No animal or veggie parts left behind!

Here are some ideas to get the most from the animals you cook:

• Save bones and scraps for stocks and broths.  You can freeze them until you need them.  Typically, I will save all the bones and scrap from duck, chicken, rabbit and beef that we eat and freeze them in separate containers or freezer bags until I have enough to make a hearty stock.  I also save vegetable scraps, freeze them, and if I don't have enough to make a vegetable stock I use the vegetables in my meat stock, instead of using fresh veggies we could otherwise use in a meal.  If you do this, LABEL your containers so you know what each is until you are good enough to visually see what bones belong to which animal.  I had a hard time between rabbit and chicken - they both small about the same when they're frozen (they also taste very similar), and we had the rabbit cut up into parts, not left whole, so there were a bunch of bones and I couldn't tell which was what.  In my case, I was going to use rabbit stock in my chicken recipes so it didn't really matter to me if I made rabbit stock thinking it was chicken stock, or vice versa.  This may sound gross, but adding the gizzards, feet or hooves and heads add a ton of nutrients (and it's a great way to prevent waste from parts you may not otherwise do anything with).
• Save pelts and turn into hats and gloves.
• Down feathers can be cleaned, saved, and used in down comforters, pillows and coats.  We are saving down so I can make another comforter, we have two and I'd love to have one on each bed!
• Hides can be used as rugs, or for decorative purposes.
• All of your veggie scraps can be saved and turned into vegetable stock for soups.  Some veggies are not good in abundance, however, such as broccoli - it can give a very strong taste.   If you combine all of your veggies in one container, label what is in there so you can look and determine if you want to add more of a certain veggie to that bag, or start a new one.  Then, when it comes time to make stock just dump the contents of one bag or container that you've been freezing and saving into the pot.
• Most of your fresh vegetable scraps, coffee filters, newspaper, eggshells, hair, grass clippings,  and more can be added to a compost pile.  Your compost can then be used as excellent garden soil.