Friday, October 30, 2020

Fall Composting Tips from a Mummy

With Halloween upon us and autumn in full swing, I have asked my friendly neighbor spook, the Mummy, to give us a few of his best fall composting tips.

Mummies, of course, know more about preservation and not decomposing than your average Halloween ghoul and they can use those lessons in reverse to teach us the best composting methods.

  • Empty your bins of finished compost now to make room the fall leaves. Just as you would remove the organs from the body you are about to mummify, you need to clear out those bins now so you have space for the leaves that have already started to fall.
  • Create hollow monuments to hold your dead. Maybe not a pyramid or fancy sarcophagus, but a few simple wire bins will help you hold onto those extra leaves instead of sending them off with the yard trimmings truck.
  • Without moisture, we mummify. If you want your leaves, food scraps, and internal organs to be around next year (or 1,000 years from now) you need to remove all of the moisture. We do not want that, so make sure the contents of your compost bin are as wet as a wrung out sponge.

The Mummy recommends holding onto those fall leaves now so that next year you are not cursing yourself with having too little browns.

Happy Halloween!



For past Halloween composting posts check out:

 

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Scrap It Up Composting

Food waste or wasted food, what’s the difference? 

Food waste is the inedible parts of our fruits and veggies while wasted food are the bread ends, moldy produce, etc. that were edible but we didn’t eat. We’re all guilty of wasting food with even the least wasteful households in America still throw away about 9% of the food they buy, according to the American Journal of Agricultural Economics.

Eliminating wasted food completely can be challenging, but it’s helpful to think of different ways to hold ourselves accountable. The team at Wikibuy shared with us this printable wasted food log that tracks your total grocery bill, the amount of food you throw away, the reason, and the cost. 

 

You’ll be motivated to use up what’s in your refrigerator when you track the financial cost of wasted food and keep those inedible food scraps headed to the compost bin. For more information on proper storage and other great food saving tips visit our website.

 https://cdn.ivaws.com/wikibuy-ads/03-family-food-waste-log.pdf

Fruit and Vegetable Storage Guide
https://bit.ly/3lDxORR 


Guest Blogger and Expert Food Saver, Jenny Lohmann