All Posts Tagged With: "compost"

In the vein of our recent posts about food (one of our favorite topics here!), I wanted to write a little follow-up from my kitchen. The debate over HR875 and other such bills is certainly food for thought. The fact that Monsanto is able to sue farmers in the U.S. for having unwanted genetically-engineered seeds on their land — that blew there from other fields, thereby contaminating heirloom seeds — is nothing short of alarming. What if we just pause and imagine a better path forward?

What’s most important for a healthy crop is the biodiversity of the soil and microorganisms that produce it in the first place. Over the past few years, I’ve read success stories of a natural fertilizer business called Terra Cycle which uses the age-old genius of worms to compost waste and turn "worm tea" into a sought-after consumer product. The good news is, this isn’t rocket science. This stuff can be made for free inside your own home; that is, if you aren’t squeamish about some squishy worms.

I have a compost bin in my kitchen with about 500 to 1,000 worms inside eating my junk mail and food scraps. The particular bin I bought has a drainage spout, so that when there is heavy moisture content the extra water can simply drain to the bottom, be collected in a bottle, and fed to my house plants. The above picture displays the awesome power of worm tea. I had never fed my Money Tree worm tea before, but after only two servings and a couple of days’ growth, you can see the obvious difference this stuff makes. The water and nutrients shot up to the top leaves and what was similar to the bottom leaves only days ago is now a shimmering forest green (actually much shinier and green in real life!). Now, let’s see if some actual money starts growing. . . .

See our calender for composting workshops.

Treehugger article about Terracycle.

Spoons is a unique coffee/sandwich shop located in the heart of Fells Point, serving deliciously roasted organic coffee. Now although you might think that while being featured on the GoforChange site this pleasurable little place would be serving a full course organic menu, they don’t. What they do, do is something all the more amazing. While saving your wallet a few dollars Spoons composts 95% of their waste, is 100% wind power operated, uses biodegradable packaging, no Styrofoam ever! They also use only locally grown and sourced items, have replaced their lights to compact fluorescent and their roof is coated with recycled aluminum that will reflect 80% of the sun’s rays. They even print their menus on recycled paper. Oh and the food’s pretty good too!