In these pandemic days, it is easy to become a hermit. This is not exactly why I have been absent from these pages since last spring, but it is why I decided to focus on family and my responsibility to be present for 16 young children in the classroom. All the while trying to avoid the Coronavirus, which so far, I have managed to do.
I certainly did not stop thinking about the challenge of finding adventures near and far. As my fellow ripper faithfully reports, we are casting our net as far as we dare in new directions while also appreciating what is outside our front door. But now that the second anniversary of the pandemic is on the horizon, I am ready to shake things up a bit and share the little nuggets that I hope are worth sharing.
The first is my sheer delight in becoming a real composter. I have been a keen recycler for years but never managed to make the compost pail a regular stop, that is, until this past year. A local start-up, Spoils to Soil, caught my eye and last January, I subscribed to a weekly pick-up. A snazzy tin pail was purchased from Amazon, which has a home beneath the sink. It fills rapidly with all the veggie trimmings and coffee grounds. The biodegradable bags then are transferred to a larger pail in the garage that is taken out on our regular trash day. The reward of returning what was once waste to the Earth is doubled if you request a load of compost for your garden in the spring. All at no extra charge!
Of course, some of you may live in communities that pick-up compost and know that it takes little effort and rarely emits any foul odor. Others of you may keep a collection of vegetable trimmings in the freezer to make stock. Yet another way to dispose of extra veggies is to keep a worm bin, which also requires little effort. Red Wrigglers from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm have been living in a plastic box on the shelf in our garage for the past three years. Mine are heavily caffeinated as I mostly give them coffee grounds in the paper filter every few weeks. The worms faithfully turn the coffee into the most gorgeous compost and their reward is their annual trip to my classroom to be held in the adoring palms of my young students.
All of this may not interest you at all, dear Readers, but it is my hope that this nugget may prompt you to consider starting a new project this coming year that will help both you and our precious planet feel in synch with each other. If you do, I would love to hear about it!
I love this, Gail! Composting is so easy once you get started, and so gratifying! We haven’t ventured into keeping worms, but we’ve thought about it. One of these days we’ll give it a try. I’m mostly concerned about keeping the temperature within a healthy range for them. Sounds like they’re happy in your garage! Thanks for sharing.
Sarah, we have an industrial heater in the garage that keeps the temp at 45. It’s done the trick so far!
If compost and worms interests you, checkout the company Bill Roy works for called Teracycle. You might like their zero waste boxes and national recycling solutions. Bill’s division called Loop or Loopstore, designs reusable durable packaging used by major brands to reduce the use of plastics. Launched as a mail order product, they are now moving onto the next phase where the reusable container products will be available in national retail stores. Simply buy your favorite product in the Loop container, then return the container to the store when empty. The packaging is deigned for 100 uses. Teracycle’s history may be of interest as well, as the idea was founded based on composting.
https://www.terracycle.com/en-US/
https://loopstore.com/
Dave Roy
Hey Gail! Love to hear about your adventures in composting and worm husbandry. Gives me new perspective on what a visit to you and Larry would mean: No leaf wasted! No worm unturned! Sign me up. Also glad to hear you don’t mind the occasional foul odor at your house. Could be important when I visit. Thx for the account, Cub Reporter!