As the compost turns

We picked up a discounted Earth Machine composting bin from Bergen County back in September. The person who handled the transaction cautioned me - "don't start composting until the spring, it won't work in the winter". I blank stared, thanked her, and left with the new addition to our low impact yard. The only defect on the bin was that the county executive, who lost his last race, had his name prominently imprinted on the cover. Why must these "public servants" deface a perfectly useful item with their name?

I contemplated the warning about composting in the winter as I drove home. Saying that a composter won't work in the winter, is like saying that food can't rot in a refrigerator. Food will rot in a fridge, and we as a society must constantly evaluate our food to make sure we don't consume the rotten smelly stuff that did rot in the fridge. All that keeping food cold does, is slow down the process of rotting.

So when I got home with my new composting bin, I set it up in the backyard, close to the garage. I chose this location so I could take advantage of the rain runoff from the roof to keep the compost moist. I then started to fill it with raw materials from the kitchen and yard. After I had about 6 inches in, I shoveled a few inches of soil on top of that, soaked it all, and then settled down into our normal routine.

Our routing is simple. We keep a small bucket on our counter. It's stainless steel, covered and filtered container. It's also nice looking - see the image to the left of this paragraph. Since we only eat veggies and fruit for the most part, we are able to fill this bucket almost daily. We put all veggie and fruit scraps in, as well as our daily coffee grinds, and used tea leaves. About once a day I walk this bucket out and empty it into our Earth Machine.

I also put in twigs from around our yard, and occasionally use lawn grass clippings to keep the composter nice and full. The greens we put in generate heat in the compost process, and the black of the container absorbs solar energy, creating more heat. I keep the insides moist, and this time of year I just shovel snow in every few days. It melts even in the cold weather, because the inside of the container is above freezing most of the time.

Every few weeks I turn it with a spade fork. It often appears full, yet after a turn with a spade fork, we gain about 6 inches of space in the container. Composting works great, don't listen to the nay sayers. And it doesn't smell bad.

Compost smells sweet and earthy. When I said this to a friend, she told me that's not true. Compost smells like rotting food. I will guess she has never composted. The few times our compost smelled, I would turn it, and the smell would go away quickly.

I have composted for about 14 years, at three different houses. In our first house that I composted, a neighbor told me he'd never seen a compost pile that worked until he say mine. I had lots of help, at the time I was home brewing beer, and the trub was a great compost accelerator.

You don't need much in the way of space to compost. Our property is a typical small suburban yard, with about 50 feet of frontage, and a little over 100 feet deep. There's no need to purchase a bin, I used wire wrapped around four posts for years, and this worked great. In November I set up a 6 foot high and 4 foot wide cylinder of wire for the leaves we collected after the town picked up. It was full to the top in early December, and now has only about 3 feet of leaves in the bin. By spring I will start to feed this into the Earth Machine.

Some basic rules for composting are - no meat or dairy, or any products derived from these. Egg shells are great, but don't put in eggs. Most other stuff can go in - all veggie and fruit scraps, as well as stuff that's past it's prime. Newspaper can be put in, but in small quantities. We use newspaper to catch our peels, and roll it all up and compost it. Twigs, leaves, grass clippings, and nut shells. There are lots of resources online to guide you. I will write more in depth about this topic as spring approaches.

There are many benefits to composting. It decreases the amount of garbage you put at the curb. It provides you with the internal feeling that you are doing something that is good for everyone. You become more connected to your food waste, your lawn, and how everything is essentially dirt in the end. Side note - watch "Dirt! The Movie". See left side of page for info. This movie is available on Netflix to watch instantly.

Seeing how much you put into the bin, you will be amazed how little comes out. What comes out was from your effort, and will do wonders in enriching your soil. Don't wait, start composting now. There's no such thing as a bad time to start composting.