Making Use of Food-prep Scraps
One of the things that frustrates me about watching food shows is the disconnect between the awareness of local chefs and food growers, but not the waste. There is an opportunity to easily set aside all the food scraps – not the waste, but the organic items:onion roots, outer leaves of lettuce, used tea leaves and coffee grinds, egg shells, shrimp tails (but not other meat/dairy), fruit peels and cores, house plant dead leaves, etc.
What does not go in are meat, dairy, salt or sauces, eaten food scraps and paper products – those all go in the city compost. Not your back yard! The salt is a high risk to plants and fat/bones will attract animals. Nobody wants that … it’s what the city garbage facilitates are made to handle.
I am hoping to see more people take on their own home compost project. It is so easy! Just with food prep scraps and coffee/tea, we generate 3-4 cups of waste per week. I keep it in a steel bowl in the fridge and then empty it 1-2 times per week. I also stop by one of the local coffee shops to pick up their weekly grinds on Saturdays and add those as well.
How to compost
Step 1. I bought a 2nd compost bin ($50 at Canadian Tire). Each September, I empty the bin at the back of my yard into the garden. This lets the compost sit on the ground over winter to finish processing and protects the roots of my hibernating plants.
Step 2. I move the compost (using a wheel barrow) from the bin closest to my house, to the one in the back of my yard. I alternate them every year, i.e. I let them sit for a year before using the compost. It ensures that weed seeds and twigs have more time to breakdown and not infect the lawn. It also aerates the compost to let worms and moisture flow through to accelerate the process.
Step 3. I set up a new base of leaves/twigs on the bottom of the compost closest to my back door. As it decomposes, the volume reduces so you can continue to add more through out the year, including weeds and leaves, but not grass clippings because they take so long to break down. We put those in the city compost. During the summer months, I periodically add a layer of peat moss to help retain moisture, but that’s not necessary. You can also add a thin layer of leaves to add volume for air circulation.
Rinse and repeat every year.
