If you’re anything like me, you make a lot of meals from scratch and always end up having a heap of vegetable peels that you need to do something with. I hate wasting food, so I invite you to explore with me three ways we can use those kitchen scraps to keep them out of the landfills!

Feed them to your chickens

Granted, this is only feasible if you actually have chickens, but feeding your vegetable peels, and vegetables based kitchen scraps, to your chickens is a great way to put them to use! Feeding kitchen scraps to your chickens can help cut costs, and is a great way to increase your chicken’s nutritional intake- which makes for healthier chickens and tastier eggs! Just like us, chickens like a variety of food, which can be harder to come by during the winter months. Sharing your kitchen scraps with your egg-giving creatures can be a great way to keep them happy year-long!

Just be sure to leave out any green potato peels and onions when feeding your kitchen scraps to your chickens, as these are toxic to them.

Make Vegetable Stock

Making vegetable stock from vegetable scraps is a great way to put those otherwise wasted food to good use. Vegetable peels contain a lot of vitamins and can add a punch of flavor to future meals. In order to make vegetable stock, you’ll want to wash the vegetable peels thoroughly to remove any dirt. Place the washed peels in a large pot, cover with water and simmer on the stove for at least an hour. You can also use your slow cooker or Instant Pot for convenience. When you’re done, cool and strain the stock and freeze it in individual containers/bags. Whenever you’re making a savory recipe that calls for water, simply defrost some of your vegetable stock and use that in place of the water.

Making your own vegetable stock can also save you money if you frequently purchase vegetable broth from the store. Who doesn’t like saving money?!

Compost Kitchen Scraps

No post about kitchen scraps is complete without the mention of the compost pile. Whenever I’m not able to use my vegetable scraps in any other way, they always go to my compost pile. I love gardening, and my garden loves me when I share my kitchen scraps with it! Composting kitchen scraps is a great way to add nutrients back into the soil, and your garden will surely thank you!

When composting kitchen scraps, keep in mind that you don’t want to add any animal products (fish, meat, dairy, bones, etc. Egg shells being the exception), baked goods, fatty foods or grease to your pile. These foods take much longer to decompose and could potentially attract animals. You also want to keep a good balance, especially when it comes to acidic foods. For instance, composting tomato is great, but if majority of your compost pile is compiled of tomatoes, your compost might be too acidic and not suitable for all plants in your garden. I like keeping a good balance by composting a variety of scraps: Fruits, vegetables, egg shells, coffee grounds, tea leaves, etc. This might be a personal preference, but I don’t compost a whole lot of my onion skins as I find those take much longer to break down in my pile.

These are only a few ways you can put your kitchen scraps to use, let me know what you do with your kitchen scraps, I would love to hear from you!