Forum:

zero waste

What Do You Use Your Chopsticks For Other Than Simply Eating?

Larry Jackson

pollinator

Posts: 76

Location: Kansas Temperate Zone

I like...

posted 2 years ago

8
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I am being lazy because I posted this as a response to Lusia Kims forum, WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE KITCHEN GADGETS FOR UNder $30? https://permies.com/t/210696/permaculture-home-care-cleaning/purity/favorite-kitchen-gadgets

Thank you Lusia Kim for reminding me of how fun that free can be.
My "Favorite Kitchen gadget for under a $30?"...
Hands down favorite, most versatile, used to fix so many broke its, rolled under the fridge, under the counter, fell in the drain cant get it outs, have to get in the bottle to clean it outs, need a dowel in a pinch, birdhouse needs a perch, have to reach into the fish pond for algae, or didn't remember to bring silverware with the lunch box, hold my long hair in a bun MAN BUN style when I had long hair LOL , need to cheat to start a fire with a cordless power drill because I'm to lazy to use a bow drill, and they are usually FREE?!???

Well that's an easy one, I LOVE LOVE LOVE my free chopsticks that come with my delivery of Asian dinners. I have used chopsticks for all of the above mentioned things and so much more.

Curious question to you and anyone else reading this, what do you use your extra chopsticks for?

Teach me of your sacred plants, spaces, places. Share me your songs that I may share the stories to those not yet born.

Saana Jalimauchi

gardener

Posts: 2176

Location: Finland (zone 5)

905

I like...

posted 2 years ago

8
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I use a chopstick to stir my sourdough starter! I feed just enough for one loaf so about 100g in total in a old honey jar, so the chopstick is perfect for the job!

Anne Miller

steward

Posts: 18330

Location: USDA Zone 8a

4650

I like...

posted 2 years ago

10
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I have no place to order Asian dinner except in the frozen food aisle at the grocery store so I don't get free chopsticks.

I usually make my own chow mein. I love egg rolls though I have not tried to make them.

I do have two pairs.

I use them when canning to get the bubbles out before processing.

Invasive plants are Earth's way of insisting we notice her medicines. Stephen Herrod Buhner
Everyone learns what works by learning what doesn't work. Stephen Herrod Buhner

Christopher Weeks

master gardener

Posts: 5557

Location: Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

3103

I like...

posted 2 years ago

8
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

The first thing I thought of was scraping/stirring dehydrated spice powders when the clump up in the bottom of the jar. But I also use them for everything -- staking young peppers when they're starting to get leggy but it's too early to take them out; scratching hard to reach parts of my back; as a trivet to keep a hot pan off the counter; like Saana, I stir sourdough after feeding; poking little holes in seed-starting soil; cleaning gunk out of grooves (from dead flies in the window-frames to the oily sawdust that cakes up around the saw's drive-gear); etc.

PEP - BB100 Badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by gir bot

Ted Abbey

Posts: 487

posted 2 years ago

5
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I like to tuck them under my upper lip, and make exaggerated vampire faces and poses at myself in the mirror when I am bored.. which is ALMOST never.

Jeff Steez

pioneer

Posts: 386

Location: Florida - Zone 10A

I like...

posted 2 years ago

5
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I am another chopstick sourdough starter stirrer.

Welcome to the serfdom.

Pearl Sutton

steward & bricolagier

Posts: 15837

Location: SW Missouri

11881

I like...

posted 2 years ago

9
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I keep chopsticks in my purse, my vehicles, and my toolboxes. In purse and vehicles I have two sets, one marked for eating only, one as tools. In the toolboxes I have them as tools.

I use them for things like holding washers in place while I try to get screws in, fishing things out of places they have dropped (like bolts out of cracks in engines) as shims, to punch holes in cardboard, to pin easy release knots, to hold things in chicken wire... the list goes on. I generally have several sets around me.

As I type this, I'm messing with something this morning, I'm about to drill a couple of quick holes in some tubing while sitting here at my desk. I need a support inside a light metal tube, so it's been filled with pencils and chopsticks to stabilize it while I drill holes. So they are in use first thing in the morning, as I drink my tea, and were just grabbed off the desk.

And I eat with them. I carry a pocketknife, keep spoons all over the place, and chopsticks. Between them I can eat anything at any time.

Gardens in my mind never need water
Castles in the air never have a wet basement
Well made buildings are fractal -- equally intelligent design at every level of detail.
Bright sparks remind others that they too can dance
What I am looking for is looking for me too!

oddball - sand badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by Nicole Alderman

Deedee Dezso

pioneer

Posts: 470

Location: WV- up in the hills above Huntington Mall

122

I like...

posted 2 years ago

4
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Ah, the blessings of free chopsticks in quantity! As I don't ever use delivery of take out, I find myself inside the food establishments. Or at the least at their drive up window. When we go for Chinese food, my significant other doesn't use them, and I have a nice purchased set to use for eating with, I get several extra sets to use for the "off-label" purposes! In preparation for the move, I've tossed the excess to save a bit of space.

That said, I have used my supplies of chopsticks for plant supports while young, or supports for a saran-wrap cover in lieu of a rigid plastic cover when I need to tent seedlings to maintain moisture. Great size for dibbing small holes for seeds to go into. Marking the rows in a raised bed, or use for indoor starts to remind you which type of seed is in which planting. For this I often add a length of tape in flag fashion having written the name and date on the tape.

Much stronger than the wooden shish-kebob sticks offered for the purpose. Good kindling in a pinch.

I suppose one "could" use them for a small, makeshift weaving loom, but I've not tried.

“Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.” —Ronald Reagan
Located in Western West Virginia

Food Prep and Preservation - air badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by Mike Haasl

textiles - air badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by Mike Haasl

natural medicine - air badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by Mike Haasl

Carla Burke

Rusticator

Posts: 9474

Location: Missouri Ozarks

5147

I like...

posted 2 years ago

4
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Pearl Sutton wrote: I keep chopsticks in my purse, my vehicles, and my toolboxes. In purse and vehicles I have two sets, one marked for eating only, one as tools. In the toolboxes I have them as tools.

I use them for things like holding washers in place while I try to get screws in, fishing things out of places they have dropped (like bolts out of cracks in engines) as shims, to punch holes in cardboard, to pin easy release knots, to hold things in chicken wire... the list goes on. I generally have several sets around me.

As I type this, I'm messing with something this morning, I'm about to drill a couple of quick holes in some tubing while sitting here at my desk. I need a support inside a light metal tube, so it's been filled with pencils and chopsticks to stabilize it while I drill holes. So they are in use first thing in the morning, as I drink my tea, and were just grabbed off the desk.

And I eat with them. I carry a pocketknife, keep spoons all over the place, and chopsticks. Between them I can eat anything at any time.

Great minds think alike! I have chopsticks all over the place, too - and use them in a lot of the same ways. I use them for stirring things in skinny places, like cups or tall glasses or cans - be it food, paints, or whatever; as hair sticks, shawl sticks, propping a lid or door open 'just' a little bit; reaching for things; turning fabric corners and tubes; pushing stuffing firmly into tiny corners (in making stuffies); as a back scratcher; scratching the itch inside a cast (that one has been a long time ago, for me, but I give them to friends and family who end up stuck in a cast, too). I've used them as shims, to fill gaps in cabinetry, that caused doors to be 'off'. I one used one to keep my husky-chow mix in the back seat, so I could safely get him to the vet, long before doggie seat belts existed. I trapped the handle of his shortest leash in the window, then hooked the leash to his harness. Not a perfect solution, but it got us to the vet, in an emergency.

Whoah!! Check out this permie deal!! https://permies.com/w/homesteading-bundle?f=232
"The only thing...more expensive than education is ignorance."~Ben Franklin. "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." ~ Plato

Marty Ellis

Posts: 1

posted 2 weeks ago

6
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Plant stake for starter plants...support for the cloth that covers my soup/sauce when re-heating in the microwave...stirrer for my coffee grounds storage pot (before I take them to one of the garden beds, helps me break them up since they clump together...row indicator in the garden...cross supports inside of cardboard sculpture...I keep extras in the shop for whatever I think of.

George Yacus

pollinator

Posts: 598

Location: Mid-Atlantic, USDA zone 7

465

I like...

posted 2 weeks ago

9
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Fixing screw holes to re-hang a door hinge.

I had some wood screws in a door hinge that had stripped out the holes they were drilled in.

I used a chopstick and snapped it off inside the holes, thus giving the screws something to bite against.

community living - sand badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by Mike Haasl

Jesse Glessner

Posts: 490

Location: Indiana

posted 2 weeks ago

5
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

This thread cracks me up! It reminded me of coming home on Vacation from California - where chopsticks abound. On one occasion I and a friend stopped at a local "drive-in" and I asked for a large burrito and they didn't know what that was. On the next surprising vacation back home (Indiana) I almost wrecked my car looking at a Chinese Restaurant sign, very "out of place" in stuck in the mud Indy!!
Any way, I eventually ended up returning to IN to live and that little Chinese place made some pretty good food, so I hit it occasionally. And, YES, the chopsticks were FREE!! :-) But, I always threw them away. See, all that money went down the drain. I could have used them for other purposes seeing other peoples' inputs, above.
I do a bit of wood working and I have seen PLANS for how to make perfect chopsticks of your own!!!

JayGee

John Suavecito

gardener

Posts: 4512

722

I like...

posted 2 weeks ago

6
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I use them to depit pie cherries. My wife makes wonderful cherry pie, cherry crisp, etc.
John S
PDX OR

Check out Redhawk's soil series: https://permies.com/wiki/redhawk-soil

Timothy Norton

Steward of piddlers

Posts: 7108

Location: Upstate New York, Zone 5b, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall

3755

I like...

posted 2 weeks ago

5
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

I use a chopstick to tease apart seedlings when I start seeds. It allows a gentle touch and a higher level of transplant survival for me.

- Tim's Homestead Journal - Purchase a copy of Building a Better World in Your Backyard - Purchase 6 Decks of Permaculture Cards -
- Purchase 12x Decks of Permaculture Cards - Purchase a copy of the SKIP Book - Purchase 12x copies of Building a Better World in your Backyard

PEP - BB60 Badge (verified skill)
Skill verified by gir bot

Pearl Sutton

steward & bricolagier

Posts: 15837

Location: SW Missouri

11881

I like...

posted 2 weeks ago

6
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

On top of what I listed above, I also use chopsticks to poke seed holes when I plant. I can mark the stick if I want an exact depth. Can also just make a quick narrow line in the dirt to drop seeds in then cover.

Jill Dyer

pollinator

Posts: 455

Location: Oz; Centre South

107

I like...

posted 2 weeks ago

4
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

Chopsticks being a bit hard on the grip these days they have been sidelined in favour of the good old fork. So, they have been employed as follows, whilst still leaving a few for their proper purpose.
Great for making improvised drop spindles, requiring minimal wood working. Temporary holder for long hair arrangements. Stirrers for sample pots of natural dyes - working with 10g skeins and 1 liter jars and a water bath.
Now I can add in all the garden suggestions above too.

Life's too short, eat desert first! [Source of quote unknown]
You have to be warped to weave [ditto!]

Kimi Iszikala

pollinator

Posts: 215

Location: Colorado Plateau, New Mexico

I like...

posted 2 weeks ago

4
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

hair stick to hold my hair up in a bun

to reset my oven outlet... I have an annoying oven that trips its AF/CF breaker a lot so I have to push in the reset button but it's just out of reach behind the oven and a chopstick is perfect to reach that

Kimi BrownKawa
https://www.brownkawa.com

tony uljee

Rocket Scientist

Posts: 332

131

posted 2 weeks ago

2
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

i watched a Bruce Lee film clip with him playing table tennis ---(ping pong)--- with a pair of chop sticks---

Tereza Okava

steward & manure connoisseur

Posts: 4786

Location: South of Capricorn

2752

I like...

posted 2 weeks ago

4
Number of slices to send:

Optional 'thank-you' note:

Send

we cook and eat with chopsticks, and the wood ones sometimes get replaced. they're used for a variety of garden things, especially poking holes for planting seeds and for staking up spindly young plants or marking where something is in the garden that I'm afraid I might step on, to secure lines (if I've planted a line of seeds but am not sure I'll remember where they are, for example). Occasionally they might be used to stake something down like a bird net.
Most are a bit too long for my hair (I have a kids' pair that is specifically for that, but use them so infrequently I couldn't tell you where they are).
I also have an old pair of cooking chopsticks (very long) that I use for poking coals in my tabletop barbecue. These ones that get used for things are usually bamboo or some sort of nicer wood that doesn't catch fire easily.
The cheapie disposable ones get used for starting fires or in my mini can rocket stove as fuel. Or they get put in the car as an emergency utensil. We don't eat takeout so haven't gotten them in years.

You got style baby! More than this tiny ad:

Learn Permaculture through a little hard work

https://wheaton-labs.com/bootcamp