Recycling and Bartering
Fresh From the Farm
July 12, 2019
Recycling and Bartering
We have a new addition to the farm this week, Soapy, the pig. A friend texted this week and asked if we could do a little bartering. Sure! Isn’t that what farmer’s do? We produce the things we can produce and trade it for the things we can’t. Can you guess what I am trading?
Soapy’s arrival has me thinking about all the ways that we try to recycle and reuse things on the farm. I look around and see that there are very few things that have a single use. I think back to the old yellow recycle bins. How often have you gone back to that bin to get something to use it for another purpose? I know I have a bunch. There is a good reason that most farms have piles of “junk” lying around. That so called junk is the next project parts and pieces.
So how is the pig a recycler? Soapy is going to turn a byproduct into a product. Here’s how. As I make cheese there is a large amount of whey that is left over. This whey is still full of nutrition and can be useful as feed. Soapy gets his ration of hog meal topped with enough whey to make it a little moist. He loves it! Note about feeding pigs here: if you’re raising a pig on a deadline, such as for fair, then you want to make sure you feed the right quality feed stuff. You would never raise a show pig completely on scraps. I have a handy sheet that can give you some guidance. Call or text me and I will email it to you.
There are so many ways to recycle on the farm. When you use eggs in the kitchen you can save those egg shells to feed back to the chickens. Just wash them out and let them dry. Then keep a jar handy to crush them in and when it is full feed them to the chickens. The calcium in the egg shells will be digested and will make their shells nice and hard.
What do you do with all of those empty feed bags? They are just free trash bags! You can also cut them open and use them as weed barriers under mulch and around new plantings. The paper breaks down pretty fast so use a few layers if you have a really bad weed problem. Hay strings can get hung up in a handy spot so you will always have a supply of twine around. A few of them strung together makes a great, sturdy clothesline.
The kitchen is one of my favorite places for recycling things that would normally be thrown away. I like to keep a gallon sized baggie in my freezer to collect onion and garlic skins, carrot peels and celery butts. When the baggie is full I just fill up another one. Next time you have a leftover chicken carcass or two you just add it all together and make some delicious, nutritious homemade chicken broth. You do save your chicken bones, right? It’s free food folks!
Every now and then I will make dried apples. I like to save all of my cores in a jar and cover with water. Add in some RAW apple cider vinegar or a piece of a SCOBY and you are on your way to making your own homemade apple cider vinegar. All from something that would have been thrown in the worm bed. Worm bed? Of course! It’s one of the best ways to recycle kitchen scraps. Keep a bowl handy to collect all of your veggie scraps, coffee grounds and tea bags. Dump it when you clean up the kitchen and you will always have happy worms and beautiful, rich, black compost.
There are hundreds more ways to recycle, reuse, use it up and wear it out! I love the idea of taking something that would be trash and giving it new life. Or at the very least letting it serve one more purpose before heading to the landfill. It’s one of the ways we can all do a little something to take care of our beautiful land. So, next time before you head to the trash take another look and see if it can be used again. Until next time slow down, take a look around and let’s be thankful for what we have.