1. Trim less

Beetroot leaves, carrot tops, broccoli stalks all can be re-used with a little imagination. Sauté your beetroot leaves with garlic and chilli and mix with kale, spinach or cavalo nero – delicious. Don’t throw those carrot tops on the compost – recycle them in a homemade pesto for a new lease of life.

Use up old lettuce with Alexandra's Charred herby gem lettuce with lemon and macadamia recipe.

2. Be inventive  

Look in your fridge and see what you can be creative with. Why not create stock with your left-over prawn shells? Mix with fennel and parsley stems and then freeze to go with a risotto. You don’t have to relegate your ripe bananas to the compost, just turn them into breakfast pancakes.

Throw ripe bananas into these coffee, banana, and almond popsicles from Alexandra's website.

3. Every ingredient is precious

See how far you can stretch an ingredient to get the most from it, for example boil mint with new potatoes to give a permeated mintness. Pop that solitary black banana in the freezer and add the next black banana until you have enough to make a banana loaf. Make a coulis with berries, freeze and have it ready for a quick pudding with ice cream and crumbled Amaretti biscuits. Turn opened un-used double cream into butter with a 5-minute shake in a jar.

Turn your double cream into ice cream with Alexandra's Cherry ripple and amaretto no churn-ice cream recipe.

4. Eat seasonally and support locally

Eating locally grown, seasonal fruit and veg means better value, better taste and a better deal for the planet. However, it’s not always as black and white to think that if something isn’t grown here then it isn’t sustainable. Take bananas for example, a sustainable crop transported by ship - whereas asparagus and blueberries imported by air from Peru are not so great on our eco footprint. Where possible try and eat seasonally.

Eat seasonally this spring with Alexandra's Shaved asparagus, artichoke, lemon and parmesan salad.

5. Compost as our last destination 

When you have re-purposed, been creative, frozen and generally fully exhausted the life of your fruit and veg the final destination is compost. Compost helps reduce your kitchen waste, keeps organic materials out of landfill and it’s free! Your own compost can then extend the life of some of your herbs and salad, for instance your supermarket basil plant that’s starting to wilt, replant in your compost and give it a new lease of life. Try worm composting, an efficient method of turning kitchen waste and small amounts of garden waste into nutrient-rich compost. You can buy composters and wormery’s online from Amazon or your local garden centre.

1. Make more of your own basics

For example, freshly made live yoghurt, great to have to hand in the kitchen and really easy to make.

Try yourself with the How to Make Live Yoghurt at Home recipe.

3. Give homemade bread a try

Jump on the sourdough bandwagon that started last lockdown and make your own sourdough - all you need is flour, water and lots of time and you can satisfy that carb craving without messing with your microbiome.

Try Liz's Easy Sourdough Starter Recipe.

5. Start shopping better

How sustainable is your food shop? There are lots of great options to make more sustainable choices like wonkyvegboxes.co.uk - wonky veg boxes, great taste, less waste.

Or try Riverford - 100% organic seasonal fruit and veg boxes.

7. Keep up those habits from lockdown

Keep gardening, baking and growing your own vegetables. Even if you don’t have a lot of outside space you can still have fun with tomatoes in a hanging basket, potatoes in a bucket and micro greens on your windowsill.

8. Put fabrics under the spotlight

Look for brands who create products from sustainable materials. Aspiga  have moved over 90% of our cotton to organic GOTS certified cotton. Where we have been unable to source organic cotton for particular items, we have donated to Water Harvest, a program that provides life-saving water tanks for the most deprived communities in Delhi and Jaipur.

We have also introduced a capsule collection this year made from LENZING viscose which has been certified as compostable and biodegradable as well as being sourced from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified forests.

We have stopped buying polyester and plastic-based materials throughout the entire Aspiga Collection.

10. Repair, Re-use, Free cycle and Recycle.

If you are unsure how best to do this then just use your search engine for a helpful online tutorial …‘how do I repair/re-use…’

For more tips on health, wellbeing and sustainability look at Liz's website.