If you know me, you know that I've been working for the past few years to dramatically reduce the amount of plastic waste I produce. Guys, it's really hard. Pretty much all cheese at the supermarket comes either wrapped in plastic, or in some kind of plastic tupperware. Chicken, beef, pork, fish - they all come in styrofoam and plastic wrap (not to mention they all probably come from factory farms). This is one of the many reasons why quite a few "zero-wasters" are also vegan.
I'm not vegan. I was a vegetarian for several years, but after I started losing large patches of hair, I went to my doctor TERRIFIED, and she told me that I'm very B-12 deficient. She advised me to take supplements and start eating red meat again (which is one of the only natural sources of B-12), and my hair started to grow back.
When I started trying to reduce my plastic waste, it seemed like buying meat & cheese was nearly impossible until I realized that I had overlooked the one amazing resource we have where I live in East Nashville: Porter Road Butcher.
First of all, their meats are locally sourced, humanely raised, and never exposed to hormones or antibiotics. The first time I brought my own jars in no one batted an eyelash. They started saving these HUGE olive jars for me, and now I use them to marinate things like short ribs. Sometimes they take pictures of my jars and post them on their Instagram, and now, their cheesemonger, Mark Bilbrey, has written a lovely post for his blog about reducing waste and how jars are a great way to store cheese!! Click the button below to read Mark's blog:
