On Oct 6, 3:55 pm, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Des Higgins" wrote in message

oups.com...





On Oct 6, 12:42 pm, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Des Higgins" wrote in message

oups.com...

On Oct 6, 11:32 am, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Des Higgins" wrote in message

... The wormery was
for small volumes of kitchen waste (rice, fois gras, caviar past
best
by date etc.). ...

How on Earth do you have such leftovers? We never had food leftovers
here
but I wouldn't put them on the garden compost heap even if we did.

Mary

ehhhh, I was possibly joking.

I guessed that, but how can you have any kind of food waste?

It wastes money as well as nutrients. It's also a waste of effort for the
growers, sellers and preparers - even if you prepared it yourself. I
think
that's an insult to those people. If it's animal food it's a waste of a
part
of that animal's life.

Mary
Not a WI member

It is really easy;

Ah, I see.

I live in a city; I work hard during the day and
sometimes at weekends and evenings; we have kids; we do not have any
livestock (no chickens, no dog; no goat and now no worms); we do
recycle more than almost anyone I know; we are one of the few people
in my area to even have a compost heap; our fridge is full of
leftovers; we grow some of our own veg (in our suburban back garden);
it is still impossible to avoid throwing stuff out and have a life.

No it isn't. It just involves a couple of minutes a day planning. It could
take you that long to go to the compost heap.

We already do more than almost anyone I know in the city and the last
10 yards just are not worth it.

I disagree.

After all that, any food that is
still there and that has become dangerous, gets put on the compost
heap or, in the case of the fois gras and caviar, thrown out.

And I think you mean FOIE gras.

Jayzes Mary; do you have to be so tedious.
That was supposed to be a joke; i.e. a silly aside; something possibly
witty; maybe somethng to distract you from your otherwise grim piles
of leftover potato skins to be turned into drylining for the front
room or the dog hairs to be spun into kinky underwear.
I never was very good at spellig in French.

Des




Mary





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On Sat, 06 Oct 2007 04:56:42 -0700, Des Higgins
wrote:

On Oct 6, 12:42 pm, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Des Higgins" wrote in message

ps.com...

On Oct 6, 11:32 am, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Des Higgins" wrote in message

... The wormery was
for small volumes of kitchen waste (rice, fois gras, caviar past best
by date etc.). ...

How on Earth do you have such leftovers? We never had food leftovers here
but I wouldn't put them on the garden compost heap even if we did.

Mary

ehhhh, I was possibly joking.

I guessed that, but how can you have any kind of food waste?

It wastes money as well as nutrients. It's also a waste of effort for the
growers, sellers and preparers - even if you prepared it yourself. I think
that's an insult to those people. If it's animal food it's a waste of a part
of that animal's life.

Mary
Not a WI member

It is really easy; I live in a city; I work hard during the day and
sometimes at weekends and evenings; we have kids; we do not have any
livestock (no chickens, no dog; no goat and now no worms); we do
recycle more than almost anyone I know; we are one of the few people
in my area to even have a compost heap; our fridge is full of
leftovers; we grow some of our own veg (in our suburban back garden);
it is still impossible to avoid throwing stuff out and have a life.
We already do more than almost anyone I know in the city and the last
10 yards just are not worth it. After all that, any food that is
still there and that has become dangerous, gets put on the compost
heap or, in the case of the fois gras and caviar, thrown out.

Des


Just a quick reminder: should you at any stage be in a state of foie
gras surplus, please think of your favourite not so distant neighbour
out here in Kildare. I'll swap it for this year's blackberry jam (in
this, we're talking futures, for I'm planning to pick them tomorrow -
btw, fresh foie gras quickly pan-fried with berries (rasp, black, etc)
is pretty divine.
You can keep the caviar.

Speaking of food waste, the Beloved and I are pretty good at using
stuff, but what with having work time tables that cannot always be
100% predicted in advance of doing the weekly shopping, and which can
involve unplanned and enforced eating out, we still end up with some
stuff that must be thrown out. It galls me, but it cannot be totally
helped. As much of it as humanly possible goes onto the compost heap.
A two-person household must be the most wasteful entity on the planet,
except perhaps for a single person...
I'd love to find a composting solution which allows me to chuck in
everything rather than binning it.
What about those tumbler thingies?
Oh, and allez les bleus!!!

Cat(h)

On Sat, 6 Oct 2007 16:54:41 +0100, Klara
wrote:

The closer contact with the soil and the larger area does seem to help:
not that I know where the worms come from, as they aren't earthworms. We
have three of these kept exactly the same way, but one has woodlice, one
has worms, one has fruit-flies - the variation must be the result of the
precise amount of moisture, I suppose.

But you don't have to make two: it's easy to lift off the one and shovel
it back for turning.

I'm teetering towards your method (bin upside-down). Do you have a
Lidl store in your town? I was in one today and they had purpose-made
compost bins for £15. I've seen similar things in garden centers for
£60 or more. I nearly bought one - and may even still buy one, as they
have small sliding doors at the base, on four sides, which I guess is
very convenient if you just want a pot-full of compost without doing
the whole bin-turning rigmarole. They are also suitably tapered in
shape, for the purpose we've been discussing, and have ventilation
slots that were hopefullly designed by an expert.

I've got another question about compost bins... I've had two
diametrically-opposite bits of advice regards positioning: One expert
said: "Don't have a compost bin near your veg patch, because it'll
attract slugs to the area" However, another expert said: "DO have the
compost bin near your veg patch, as the slugs will feed on the compost
rather than your veg"!

Anyone got any opinions on this? Which advice is the one to follow?

TIA

JD

On 6/10/07 23:06, in article ,
"Alan Holmes" wrote:


"Sacha" wrote in message
. uk...
On 6/10/07 20:24, in article ,
"Mogga" wrote:

On 6 Oct 2007 18:56:02 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:


In article ,
"Alan Holmes" writes:
| "Mary Fisher" wrote in message
| t...
| "Des Higgins" wrote in message
|
| ... The wormery was
| for small volumes of kitchen waste (rice, fois gras, caviar past
best
| by date etc.). ...
|
| How on Earth do you have such leftovers? We never had food
leftovers
here
| but I wouldn't put them on the garden compost heap even if we did.
|
| Me too!

Why on earth not? I do. And I have difficulty in believing that you
NEVER forget anything in the fridge, decide that food is too horrible
to eat, or have nothing left over for any of the other common reasons.



Maybe they have a dog?
Or a bird table?
Or at a push a cat who likes chips?

Maybe they're just perfect?

How did you guess that I am perfect?


Practice, Alan. ;-) Sorry, but I really don't believe anyone who claims
they never waste any food, I'm afraid. This is turning into a competition
for title of "most religious recycler"!
Everyone has left-overs on their plate sometimes and not everyone has a dog.
Everyone has bread or a carrot or some cabbage that goes mouldy or a hairy
something that lurks occasionally at the back of the fridge!

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

On 6/10/07 23:08, in article
, "Des Higgins"
wrote:

On Oct 6, 3:55 pm, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Des Higgins" wrote in message

oups.com...





On Oct 6, 12:42 pm, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Des Higgins" wrote in message

ps.com...

On Oct 6, 11:32 am, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Des Higgins" wrote in message

... The wormery was
for small volumes of kitchen waste (rice, fois gras, caviar past
best
by date etc.). ...

How on Earth do you have such leftovers? We never had food leftovers
here
but I wouldn't put them on the garden compost heap even if we did.

Mary

ehhhh, I was possibly joking.

I guessed that, but how can you have any kind of food waste?

It wastes money as well as nutrients. It's also a waste of effort for the
growers, sellers and preparers - even if you prepared it yourself. I
think
that's an insult to those people. If it's animal food it's a waste of a
part
of that animal's life.

Mary
Not a WI member

It is really easy;

Ah, I see.

I live in a city; I work hard during the day and
sometimes at weekends and evenings; we have kids; we do not have any
livestock (no chickens, no dog; no goat and now no worms); we do
recycle more than almost anyone I know; we are one of the few people
in my area to even have a compost heap; our fridge is full of
leftovers; we grow some of our own veg (in our suburban back garden);
it is still impossible to avoid throwing stuff out and have a life.

No it isn't. It just involves a couple of minutes a day planning. It could
take you that long to go to the compost heap.

We already do more than almost anyone I know in the city and the last
10 yards just are not worth it.

I disagree.

After all that, any food that is
still there and that has become dangerous, gets put on the compost
heap or, in the case of the fois gras and caviar, thrown out.

And I think you mean FOIE gras.

Jayzes Mary; do you have to be so tedious.
That was supposed to be a joke; i.e. a silly aside; something possibly
witty; maybe somethng to distract you from your otherwise grim piles
of leftover potato skins to be turned into drylining for the front
room or the dog hairs to be spun into kinky underwear.
I never was very good at spellig in French.

Des

I just thought you meant you eat liver occasionally. ;-)) (fois is 'time'
in French, as iin occasion, not clock)

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

In article ,
Sacha writes:
|
| Practice, Alan. ;-) Sorry, but I really don't believe anyone who claims
| they never waste any food, I'm afraid. This is turning into a competition
| for title of "most religious recycler"!

Well, yes, but a lot of us compost everything because it is EASIER.
Heave it on and let it rot :-(

Another advantage is that it reduces the smell and mess in the
non-recyclable rubbish.

But, as many people have pointed out, that applies to a traditional
heap only - you have to be a bit selective with wormeries. But they
do have other advantages.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Sun, 7 Oct 2007 09:05:10 +0100, Sacha wrote
(in article ) :

snip

Practice, Alan. ;-) Sorry, but I really don't believe anyone who claims
they never waste any food, I'm afraid. This is turning into a competition
for title of "most religious recycler"!
Everyone has left-overs on their plate sometimes and not everyone has a dog.
Everyone has bread or a carrot or some cabbage that goes mouldy or a hairy
something that lurks occasionally at the back of the fridge!


Eek! You've been looking in my fridge!

--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church with conservation
churchyard:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

On Sun, 7 Oct 2007 00:46:33 +0100, JakeD wrote
(in article ):

On Sat, 6 Oct 2007 16:54:41 +0100, Klara
wrote:

The closer contact with the soil and the larger area does seem to help:
not that I know where the worms come from, as they aren't earthworms. We
have three of these kept exactly the same way, but one has woodlice, one
has worms, one has fruit-flies - the variation must be the result of the
precise amount of moisture, I suppose.

But you don't have to make two: it's easy to lift off the one and shovel
it back for turning.

I'm teetering towards your method (bin upside-down). Do you have a
Lidl store in your town? I was in one today and they had purpose-made
compost bins for £15. I've seen similar things in garden centers for
£60 or more. I nearly bought one - and may even still buy one, as they
have small sliding doors at the base, on four sides, which I guess is
very convenient if you just want a pot-full of compost without doing
the whole bin-turning rigmarole. They are also suitably tapered in
shape, for the purpose we've been discussing, and have ventilation
slots that were hopefullly designed by an expert.

You will find the sliding doors at the base a total waste of time. We have
the plastic daleks AND the wooden pallet-type boxes, for different uses
around the garden. With the plastic daleks, it is relatively easy to lift it
off the heap (as Klara said), put the dalek back alongside and shovel back
the unrotted compost to start the next heap. We never want just a pot full
of compost - more like a barrow-loadg. It is important to site them on the
soil and not on conrete.

I've got another question about compost bins... I've had two
diametrically-opposite bits of advice regards positioning: One expert
said: "Don't have a compost bin near your veg patch, because it'll
attract slugs to the area" However, another expert said: "DO have the
compost bin near your veg patch, as the slugs will feed on the compost
rather than your veg"!

Anyone got any opinions on this? Which advice is the one to follow?

Have the compost bins (ideally you need more than one) in the most convenient
place for you to (a) fill and (b) empty. Remember you may need to get a
wheelbarrow alongside. I have never found slugs in the compost, and I think
if you do then it is probably too wet and too cold. You will attract slugs
as soon as you grow veg, not as soon as you have a compost bin! However, we
use slug traps which are organic and have managed even this year to keep
their worst excesses at bay. I plan to get some hens soon and they will be
introduced to the veg patch at a very early stage!

As an aside, I have found that things we grow in our own compost do far far
better than those in the shop-bought stuff - so go for it.

--
Sally in Shropshire, UK
Burne-Jones/William Morris window in Shropshire church with conservation
churchyard:
http://www.whitton-stmarys.org.uk

In article et,
Sally Thompson writes:
|
| Eek! You've been looking in my fridge!

Thus leading to the question "What was this?" of an item that looks
like a horror-film prop. Yup. I recognise that.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Des Higgins" wrote in message

... somethng to distract you from your otherwise grim piles
of leftover potato skins to be turned into drylining for the front
room

No leftover potato skins here, we don't waste good food.

or the dog hairs to be spun into kinky underwear.

What an imagination you have! No dog here either.

I never was very good at spellig in French.

So it seems, so why try to use it and make a laughing stock of yourself :-)

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Alan Holmes" writes:
| "Mary Fisher" wrote in message
| t...
| "Des Higgins" wrote in message
|
| ... The wormery was
| for small volumes of kitchen waste (rice, fois gras, caviar past
best
| by date etc.). ...
|
| How on Earth do you have such leftovers? We never had food leftovers
here
| but I wouldn't put them on the garden compost heap even if we did.
|
| Me too!

Why on earth not? I do. And I have difficulty in believing that you
NEVER forget anything in the fridge, decide that food is too horrible
to eat, or have nothing left over for any of the other common reasons.

It might be difficult for you. For people who've been poor - and hungry -
it's not. We waste nothing.

I've been to the farmers' market this morning (before breakfast) and bought
a magnificent lettuce. The outer leaves were damaged in the scooter pannier
so they've been fed to the hens for recycling. If we didn't have the banties
I'd have washed them for us to eat.

Yesterday we fitted a new, low flush, wc. The old (1937) one will be used as
a planter in the garden, bowl and cistern.

Yes, things have been forgotten in the fridges and freezers, they're not
wasted though.

Mary

"Stewart Robert Hinsley" wrote in message

Anyway, don't potato peelings,

We don't peel potatoes ...

cabbage hearts,

They're eaten, raw.

the pods of peas

Don't buy them and I'm no good at growing them..

(excluding mange-touts), etc, count as kitchen waste?

Probably, in some households. I understand that pea pods make excellent
soup. If we had them I'd use them in stock. But there again, I was taught
thrifty housekeeping by my mother and my school.

Mary

On 7/10/07 09:30, in article
, "Sally Thompson"
wrote:

On Sun, 7 Oct 2007 09:05:10 +0100, Sacha wrote
(in article ) :

snip

Practice, Alan. ;-) Sorry, but I really don't believe anyone who claims
they never waste any food, I'm afraid. This is turning into a competition
for title of "most religious recycler"!
Everyone has left-overs on their plate sometimes and not everyone has a dog.
Everyone has bread or a carrot or some cabbage that goes mouldy or a hairy
something that lurks occasionally at the back of the fridge!


Eek! You've been looking in my fridge!

No need. I own its twin! ;-)

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

On 7/10/07 09:55, in article , "Nick
Maclaren" wrote:


In article et,
Sally Thompson writes:
|
| Eek! You've been looking in my fridge!

Thus leading to the question "What was this?" of an item that looks
like a horror-film prop. Yup. I recognise that.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

When my children were small I used to make something I called "fridge soup".
Owing to a plethora of left-over peas on one occasion, they have all
resolutely refused to touch it ever again!

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

On 7/10/07 09:15, in article , "Nick
Maclaren" wrote:


In article ,
Sacha writes:
|
| Practice, Alan. ;-) Sorry, but I really don't believe anyone who claims
| they never waste any food, I'm afraid. This is turning into a competition
| for title of "most religious recycler"!

Well, yes, but a lot of us compost everything because it is EASIER.
Heave it on and let it rot :-(

Another advantage is that it reduces the smell and mess in the
non-recyclable rubbish.

But, as many people have pointed out, that applies to a traditional
heap only - you have to be a bit selective with wormeries. But they
do have other advantages.


Oh certainly - composting does indeed make sense. It's the holier-than-thou
over a few cabbage leaves that's making me giggle. And the total soh
failure about foie gras and caviare!!
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'