FLYING WHALE STUDIOS
  • Home
  • News
    • About
    • Contact
  • Schedules
  • Galleries
    • Our Better Angels
    • Good Housekeeping
    • Deborah and Robert
    • Archive
    • Design >
      • American Landmark Festivals
      • Geneva Music Festival
      • Seneca Community Players
      • Darwin
      • Geneva High School Drama Club
      • Smith Opera House
      • FWS
      • Miscellaneous
  • Blog
  • Mailing List
  • Purchase

Composting can be a year-round activity

12/20/2013

0 Comments

 
When I get busy in the kitchen, the compost crock tends to fill up fast. In the flash of a knife, the cover is propped askew atop mounded onion peels, carrot tops and celery ends.

In summer, I welcome a trip to feed the outdoor compost bin — or, at least, it’s easier to ask my husband, Kevin, to go. All it takes is to grab the handle, swing out the inner “pail,” skip out the door, sally forth, twist off the lid and voilà! Dump away.


But, at this time of year, when heading out to the compost is more of a trudge than a trek, and forcing open the frozen-shut bin can be a full workout, the whole exercise can put a damper on my cooking spirits. Not to mention Kevin’s willingness take my place.


So, when I decided to devote a recent day to preparing meals-ready-to-heat-and-eat for my 83-year-old mother, I chose to forego the counter crock and use a bucket instead.


I was amazed at how quickly that, too, filled up. After all, it’s winter!


In addition to the mirepoix discards, I threw in potato and sweet potato remnants, more than a dozen egg shells and soup bone remains. All that before we steamed a bowl of edamame as a snack.


We used to worry that the compost would stop working at this time of year, and that we’d end up with a pile of scrap-sidles.


But happy compost keeps doing its thing no matter the season — albeit a bit slower now. Just like me, aerobic bacteria become more sluggish in the cold.


At the insulated center of the pile, the work can continue since the decomposition process itself generates heat. That, in turn, creates a warm-enough environment for red wigglers — those cute, little worms that digest vegetative waste with as much gusto as we attack a holiday dinner.


To top it off, during warm spells, the whole operation can kick into high gear — even if it’s just for a week or two before the next cold snap. 


So, as snow piles up outside and pots of soup bubble away on the stove and cookies make their way in and out of the oven, we can keep generating raw materials for the compost — filling both my mom and the worms with joy.


The tricky part will be prying that frozen lid off.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Kevin & Mary Schoonover

    In addition to art, Mary and Kevin are turning their front lawn into an edible landscape garden.

    Mary's "Front & Center" thoughts appear in purple; Kevin's are in blue.

    Archives

    May 2016
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    Categories

    All
    Front & Center
    Front & Center

    RSS Feed

More


Show Schedule

Exhibition Schedule

About Us

Purchase


Good Housekeeping

Our Better Angels

Archive



Picture

COPYRIGHT © 2020    l    143 WILLIAM ST. GENEVA NY 14456    l    315-719-1499    l    ​FLYINGWHALESTUDIOS1@GMAIL.COM