Sustainability: Making your meat go further

I’m sure you’ve also noticed the price of meat has gone up quite substantially in the last year or so.

There’s a few reasons for that, mainly a lot of meat processing plants are getting hit with COVID-19 and a lot of the workforce is of course getting sick.

A little while ago, in an effort to make the household more sustainable along with the plastic elimination, moved to purchasing meat from local sources only- this has also proven to be expensive but ironically not nearly as bad with the rise of grocery store prices. That’s made me feel a lot better financially about my choices- if I’m going to spend $10/ LB on ground beef I’d rather give that $10 to the farm down the road.

Nonetheless it’s still a lot to dish out for one meal when you have a family - I’ve started experimenting with different ways to make the meat we do purchase go a little further.

For Taco’s, it’s been the easiest, along with a pound of beef I’ll fry up a few cups of black beans. You can also put them through a meat grinder to match the consistency- but my partner isn’t a fan of the texture so I keep them whole.

Another great filler is zucchini chopped up- this fries up beautifully and will add diversity to the flavor of your tacos.

Together we have a full pan that’s ready to feed the family! I finished off my taco with a double shell (soft and hard) sour cream, cheese, cut up kale and tomatoes from the garden and Homemade salsa.

This may be an unpopular opinion but I actually enjoyed this taco more than others because there was more flavor along with the meat! Even of we get to a point where affordability isn’t an issue anymore I still want to cut my beef with vegetables.

Let me know in the comments what you do to make your meat go a little further! Not exclusive to taco fillings! I want to hear them all.

Growing Bell Peppers in Pots

I’ve struggled for years to grow a pepper, mainly because they grow so dang slow and the Nova Scotia growing window is just so tiny. Last year I came pretty close but the frost was simply quicker than my plants.

This year I went in guns hot. I bought the best seeds that were available, the seedlings were started in February in the house and to make sure they got their needed heat (we prefer a crisp 18 degree household) of 26 degreed to germinate I borrowed my mom’s seedling heat pad. (That heat pad will probably be purchased this year, it was incredible.)

Planting notes. Sorry for the half print half cursive. Product of my time.

Less is more. I am awful for this and constantly over seed which causes over crowding and the plants not doing well. I planted 4 seeds and that was it.

I chose to keep them in pots this year as opposed to setting them up in the garden beds which allowed me to be very choosy when they went outside and where. We followed the sun and the 20+ degree days, supplementing with UV plant lamps when the weather wouldn’t co-operate.

Once the flowers started I went generous on the fertilizer to ensure they had all the nutrients they needed.

This years peppers were a complete success. I’ve gotten multiple large and flavorful peppers from these plants and they are not showing signs of slowing down. I am looking forward to trying a few other things for next year as well.