Andrew McMichael wrote:


What do y'all put in your compost. Our pile is fairly far from the house,
and we don't have a garbage disposal, so I put most everything in
there--all organics (veggie cuttings, scrapings from the plates, oils,
meat trimmings, etc]. But I've heard that one should stick to vegetable
material. Is this so? Why?


Andrew

Before the day is long gone, you'll get a lot of different answers. Mine is
that, if you have the carbon to go with it and a deep enough pit, you can
compost an elephant.

The answer to your question changes dramatically based on what sort of
compost process you have in mind. If you are going to be attentive and
ensure a "hot process" pile, you can chuck just about anything that comes
to hand into the pile. Vermin and pets are not an issue with a pile that is
cooking along at 135 degrees or better or that is enclosed in a composter
such as the rotating models now available. Nor are they a problem with pit
composting or any of a half-dozen variants on the theme of composting. On
the other hand, builders of 'slow process' compost piles need to show
greater restraint and avoid not only meat scraps but also pet and human
manures of all sorts.

Here's a link to a pretty exhaustive treatment of the topic.

http://www.jenkinspublishing.com/humanure.html

Bill
--
Zone 5b (Detroit, MI)
I do not post my address to news groups.