Upcycling Compostables (and also conserving food)

Recommended sources

• The Krazy Coupon Lady
• For Dummies composting article

A list of foods that can be frozen for a few months at least

• Butter and herbed butter
• Bread and all bready stuff, sliced
• Crackers
• Pre-made sandwiches, such as PBJs
• Halloween candy
• Meat on the bone
• Most vegetables
• Most fruits, especially berries
• Leftover coffee, tea, wine, juice, milk, in fact most liquids
• A very old cooking trick is to freeze all the bones from cooking meat until you have enough for making stock
• Pesto
• Tomato sauce, also whole tomatoes
• Donuts
• Cakes

Really Gross Cheap Vodka or Moonshine

• As long as it has no residual sugars in it (which would attract ants), or methanol, and is at least 70% alcohol by volume (140 proof), pour it in a spray bottle and use it as an almost all-purpose cleaner and germ killer. It can even be used like that as hand sanitizer. You can make this fancier by steeping botanicals in it in jars for a good couple of weeks first, such as orange and lemon peels, fresh pine needles, sage, basil, etc. as long as you don't go too crazy with it and drive the alcohol percentage down enough to make it no longer a germ killer. By the way this is flammable so don't use it on your stove and fail to wait for evaporation before cooking things.

Beer that has gone bad

• Pour some on a compost pile to add some healthy yeasts and get some good bacterial growth going
• Put it into bowls, and place those at ground level to deal with a slug problem. They will crawl in there and drown. Why? I have no idea.

All the stuff that can be composted

• Guys, if it can biodegrade without adding dangerous substances to the Earth, then it can compost. Fats, oils, bones, seaweeds, animal products, milk - yeah they'll biodegrade and stink to high heaven, which means they're better buried at least two foot deep. They will biodegrade there. But other stuff like stale herbs and spices, shredded newspaper, etc. is fair game. If you're not sure, just ask yourself two questions: 1. Will this harm the Earth through chemicals, poisons, or diseases? 2. If I left this on top of the ground outdoors exposed to the elements would I be able to find it in five years? If the answer to both question is no, then you can compost it. Also you can speed up the process by mixing the compost pile with a shovel up to once every two weeks or so, kinda like folding egg whites into cake batter. That gets you finished compost a lot sooner. Also, Mother Nature doesn't worry too much about getting the perfect balance between "greens" and "browns" or monitoring moisture levels in the compost. Your greatest allies here aren't money or perfectly composting things. They are sheer bulk of materials and time.
• Apparently used hamster, gerbil, or guinea pig bedding In theory, this could spread diseases like hantavirus... best not to risk it
• Rock dust
• Salt-free sand, though not too much
• Mulch
• Twigs
• Clay dust
• Brush
• Natural ashes without chemicals or lighter fluid
• Charcoal, also without chemicals or lighter fluid (no briquettes)
• Brown paper grocery bags without colorful ink, with all staples removed
• Cardboard boxes without colorful ink, all staples, tape, etc. removed, and ideally ripped up into smaller bits
• Unscented paper towel rolls and toilet paper rolls
• Newspaper without glossy full-color inserts, printed on the usual stuff
• Leaves
• Used potting soil
• Any and all completely stale pantry food or grocery food that doesn't contain lots of oils or animal products
• Tea bags with staples and tags removed
• Coffee grounds, used, and their filters also if unbleached
• Manure from compost-safe sources including cow, chicken, goat, rabbit, horse, and alpaca
• Animal bedding from compost-safe sources
• Grass clippings
• Dirt
• Hay
• Straw

Upcycling

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