The Compost Conundrum

We decided to try our hand at composting. The husband and I had talked about it for a while, so I did a little research (emphasis on the "little") and went for it. I figured it couldn't be too difficult, right? I took the husband's drill and drilled holes in a plastic garbage can with a twist-lock lid. We then began collecting our kitchen waste (banana peels, egg shells, non-meat food scraps, etc) and yard clippings and started adding them to the compost bin. The problem we encountered was that we didn't pay attention to Compost Rule #1- add equal amounts of "green" material and "brown" material. Green material is food scraps, lawn clippings, etc. Brown material is shredded newspaper, dead leaves, etc. We added essentially 95% green material. Let this be your warning- you MUST add brown material to a compost bin to balance out the green, unless your ultimate goal is to have a steaming pile of foul yuckiness that will attract every fly in town along with his brother. We learned this the hard way. Our backyard was... well, quite rank for a while. Fortunately, the neighbors don't hate us. After adding about a week's worth of shredded newspaper, and giving the bin a good turning or two, the stentch was significantly reduced. So now we have a nice balanced compost pile that is "cooking" quite nicely that will result in some good fertilizer for our garden in the spring. And you would not believe how much compostable food scraps we produce as a family. We keep an empty plastic ice cream tub under our sink, and it needs to be emptied into the outdoor bin every other day (sometimes every day, depending on what we eat). We've learned to add at least one day of shredded newspaper (junk mail also works nicely) every time we empty the bucket, to keep the stank away. And wow, between composting, recycling, and cloth diapers, our garbage bin has hardly anything in it on trash day. And that makes me feel very accomplished. It may make a stink, but I'm trying to do my part.

Hippie Documentary of the week: The Future of Food

I've been watching a LOT of documentaries recently. It's become a bit of an obsession, actually. Thanks to my Netflix subscription, I don't have to go to the video store, or even wait for them to get mailed to me. Most documentaries are available to watch instantly from my computer. Pretty convenient. I consider myself a pretty educated individual. I like to think my eyes are open to a lot of what is happening in the world. But every documentary I watch proves to me how little I know about certain topics, and leaves me wanting to know more. And so I watch more documentaries. And research certain topics on the internet. And read. And watch more documentaries. In the last few weeks, I've watched more doumentaries than I had in my entire life prior. As I said, it's become a bit of an obsession. And so, I thought I would share some of these documentaries on my blog in case you are interested. Not all the films are big names like Super Size Me (although I did enjoy that one). The film I just got finished watching is called The Future of Food. The Future of Food discusses the overwhelming trend of Genetically Modified foods and its implications on agriculture, our food, our society, and our health. The film discusses the process of genetic modification and the controversy that surrounds it. It looks at the huge corporations that utilize these methods (ahem, Monsanto) and how they bully the small farmer for monetary gain and greater control of the overall market. The film also explores the controversial concept of patenting living things. Did you know there is a patent on a gene linked to breast cancer and that researchers who are trying to find ways to treat/ cure breast cancer have to pay patent fees to use this gene in their research? To me that is both mind-boggling and infuriating. This is just one of the interesting tidbits I learned from this film. I found The Future of Food to be very intriguing and eye-opening. It's a quick 88 minutes, and in my opinion, definitely worth checking out. If you don't have Netflix, you can watch it here for free.

It all started with "poop catchers"

My husband has always wanted to have a vegetable garden. He's always been interested in eating nutritious foods and living a healthy lifestyle. He grew up snacking on fruits and veggies. I, on the other hand, have been a well-known junk food addict for as long as I can remember. Growing up, I wouldn't touch a vegetable with a 10-foot pole. My parents used to have to bribe me to taste anything that was green, leafy, or possibly nutritious. I prided myself on being a meat-eater, and was never bothered by what was actually in my food (I recall the junior high lunch table and being told precisely what was in a Twinkie, only to laugh and devour the one that was in my lunch bag). I scoffed at vegans and rolled my eyes at people who were cautious about chemicals that were in their food, cosmetics, household items, and the like. I was an ignorant American, and I liked it. The only thing I had going for me as far as "green" is concerned was that I was raised to be a penny-pincher, and therefore, not wasteful in the slightest. I think I got it from my grandma, who was known to wash and reuse styrofoam plates (ew) and hoarded paper napkins from fast food restaurants. But that really wasn't all that uncommon for the generation of Great Depresssion survivors. You didn't waste a thing because you didn't know when you would be able to afford it again. But that mentality isn't very common in today's generation. Fortunately, those values were instilled into my mom, and therefore, into me. Saving a few pennies here or there has always been rewarding to me. Finding a bargain is a thrill. Buying things used (garage sales, thrift stores, you name it) is a regular occurance. I've never spent money on name brands. I will squeeze every last drop out of a toothpaste tube before throwing it away. Until recently, this was not to be eco-friendly, it was because I was cheap. And one day, I was introduced to cloth diapering. Strangely, I reconnected with a friend from high school who had chosen this option for her son, and she explained the pros and cons of it. I had already chosen to use disposables with my first-born, so it seemed silly to invest the money and switch with the second-born, but for some reason, I was intrigued enough to try. And, just as my friend had warned, it quickly became an obsession, a snowball effect, if you will. Not only did I become obsessed with cloth diapering, but other "green" lifestlye choices began to intrigue me. Over the course of the last few months, I have gone from a typical American consumer to a recycling-obsessed, cloth-diapering, compost-making, cloth-grocery-bag-using, semi-crunchy* hippie. Now don't get me wrong. The transition from "soggy" to "crunchy" is not an overnight process. It is very gradual. There are still plenty of green things that I want to try. But doing them all at once would likely shock my system and I may die. It's not easy. I love big, fat, juicy cheeseburgers, I enjoy being lazy, I like cranking my A/C on hot summer days, and vegetables still kinda scare me. But I do feel that this beautiful earth is a worthy cause. I think that getting over my selfishness and laziness enough to step outside my comfort zone and give it a try for the sake of future generations is definitely worth it. And that is why I have chosen to write this blog. Perhaps you will find it inspiring. If I can make some of these changes, perhaps you can too. Or perhaps you will merely be entertained by my anecdotes and reading about me falling on my face and failing miserably at my attempts. Either way, I hope you enjoy reading. My husband laughs at me now. I eat vegetables daily (imagine that!). I made my own compost bin. I hang dry laundry as much as I can. I turned the first shovel to plot out our vegetable garden. He said, "And to think, this all started with poop-catchers." It had to start somewhere. *For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term "crunchy," here is the definition from the online slang dictionary- Crunchy: •hippie-esque; ALL-NATURAL. Refers to the crunch of granola, which (as goes the stereotype) hippie-esque people are likely to eat.