, but it's not far from the truth.

Today and tomorrow mark the end of World Water Week. A great way to celebrate is in the refrigerator; starting with the implementation of systems designed to tackle food loss (remember those six slices of bread you just threw out are about 66 gallons of water).

In this latest podcast episode, I share some simple tips I implement in my refrigerator to reduce food waste.

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.

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

Episode Summary
How many eggs do you think the average American eats? The answer might surprise you. It's 250 eggs per year.

If you calculate 250 eggs per year and multiply by the average water footprint of one egg, which is 23 gallons of water the total is 5,750 gallons of water per year per person.   The largest share of water to produce eggs flows to the fields of grain.  According to the USDA, chickens are a major feed grain user. Chickens, whether raised for meat or raised for eggs eat, approximately 100 billion pounds of feed every year. 

My goal for this episode is for you to have all the information you need to purchase your next carton of eggs that saves water. I will walk you through the difference between organic and conventional eggs and decide whether or not you believe they are worth the extra cents. 

I will break down the difference between cage-free and plain old eggs, in other words when no label of cage-free, free-range, or pasture-raised is listed.

And finally, in this episode, I break down the difference between free-range and pasture-raised eggs and why discerning true pasture-raised eggs take a little effort on your part because the USDA does not currently offer any clear guidelines for egg laying hens.

In the episode, I mention Coyote Creek Farms as a great model for true pasture-raised eggs. They offer a guide on what to look for when you search the websites of farms near you. 

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.

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]