Ruth Rogers

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:If you sprinkle biochar in there and a little garden/forest soil, you've got an amazing system.

I'll try that, thanks!

Mercy Pergande wrote:Would this translate easily into a vermicomposting setup or would it need to be modified a lot?

Hmmm. I think it could work. I mean, with vermicomposting you do the same thing; put your scraps in and cover them up. It would just need to be large enough to support enough worms to handle your daily production of kitchen scraps, and you'd need to add a means of drainage.

Angela Wilcox wrote:It is exactly the way I manage my humanure

That's exactly what gave me the idea to try this method. 😁

I am a procrastinator. Which means that my food scraps, which I have every intention of composting, always end up hanging around in the kitchen for much longer than I intended. Which makes the kitchen smell bad, and also creates hordes of gnats. I've tried multiple solutions for this over the years...

Resolve to always take the scraps to the compost immediately: Hahaha! I'm a procrastinator, remember? I am not physically, mentally, or emotionally capable of sticking with this sort of resolution for more than one day.

Keep a bucket right outside the door to dump the scraps into, for later transport to the compost pile: This makes a soupy, smelly MESS in the bucket, which just makes me procrastinate more, because I don't want to open OR dump that disgusting bucket!

Buy lots of sundew plants to eat the gnats: Helps minimally with the gnats, if I can keep the sundews alive, but does nothing for the smell.

Make DIY gnat killer: Same as above, plus I end up with icky jars of fermenting gnat juice sitting around the kitchen, because procrastinator, remember?

But I've FOUND THE SOLUTION, so procrastinators everywhere can finally be successful composters AND have clean-smelling, gnat-free kitchens! Here's what you need:

Cats that use litter boxes (or friends who have some)

Two (or more) of the squarish buckets that clumping kitty litter comes in -- these are ideal because they stack nicely and are easy to open and close and don't trigger any procrastination tendencies as a result.

Sawdust, pellet litter / wood stove pellets, dry leaves, shredded paper, used paper towels, etc. (Hereinafter referred to as just "sawdust," because we procrastinators are typically also lazy, but that's okay, because that's how we come up with awesome solutions like this one!)

Fill one bucket with sawdust, and a scoop of some sort depending on the type of "sawdust" you've chosen. Put a 1" layer of sawdust in the bottom of the second bucket, and stack it on top of the first bucket. Stick it next to your kitchen garbage can or somewhere near the sink. Scraps go in the top bucket, and anything soupy or potentially smelly gets a layer of sawdust over it. Don't skimp -- give it enough to fully cover the smelly things, or to soak up the juice of the soupy things. When the top bucket gets full, set it aside to go dump in the compost pile, and start a new one. If it takes a while for you to get around to dumping them, that's okay -- just get more buckets. It's already composting in the bucket(s), and it's not going to smell bad OR attract gnats, no matter how long it takes you to get tired of tripping over it and finally go dump it out!

Blake Dozier wrote:would you mind sharing your process for making tea?

Sure! I grab a likely-looking branch and strip the leaves, repeating until I’ve got enough to cover a cookie sheet. I usually take them from lower down or in the shaded areas of the bush, so I don’t feel like I’m threatening its survival (even though you can’t walk three steps here without running into one!) because I’m just weird like that.

I have been separating out the little twigs I inevitably end up with, but I kinda wonder if that’s even necessary? I might try leaving them in the next batch, just to see. [EDITED TO ADD: If you harvest from a female bush, make sure to pick out any berries, since those are toxic to humans.]

I don’t wash them or anything, because I know the ones here haven’t been exposed to any pollutants or pesticides, but you could, I suppose, then let them dry thoroughly.

Then I spread them out on a cookie sheet and bake them for 20 min at 350°F. Once they’ve cooled I dump them into a plastic bag and squish it to crunch them up, but you could also use a food processor, mortar and pestle, etc.

Stick a teaspoon or so into a diffuser and steep in boiling water for 5 min or so, add whatever you like in your tea, and enjoy!

Anne Miller wrote:I wonder has anyone here actually tried making coffee from cleaver or yaupon?

I haven't tried to make coffee from it, but yaupon makes delicious tea.

I don't know the answer to your question, but I live in Central Texas where it grows wild, and I've recently started making tea from it. In addition to its caffeine content and potential health benefits, it's actually delicious! So my vote is that you give it a try and see if it will grow for you.