Freezer Stewardship

One of the blessings my family enjoys is that we have two very large freezers. They are often full, between the facts that my husband and I both hunt large game animals, when we buy beef it is a side at a time, and I garden like a crazy person in Spring-Summer-Fall. This is great!
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What is NOT great is the fact that there are most definitely items in those freezers (and let’s don’t forget the one on top of the fridge) that are completely forgotten, mostly unidentifiable, and taking up valuable frozen-airspace. So for the past little while (ok about 2 years, but I choose not to beat myself up about it), it has been on my mind and conscience that I really need to get in there and clean out the freezers. A little bit freezer burnt? I can make that work into a meal. As old as my youngest child? That would probably need to go.
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The benefits are obvious:
– Feed my family of four for less while we’re eating out of the freezer instead of the fridge;
– Responsibly consume the flotsam and jetsam of accumulated sides of beef… short ribs? Soup bones? One incredibly monstrous roast?
– Respect the providers and the garden: several packets of 2-3 each mountain trout caught by my kids… 900 pounds of shredded zucchini… gallon ziplocs of sliced rhubarb…
– Clear the way for the potential landslide of produce headed directly for the freezer as harvest comes in earnest. What doesn’t get canned or dehydrated gets frozen!
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So I’m posting this as a blog basically for accountability, plus I figure I can’t possibly be the only one! I don’t want to let it slide again into the nether regions of the Arctic tundra that is our freezer space. I see alot of smoothies in our future. Some bone broth. New recipes as I attempt to find something that drains off the excessive fat off the short ribs so that it’s palatable to my leaner-foods-eating fam. And the friendly urban hens in our backyard coop will be the beneficiaries (and us, via their eggs) of what I just can’t bring myself to serve up on the kitchen table due to age or frostbitten status.
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Tonight’s Supper: Ham, Split Peas and Lentil Stew.
Freezer space opened up: 8 cubic inches.