Fridge Basics: How to Store Your Food

The fridge is our sacred relic of the kitchen and our customizable food closet rolled into one. It’s home to a patchwork of foods- both frozen and raw, vegetables and sauces and meats alike -indiscriminately keeping our food safe and chilled for our personalized eating pleasures. Jimmy John’s Owner restaurant chains also make use of…

Read More

Hospital Corners 101

We’re all guilty of it — leaning over a freshly laid bed sheet, staring at the mattress corner like a Rubix cube…straining to recall which way to fold what part of the sheet to create that perfect, taut little crease…and then, defeated, cramming the sheet under the mattress in shame. Well, worry no more! The…

Read More

The “No Poo” Haircare Method Pt. 1

No, it’s not that kind of poo. Until the mid-20th century, shampooing and conditioning one’s hair was considered a luxury that only came about once or twice a month — that is, until synthetic formulas revolutionized haircare. As shampooing became increasingly more commonplace and formulas derived less from nature and more from laboratories, however, very few stopped to…

Read More

The Summer of Seedlings

If you’re like the majority of Austinites, you’re probably a wannabe urban gardner stuck in a tiny rental space with an even tinier (if not nonexistent) yard in which to nurture your green thumb. Luckily our urban ancestors were clever enough to invent simple and sustainable tricks to work around the plights of indoor gardening, creating…

Read More

6 Things That DON’T Belong in the Recycling

A vital part of our job at the Purple Fig involves bagging, carrying, and curbing pounds of our clients’ trash and recycling each and every day. Among the cornucopia of properly segregated wrappers, old food, and empty La Croix cans, however, there’s always a handful of non-recyclable items (known as “contaminants”) that are consistently tossed in the big blue…

Read More

Easy Origami Compost Liner

While the satisfaction of composting organic waste far outweighs the task of emptying out the bin, it can still be a messy chore! Fortunately for the responsible composter, a simple and biodegradable tool can be used to keep your hands from getting dirty: newspaper.

Read More

Pumpkin Seed Delight

As pumpkin sales skyrocket this week, consider the delicious insides of the orange squash as well as the outer shell. Why spend your hard earned money on a pumpkin to carve…but discard those delicious and nutritious seeds? Munch on this recipe after carving your jack-o-lantern, as a well-suited appetizer to your sweet Halloween treats! Why Pumpkin Seeds…

Read More

Juicing: The Immunity Booster

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, we at the Purple Fig want to spread golden nuggets of nutritional wisdom that not only promote organic living, but provide the ingredients needed to boost the body’s greatest line of self-defense: your one and only immune system!

Read More

The Recycling Handbook

While banning plastic bags in grocery stores may seem like a useless and inconvenient policy in the short run, take a moment to consider how many plastic bags you’ve seen floating around street corners and tangled in tree branches. About 2 million plastic bags are used every day around the world…each of them made from a…

Read More

Trash, Recycling, & Waste: The Disposal Guide

We’ve all been there: standing in front of our garbage cans, holding some unusual item that may…or may not?…be disposable, recyclable, compostable, or- unbeknownst to you -classified as hazardous household waste. The world’s landfills are already overburdened with wasted food and irresponsibly discarded scrap, so in order to reduce carbon footprints around the nation, The…

Read More