Compost!

Lately, Angel has taken to checking out the "free bin" at the local food co-op.  More often than not, there is something in the free bin that is perfectly fresh.  We're talking picture-perfect produce here.  Sometimes there's slimy stuff.  Slimy, but organic.  Angel often bags that and we either:

1. give it to a neighbor who keeps chickens, or 
2. compost it!

Of course we already compost our vegetable leftovers, kitchen scraps, and yard waste (we steer clear of noxious weeds).  We also have tubs (leftover  yoghurt tubs) that some of our neighbors take home and fill with their kitchen scraps.  In compost land, more is better.  Plus the neighbs seem very happy to do something other than toss their past-edible stuff in the trash.  


I've decided that people generally like you if you will take rotting food off their hands.  Anyway, according to the on-line magazine Grist, "the food we discard each year wastes more energy than we extract annually from the oil and gas reserves off the nation’s coastlines, according to New Scientist."  Hello?!


Here's a garage sale score for you: On a swing through the neighborhood on her way back from her Saturday AM yoga class, Angel spied a very cool, rotating composter in perfect condition at a local garage sale.  She walked in the door (I was, as usual, working on the next novel) and announced her find.  I leaped from the chair and said, "Let's go!"

The owners wanted roughly 20% of the retail price of this machine.  It now sits in the sun near our other compost bins.  For a long time, Angel & I have wanted to compare the performance of these rotating composters with our old stand-byes.  Now we can.  In fact, I'm going to dash out and give the barrel a few turns!