Grecycle

When I was a kid, my grandmother kept a little blue container on top of her stove. It was a tiffany color, or «robin’s egg blue» as the crayola now reads. It was almost the exact same color as the box for the shortening she’d use to make the food — Morrell Snow Cap Lard. She’d use it while cooking and once the food was done, she’d empty out the lard into the container where it would coagulate to be used again later. My gag reflexes are in overdrive just thinking about this. Of course, back then I thought nothing of it. Plus the food was delicious!
I often remember this when I start listing off to my mom and grandma all the things they did to us as kids that I wouldn’t even dream of doing to my own (going to the beach with no sunscreen, riding in the back of a pick-​up with no restraints, etc.) Now, I don’t usually have any grease left over when I cook, seeing as to how I don’t use lard or lots of oil. I did, however, have a lot of oil drippings after Thanksgiving and Christmas this past year. This was the first time I heard about grecycle. We took our turkey grease to a drop off location on Broadway and were done with it. What’s more is that they use this stuff to make biodiesel. They gave us some brochures, some goodies and phone numbers for drop-​off locations and pick-​ups. The grecycle people were so friendly and I think what they’re doing is absolutely great.
So if you ever have any grease that needs to be picked up, they’ll do it. Plus I hear they’ll even pay you for it. I’m sure this is like for restaurants, but still a good idea to look into it. Even if it is a couple of times a year, I’ll be using them.
I told my grandma about it since she was in town during Thanksgiving. She loved the idea and said she wished there was something like that when she was my age. I reminded her about that blue container she had. She laughed and seemed a little embarrassed saying she had completely forgotten about that. Then she got sort of teary-​eyed when I pulled it out of my pantry. I explained how it was one of the things I’d taken when she let me take whatever I wanted from her kitchen a few years earlier. She used to change wall colors and decorations, but that container was the one constant. Even now that shade blue is still one of my favorite colors.