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Reducing holiday food waste is easy in South Sound

By John Dodge | The Olympian • Published November 30, 2008

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Here's something to be thankful for: Thousands more South Sound residents are recycling their food waste this holiday season, thanks mainly to the expansion of curbside food waste recycling programs this year in Olympia and the surrounding area. Those efforts should help South Sound residents beat the national average when it comes to holiday food waste.

Sticking to the holiday theme, here's some advice from longtime Washington State University Extension agent Don Tapio on how to keep a Christmas tree fresh through the holidays. Tapio, a south Thurston County Christmas tree farmer when he's not busy doling out advice, knows of what he speaks.

For beginners, Tapio said, recut the base of the Christmas tree as soon as you bring it home. All that's required is removal of a one-half-inch disk of wood at the butt end of the trunk before putting the tree in the stand. Put the tree in water as soon as you make the cut, even if it's not going immediately into a Christmas tree stand.

Remember: cut trees soak up a lot of water, up to 4 quarts a day for a noble or Fraser fir during the first week. It's best if the tree stand can hold 1 quart of water for every inch of stem diameter, but few of them do, so keep an eye on the water level in the tree stand.

Some other useful tips from Tapio: drilling a hole in the base of the tree, or cutting the butt end at an angle, does nothing to increase the uptake of water. The temperature of the water is a non-factor, too, in the amount of water the tree absorbs.

Clean water is all that's needed to keep a tree fresh. Forget the additives, such as floral preservatives, commercial tree preservatives, molasses, sugar, bleach, soft drinks, honey, aspirin or whatever else you've heard might help.

I have my own surefire way to keep a cut tree fresh. Don't put the tree up until about a week to 10 days before Christmas. As Andy Rooney said last week on "60 Minutes," Thanksgiving as a holiday has been pre-empted by the consumer rush to Christmas, including commercial Christmas displays, that go up long before the turkey lands on the dinner table.

So on this, the last day of November, take a deep breath, have a turkey sandwich or turkey soup, and remember there are still more than 20 shopping days until Christmas.

John Dodge is a senior reporter and Sunday columnist with The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5444 or jdodge@theolympian.com.