Compost Update

February is winding to a close, which means that we've been following our new composting regimen for nearly two months now, and I figured it's time for an update.

Between the two of us, Steve and I have done a pretty good job of turning/rolling the bin at least three times a week. Unfortunately, our £7.50 RollMix Composter doesn't seem to be able to withstand even two months of that kind of use. There's a springy wire that wraps around the outside of the cylinder to help hold its shape, and the end of that wire popped out within about two weeks of use. After three or four weeks, the casing for that wire started to rip around the middle. At this point, I just hope that the bag itself lasts long enough for us to decide whether or not a big, rigid compost tumbler on a frame is worth the investment.

The wire on our RollMix Composter started poking out of its casing
after just a few weeks of use.

At this point, it's still difficult to say whether the frequent turning has had any significant effect on the rate of composting. The stuff in the compost tumbler does seem to be breaking down a little bit, but I don't know whether that's actually the case, or if the new additions just look brown because they have a coating of dirt on them from being mixed with the rest of the compost.

Frequent turning of the pile is supposed to help create a better oxygenated environment for the aerobic bacteria that do the heavy lifting in the initial stage of composting, but those bacteria also need heat, which is in short supply this time of year. As I'm typing this, the weather guy on the radio is going on at some length about the "Beast from the East" bringing icy weather from Russia and making this the coldest February in some large number of years, so our local population of decomposers is working at a serious disadvantage.

Whether or not the tumbling action has made a significant difference, there can be no doubt that the composition of the pile has a huge effect on the behavior of the compost.

Weekend update, 20-21 January

Food:
I was so pleased with the success of last weekend's sourdough loaf that I decided to try again. Twice. Once midweek, and once on the weekend, with different flour substitutions each time.

The first batch had 1 cup sorghum flour, 1 cup cassava flour, 3/4 cup arrowroot starch, and a bit of millet flour left over from another recipe. The second batch used sugar in place of honey, and about 1/2 cup each of millet, sorghum, cassava, and brown rice flour, with 3/4 cup of arrowroot starch again.

Arrowroot starch is supposed to behave similarly to tapioca, but less gummy/binding and more crunchy. The original recipe was, if anything, a little bit too stiff, which is why I swapped in arrowroot for tapioca starch. And because I'd never used it before, and wanted to see how it turned out. Millet flour also bakes up quite crunchy, and the loaf does indeed have a very crunchy crust, with a soft, very moist interior. I swapped in the cassava flour (made from the same stuff as tapioca starch) because it's tasty, and to make up for the loss of the sticky tapioca starch.

Gluten free waffles!

Both batches came out much closer in flavor to an ordinary sourdough white bread, although the first batch had a little more sweetness than I would have liked, hence the substitution of sugar for honey and reducing the quantity of sorghum flour in the second batch.

Also, I made waffles. Just because I could. At some point, I will write up my universal pancake/waffle recipe.

Garden:
It was raining most of the weekend, so not much happened. Steve planted a bunch of garlic during a brief dry spell. We rolled the compost a bit, but it's a bit smelly so something clearly isn't right. I tore up some more paper and cardboard and added it to the roller. I also started updating our seed inventory for the current year.

Decorative seam treatment on smokkr.

Crafts:
I stitched a few more rounds on my naalbinding mitts, and a few inches of decorative seam treatments on my Viking smokkr. I've run out of dark blue embroidery floss though, so I'll need to stop by a craft shop this week.

House:
During the heaviest rains this weekend, I noticed that we had water dripping from our conservatory ceiling. Luckily, we basically just use our conservatory as a greenhouse, so there are very few things in it that could be damaged by a bit of water. But it does mean that we need to find somebody to come and do some repairs. Bleh.

Compost for the Suburban Hippy

As I mentioned in my first post of the new year, one of my goals for 2018 is to wrap my head around composting. In our vegetable garden, we're following a mixture of square foot and no-dig gardening, both of which call for large quantities of compost on a regular basis. Last year, we rented a car and picked up loads of free compost from our local council. Not only does the need to rent a car negate the benefits of "free" compost, it wasn't particularly good compost. It was full of large chunks of wood and little bits of plastic. A year later, I'm still pulling brightly-colored bits out of the vegetable bed every time I go out to harvest or weed. So, to take matters into my own hands, I bought myself a copy of How to Make and Use Compost by Nicky Scott and started looking for ways to make more compost, and faster.

Weekend update, 13-14 January 2018

In the interest of actually generating some content for this blog, and as a way to boost my self-esteem (I hope), I'm thinking of changing the format slightly. Instead of only doing big, illustrated write-ups when I finish a project (which isn't very often), I'm going to try to at least jot down a quick note of what I accomplished every weekend. I'll still do big project write-ups from time to time, but my primary goal is to be able to look back on the year and see that I have actually accomplished *something* with my time. Sometimes I'll probably ramble on at length. Other times, it may just be a few bullet points.

So, here's what happened this past weekend: