Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Sustainable Living 20

I purchased this contraption several years ago (don't ask me what it's called).  I used it to help reuse plastic ziplock bags when my children were in grade school and taking their lunches to school.  However, over the years, I used fewer and fewer plastic ziplock bags so it went into the back of a cabinet and was forgotten.  

When we started farming, my use of ziplock bags increased.  Every growing season, I try to preserve enough vegetables from our garden to last us through the winter and early spring.  I carefully wash, blanch, and freeze a wide variety of produce.  Everything is carefully put into labeled and dated ziplock bags and added to the freezer in our basement.  

Last week I remembered this contraption when I was defrosting some green beans that came from our garden.  I had to go to a potluck so thawed out several bags of beans.  Then it struck me - we freeze the same types of foods over and over again every year.  Rather than using new plastic ziplock bags each year, all I need to do is wash the old bags and then change the date when it's harvest/preserving time.  

So now I have one more way to cut down on what we send to landfill.

1 comment:

EcoGrrl said...

I freeze all stuff in mason jars now -and works great and zero plastic :-)