Compost Crocks

Collecting kitchen waste - how do you do yours?????  Its such a simple and yet crucial aspect of home composting....how to gather your kitchen peelings, tea bags and food scraps into one place before you take in down to the garden. 

You have got to have something or you will find yourself making a trip outside just to toss in a single banana peel or a piece of rotten fruit? Also, not only does it help avoid smelly food scraps lying around on the kitchen counter but its providing an obvious dedicated place to put your kitchen waste, a constant reminder to help stop it ending up in the rubbish bin.

Now I know everyone has their own prefered methods of doing this, from plastic bags to swing bins to off the shelf 'kitchen caddies'.  Increasingly I've seen people taking the approach of using those compostable plastic bags to keep it all tidy.  Also for some wrapping it all in newsprint or an old cardboard box.  This is clever because then the whole lot can be chucked in and can also be composted.

It was whilst searching for a fathers day present a couple of years ago that I came across the "crock".  Its not something I had heard of before, having in my case always made do with a old ice cream tub under the sink, but as I wanted to treat the old man (who is a very keen composter but not the most tidy) to something a bit posher I thought I would give it a go.

It was simple ceramic affair from Lakeland (but also no doubt available from all good retailers!) and its popular because it looks so attractive (in this case shaped like an apple) so its aesthetic enough to have become a kitchen feature, kind of a garden gnome for the kitchen!

I tell you its been the most popular gift I have ever bought anyone.  



His wife is delighted by no longer finding soggy tea bags resting by the sink and by having a focal point to collect material it is helping make sure as much of their kitchen waste as possible gets included for composting.  The whole thing wipes clean and the whole thing can be washed out easily in between trips to the compost bin.  The container is nice and tidy with a well fitting lid and its also sexed up a little with an activated carbon filter in the lid to remove smells.

So whilst I still make do with my trusty old iced cream box myself, I can strongly recommend a cermamic crock for your kitchen...