Half-Assed Homemaker

The Compost Diet, try this common sense approach to snacking and let composition guide you.

Orange Peels: Compostable
Potato Chip Bag: Not Compostable
Apple Core: Compostable
Pudding Cup: Not Compostable
Peanut Shells: Compostable
Candy Wrapper: Not Compostable
Tea Bag: Compostable
Soda Can: Not Compostable

So I now work in a window office. As luck would have it, the sought after window provides a view of the garbage truck (or refuse lorry) collecting the mountains of landfill-bound trash generated all around me.

Always be composting!

At Compost Class

Me: Oh Jerusalem artichokes, I wonder how they taste raw.
Classmate: Oh are you raw?
Bystander: No, he's baked!

When your second drink is three drinks, don't be surprised when you wake up and your worm bin is missing.

Peel, blend, sip.

A few highlights from my presentation at the teacher training:

- I worked in my favorite saying "Answers are easy, questions are the hard part." By that I mean questioning is where learning really happens and you can't ask them for someone. Answers are always easy to come by, once the question is asked.

- One of the teachers harkened back to the reduce, reuse, recycle lessons that they learned in school but was upset that they are not present in today's curriculum. I suggested a compost bin as a way to create that awareness.

- Someone asked why compost rather than let things decompose naturally when you throw them away. I thought, "if we were in a bar, so many bottles would be getting broken right now." I explained to her that researchers have found recognizable food in 15 year old garbage because decomposition does not occur in the landfill. It was a good question because nobody would expect an intelligent society to spend money and space storing organic material for all time.

- When the worms were being passed around, I lost the class' concentration for a minute. I got their attention as well as mad educator street cred at the same time. I clapped five times in rhythm, the class answered in kind and resumed concentration. It's a little trick I learned back in Nam or while tutoring, I forget which one.

I gave a presentation at a teacher training today at SJSU. Did a demonstration of a worm bin and went through various science curriculum ideas for science lessons that center around compost.

I've been foster parenting my sister's electrified citrus juicer. Sometimes I borrow kitchen gadgets that people don't use and don't give them back for a while. By sometimes, I mean I've done it once before.

I don't give myself as much credit when I drink juice as when I eat the fruit or vegetables since some fiber and nutrition is removed. So I've taken to making orange juice without the pulp filter and then enjoy drinking AND chewing or I blend it. Sometimes I'll blend it with a banana and one time I blended in a banana and some almonds and topped with granola. Yummy.

Me: Does one packet of grounds make a half or a whole pot?
He: One packet for a full pot is fine, but a little weak.
Me: Do you use one and a half?
He: Yes
Me: (uneasy) So you use one and a half and leave the half packet around for the next pot?
He: I just throw it out.

I can't bear to watch USED coffee grounds get trashed.