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<\/a><\/p>\nClapper Family Backyard Composters Feb 2017<\/p>\n
A trash-picked worm bin is operating in the basement next to the old SW worm bin that I\u2019ve just started again. If you\u2019re quiet it seems like you can hear the worms chomping away. Between them is a failed Kobashi processor, which I will eventually restart but until now had only proved capable of generating a smell so bad we thought the house waste line had cracked. Vermicompost requires worms, lots of worms, lots of red wrigglers, which I\u2019ve always bought from Uncle Jim\u2019s Worm Farm. One established, these creatures eat and eat. If you don\u2019t muck up the bin by putting into too much food or water, they\u2019re pretty much indestructible. <\/p>\n
Kobashi is an anaerobic process. What\u2019s supposed to happen is you add a substance derived from various wheats that contains microbes that activate in the anaerobic environment. If you draw off the leachate, you\u2019re supposed to have pickled pre-compost in a couple of weeks, which you can put in your garden far from plant roots. As I noted above, what I\u2019ve mostly managed to do is produce a truly awful smelling anaerobic reaction. <\/p>\n
“You can make the best compost in the world in twelve hours by putting vegetable matter through the guts of an animal. To make it any other way will take you months, whatever you do.” <\/em><\/p>\n Sadly, I don\u2019t have animals in my yard. We thought about chickens but decided against it. While we do have one dog and three cats, their waste is hardly the kind we need here. All these systems, then, mirror the animal process, but also accomplish two things: reducing the food waste the Clappers send to the landfill and give my gardens, house plants, and tree pits as many homegrown nutrients as possible. And I like to be able to say that I\u2019m eating the New York Times, which we\u2019re doing as the lettuce and dark greens come in each spring. <\/p>\n “I want to start by giving you four gifts: free plant-feeding fertilizer, free weed-preventing mulch, free clay- and sandy-soil improver, and free plant disease prevention. And I can fit all four inside one package because they\u2019re what you receive when you apply compost to your lawn and garden.”<\/em> <\/p>\n This definition, from a man whose voice is as polarizing as Bob Dylan\u2019s, Mike McGrath, describes just how much compost can helps one\u2019s growing area, no matter how big. Whether the giant pile on a farmer\u2019s land or smaller household systems, compost supports the soil. Even in an urban setting, the soil, as Wendell Barry tells us, is everything. <\/p>\n \u201cThe soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n This isn\u2019t a definition but it\u2019s the primary reason why I compost. It\u2019s your responsibility to make the world a better place and that falls to your choices as a consumer, a worker, and a steward of your community. Not creating waste but instead creating a product to share with your community is one great step. <\/p>\n The mathematical case for compost<\/strong><\/p>\n The Food and Drug Administration suggests that Americans ought to eat five servings of vegetables a day and some similar amount of fruit. There\u2019s also supposed to be a mix between green and orange\/yellow veggies. As the fool who wakes each morning to wash and cut vegetables for his children, I\u2019m aware of exactly how much is unused \u2013 the tops of peppers, the tops of carrots, the squishy bits of cucumber \u2013 and the same goes for fruit as one looks at the skin of a cantaloupe or the apple cores that seem to get left all over our house. <\/p>\n After weighing my kitchen collector (more on this in a second), is adds up to between 11 and 12 ounces of food a day, which adds up to 5 pounds a week, which pretty quickly becomes an incredible amount of waste. Locally, the average Philadelphian sends twenty pounds of food waste to the curb each month. One national study suggests that the trash of an average American family is composed of between 20-30% of yard waste and food waste.<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to say that we carefully use up all of veggies each week but my eyes are bigger than our ability to actually eat and we end up with a blackening bag of green veggies. And there\u2019s all the red leaf lettuce that if you don\u2019t eat right away turns black and crumbly. I feel terrible about wasting food, particularly when I pay twice — once for the veggies and once for takeout — and I can at least tell myself the food will come back around again. <\/p>\n All of this compost \u2013 and these are small systems \u2013 stays out of my pipes and out of the landfill. While I love the Water Department in Philadelphia and I\u2019ve seen the system that turns food waste to heat and energy, the more I can keep out of my waste pipes, the better. <\/p>\n While I can calculate how much is not going to the landfill, at least in terms of food, I have not yet calculated how much compost I\u2019m producing. I harvest a good quart of vermicompost a month but I probably could have more if I was willing to harvest more often. At this point I have about six pounds of worms spread over both bins, which should equal out to about 21 pounds of castings a month. This is hard to believe. <\/p>\n The environmental case<\/strong><\/p>\n My West Philly house stands on a piece of land that measures 112 ft by 18 ft, for a total of 2,016 sq feet. Nearly all of that is taken up with the house, but I\u2019m still able to maintain the following growing areas: <\/p>\n The front spaces has three raised beds. (15 sq ft, 15 sq ft, and 22.5 sq ft; 52.5 sq ft) While I do lose square footage to a small patio and the alley, I maximize the growing area as much as I can. The soil in the beds came from a landscaping outfit and it\u2019s a mix of mushroom soil and topsoil. I\u2019ve augmented with compost from my backyard as well as regular trips to the Fairmount Recycling center. The worms from my basement have helped as have my neighbor Kathy\u2019s operation. <\/p>\n Yet underneath all of this soil is urban soil. It\u2019s got 200+ years of urban use; my house is 110 years old and was likely covered with leaded paint on multiple occasions. While I\u2019ve brought all the soil into the yard that we grow vegetables in, all of the underlying soil needs to be remediated, one way or another. Lead poisoning is a huge concern for all parents but especially for those living in the city and having soil that can support plants that will slowly remediate this problem is another plus for composting. Indeed, composting allows me to do this slowly and surely, to bring all segments of the yard to a space where a flower can grow. While most research seems to show that the real danger is lead dust (wash your vegetables), I like the idea that I am rebuilding all of the soil to be as healthy as it can be. And with the various flower gardens and tree pits that line our street, I also like the idea that I can distribute compost there to support that soil. <\/p>\n The convenience case<\/strong><\/p>\n Only in middle life have I come to be much of a cook and even that\u2019s a bit of a stretch. I commit to getting my kids fresh veggies and I\u2019m okay with fruit, although I will say that fresh fruit is harder to deal with because of our mid-Atlantic location. All that to say that I\u2019m better in the kitchen but I don\u2019t think I\u2019m ever going to love it. Thinking about composting or really any additional step had better be easy, or it\u2019s just not going to get done. <\/p>\n There are two things I do that help make composting easy and convenient. One, I have a small bin that I think we got at Target, that all the stuff goes into. I make fresh coffee in a French Press each morning, so I\u2019ve got 60 grams of coffee grounds every day, which makes 1.8 kg a month, which is about 21kg a year, which is, wait for it: 46 pounds of coffee grounds a year! <\/p>\n When this bin is full, I can take it out the back door, or I take it down to the worm bin. If it\u2019s warm, I combine this with spinning the composter: bring it out, spin it down. If it\u2019s cold, I wait until I\u2019m going down to feed the dog and bring it down the basement then. Knowing that I can empty it in one of five places helps but the important part is that emptying this gets attached to something else you\u2019re going to do anyway. If it becomes a separate trip, that\u2019s an issue. One thing: many folks keep their stuff in freezer bags as they wait for a space in the composter to open up. <\/p>\n One other thing I\u2019ll tell myself about collecting compost to help offset those few minutes: nearly all of the houses in Philadelphia have old waste lines running out to the street. They\u2019re cast iron and when they break it\u2019s a major hassle: you have dig up the street, the sidewalk and all of your yard. It\u2019s expensive too — $4-5k. One thing I\u2019ve heard is that you want to avoid sending stuff down through a waste disposal as it can slowly catch and erode the quality of your pipes, even with a good garbage disposal. I\u2019m not sure if this is an urban myth, and certainly the Water Department has done a heroic job developing spaces to turn food waste into energy, but it\u2019s one thing I tell myself when I\u2019m thinking I don\u2019t want to walk to the compost. <\/p>\n The other inconvenience I feel is the process of chopping down some vegetables and fruits. Part of the composting process is maximizing the surface area so that the bacteria can go to work but it\u2019s still not a lot of fun to chop down broccoli stalks or fruit rinds. What\u2019s amazing is how fast some of these disappear when they\u2019ve been chopped small. I suppose I could use a food processor but I hate cleaning that thing more than just about anything. I\u2019ve been thinking about the chop down as a way to practice my knife skills. <\/p>\n One final note: one of my worst habits is not putting stuff back where it belongs. I\u2019m working on it. One way around it with compost is to keep lots of yogurt containers or take out tubs nearby so that if you\u2019re producing vegetable waste you can collect it quickly if you\u2019ve left the last container outside. <\/p>\n Conclusion Note: Working on footnotes which disappeared in the transition from drive to .html. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Case for Compost By Michael Clapper Compost is what\u2019s left of my daily newspaper, my neighbor\u2019s leaves, and all the fruit rinds, vegetable stems and rotted veggies we chop up. It comes from literally nothing yet is valuable. It\u2019s free to make but can sell for many dollars a pound. Nature does it on … Continue reading The Case for Compost<\/span> <\/a>
\nClapper Family Indoor Compost
\nFebruary 2017 <\/p>\n
\nThere\u2019s space in front of the porch. (48 sq ft.)
\nThe back yard has five raised beds as well. (30, 30, 30, 10, and 12; 132 sq ft)
\nTotal growing area: 232.5 sq ft or 1\/200th of an acre. <\/p>\n
\nIt makes sense for all sorts of reasons to compost. My children watch me saving eggshells or cutting rotting vegetables. They see me shredding newspaper and they know just how little goes out it in the trash. Maybe they understand that I\u2019m trying to keep a circle of life going or that minimizing waste is a laudable goal. Maybe just they think Daddy\u2019s crazy. Yet in a Philly neighborhood where some houses can put out four or more trash cans alongside four recycling bins (or worse, no recycling bins at all), they can see just how much waste goes into the world. In one small way, we\u2019re doing our part. <\/p>\n