Using grooblies is kind-of like recycling, but maybe even better.

You might call them something else in your world, but they’re ‘grooblies’ in our family. The little leftover bits of anything that would normally get thrown out or discarded just because it’s time to open the new packet.

The notion of writing about The Grooblies came back to mind last week as I fed our hungry sheep in the back paddock. As you all know, there’s not much grass around at the current time, and our fluffy friends are hanging out for a bit of a boost as they lick the dirt, searching for a tasty morsel. Every time I go out the back door, they baaaaaaa at me, expecting a feed. Anyway, instead of just grabbing a big pile of hay off the large round bale I have sitting in the trailer to redo the hutches in the chook pen, I mopped up all the hay grooblies from the base of the trailer – and managed to make a whole barrowload! With the gold-like cost of hay these days, I saved some precious bucks and the chooks didn’t know any different.

On the grooblies downside, I recently pulled apart our slow-running bathroom sink drain to find all kinds of nasty grooblies doing their dirty work. Innocuous as they may seem, grooblies can be as horrid as they can be wonderful – ignore them either way at your peril.

Coming back from the Pennsylvania forest last weekend after a day of woodcutting in the forest (yes, you need a permit, but go online, easy to get), I was unloading our booty onto the woodpile, and noticed a huge number of wood grooblies on the ground. As well as the slow combustion beast, we also have an open fire in the ‘formal’ room that belts out some fine heat on the special occasions we light it. It takes quite a few little bits of kindling to get it going each time it’s started up, and gathering up a pail full of wood grooblies was the way to go. Job done, Time saved.

I’ve always had trouble getting the kids to understand the merits of the grooblies at the bottom of both the Weet-Bix pack and the chip packets in the pantry. I’m happy to consume both – they taste the same and contain either as much goodness or as much mayhem as the full sized Bix or chips. Like most kids, they’ll open the new box or packet, claiming not to have seen the old pack with the grooblies. Even if there’s no new pack, they’ll leave the last of the grooblies rather than eat them. Go figure. Their loss.

The all-time fave TV cook for our fam is Jamie Oliver. We love the passion he shows for his craft and food, and we’ve cooked an enormous number of his dishes over the past decade. Last week, he seared and sealed some meat in the pan, which left him with some fat, some crispy half-burnt pieces, chunky bits and other things definitely considered as grooblies. I cheered as Jamie said he’d be making sauce out of the pan leftovers. He joyfully poured his just boiled ‘pee-wee’ (you know what I mean) from the saucepan into the grotty pan to make the most awesome sauce. He added a few other delights, and the juices soaked up all the crunchy stuff and the grooblies became magic. He looked to be in heaven when he dipped his pinkie in for a sneaky taste. Grooblies doing their best work. So before you chuck out the packet, scrub the pan, or empty the trailer, think about the benefits of the grooblies that await you – you’re saving the universe, one groobly at a time.