Kitchen scraps

[ecogirl]

We have lots of kitchen scraps and all we do is dump it in the trash. I've heard you can put it in your compost bin..but your compost bin can get very smelly. So is there another alternative way to get rid of kitchen scraps a eco-friendly way?
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ecogirl
www.ecogirleco.blogspot.com

[shebear]

Check out this PDF on using a half-buried galvanized trash can with holes to compost food scraps.

www.seattletilth.org/resources/articles/HomemadeFoodDigester.pdf

We do that in our Educational Discovery Garden.

[ecogirl]

thank you very much! I'm reading it at the moment!

[Kittikity]

If you are allowed to have chickens, you can feed your kitchen scraps to them.. Except for any meat, I believe..

[Sinfonian]

Mix your kitchen scraps into your compost with all your used paper towels, tissues and maybe even shredded newspaper. The mixture of greens and browns will keep it from smelling. Good luck with it.

[ecogirl]

Can chicken's eat kitchen scraps?! Maybe I should put tissue papers and all that in my compost cos I never do.. I only put vegetable scraps and all that sort of stuff

[shebear]

Sure chickens can eat kitchen scraps. Free range chickens love to peck anything. The only problem with scraps in the hen house is the possibility of drawing rats. Rats are everywhere that man is so that's why I suggested the galvanized trash can with lid method of composting.

[Backyard Permaculture]

This is my 2 bits

Give the chickens the meat scraps. I guarantee you that it won't be around long enough for the rats or mice to eat it.

Chickens love meat. They will kill mice and lizards and eat them. I have seen it.

My philosophy is that whatever organic material you have should go to the highest life form that you have to be responsible for. In this priority, I include people!

Then next, should be the next highest lifeform, which for most people would be chickens or pigs. If you have meat scraps from chickens, feed it to the pigs. Especially the bones. You may not believe it, but if you gave a pig a bucket full of kitchen scraps that include chicken bones, the pip will dig out the chicken bones first and crunch them to dust like your kids munch through a homemade chocolate chip cooky (oh why did I mention that, now I want one).

You can feed pigs chicken and beef meat and fat scraps.

You can feed Chickens pork and beef meat and fat scraps

Don't feed cattle any kind of meat scraps. They are absolute vegetarians. Ok, not so in modern feedlots where they are feed chicken manure, and unwanted ground up male baby chickens from hateries and even more unnatural food for them then that. But God intended them to eat only grass and vegetation.

Your compost pile, regular or vermicompost will not be shorted. Give them the kitchen scraps AFTER they have gone through the pig or chicken, and the compost pile ingredient will be better than before, especially the chicken bones being ground up by the pig will decompose many times faster.

Ron

[shebear]

I agree with you Ron, however, city folk don't usually raise livestock so I felt I needed to show a way to deal with scraps without creating unsatisfactory conditions. If I had chickens, they would get all my scraps.

[Backyard Permaculture]

Yes, most city praticioners on this list probably don't have pigs, and not all chickens. But that is the reason for the comment is intended for those who DO have something other than a compost or vermicompost pile.

I WAS one of those city dwellers who kept chickens for upteeeeenn number of years, in the city, as well as goats, bees, and the aforementioned chicken bone crunching pig.

But if you don't have them, take your meat scraps and cut them into small a pieces as you have the patience to do that way they can decompose as quickly as possible.

As for my experience, I related in an earlier post in the composting forum, I had 29 barely adult chickens killed by 2 dogs in september. All 29 were put into a windrow type vermicompost pile and have been there ever since, and I work right next to this pile and have never seen mice or rats in it.

Had I a pig at the time of the killing of the chickens, I would have fed some immediately to the pig, and froze the rest to feed them later.

So I am not a believer, despite so many books that say don't put meat in compost piles, I have done it for years with no problem at all.

Ron

[MoniDew]

Mix your kitchen scraps into your compost with all your used paper towels, tissues and maybe even shredded newspaper. The mixture of greens and browns will keep it from smelling. Good luck with it.

This is what I do! I have a composter intended for kitchen scraps (shown in another post.) And I add newspapers, paper towels, cardboard boxes from rice side dishes (mine are all natural including the box), etc. I never put meat, fat, or dairy products in my compost. (that's just me.) Keeps the animals and smells out.

[carmin]

I compost all my vegetable scraps in my worm bin. I use my food processor to chop them down so it is faster and easier for the worms to consume. There is absolutely no bad smell, unless you don't like the smell of fresh earth when it rains. (If you don't why would you garden?) Of course, I don't feed them meat products. If I have too many things to compost in one week, I grind them and freeze them. Worms are the perfect pet, no care except feeding them vegetable scraps a few times a week and a very valuable product. Have you seen the price of worm castings?

[Backyard Permaculture]

Of course, I don't feed them meat products.

too bad. You are wasting a valuable resource.

I have done it for years with no problem of mice or rats, and it is the first thing the worms go after.

While you are blending your other scraps, you could throw the meat and fat scraps in there as well, so that the bateria and earthworms can consume the meat and fat faster.

Or just do like I do and throw it it whole.

The only reason I would not throw the meat and fat scraps in the vermicomposting bin is because I have chickens to give it to, which I do, unless the meat scraps is chicken or other fowl.

Ron

[ecogirl]

I have another question- Do things compost faster if you chop them into little pieces?
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ecogirl
www.ecogirleco.blogspot.com

[Sinfonian]

Absolutely! It's a surface area thing. In fact, big pieces of just abourt anything won't compost well.

[plantoneonme]

I have another question- Do things compost faster if you chop them into little pieces?
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ecogirl
www.ecogirleco.blogspot.com

Oh yeah...chopped is much faster. Turning the pile often helps even more! Kim

[ecogirl]

Thanks for the advice!
_______________________
ecogirl
www.ecogirleco.blogspot.com

[Aspen]

Lots of good advice here on worm composting. Setting up my worm bin is next weekend's project!