Perfectly Practical #22 - Composting

*WARNING*  The pictures you are about to see are graphic and may fill you with some feeling similar to rage...or just plain gross you out.  And Momma, just skip over this post altogether so you aren't embarrassed.

If anyone at all was under the illusion the the Moppins household is practically perfect rather than perfectly practical, take a look at this...or don't...it's gross.

I found this cucumber in my vegetable crisper drawer.  

He didn't make it onto a plate, into a salad, or get made into pickles.  Instead, he managed to get slimy and furry tucked away where I wouldn't see him under piles of produce.  

But the day came where I did find him.  Although I was filled with veggie wasting rage, I chose to calmly peel him from the kitchen toweling I have in the bottom of the drawer (ewww!) and sort of half fling him into my compost bowl.  Aaahhhck.  

Now then, he won't totally be wasted because he will become food for little critters that break down the scraps and turn them into lovely compost.  I feel much better knowing that all is not lost.  Whew.

Here is a close-up.  Blech!  If Larry was moldy then he wouldn't have had to give up his hairbrush to the peach.  (That's for any VeggieTales fans out there.)

Get to the point Pary...the perfectly practical tip is to use your kitchen scraps for compost. 

In our little square foot garden, it requires that we put compost into the soil every time we take a plant out of a square.  That could get expensive if we were to buy compost and the author of the Square Foot Garden suggests that you make your own anyway. 

Plus this way, I have no guilt (well, some guilt) about wasted produce because it will just break down and be useful another way. 

In J.O.E., we only had our trash picked up once every other week and recycling picked up on the off weeks.  We had one huge bin for green waste which was brilliant as the city dumped all of that into a huge compost pile. 

I want to leave you with some nicer pictures of what good comes from hairy cucumbers and such. 

The birds love the compost bin because there are so many creepy crawlies around it.

The eggplants, basils, and peppers are happy too.  Which means the bees are happy which means the beekeepers are happy with honey production and can sell healthy local honey at reasonable prices. 

So really, I am doing my area a service by letting my cucumber rot - from decaying produce to stimulating the local economy...you really can spin anything.

This is part of Works for Me.