Salt & Straw To Make Ice Cream Out Of Garbage

There isn’t much that’s more delightful than ice cream in the summer (except a cold beer, or maybe popsicles, granitas? Never mind, you get my drift.) The latest ice cream trend this summer is *drum roll* ice cream made from trash. No, this isn’t some crazy new hipster trend (okay maybe a little) but is actually for a super amazing cause.

Portland-based ice cream makers, Salt & Straw, will devote the month of June to ice cream flavours made from refuse food that would have ended up in the dumpster. Pretty neat, right? Salt & Straw plans to play its part by making Second-Steeped Rum Spices and Apple Butter ice cream with spices that were first used in Portland’s East Side Distillery. Salt & Straw plans to re-steep the rum-soaked spices (including peppercorns, vanilla, and orange peel) in cream and will use apple butter made from bruised apples that would have otherwise ended up in the trash bin. 

The United States wastes an enormous amount of food daily. This is not even due to the fact that the food is unusable but is mostly due to a lack of aesthetic (read: how it looks not how it tastes).

Salt & Straw founder, Kim Malek, said that the reason behind their line of thinking was the thought that they could use their menu in June to shine a light on those agencies that redistribute this food to people in need and tell their story. They wanted to see if they can get customers and the community at large to be more aware of and supportive of these organisations and the work that they’re doing. Just because an apple might be kind of ugly that doesn’t mean it’s not perfectly tasty and should be thrown away.

What a commendable action by Salt & Straw, if only more would take the initiative to create delicious, socially conscious products.