Ways on How to Reclycle Bones and other Important Uses.
Hi friends how are you doing, I hope you are all super well and having an excellent weekend ... but as for learning there is no time, today I bring you a post that may teach you something new to some, or at least push us to become aware of the best use of resources.
Today I want to talk to you about how to reduce waste and be more conscious in the use of food resources in our home. More specifically, how to make better use of the bones of the proteins we buy, whether it is chicken, pork or beef...
As those who know me already know, I like to say things as quickly as possible, although some may see me as negative or pessimistic. The truth is that I believe that in order to find solutions to the world's problems we must first know the truth about them.
And a great truth is that we will never live in a completely vegetarian society, the consumption of animal proteins will always exist, it is something that humans do since our origins, we evolved by and thanks to them... it is written with fire in our genetic code... there are multimillionaire industries of meat, and many of us love a good steak or a piece of fried chicken...
But that doesn't mean that we can't improve the situation in terms of reducing the impact such industries have on the environment, and also make better use of what we get from the animals slaughtered to feed us, which are also part of God's creation.
As you know, 14.5% of greenhouse gases are a product of the production, maintenance and transportation of the livestock industry, so making better use of these resources is the least we owe to the planet, and thus reduce the pressure generated in other areas.
Now let's get down to business, today I will talk briefly about several uses we can give to the bones of the animals we eat at home.
Bone soups.
Full of essential vitamins and nutrients, a soup of beef, pork, chicken, or even fish bones, can not only give us energy to start the day with the batteries on, it helps us to maintain the health of our stomach, helps eliminate toxins from the body, also helps wounds heal faster and relieve joint pain because it is a food rich in collagen and calcium.
The larger bones such as those of the legs or spine of animals such as pigs or cows are full of the very nutritious marrow, the marrow is so nutritious that it can be extracted, cooked and stored, and a human being can survive eating only that.
I'm not going to expand on recipes as I'm sure everyone here knows the basics of how to make soup, but I recommend that to give it a better flavor, and extract more nutrients, bake the larger bones for about 45 minutes and then add them to the soup, it makes a big difference.
Bone meal.
Bones can be ground to create a coarse powder commonly known as bone meal, which is very useful, especially for those with gardens or conucos, can be used as a low cost ecological fertilizer, which will provide good calcium and phosphorus to our plants a natural alternative to chemical fertilizers that apart from the possible environmental impact on other plants, also require plastic packaging and transport in vehicles which is also bad for the environment.
Additionally bone dust can double as a vitamin supplement for our pets, a little bit of bone dust every now and then in our dogs or cats food will help them to have healthy teeth and claws, and prevent bone ailments. Technically we humans could also consume them, but for our stomachs I recommend another one which I will do a post about soon.
Bone paste.
The bones can also be ground and mixed with water to create a kind of paste, which is a great food for our pets, and is a good use for those small bones like chicken bones that we have left after boning a thigh or whole chicken, just boil them in a pressure cooker until it softens, and then we can grind them and add water or some carbohydrate and ready, a healthy food for our pets or even for us in case of emergency.
Tools.
It is difficult to talk about all the tools that artisans can make with bones of different sizes and densities... and it is something that humanity is doing since long before we started making tools with metals, obviously the bones were something that our ancestors had left over, product of hunting large animals, it should not have taken them long to realize how useful they could be.
From needles, harpoons, handles for tools such as axes or hammers, to flutes and stringed instruments made from bones, these can be molded in expert hands in ways that are hard to believe.
In my particular case I told you that I grew up on the shores of a large lake, and sometimes shared with fishermen, I remember watching them create different types of needles to repair their nets, or weave new ones ... each species of fish can give you a different type of needle, some larger or more flexible than others.
For such uses it is important to clean the bones well. Subject on which I will give you some tips below, these are obviously not a 100% accurate guide, but they will help you understand the basics and show you that it is not very difficult.
1- Remove the remains of tissues.
We should try to remove everything we can when cutting or eating from the bones. But there can always be tissue remains on the bones. In this case, soak them in water for a couple of weeks, or in the most severe cases, for a couple of months... it all depends on how much tissue is still attached to the bones. Time after which with a brush everything will come out easily.
2 - Degreasing
A mixture of dishwashing soap and ammonia, or a kitchen degreaser containing ammonia can do wonders to remove the layer of grease that may still be on the bones. On the internet you can also find other recipes or methods to degrease them.
3 - Bleaching.
Of course if we want to make a comb or a flute of bones we are going to want that pristine white color, for which a good vain with hydrogen peroxide, of the same one that we use to decolonize the hair will serve. Easily available and inexpensive, this is the most normal solution, obviously there are others that you can research on the internet.
In conclusion...
It is difficult to measure the amount of bones that are wasted in our cities every day, I in particular am guilty of this in some cases... but with this post my main intention is not that overnight we all start making bone tools or eating bone paste... but little by little, to inform of all the advantages of such practices, and how we can gradually make a difference and be more conscious of the environment.
Whether for food, medicinal uses or as tools or fertilizers, bones have a lot to contribute, something that was known for millennia by our indigenous peoples, who respected each hunted animal as a debt to nature, and therefore assumed the responsibility to take advantage of each prey to the maximum. Such a mentality would be useful today as well... happy weekend to all and remember friends, eating meat may be a necessity, but wasting it is a crime.