: Composting

introduction by Alice Shaffer

Have you ever composted? I can honestly that I have not and probably will not in my current job. We just don’t do enough cooking for it to make sense. I know that sounds silly, but it is true. I came across this blog Family Balance Sheet and they have a blog post about backyard composting. It was really interesting and I thought that a number of our readers would be interested in learning how to start composting. What I like about the post is she shares all kinds of information on starting your composting to how she composts year round despite the cold freezing weather. She even shares with her readers what happened one year when something started growing out of the side of her composting pile.

There are a few basics though that you need to know. A compost needs two types of materials to develop: Carbon/Brown(dry) and Nitrogen/Green(fresh). A compost that is 3 parts carbon/brown to 1 part nitrogen/green is best. Too much green and you’ll end up with a slimy, smelly mess full of fruit flies. The brown components will prevent that from happening. But honestly, I’m not measuring what I add to the bins and my compost decomposes quite nicely.