Kitchen Scraps & Winter

[nes]

For everyone who is still adding to a very frozen pile (like me) what/how are you doing it?

I usually keep my kitchen scraps in paper bags* but now there is just a giant pile of them on top of my compost. I know they will break down over the summer but I'm running out of room (the pile is getting quite large) but I don't want to go back to throwing our scraps out in the trash :S.

(*for some reason I am having the worst time FINDING paper bags! For right now I've got some glad compost bags - we'll see if they actually break down or not ).

I'm getting hubby to make me a second compost pile container as soon as it thaws out, but we've got at least another 4 months to go .

What about throwing the compost into black garbage bags and leaving them in a sunny spot? (although that's REALLY ugly)
Any better suggestions?

I have a real thing with earth worms (yeah DH thinks I'm weird, dead mice don't bug me at all but earth worms ) I'm not sure I could deal with an indoor vermi-composter

[Halfway]

I'm dumping my kitchen scraps into a pile of shredded cardboard. If the cardboard escapes, it is not as "trashy" looking as white shredded paper.

I soak the shredded cardboard for 30 minutes in warm water before adding it to the pile. Throw a shovel full of snow over it and done with it.

[vermontkingdom]

I have one large compost pile, 4 x 8 x 5. If I put our winter kitchen scraps on the pile, I won't be able to use it in April since it's so cold here and very little new stuff would degrade over the winter months. Therefore, I use 5 gal buckets to hold the kitchen waste. I have about ten containers now and will have close to 20 by early April. As soon as I can screen and spread the present pile, I'll use my stockpile of autumn leaves, horse manure and all those 5 gal containers to create a new pile.

I'm like you in that I refuse to allow anything to go in our garbage, regardless of the time of year, that could and should be compsted. Actually, it's during the winter when I fully appreciate the enormous amount of compostables we generate each week.

[Gerrie]

I've been wonderring about this too, since it's obvious nothing is breaking down right now in the compost. Our problem is wind, not ice. It's cold but not usually freezing and generally a little breezy which dries out the compost faster. Wetting it down with ice cold water doesn't do much for it either. I wish I could afford to put a huge heat mat under it!

[rainbowgardener]

I just keep adding stuff to my frozen pile and covering it with all those fall leaves I was madly collecting. The new stuff freezes too, but my pile is not getting bigger and bigger, so I am thinking with all the freeze/ thaw we have here, it must be breaking down some. And I know from experience that come spring it will all start cooking again.

When I want to use some compost, I just take all the unfinished stuff off the top and move it to be the bottom of a new pile, down to the level where the earth worms are. The rest is finished or nearly finished compost. What wasn't quite finished, rapidly finishes once it is exposed to the open air again and stirred up a bit.

[smokensqueal]

I do everything I can to ensure I will have room in my bin for the winter but this year I think I'm going to fail. In previous years I just kept adding even though I couldn't close the top on my bins anymore. The wife doesn't like it a whole lot but once is starts back up it's got more then enough stuff to work with.

[Toil]

Bokashi!


Empty your finished bokashi into trash bags and seal maybe. It will continue to ferment. When you empty the on the pile after thaw, whatch it steam like an EdItEd.

Or just do the whole process in trash bags.


Not only will you not send your veggie scraps to landfill, you will include cooked food and oils, cheese, whatever.