It’s Friday afternoon, and that means it’s time for me to give you a little weekend reading from around the web. Here are a few food related items that I thought might interest you.

Tops and tails are becoming much more than garbage at Gills Onions, an onion processor in Oxnard, Calif. Today marks the unveiling of the company's onion-powered electrical system, a first-of-its-kind initiative to turn onion waste into energy.

 

No, it’s doesn’t involve dumpster diving. Nor does it even resemble a dumpster. To be more descriptive, it’s a converted, nicely-appointed dumpster with recycled kitchen equipment. Waste Management cleaned up the bin (it was apparently sitting unused) and installed the used cooking gear.

"Locavores" can officially take a "staycation" this year, being among 100 new words to feature in the 2009 edition of a leading U.S. dictionary, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

 

John Morse, president and publisher of Merriam-Webster Inc., said staycation -- meaning a vacation spent at home or nearby -- was a good example of a word meeting a need and establishing itself in the language very quickly, having first appeared in 2005 but taken off in use in 2007.

 

He said people enjoyed blending existing words.

The Washington Post has called this season the "Summer of Food Docs," citing a feast of films that sound deliciously informative and, unfortunately, completely unavailable to me here in Pittsburgh. Where the groundbreaking, eye-opening books of the past few years have served me well — inspiring me to forgo CAFO meats, plant an organic garden in my urban yard, and buy local even if it meant spending more — I felt sadly removed from the film versions of this activism.

 

That is, until a parenting blog suggested I host my own private screening of Fresh. This film, not released in major theaters, works to spread a positive message about small farms and local food, and it's doing it entirely through private to medium-sized community screenings.

Image: Matt Callow