I missed a week with the composter because I was on a cruise in the Caribbean. Sorry about that. While I was away, there weren’t any problems with the device (can something without moving parts be a device?). So, I learned that you can leave it sealed and alone for at least 2 weeks without any unforeseen consequences.
What’s in my composter? (new items are marked in bold):
Some paper napkins
3 pumpkins worth of pumpkin goo
A pint of cherries
2 pear pits
About 1/4 of the bag of Bokashi
2 Corn cobs
The rinds of 5 oranges
3 Grapefruit husks
About 3 cups of vegetable scraps
A cup of soy bean husks
8 Corn husks from Christmas tamales (hey – I live in Texas!)
More paper napkins
The skin of a miniature pumpkin
Half of a bagel
More Edamame husks
Scrap paper from direct mail
More than 2 dozen tea bags
Strawberries
Half a bag of Swiss Chard
Tree Leaves from my front porch
Red cabbage prepared with brown sugar and vinegar
More tea bags (green and white teas, if that matters)
Banana peels
Composter output:
About 1/2 a cup of compost tea (this comes out very slowly now, possibly due to the compacted material)
No unpleasant smells.
It’s full. Now what?
I’ve realized that the composter is pretty much stuffed now. I tried pressing down the contents, and didn’t accomplish much (although it felt really unpleasant and made me want to wash my hands under superheated water). I’m going to give the compost maker some time to digest its contents and check on it again 2 months from now.
One thing to consider when using a composter is what you’re going to do when it fills up. After I stop putting additional waste into this composter, it should take 1-3 months for everything to break down into usable soil. Now that I’ve gotten into the habit of saving kitchen scraps, I suspect that it’ll be a hard habit to break. Once your composter fills up, you’ll need an alternate storage space. Luckily, I have a another Kitchen Composter that I’m going to use. Doubling up is something you might want to consider if you order one of these because it saves on shipping and wont leave you in the lurch. That way, while one of your composters does its magic, you can keep feeding waste into the other one.
Also, there are composters out there that have separate compartments. These let you fill each compartment separately without any worries about surplus garbage.
Did you miss the start of this crazy experiment?
Previous Week…
Next Week…(coming soon)
Where to buy it:
Indoor Kitchen Composter, Click here!
$69.99, including the bin and extra bokashi.
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More than three months later … que pasa?