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.

Reducing: The Trash Report

Today is garbage day in my neighborhood.

Normally, that's not something I would post in a blog or any type of social media, except now it's significant because I've reduced my pick up service with the refuse haulers.

So the first Wednesday of every month, I have to remember to bring my can to the roadside for pick up.

Tiny Trash Recap

At the start of 2016, I decided to downsize my garbage, which was already pretty minimal to begin with, by most household standards.

The plan included composting everything that was biodegradable, and recycling everything I can.  The final piece was to get even more discerning about what I buy at the grocery store, which means taking a good hard look at packaging.  Plastic sneaks it's way into all packaging.  There is no escaping it.  Even things packaged in glass jars will have plastic on the lid in some fashion, if not made entirely of the stuff.  And unless you're harvesting your own fruit or getting it locally, chances are your fruit and other produce has a plastic sticker on it.

Enter Tiny Trash as a way to remind me constantly of my resolve to reduce my non biodegradable waste.  Tiny Trash is a plastic yogurt cup which I covered in decorative scrap paper (from end papers when I bind books for Pegana Press).

Thanks to Tiny Trash I have been diligent about reducing my plastic waste.  And that means it happened quicker than I thought it would.  My goal was to not generate more trash than this little cup could hold, and to empty it once a day.  But within the first week, I had cut that expectation in half, and before the first month was out, it would take about 4 days to fill this little container.

This has allowed me to reduce my trash pick up from weekly to just once a month. 

Here is one month's worth of trash in my can when I took it to the roadside.

It still seems kind of silly to have such a small amount picked up and I'm considering other options.  I estimate that with this approach, it could take me 6 months or longer to fill this can.

For now, it doesn't make sense to do away with pick up altogether.  They won't take recycling unless I have a trash can too, and having one, means I put things into it.  

Until I get to the point where I have minimized my possessions down to where I own nothing that could ever break and be discarded, I might need this can.  Until I stop buying things that come in packaging or with labels, I will need this can.  Until I stop receiving any mail at all, I might need my recycling bin.

glass recycle bin (left), trash can (center) w/Tiny Trash on top, mixed recycle bin (right).

I've changed how I think about waste, so I've been able to reduce what comes into and what goes out of my life.  It's glass pick up today too (every 4 weeks), but I only have one oil bottle in my bin, so there's no point.  I reduced glass, by using the bulk bins when I shop, and by giving excess jars to people I know who use them.  The mixed recycling bin usually takes two to three months to fill because it's so big.  Lately, I'm filling it faster because I'm working on getting rid of old papers, and I've replaced certain items I used to buy in plastic packaging with items that come in paper and cardboard.

The cat litter is one example.  I used to buy a brand called Swheat Scoop, a cat litter made from wheat.  until one day they changed from a paper bag packaging to plastic packaging.  They insisted that it was for the benefit of their customers, when I asked them.  I thought that was pretty funny.

So anyway, I changed brands, and now I use a brand called Ökocat that comes in a cardboard box  and is produced locally at a factory in my state.  I have it shipped directly to my house.  They have several types and I use the kind made from just wood, without anything added.  It works amazing! No smelly cat box at all, plus it clumps, and I can put it in the compost.  I tried the paper version at first, but it made Zöe and I cough, so I wrote to the company and asked about additives.  The woman that replied said that they did add something that was approved by the FDA.  OH, right.  That's the agency that has approved so many chemical food additives and pharmaceuticals that have proven to be unsafe and were later removed from the market.   I replied that I didn't have a lot of confidence in the FDA, and that I would use a different version of their product.

Anyway, the cardboard boxes can be recycled except for a little plastic strap handle fixed to the top of the box.  Not a perfect solution, but far better than a jumbo sized plastic bag.  Eventually, I'll probably come up with a sawdust version of my own, but for now this is working.

What A Difference!

What a difference three weeks can make!

I have been plowing through the work around here.  My Kitchen has never been so clean.  I've lived in this house for 15 years, and I've never had much clear counter space.  It's mostly been covered by dirty dishes, bottles and jars waiting to be washed before going out to the recycling, and various works in progress.  A chaotic jumble about sizes the whole situation up.

But in the first two weeks of 2016, I managed to turn that trend around.  When I came home from the food co-op last week, I actually had a space to set all my groceries, when I brought them in.  The living room and dining room have also been decluttered, as well as The Bindery, which was starting to look a little chaotic.

Three weeks into 2016, and my house is starting to resemble a real home and not just a busy work space.

The Peepers are growing like crazy.  They're 10 weeks old now!!  I'm really excited that 4 of the 5 are pullets and only one is a cockerel.  Of course that still leaves me with a dilemma.  What to do with the excess male bird.  And he is at the moment far more lovable than his pop.

Rocky and I have a tenuous truce, which neither one of us is anxious to put to the test.  It makes cleaning the chicken house and working in that part of the yard difficult though, and if a fence comes down, it becomes a real adrenaline rush to get it repaired.  The secret to my success is that FOOD is the great moderator.

Sparky (Mike named the new one) is my friend.  I'm not sure if he knows the score or not, but he's doing his best to get on my good side, and so far, he's my pal.

Ruby (mom) is finally after 10 weeks, starting to peck at them.  Again, it's that whole FOOD thing.  I introduced her back into the hen yard with Rocky.  I won't say there was a tender reunion, because that's just not Rocky's style, but he was glad to see her.  (I might get more chicks out of that interaction).

She didn't stay put.  She was upset to be separated from the chicks, and wanted me to let them in too.  I decided to let her out instead, and she was OK with that.  Today we tried it again, though.  I guess for the next few days, I'll keep letting her into the hen yard until they remember who she is.  Ten weeks ago she was top hen in the flock.  Now she's at the bottom of the pecking order.  They won't let her near the food, and Rocky wasn't all that thrilled that I fed her a bit away from them.  He wanted to dominate both food supplies.  (Sort of reminded me of Monsanto.)  I had to lure him back to his own food.

I guess I'll just observe how it works out, and if I can bring her and the chicks into the flock--great.  If not, than I'll have two flocks.  I would rather have them all together though, but I'll have to see how Rocky and Sparky will get along.

I'll be glad to get the Peepers out of the back yard.  It was okay when they were still tiny, but now, my back porch and patio resemble a barn yard.  Every evening I have to shovel it off and sluice it down.  (I know, too much information.)

Never the less, I do love them and they always make me laugh.  And they all seem to like being held.

Enough about chickens.

My resolve to move toward zero waste, is coming along.  Last week we generated about a gallon of trash.  (I don't remember what we threw in the trash to even get that much...it must have been some kind of plastic that I ran across when I was cleaning out the kitchen.  I keep finding old plastic squirreled away (I guess I was hoping I would eventually find a use for some of it.)  But as far as the trash goes, typically, I generate about 3 yogurt cups full of plastic trash a week now.  It's getting easier to compost and recycle almost everything else, as long as I pay really close attention to what I am bringing home.  (We haven't bought bacon since the new year--sigh--I do miss it, and I just need to find time to drive over to the meat market, where I can hopefully get some uncured bacon wrapped in non plasticized paper.  #jumping through hoops!)

And finally, I wanted to share that someone who bought Winter Tales through Pegana Press, liked it enough to also buy a copy of Hearth & Heart Summer edition.  He also hinted broadly that he would buy Hearth & Heart Autumn (Coming Soon).  I got a chuckle out of that, until I realized that I had 3 zines partially finished and that I needed to get my butt in gear and get them out.  All the stories have been finished for months, I just need to put them in zine format, which is mostly finished.

But for now, I'm still binding another two batches of books and working on profit and loss for 2015 tax return.  Definitely trying to make sure I stay up with book keeping this year, so it's not so hard later.  The shoe box method, isn't working anymore.  I went in to see if I qualified for a reduced rate in my power bill last year, and the woman said to me.  If you're self employed you should have all your totals already.  I got a hardy laugh out of that, and resisted the temptation to respond with...You've never owned a business before where you did everything yourself, have you?  I have another friend who runs multiple business out of her home too, and it's just her and her partner, just like with me and Mike.  They do everything on their own, just like we do and they work 12 hours or more a day - every day, just like we do.  Tell me, where do people like us find time to make sure their book keeping is up to date?

But now that is on the list for 2016.  Wish me luck.

Solving Problems

I had a list taped to my refrigerator for most of last year, labeled "Solving Problems" which listed 5 things I wanted to improve in my life with possible solutions.  I just took the list down yesterday.  4 out of 5 were accomplished.  

Now I'm ready to tackle something new and this year, my biggest project to work on is solving the problem of Space and Time.

I don't have enough of either one.

At least that's what it's felt like these last two years.  So my big project this year is to come up with some modifications to organize my living space and my time better.

I've already solved one problem linked to my current project.  The problem of perception.

Before, I could only see the lack of space and the chaos that is/was my home.  I'm not a hoarder.  It isn't that.  It's just that things accumulate, and I couldn't seem to find the time or energy to declutter.

It's difficult because we run our businesses out of our home, and as the business spaces expanded, the living spaces shrank.  And time has been affected in the same way.  As I took on more work projects, my personal time almost completely disappeared.  When you work out of your home, the boundaries can become blurred because you're not separated by distance from your work place.

But as I said, my perception has shifted around seeing my living space as chaotic.  These last two years, I've spent a lot of time in the state of Overwhelm, (that's just south of here).  But about a month ago, I stopped feeling frantic.

So today, I was looking at my same ol' living space and didn't see it as a horrific jumble.  In fact I even said to myself, "This isn't so bad".  And I made progress today, on turning it into a space that works for me.

And I enjoyed the process.  It was restful, and it was a relief.

The Game

Whenever I have something big to overcome in my life, I figure out how I can make a game of it.  It keeps me focused and it gives me a creative way to change my life.  So the other day, I created a new game to help me reduce my "inventory" of stuff, and create a beautiful, organized, practical space, which can function for both business and living.

Trash

One of the challenges I face in my home is how much trash builds up.  So I wanted to address that issue as part of this game.

Back in the late 1980 s, I became aware of the trash problem, and so I began recycling.  But in the last few years, I've come to believe that it's not enough.  The problem of trash has gotten complicated.  It just has.  And in my quirky way, I have responded by trying to be more aware and responsible about my own trash.  Sometimes that leads to me hanging onto things to either reuse, or find a way to dispose of responsibly. I have reduced my consumption of items that come packaged in plastic, and I try to avoid wasting things.

In July of 2014, I participated in a world wide event called Plastic Free July.  The idea was to try to avoid single use plastic.  It was hard.  In fact, you'd have to be pretty self sustainable to pull it off.  And that was the point of the exercise.  To raise awareness.  Some of the practices, I still continue, but I have also made compromises which make me feel guilty.  And that really ticks me off.  Because I don't want it to be hard, and I don't want to feel guilty.

I'm not talking about what other people should do with their trash.  I'm talking about me.  I'm talking about how this issue has complicated my life.  I'm talking about how it affects me personally.  Because I have educated myself on this subject.  Now I know what I know, and I can't unknow it.

I want to do better.  So when I look around my home, and see a lot of accumulation that I am no longer able, in good conscious to just throw in the trash, it makes me mad.  We are constantly bombarded with trash.

But anger can be a useful thing.  In Chinese Medicine, the concept is that Anger gets you moving.  It causes you to take action.  And that action has led me to rethink how I'm handling my trash and to create some new goals for myself.

So another one of my goals for this year is to immediately and significantly reduce the volume of trash I put into my trash can every week.  My usual volume is about two grocery bags each week.  But half of that is chicken bones from making bone broth, and there is also used cat litter from my 3 cats.  Both of those can be composted, it just requires a different process than the yard waste style of compost pile.

There is a whole belief system around composting and people discuss it at great length and even disagree about it.  But here's my belief.  If it's food, and it's done correctly, even if it's meat, bone, dairy and fat, it will break down.  The same should be true for most of what I throw into the trash.  I buy very few things that aren't biodegradable.  It just requires an adjustment in what becomes natural for me to do.

I will be writing about this from time to time, as I discover what is possible.  For now my new indoor trash can is a yogurt cup.  My daily goal is to only generate enough non biodegradable trash to fill that cup, and no more.  As I experiment with this, I will reduce that amount if I can.  The real challenge will come when I begin to declutter.  Who knows what that will look like!

The Peepers

It snowed on The Peepers yesterday!  Both flocks went into their houses and stayed there the rest of the day.  But today it was much warmer, and they seemed happier.