Hi Jenny I am probably the last person who
should respond to your question because when it comes to hot composting I am an epic fail. That being said I love your
compost bins you did an assume job! Have you read Dr. RedHawk's Things everyone should know about compost but probably don't ? I think it will help you a great deal. I personally would just toss the food waist and anything else in as I get it, knowing it wont start to hot compost until it gets
enough volume, it seems like a better solution then having a
bucket of rotting food sitting around. Just remember I'm not a good hot composter. On a side note even if it doesn't hot compost organic matter will still brake down and eventually become compost. Cool compost takes a great deal longer, but it's better for the environment. cool composting is so much easier. I just throw what I want to compost in and forget it. No turning, no worrying about brown to green ratios. The only real downfall to this method for me so far is it takes so much longer, and I don't put any weeds with seed into it because it doesn't get hot and won't kill the weed seed. This is what I have started doing, so I can still compost and not feel like a failure. Good luck to you. Jen
https://permies.com/t/98570/compost-don