Instagrammer shares creative hack for putting oft-discarded strawberry tops to use

This story was written by Roberto Guerra and originally appeared on The Cool Down.

An author uploaded an Instagram reel that shows a creative way of putting your strawberry tops to use. 

Nancy (@nancy.birtwhistle), an author and Instagrammer with a following of 327,000, shows viewers how to create strawberry vinegar and salad dressing out of strawberry tops. 

“Now you know how we dislike food waste,” she says in the clip.

The scoop

Nancy begins the video holding a strainer full of fresh strawberries. She explains that she plans to use the tops for strawberry vinegar and then chops the tops off the strawberries, placing each one into a jam jar.

She then pours vinegar into the jar with the strawberry tops, seals the jar, and lets it sit. 

After two days, she strains the new solution into another bottle, leaving the strawberry tops behind to use for different recipes. To use it for salad dressing, she adds olive oil, mustard powder, salt and pepper, and chopped fresh herbs. 

How it’s helping

Using parts of commonly discarded foods for something creative and delicious is an excellent way of preventing food waste, which has become a major problem in modern society. 

In the U.S., between 30% and 40% of all food is thrown into the trash, which is around 119 billion pounds of food. Worldwide, about one-third of food is wasted, while more than 2 billion people struggle to put food on the table.

But food waste represents other problems like environmental degradation and global warming.

Global food systems account for more than 30% of planet-warming pollution, because food production requires a lot of land and the burning of fossil fuels, in large part for transporting it from one place to another. According to a UN report, between 8% to 10% of all global planet-warming gases are linked to unconsumed produce.

What everyone’s saying

Commenters had no shortage of words — or questions. 

“How long does the strawberry vinegar last and how do you store it?” one user asked, to which Nancy responded, “Mine stays on the pantry shelf until it’s used up.” 

“Saturday Morning Kitchen did a great program today and they had a vinegar expert and he did the same with raspberries,” another added.

“This looks lovely,” another wrote. 

“Brilliant,” another said.

This story was written by Roberto Guerra and originally appeared on The Cool Down.