At some point in my life, I turned into a pack rat. I feel guilty when I throw things away that could be used for something…..for anything. I have bags of bags, rubber bands, wine corks, etc. I CAN’T throw them away because as SOON as I do, I’ll need them! It always works like that.
Hidden in this mini trash can are food scraps that I can’t bring myself to just THROW AWAY. Instead of spending $30 or more on a nice compost pail, I picked up this perfect alternative in the bathroom accessories section of Walmart. Sure, it doesn’t have a carbon filter like other compost pails, but it does the job at about 1/3 of the cost. Don’t worry; I do not hang onto these scraps long. Every few days, I feed them to the red worms on my Magic Worm Ranch. Yes, you read that right. The worm ranch is a subject for another blog post, but basically it’s a means to make my own compost (okay, okay the worms are the ones making the compost).
As hungry as those little buggers are, they can’t take care of all the food waste we create. I save a lot of vegetable trimmings in the freezer to make homemade chicken stock and the big items like watermelon rinds go into the garbage. I had a soil saver acquired from Freecycle that served as a composter for the big stuff, but I got fed up with its flimsy state and passed it on to the next freecycler. I’m looking forward to finding a better outdoor composter, so I can rid of the guilt every time I toss a pineapple top.
Ah yes, the worm farm! I want to see a picture of yours. I have a doggie farm that seems to work pretty well. Joy loves all of our veggie scraps!
ReplyDeleteI like the compost set-ups that incorporate chicken coop wire around a frame and a hinged trap door on top. I may look into that one day.
Hey, maybe you can make robots if you ever have left-over cans. ;-)
I have heard such good things about those warm farms...sadly they are still on my list of things, along with planting a garden, getting an outdoor compost set up, etc...one of these days I swear though :)
ReplyDeleteAt least my dog eats most of our scraps though so I don't feel as wasteful as we could be :)
Good idea for the stock too!