Kitchen Composting

My mother and sister teamed up for my birthday and gave me one of the best gifts for an urban homesteader -- a kitchen compost crock. My sister must have been tired of seeing the old plastic ice cream bucket next to the sink (she is my interior decorator since I have NO talent in that area) and I know my husband was tired of the odors that it emanated! Their choice, from Plow and Hearth, is a yellow honey pot. In addition to being cute, it has a securely fitting lid with a washable filter in the top that eliminates odors. The 1-gallon capacity holds over a week's worth of kitchen scraps before needing to be emptied onto the compost pile in the back yard.

Above the crock is a list of do's and don'ts for composting, on the remote chance that someone other than myself clears the dishes and needs to know. The do's: do compost egg shells, nut shells, fruits, vegetables, coffee grounds and filter, tea bags and even dryer lint. The don'ts: don't compost dairy products, meats, fish and any type of oils/fats.

Having always lived in the city with municipal water/sewer, I feared I would miss my garbage disposal when we moved to a home with well and septic.  Now I wouldn't use it even if we had one. What used to go down the disposal goes into the compost crock and eventually into the garden to improve the soil's texture, composition and moisture-retaining ability.