I’ve been thinking a lot about composting lately. Sustainable Dave has worms doing his composting right in his basement, but that’s a little too creepy for me. I’ve thought about having a worm composter right outside our back door, because then I could just toss the scraps right after I’ve scooped them from the cutting board.
The whole reason for this worm pondering is that Lloyd doesn’t want me collecting scraps in a container on the counter until I get around to taking them on the long walk across the yard to the ‘compost pile‘. That’s a problem because I am NOT walking a single banana peel across the yard when it’s dark outside. There are jibblie things out there, like vampires. So, this morning I came up with a multi-tasker solution. I have a gravy separator that gets used once in a never, so now it lives in the trash can, like Oscar, and I can walk the scraps out to the pile at my leisure. In full, safe daylight.
composting is such a noble endeavor… sigh. it’s also one more smelly thing my dogs could get into 🙂
i keep my trash cans in my attached garage. to avoid going to the ‘dark side’, where the previous owners parked the cans. because the trip could turn into a dark & scary fiasco…
such as stepping on that stealthy DOG POOP you missed. right before the neighbor’s stealthy attack dogs start barking right next to the fence you’re leaning on, checking your POOP slipper. and right after the stealthy LOUD ac unit, next to the trash cans, starts up.
nope. no more heart attacks for me. i DON’T CARE if, occasionally, the garage smells like a trash can. at least there are no jibblie things in there.
unless you count zakk’s friends…
“poop slipper”… HA!
Depending on how much biological matter you collect and how much room you have in your freezer, you could put stuff in there until it’s safe to take it outside. You could avoid any stinkiness that way.
But if it’s personal stinkiness that’s the problem, I recommend showering. The freezer method does not work for people.
wow. stuff it in the freezer…, MAJOR flashback.
we had a little pet rat that died during a HORRIFIC california rainy season and we couldn’t have a proper burial.
yes, that’s right. ratsicles in the morgue.
it was all very sanitary…, REALLY. she was wrapped in a lovely shroud and seal in a cardboard casket.
i really must go to bed now…
We still have a dead rat in our garage freezer. She died suddenly before we left on vacation and there was no time for a burial. That was a year ago. Luckilly, there is nothing else in the freezer that could be contaminated. Unluckily, because there is nothing else in there, we have forgotten to bury her for a year because we never open it.
I swear that I did not kill the rat.
wow, coming here is like THERAPY! it’s SO nice to know i’m not the only one with ratsicles…
Aren’t banana peels the toxic waste of the plant world? Or maybe it was orange peels? One of those two is responsible for global worming.
global worming? Is that something from The Wall?
I think you’re thinking of cow farts, Lloyd.
I’m sure IKEA makes an airtight container that is lovely and could sit on your counter collecting your compost materials and containing the stink. Want me to look for you?
The container store has one that looks like a cute little red trash can. It is made of ceramic so the smells stay contained…container, contained, I crack myself up!
I think I’ll be ok smell-wise. It will go out at least as often as the trash will, and it’s no stinkier than if I just threw it in the garbage. Thanks for the knife wound though, Beth.
Gravy separator? What is that? Say you put too much gravy on your food, do you put it in there to remove the gravy? Now why would you want to do that? There is no such thing as too much gravy.
it’s true…, there never is too much gravy [especially on my sister’s garlic mashed potatoes]. a gravy separator just separates the BAD gravy from the GOOD gravy. bad gravy is SLIME. good gravy is YUMMM. this process usually happens in the kitchen BEFORE the gravy makes it to the fancy gravy boat on the table.
just as an aside, i own neither a gravy separator or a gravy boat. i bake the brownies. that’s my job.
There is BAD gravy? How can that be? Blasphemy!! Either gravy is good, or it isn’t gravy. I think you’re just throwing garbelly goock out there.
Is that because your sister’s garlic mashed potatoes are good or bad?
her mashed potatoes are [better than brownies] to drool for and i crave them… sigh.
I never answered your question. The separator is for collecting the drippings from making a roast/turkey/chicken. You put the juice in that gadget, the fat floats to the top, and when you pour it out it pours the fat-free juice from the top and leaves the fat in the separator. Isn’t that silly? Why would you leave the fat behind?
Ooohhhh. That make sense. I think my mom has one of these, well, kind of. She puts the drippings in a container and puts it in the refrigerator. The fat floats to the top and hardens. You just lift the block of fat out and vvwalla, gravy. Or stuff to make gravy.
I guess I kind of compost at my house. I just throw my food scraps out on the lawn and then run over it with the mower.
I do something similar. I throw food out in my back yard and the rats eat it. “Throw it to the rats!” is what I always say when food goes bad.
You can, evidently, also throw that food in the freezer.
Oh I have idea for you (actually I am just trying to get my post count up). You could run a clothes line on a pulley system from your kitchen window to your compost pile. Attach your gravy strainer and rig up a dumping mechanism once it is above the pile. You could compost any time of the day.
aaaaah! this is truly a genius idea [for the lazy composter…, me]!!