Sustainable Practices For Our Kids
When it comes to sustainability it’s not just a catch phrase at The Maine Beer Shed it’s a founding principal of our business, and while we may not perfectly achieve these goals we’re getting closer every day, and learning through our journey.
Eat Local Food
Use Renewable Local Energy
Create Circular Waste Systems
We prioritize produce and meat purchases by location and farm practices. First, how close are the farmers to Kingfield Maine? Second, is the farm organic? Third, how sustainable are their farm practices? The pork, eggs, and chicken come from our own Running Wild Farm. In the summer, mixed vegetables and flowers are grown right on property in the Beer Shed gardens. If you want to know about a farm and why we work with them just ask! Not only do we know their practices, but we often know their kids names and how many generations they have been farming. Why? Because it matters, it tastes better, it’s healthier, we know the farmers we’re supporting, we use less fuel distributing food, it strengthens our local economy, and we encourage the growth of farmland around us.
Renewable energy means different things in different places. Maine has fast growing forests. We’re surrounded by woods. This is why we chose Maine Wood Heat to build us a wood-fired pizza oven (that and wood-fired pizza tastes great!) and we are taking steps to move all our heating and cooking sources away from fossil fuels. We plan to add solar panels to the roof of our new compost shed (coming 2024) to decrease our Central Maine Power consumption.
Two bags a week! That’s where we’re at in waste generation and we’re pretty darn proud of that. We are also proud to offer glass and soft plastic recycling here to supplement our town program. Can we get to zero waste? Heck yeah we can! How? We expand our recycling program and we encourage everyone to buy more whole foods and fewer packaged products. We use waste vegetables to feed pig chickens and our compost in our adjacent farm and we look for circular economies to help other producers reuse waste. Two great examples are when we pick up cheese and butter to sell from Crooked Face Creamery we also take their whey and mix it with byproduct from Maine Grains our source for flours and other dry goods. Another great example of this is sharing brands like Harvest Maine who just launched this year. They are creating delicious and healthy dips by gleaning imperfect produce from local farms and “up cycling” it into a tasty snack!
Working Together for a Healthy Community and a Healthy Planet
Join our Hop and Harvest Club to support our sustainable growing and recycling practices. And share your ideas in the comments below!
