He Buried The Pork

[Porkypork]

My colleague and I were having a chat about food going off and she told me a story about how many years ago, she and her husband did a big shop for Christmas including a joint of pork. Anyway, an event occurred which meant lots of the food didn't get eaten and mid story, she said 'The pork joint was going off so my husband buried it in the garden'.

I had to stop her midflow as I was so surprised by this and actually found it quite funny. She was quite put out that I found it so odd which surprised me as we have a great relationship, kind, supportive and full of humour.

I apologised for my reaction and everything is fine but can I ask - is this a normal thing to do? Burying a gone off joint of meat in your back garden? They don't have dogs if that makes a difference at all!

She is older than me and this event happened a long time ago so don't know if it is something previous generations would have done? I don't want to ask any further questions of her as it clearly touched a nerve!

Banana skins are good for some plants, around roses etc. i don’t think they encourage rats.

Love the title OP 🤣🤣

But seriously, I’ve never heard of anyone doing this.
I’d have thought the obvious place to put it would be in a bin, whether it’s their own bin, or a public bin in the event of their own bin being too full or whatever.

Yes! OP, you can’t change the title. You’ve created a new MN shibboleth.

When you say it was a while ago, how long? Pre wheelie bins? I remember as a kid, early 1970s, stuff used to get thrown in the outside bin without bagging it, so a rancid leg of pork in a bin would have been even worse for attracting foxes, than a properly (deep) buried piece of off meat. So I could see where that might have been the better option.

I'm surprised she was upset about you questioning it though. Doing something like that now, I would definitely class as odd, and even then, not standard.

OP - a big joint might be less disgusting buried than put in a bin to smell horrendous. I imagine that was why he did it ?

I would probably do this if we actually ate meat and had any going off. I've done it before with fish. We don't have a food waste collection here and you're not meant to put meat or fish in worm composters.

It is bad for the environment to put decomposable things into landfill (creates methane which is a worse greenhouse gas than CO2) and also it would stink out the bin, surely? Seems wasteful too.

So, I think it's reasonable to bury old fish and meat in the garden. It is very good for plants. Obviously, you have to bury it fairly deep to stop creatures digging it up and this hasn't happened when I've buried stuff.

@InconvenientPeg yes, a long time ago, around 40 or so years.

It doesn't sound so crazy when you think about the composting side, it just sounded so odd, breezily dropped into a fairly dull conversation about food going off.

Is her husband still alive? Or has he passed and she was reminiscing when you started snorting at the thought of him burying his pork?

Did he get a shovel out to bury it, what did he do with other food that had gone off.
Wondering if their garden looked like the moles had been busy.

So, I think it's reasonable to bury old fish and meat in the garden. It is very good for plants. Obviously, you have to bury it fairly deep to stop creatures digging it up and this hasn't happened when I've buried stuff.

stuff like this is why i have my user name

@PeeJayDay he's still alive. We have a good relationship (colleague and I) and laugh at the same things usually.

@Cancelledtwiceover no idea!

40 years ago, we had a freezer, and we lived on leftovers - things rarely got to the stage of going off, especially not a joint of meat. If it really was going off, I suspect Mum would have put it in the cat's bowl in the garden, and it would have been scoffed by the cats, hedgehogs, foxes, whatever was around. Veg peelings all went on the compost heap, but no meat there.

I don't see a problem with burying it as such. You can get blood, fish and bone to chuck on roses and stuff. We had a whole pets' graveyard at the end of the garden. (Big garden on a farm, though.) Dead animals used to get chucked down an unused well until the MAFF got a bit choosier about how they were disposed of, or to the hunt's kennels. And that's all uncooked. Though when we actually had pigs, I think Dad might not have approved, risk of cross-contamination and infection,not that hey were allowed in the garden. (Got rid of pigs c1980, partly because of the amount of paperwork if you ever wanted to move them, as far as my childhood memories go.)

But I'm still surprised a joint of meat was allowed to go off in the first place.

😆I think it makes perfect sense
unless it was bin day tomorrow putting a big chunk of dead animal in the bin would be stinky and/or attract vermin
Burying it is more hygienic and beneficial for the garden, provided you dig a big enough hole.
check out this guy-

Yeah, but she won’t get to see what else OP has shared/blabbed about lol

Don’t people bury food for the soil?
I watched a YouTube video before if a guy who buried bones and stuff, And the worms would get at them and fertilise the garden

Having once opened a joint of pork that was well in date but had gone off, the stench was so horrific I can understand wanting to bury it . I also imagine as it was 40 years ago we didn't really use bin bags then. Rubbish just went straight into the metal dustbin so would have stunk that out too. Burying it was a genius idea .

When I have finished 😂😂😂
I wonder how quickly it biodegrades

thanks for the laugh, I needed that!

Thanks op. Don’t change the title 😆

Surely foxes etc would try to dig it up?