Don’t throw your kitchen scraps away; put them to work. The outer skins of fruit and vegetables are filled with flavor and vitamins, and most often have enough matter left in them for another go-round.

Some people are peelers, some people aren’t. Some people swear by the nutrients and fiber found in produce skins, others shy away from the taste or texture, or prefer removing the outer layer to reduce pesticide load. Regardless of your peeling preferences, citrus rinds, potato and other root/tuber peels, scooped-out avocados, and even cheese rinds all have more than one life.

Aim to use organic produce in these applications, and make sure to scrub well. And if you don’t have time or need for them at the moment, most of them can be frozen for future use.

Home
1. Clean greasy messes: Before bringing out the big (toxic) cleaning guns in the kitchen, try lemon. Sprinkle affected area with salt or baking soda (to act as an abrasive) and then rub with juiced lemon halves. (Be careful using lemon on sensitive surfaces such as marble.)

2. Shine your coffee pot: For the old diner trick to make glass coffee pots sparkle: add ice, salt and lemon rinds to an empty coffee pot; swirl around for a minute or two, dump and rinse well.

3. Clean your tea kettle: For mineral deposit build up in tea kettles, fill the vessel with water and a handful of lemon peels and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and let sit for an hour, drain and rinse well.

4. Dye fabric: Pomegranate peels make for great coloring material. Use a stainless steel pot large enough to cover the fabric, fill with hot water and add peels, let it sit overnight. Simmer the water and peels the next day and then remove peels and add wet fabric. Simmer gently for one hour and allow to cool overnight. Remove the next day, rinse in cool water — from thereon, wash with similar colors.

Food
5. Make citrus extract powder: Make zest or twists (lemons, limes, oranges or grapefruit) being sure to remove the pith and allow to dry, about three or four days for twists, less for zest. Put in a blender (or spice grinder) and pulverize into a powder. Store in a clean jar.

6. Make citrus sugar: Make citrus extract powder and add it to sugar, or you can use fresh twists, put them in a jar with sugar, let the oil from the peel infuse the sugar and remove.

7. Make lemon pepper: Mix lemon extract powder with freshly cracked pepper.

8. Make zest: If you’ve juiced lemons, limes, oranges or grapefruit but don’t have an immediate need for zest, you can make it anyway and dry or freeze it for future use. Zest is a versatile item to have on hand for a bright boost in any number of dishes. If you don’t have a microplane or zester, you can also use the small side of a box grater. Try to scrape just the outer layer, the white layer of pith is bitter. Freeze in an airtight container. To dry, spread the zest on a towel and leave until dried, then store in a clean jar.

9. Make citrus olive oil: Pound citrus peel (pith removed) in a mortar and pestle with some oil added. Place in a jar with more oil and let rest for six hours. Strain into a clean jar.

10. Make infusions: Infuse honey or vinegar with citrus peels by placing twists and letting the flavors seep. Strain the liquid and store in a clean jar.

11. Make potato crisps: Mix potato peels with enough lemon juice and olive oil to evenly coat. Spread the potato peels in a layer on a baking sheet and cook at 400 degrees, stirring once, until golden brown (about 10 minutes). Season to taste.

12. Make stock: Boil potato peels, onion skins, carrot peels, leek ends, etc. for vegetable stock. (Also save fresh herb stems for this!)

13. Boost soup and stock: Cheese rinds (sans wax) can be placed in soup stocks for an awesome secret boost of flavor and texture.

14. Add “meat” to greens: Cheese rinds can also be added to braised greens for added depth of flavor.

15. Keep brown sugar soft: If you regularly fall victim to the brick in the pantry known as hardened brown sugar, try adding some lemon peel (with traces of pulp and pith removed) to keep it moist and pliable.

16. Make vanilla sugar: If you use fresh vanilla, after scraping the bean, add the pod to sugar to make vanilla-infused sugar.

Beauty

17. Make a banana sugar scrub: Sprinkle sugar on the flesh side of banana peels and use as a soft, exfoliating loofa. Rub gently all over your body and then rinse in the shower.

18. Refresh your face: For a skin tonic, rub orange or grapefruit peels on your face (avoiding your eyes) and then gently rinse with warm water.

19. Moisturize: Rub the fleshy part of an avocado peel on your face for a rich moisturizer.

20. Relieve your peepers: Potato peels can reduce puffiness around eyes; press the moist side of the fresh peels to the skin for 15 minutes.


參考譯文：
有些人喜歡帶皮的蔬果，有些人則會提前去皮。有些人十分看好蔬果皮含有的營養和纖維，有些人卻因為口感和質地，或是可能的殺蟲劑殘余而退避三舍。無論你偏好去皮或是不去皮，以下這些：柑橘類的果皮，土豆皮，其他根或塊莖的皮，掏空的牛油果，甚至乳酪皮都可以再次利用。

在打算將這些有機物派上用場之前，請確認你已經把它們洗的干干凈凈了。如果暫時沒時間或用不上的話，也可以將其貯存待用（大部分都可以冷凍）。

家用
1. 清潔油膩：

在使用清洗槍這個大件（含有毒物質）之前，可以嘗試一下檸檬。在需要清潔的地方撒上食鹽或小蘇打（作為研磨劑），然后將多汁的檸檬切成兩半，用來擦洗。（在敏感的表面像大理石面上，請小心使用檸檬 ）

2. 擦亮咖啡壺：

常喝咖啡的人都知道這個小技巧，可以讓玻璃咖啡壺再次閃亮：將冰塊、鹽和檸檬外皮加入到一個空的咖啡壺中，來回搖晃一兩分鐘，然后倒掉并沖洗干凈。

3. 清潔茶壺：

茶葉中含有的礦物質元素會沉積在茶壺壁上（形成茶垢）：將其裝滿水后加入少量檸檬皮，然后煮沸。關火靜置一個小時，然后瀝干并沖洗干凈。

4. 染過的面料：

石榴皮是很好的著色材料。將一個足夠大小的不銹鋼鍋放在面料上，鍋底面積要蓋過面料，然后在鍋里放滿水并放入果皮，靜置一夜。隔日用小火慢煨后將果皮取出，然后將打濕的面料放入煮過的水中，再用文火燉一小時，再次靜置一夜。第三天將織物取出，冷水清洗后立即用與面料類似的顏色洗滌。

食物
5. 柑橘粉：

以下果皮可以做成果皮碎或果皮卷：檸檬、酸橙、橘子或葡萄柚。首先一定要去瓤晾干，做成皮卷大約要3~4天，做皮碎的話會快一些。放入攪拌機（或調味品粉碎機）磨成粉，存放在干凈的罐子里。

6. 橘子糖：

先按上面的操作做出柑橘粉，然后加入砂糖。或者你可以直接使用新鮮的果皮卷：把它和砂糖一起放在罐子里，讓皮里的油滲透糖，之后去掉橘子皮。

7. 檸檬胡椒粉：

將檸檬粉（按照第5點中所說的做法做成）與新鮮的胡椒粉混合。

8. 果皮碎：

如果你已經把檸檬、酸橙、橘子或者葡萄柚這些水果榨汁了，但暫時用不上果皮碎的話，還是可以先做好果皮碎后晾干或冷凍備用。果皮碎可以用在很多地方，放在大多數菜品中都可以很方便的提亮顏色。如果手邊沒有刨花刀或削皮器的話，也可以用盒子刨的側面來制作果皮碎。刮皮時盡量只要最外層的皮，因為緊貼果肉的那層白皮有苦味。將刮下來的皮放置于密封的容器中并冷凍。想要晾干的話：將果皮碎置于干凈的毛巾上直到晾干，然后放入干凈的廣口罐里貯存。


9. 橘香橄欖油：

將橘子皮（去瓤）放入研缽，加入少許橄欖油后研碎。放入廣口罐，再加一些橄欖油，靜置6小時。濾入一個干凈的廣口罐內。

10. 添加劑：

可以用橘子皮給蜂蜜或醋加入香味。將果皮卷放入讓香味滲透其中，將液體濾出，存放在干凈的罐子中。

11. 薯片：

將土豆皮與足夠的檸檬汁混合在一起，用橄欖油包裹。然后將土豆皮鋪成一層放在烤盤上以400度烘烤，翻一次面后烤至金黃色（大約10分鐘）。想吃的時候按自己的口味進行調味就行了。

12. 做湯：

將土豆皮、洋蔥外皮、胡蘿卜皮、蔥白段等混合后煮沸，就可以做成蔬菜高湯。（香草莖不妨也留著做高湯！）

13. 給清湯或高湯提味：

奶酪皮（不含蠟的）可以放在清湯中，給湯加入一種很棒的神秘味道，特殊的香味和質感。

14. 將“肉”加入綠蔬中：

奶酪皮還可以用來加到燉菜中，可以增加味道的濃重。

15. 讓紅糖保持柔軟：

如果你時常為磚一樣堅硬的紅糖塊頭疼的話，試著加入一些檸檬皮吧（將果肉和內皮全部去除），可以保持紅糖濕潤柔軟。

16. 香草糖：

使用新鮮的香草，將豆莢全部擦下來加到砂糖里，就可以做成香草味道的砂糖了。

17. 香蕉磨砂面膜：

將砂糖灑在香蕉皮的內側（靠近果肉的那一面），可以用作柔軟的去角質海綿。用它在身體上輕柔的摩擦后淋浴清洗即可。

18. 亮澤皮膚：

想要滋潤皮膚，可以使用橘子皮或者葡萄柚皮擦洗臉部（避過眼部），然后以溫水輕柔的沖洗。

19. 補水：

牛油果皮的多肉面可以用來擦洗臉部，作為深層潤膚霜。

20. 放松眼部：

土豆皮可以減少眼部浮腫。將新鮮果皮的濕潤面壓在皮膚上15分鐘即可。