[Philmont]: Re: Turkey Bags / environmental concerns

From: Robi Garcia <surfwar81@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri Dec 24 2004 - 00:37:57 CST

Regarding the concerns over the environment:
1. Water at Philmont is precious. Turkey bags use less.
2. You can re-use a number of the bags, if you plan accordingly.
3. You can use the packaging instead, for another 'double duty" that in essence does not contribute to the garbage 'load" on Philmont. I have seen this recommended on other e-mails, but we did not do this much for fear of the "fat and plastic" carcinogen factor.
4. The most precious resource at Philmont is time. Turkey bag cooking is way faster.
5. Ultimately, get the crew trained and let them decide. The boys in our crew opted for turkey-bag cooking for all but one dinner. Again: less water, less time, and re-use of existing packaging kept our impact on Philmont to a minimum. We also tended to spill less, but I don't know if that's just 'cause we were more careful...
6. We had a couple of vegetarians, and turkey bag cooking made it very easy to break up portions for a meatless version.
7. Ready-made yummy-bag.
 
I normally agree with Mr. LeBlanc, except for about 11% of the time; this is one of those occasions. Since I learned the cooking bag technique back in '97 from a Canadian (for scrambled eggs, no less!) it has become an integral part of our "bag of tricks" for the boys to experiment with, learn, modify, and use as they see fit. The best idea: rehydrating jerky to add into a casserole (for almost two hours). Weirdest: oatmeal, but it turned out good.

Respectfully, Robi
"I used to be a surfer"
T858 Camarilllo CA

An opposing opinion is here:
http://www.lns.cornell.edu/~seb/philmont-antibag.html

For the reasons stated by John LeBlanc, I don't recommend their use to our
Philmont crews.

YiS,

-- 
Calvin H. Gray
Scoutmaster, Troop 405
Associate Advisor, Venturing Crew 405
Georgetown, Texas
I used to be an Owl (WM-62-2-98 @ Philmont)
http://www.troop405.org/
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Received on Fri Dec 24 00:51:19 2004

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