A Plastic Free Solution: Freezing Chicken

In 2014 I participated in the Plastic Free July Challenge.  It took my awareness of the plastic issue to a whole new level.  As an omnivore, I became aware that if I buy meat, it will come wrapped in plastic or plasticized butcher paper.  After researching other buying options, I realized that the only way to avoid plastic is to raise my own meat.  Having only one half acre to my name, I chose to raise chicken.  My cats eat raw chicken, I use the eggs, we two humans and two cats can eat quite well on one chicken a week, and the flock is partnering with me in my permaculture design project.

My usual practice is to raise a small flock of chicks to maturity, harvesting one or two birds per week as needed.  This way I am able to keep birds in the fridge without using any plastic packaging.  I have a large stainless steel bowl with a stainless steel pizza pan as a lid, which keeps the chicken fresh for a week.

Once or twice a year I find it to my advantage to have a chicken in the freezer.  My freezer is small, and I prefer to have live birds on the place that I can harvest for fresh food when I need them, but I always take the last two birds out of the flock together, which leaves me with an extra bird in the fridge for the week.  Last summer I decided to freeze that extra bird.  It dressed out at 9 1/2 pounds and I decided it was large enough to stand in for Turkey at Thanksgiving.

Since I am always aware of the single use plastic issue, I have a stock of several large plastic bags that I use over and over.  I found a bag that I could barely get the bird into, sealed it, and felt like I was good to go.  Except, three weeks later when I was moving it around in the freezer, I stuck my thumb through the plastic and ripped a large hole in the package.  The only thing I could think to do was to wrap the whole thing in a towel.  I found the largest, thickest towel I had, wrapped it well in layer after layer and put it back in the freezer where it stayed until November.

The week-end before Thanksgiving I put the bird in the fridge to thaw, and a couple of days before Thanksgiving day, examined the bird.  It was moist and fresh looking, without a hint of freezer burn.  I breathed a sigh of relief since I was hosting Thanksgiving this year and didn’t have any birds over 4 pounds on the place to take it’s place.

In short, it roasted beautifully, and everyone marveled at how such a large bird could be so tender.

That got me thinking about the plastic issue.  I have been hesitant to freeze meat because I didn’t want to deal with single use plastic...or any plastic for that matter, if I could avoid it.  Now that I know it can be done, I decided to try it a second time.

Today, I took a large piece of well washed natural muslin fabric and wrapped it closely around a newly harvested bird that dressed out at 12 pounds.

I continuously wrapped the fabric around the birds several times until it was well insulated.  Then I started on the next layer.

Using an old, clean bath towel I had on hand, I wound it twice around the bird tightly, making sure to insulate all parts of the bird.

For the final stage, I repeated the process using a larger bath towel.  

None of these towels are what you’d call thick and thirsty.  They are old and worn, and I’m just glad I didn’t have time to cut them into rags like I had been contemplating doing.

But it is noteworthy that using towels to wrap meat for the freezer, adds to the bulk.  If I already had sturdy large plastic bags that I was using over and over, I could simply wrap the bird or meat in a layer of muslin fabric and then place it in the plastic bag.  That would save space.  If I was worried about cross contamination, I would wash the bag as soon as I had removed the bird or meat and then would store it in the freezer.  

I chose muslin fabric because it’s what I had on hand.  I can rewash it, and reuse it multiple times and when it is too worn out to use anymore than I can compost it.

And now a disclaimer.  This idea took form to suit my needs, and my ideals.  I’m only packaging this chicken for my own use.  If I were selling chicken, I would have to handle it differently, and I would have to use different packaging.  There are regulations guiding food production for sale.  But since I’m not providing chicken for public consumption, this works well for me.  I’m more afraid of the prospect of facing an over polluted world than the remote chance that I might get a few extra microbes on my food from wrapping it in cloth instead of plastic.  But as always, I encourage people to do what makes them comfortable.  Use this idea or not, but use your common sense.  Listen to what your gut tells you.