On 7/10/07 10:24, in article ,
"Mary Fisher" wrote:


"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 :-)



Hmmmm. I don't see Des making a laughing stock of himself. Not at all.


--
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.'

"JakeD" wrote in message
...

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.

We bought one for a second bin for us and another for a son who's just begun
gardening. At that price they're worth having. Our original two were
provided by the council som years ago - one per household but a neighbour
didn't want hers.

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?

LOL! I've not heard either but I reckon that slugs are impossible to exclude
from a larger area. Spouse made copper rings (from hot water cylinders
bought from the scrap yard) for vulnerable plants and they seem to work.

Mary

"Sally Thompson" wrote in message
al.net...

... I plan to get some hens soon and they will be
introduced to the veg patch at a very early stage!

Not all hens will eat slugs :-( Ours fight over snails though! A daughter
with an organic farm got some ducks for her vegetable garden. Hens will eat
some vegetables, ducks won't, but ducks love slugs.

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.

Seconded.

Mary

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| 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 have, and I doubt that you are that hungry at present. It is also fairly
common for not all of what you buy or grow to be fit to eat. For example,
blighted potatoes.

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

What you actually SAID was

... We never had food leftovers here ...

and that is what I doubted.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Oct 7, 12:15 am, "Cat(h)" wrote:
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

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; 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!!!


Allez inbleedindeed; ohh la la (and everyone; please consult your
dictionaries to correct mon spelling) et sacre blue et nom de dieu et
ou est la plume de ma tante.
Quelle complete astonishment etc.

We tried worms. They are very hard to make work. We failed; we
genuinely put a lot of time in (different diets, different locations
etc.) and gave up in the end. My current best bet is one of those
green cone things but it has been on my list of must dos for over a
year now (too busy reusing 2 month old pheasant). You bury one in the
soil (to keep rats and foxes at bay) and put stuff in at the top.
Then you move it every six months or something.

Des

Cat(h)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

On Oct 6, 8:24 pm, Mogga wrote:
On 6 Oct 2007 18:56:02 GMT, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:







In article ,
"Alan Holmes" writes:
| "Mary Fisher" wrote in message
.net...
| "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?
--http://www.orderonlinepickupinstore.co.uk
Ah fetch it yourself if you can't wait for deliveryhttp://www.freedeliveryuk.co.uk
Or get it delivered for free- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

We used to use a bird table but these days all that happens is the
neighbourhood magpies get everything and/or our cat gets lots of bird
catching practice. We have no dog or chickens or goat or pigs or
sheep or cattle or aardvarks either.

In article .com,
Des Higgins writes:
|
| We used to use a bird table but these days all that happens is the
| neighbourhood magpies get everything and/or our cat gets lots of bird
| catching practice. We have no dog or chickens or goat or pigs or
| sheep or cattle or aardvarks either.

Yes. They are all a lot of aardvark, even if you have the space and
time.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article ,
"Cat(h)" writes:
|
| I'd love to find a composting solution which allows me to chuck in
| everything rather than binning it.

I missed this. See

http://www.tmac.clara.net/urgring/faqcmpst1.htm


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| 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 have, and I doubt that you are that hungry at present.

No but I haven't forgotten those days.

It is also fairly
common for not all of what you buy or grow to be fit to eat. For example,
blighted potatoes.

Even this year our potatoes haven't been blighted and the people I buy from
wouldn't sell them.

There are some parts of food items I don't eat but I wouldn't call them food
so it's not food which is being wasted - e.g. apple stalks.

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

What you actually SAID was

... We never had food leftovers here ...

and that is what I doubted.

It's true. I don't care what you doubt. My integrity is intact.

I'm very amused that soomeone here said that he was too busy to plan or use
up all excess food yet seems to have a lot of time to argue the point :-)

Mary

On 7/10/07 16:50, in article ,
"Mary Fisher" wrote:


"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| 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 have, and I doubt that you are that hungry at present.

No but I haven't forgotten those days.

It is also fairly
common for not all of what you buy or grow to be fit to eat. For example,
blighted potatoes.

Even this year our potatoes haven't been blighted and the people I buy from
wouldn't sell them.

There are some parts of food items I don't eat but I wouldn't call them food
so it's not food which is being wasted - e.g. apple stalks.

snip

Aren't apple stalks good for you? I thought the tiny about of cyanide (?)
present was a good thing? Should we all eat our apple stalks or will we die
a horrible death as a result?
--
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 Sun, 7 Oct 2007 09:41:44 +0100, Sally Thompson
wrote:


You will find the sliding doors at the base a total waste of time.

Yes. I came to the same conclusion as I was looking at the goods in
the shop. I decided not to buy. I concluded that an ordinary upturned
dustbin would be just as suitable, if not actually better.

I plan to get some hens soon and they will be
introduced to the veg patch at a very early stage!

Sounds like a wonderful idea. I would like to do the same.. perhaps
one day when I have my own land.

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.

Thanks. Will do!


JD

On Sun, 7 Oct 2007 10:36:29 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

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?

LOL! I've not heard either but I reckon that slugs are impossible to exclude
from a larger area. Spouse made copper rings (from hot water cylinders
bought from the scrap yard) for vulnerable plants and they seem to work.

I plan to try the hedgehog house idea. A freind of mine swears it
works... Hedgehogs have been found in our garden, so we know they are
around. Just need to get them to hang around the veggie patch and feed
on the slugs!

JD

JD

In message , Sacha
writes
On 7/10/07 16:50, in article ,
"Mary Fisher" wrote:


"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...

In article ,
"Mary Fisher" writes:
|
| 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 have, and I doubt that you are that hungry at present.

No but I haven't forgotten those days.

It is also fairly
common for not all of what you buy or grow to be fit to eat. For example,
blighted potatoes.

Even this year our potatoes haven't been blighted and the people I buy from
wouldn't sell them.

There are some parts of food items I don't eat but I wouldn't call them food
so it's not food which is being wasted - e.g. apple stalks.

snip

Aren't apple stalks good for you? I thought the tiny about of cyanide (?)
present was a good thing? Should we all eat our apple stalks or will we die
a horrible death as a result?

While I wouldn't assert that no other parts of the apple plant contain
cyanide, it is the pips (seeds) that are well known to contain
cyanogenic glucosides. I am unaware of any reason to believe that the
consumption of their cyanide content is a good thing - as opposed to not
markedly harmful in moderation. (I seem to recall that a cupful is
dangerous.)
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley

Mary Fisher wrote:
"Stewart Robert Hinsley" wrote in message

Anyway, don't potato peelings,

We don't peel potatoes ...

Neither do we, but the 3yo pulls them off and leaves them.

cabbage hearts,

They're eaten, raw.

Good for you.

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.

So was I. But I was also taught that once something's been cooked through
once, you need to be careful about recooking it. When YB leaves half his
dinner either because I've put too much on his plate or he doesn't like it,
I'm not going to save it to reheat for later, and I'm not going to eat it
myself. So it turns into waste.

"Amethyst Deceiver" wrote in message
...
Mary Fisher wrote:
"Stewart Robert Hinsley" wrote in message

Anyway, don't potato peelings,

We don't peel potatoes ...

Neither do we, but the 3yo pulls them off and leaves them.

cabbage hearts,

They're eaten, raw.

Good for you.

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.

So was I. But I was also taught that once something's been cooked through
once, you need to be careful about recooking it.

So was I. So I am :-)

Mary