Vegetable peelings

taurusgb

I've noticed a few people on here use (or freeze for later use) vegetable peelings for making stock....I have never done this because of the things I've read about pesticides being on the skin and difficult to remove with washing....am I being too cautious here and wasting a valuable resource?

squeaky

Hmm... a judgement call on this one, I think.

It depends on your source, I suppose. If you bought organic stuff, or from a veggie box you should be OK. I'm not so sure about things that have been commercially washed either because, as was said in a thread some time back, they use some really nasty stuff for that too.

One of my project plans for this year is to bite the bullet and turn part of my lawn into a proper vegetable plot instead of just dotting things about the place here and there in the borders. Then I'll know that the peelings are safe to use.

taurusgb

Hi Squeaky

I'm also trying to grow more of my own vegetables and fruit, but will never be able to be anywhere near self sufficient. Organic costs are well out of my price range - and quite hard to source where I live without travelling a fair bit which isn't the right thing to do IMO. So am stuck with local greengrocer and supermarket...:rolleyes:

recovering_spendaholic

I won't use peelings for stock because of the pesticides thing, but I do use potato peelings for making crispy skins. Years ago there was a programme called the Goode Kitchen with a woman called Shirley Goode who was really OS and she showed how to peel potatoes a little bit thicker than normal and then deep fry the peelings for crispy skins to have with dip. I still do it, but these days I just put the peels in a big bowl and toss them in a little olive oil and some sea salt and put them in the oven on a non stick tray. I also don't peel butternut squash any more if I am roasting it after seeing Jamie Oliver do it and it is much nicer and doesn't go as "soggy" as when you do peel it.