how to make bone meal?

[wintermoon]

I would like to make more full use out of our family's food scraps by processing unused bones into bonemeal for use in the gardens.

are there any bones I should avoid using? Likely sources would include: chicken, turkey, fish, deer, goat, sheep, pork or beef.

To a large extent almost everything comes from sources which avoid the use of antibiotics, animal byproduct feeds, hormones and steroids (but there are also carryout bones-and the occasional "conventional" supermarket fish/beef purchase- should these be excluded to avoid heavy metals or transferable toxins?).

would I need to air dry or oven toast the bones before (or after) grinding?

any thoughts on what to use to grind- we have a blender, cuisinart and champion juicer, but I wouldn't want to break any appliances in my effort to make more full use of our bones.

I've considered purchasing a meat grinder as we may make our own ground meats/sausages this year and I'd be more inclined to wait and use the appropriate tool than to risk breaking one of our current kitchen appliances.

any thoughts?

thanks in advance,
Wintermoon

[bgak47]

Your kitchen appliances will NOT stand up to grinding bones! My suggestion would be to buy your bonemeal & forget about trying to make it. The equipment to grind bones is too expensive to make it worthwhile to own unless you have a LOT of bones to grind.

[Mike in Pa]

I read somewhere that people layered bones and ashes to make bonemeal. Not sure where I read it. Bones dissolve/rot faster with ashes??

[Fla Gal]

Originally Posted by Mike in Pa

I read somewhere that people layered bones and ashes to make bonemeal. Not sure where I read it. Bones dissolve/rot faster with ashes??

I figured why waste bones if you don't have to and out of curoisity did a quick Google search using the keywords "bones ashes make bonemeal". On this site the information below is all they mention of making bonemeal. I imagine the bones wouldn't have to be organic unless that's what you have or want.
http://perc.ca/PEN/2001-05-06/s-cleary.html

If you buy your own organic meats, the bones can be used to make your own bonemeal. There are a couple of methods that are supposed to result in high quality bonemeal:

1. bury bones in dry wood ashes for several months; or
2. roast the bones for an hour on a barbecue grill.
Either method makes spongy, brittle bones which can then be ground with a mortar and pestle.