Families find out about food waste

Families with children under five in south Shropshire can find out how to save money and have fun with food this half-term.  To celebrate National Family Week, the Surestarts in South Shropshire are staging special "Love Food Hate Waste" workshops.  The workshops are free and will advise parents and carers on how best to store food to get the most out of it, and help find ways of save up to £50 a month on your grocery bill.


The Love Food Hate Waste sessions have been set up to give parents the knowledge and skills which they can share through fun activities with their children.  The workshops include practical demonstrations, handy hints and tips, recipes, advice on shopping and meal planning, ideas for 'recycling' leftovers, and advice on how to store food to last longer.

Love Food Hate Food Events in south Shropshire will be held on:

Tuesday 31 May 2011

• Sure Start Children’s Centre, Albrighton school from 1pm to 3pm
• The Café at The Foyer, Marstons Mill, Portcullis Lane, Ludlow, from 1pm to 3pm 

Wednesday 1 June 2011

• Highley Severn Centre, Bridgnorth Road,  from 9.30am – 11.30am
• Sure Start Children’s Centre, St Mary’s Bluecoat CE Primary School, The Grove, Bridgnorth from 1 pm – 3pm

 Thursday 2 June 2011

• Sure Start Children’s Centre, Bishop’s Castle Primary School, Oak Meadow from 9.30am to 11.30am
• Sure Start Children’s Centre, Stokesay Primary School, Meadow Street, Craven Arms from 1pm – 3pm

Friday 3 June

• Broseley Methodist Church, Duke Street from 9.30am 11.30am

Shropshire Councillor Aggie Caesar-Homden, who is responsible for Sure Start centres in the county said:

“Our busy lifestyles can often leave us with little time for family life and to shop wisely and prepare fresh food.  So to mark National Family Week I want to encourage parents and carers to take part in these Love Food Hate Waste Workshops.  I hope they will gain lots of useful hints and tips and a great deal of fun from these sessions, and share their experience at home with their children.”

Free crèches will be available at each centre.  For more information about these events and to book a place for you and your child, call 01694 723465

Sutton Farm Community Cafe

Some volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have been helping to teach residents around Sutton Farm in Shrewsbury all about home composting.  We took along our display of home composting bins and some compost and worms and gave a talk about the basics of how to compost, and what types of material work best for home composting.   Around 25 people turned up for the talk which went down very well with the enthusiastic audience.

Sutton Farm Community Cafe, is a new initiative, set up by Shropshire Master Composter volunteer Jean Breakwell.  The aim is to help bring residents together for a cuppa, a chat and slice of (yummy!) cake.   It takes place every Thursday afternoon at the St. Giles Church Hall, which is on Sutton Way, Shrewsbury, SY2 6EF. 

Fair trade tea and home made cakes are available from 1:30pm-4.30pm.  Alot of residents bring along a book or a paper and just like to catch up with each other.  Many of the residents are enthusiastic knitters and so a bit of a knitting circle has formed around it and so rag rug making, knitting and crochet help is available.  Help with transport may be available on request.  For more information ring 01743-360519.

New IVC planned for North Shropshire

Shropshire Council 's planning committee has just approved plans by a private firm to install a demonstration “in-vessel” composting (IVC) unit at a disused aircraft hangar on Peplow Airfield in the village of Childs Ercall near Market Drayton.
 

Once built the site will be capable of process around 25,000 tonnes per annum of kitchen waste, woodchip, paper/cardboard, garden waste and sewage cake.  Although at present the company behind the plans - In-Vessel Composting Ltd based in Wrexham are planning to use the site as a demonstration plant only.

It will process de minimus quantities of waste which will be sourced independantly from commercial sources but their main aim is for the site to act as a show room, demonstrating their innovative rotary steel drums which can be used to process mixed organic waste in controlled conditions.  The steel composting drums are available in a range of sizes to suit everyone from a small school or hospital right up to industrial scale commercial composting operations.  

Electrically powered versions of the unit which add heat to guarentee composting is compliant with the Animal Byproduct Regulations are also available.

Despite some local opposition the plan was recommended for approval and construction can now proceed subject to the neccessary permitting being approved.

Master Composter Training 2011

We have just recruited another 20 volunteers to the Shropshire Master Composters network.

This is fantastic news which will allow us to really expand the reach of our community engagement programme and hopefully get more people in Shropshire into home composting as a cost effective and green way to manage your own household waste as well as helping to make your garden beautiful.

Our training involved a day in Shropshire hosted by the Shropshire Wildlife Trust and the second day was hosted by Garden Organic at their HQ near Coventry. 

We got alot of technical instruction and interesting talks about waste management, bacteria, fungi and minibeasts in your compost heap, what to compost and what not to compost and how to engage with the public about these issues.  We also did a site visit to the Councils farm near Shrewsbury where they compost garden waste on an industrial scale. 

We also played the Compost Game - see below...

We also had a tour of the Garden Organic composting area to learn about various different systems for home composting... 

Gary from Garden Organic showed us how to build your own New Zealand Box style composter from old wooden pallets.

We learned all about how to make leaf mould...

We learned about "food waste digestors" like the Green cone system.

We also got shown about sealed units which can rotate like the "compost tumbler" below.  These can be used to accelerate the composting process.

And of course the bog standard "darlek" type compost bins like the Council sell which are simple but effective.

We even learned about using food waste in a bean trench.

We got very excited about wormeries! These are great for dealing with cooked food waste which you wouldnt normally want to put into a home compost bin.

We also learned about how to use Comfrey, that wonderful plant, to make an accelerator for your compost bin.  You can also stew up this kind of comfrey soup to use as a direct fertiliser.

All the volunteers found it very inspirational, even the dog!

A big thanks to all the staff from Shropshire Council, Veolia, Shropshire Wildlife Trust and Garden Organic who gave up their weekend to get us all enthused and confident to go forth into our communities and talk to people about composting.

Bowbrook Allotments Open Day - 17.07.11

Bowbrook Allotments in Shrewsbury are hosting an open day for charity on Sunday 17 th. July 2011 from 1 - 5pm.  It is as part of the Yellow Book National Open Garden Scheme, so it will be well publicised and hopefully well attended.  There will be tours of all the plots and tea and cakes available. 


Bowbrook Allotments is a newly established community growing space set up in 2009 on the south side of Shrewsbury.   It is owned by Shrewsbury Town Council but managed by a volunteer allotment association.

Is anyone available to take a bit of a display about composting along and answer some questions about composting just for a few hours?  If so get in touch...

For more details visit http://www.bowbrookallotments.co.uk/

Call to save water in your garden

Shropshire’s main water supplier Severn Trent is urging people to cut down on water use as reservoir levels were already 10 per cent lower than normal due to the recent mini-heatwave.

As keen gardeners we all know that its been incredibly dry of late but as keen composters we also know the importance of using compost to keep moisture into the soil.  Using compost in your soil adds moisture into the ground but it also helps lock in that moisture content.

You can also use rough compost, like bark chippings as a mulch around plants and this helps to minimise evaporation from the soil and so again will help with the water conservation.

The Council home composting scheme also has water butts available from the same supplier too and this is something which all green gardeners should seek to invest in. 

 

Tour of Shrewsbury Garden Waste Composting operation

A bunch of us volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters recently went to take a look around the farm near Shrewsbury where the Council sends all our garden waste for industrial scale composting.

The site on Lower House Farm, Cardeston, near Ford is run as a commercial operation as Agripost Ltd. by farmer Mark Gethin, who diversified into composting following the devastation of the foot and mouth crisis of 2001.

The site manages over 10,000 tonnes of mainly municipal waste every year.  Predominantly this is garden waste (and cardboard) which is collected from our household green wheelie bins from all around the Shrewsbury and Atcham area.  There are also some inputs from the Household Recycling Centre - the tip - in Battlefield and also from some local contractors who bring commercial waste to the site for a small fee.   

All waste delivered to the site first goes over the weighbridge and is then tipped onto the concrete pad for inspection. The site charges a gate fee per tonne for waste to be bought onto site and is run as a profitable commercial business.

All the waste has to be screened for quality control and it gets hand picked to remove any obvious visible contamination like plastic bags which some idiots seem to think is "compostable garden waste" and insist on regularly adding to their green bins.

The "cleaned" waste then gets loaded into this massive industrial shredder (below) which can shred over 10 tonnes an hour! 

The resulting output which is now much less coarse (generally shredded to about 100mm particle size) then gets piled into huge pyramid shaped mounds called "windrows".  This may look like a messy heap, but theres actually quite alot of intelligent design gone into it because their natural shape aids the air flow through the piles and the natural heat created by the decomposition process helps create convection currents which drive air through the mounds helping to keep the whole operation aerobic.  

The windrows get systematically turned at regular intervals using a JCB.  The piles get extremely hot as they rot, visibly steaming.  The microbial activity which drives this takes place in as little as 2-3 months, far quicker than you would get in a home compost bin.

The finished product, which is certified to PAS100 standard is used on site as a soil conditioner.  Once seived to remove large particles its a fine looking brown earthlike product which is excellent for the soil

For more information on this site visit www.agripost.co.uk

National Composting Conference

10 volunteers from Shropshire and Telford Master Composters travelled down to the Garden Organic in Warwickshire this weekend. There they joined around 200 volunteers from all over the UK for the 4th annual National Home Composting Conference.  The group travelled down in a bus provided by Minsterley Motors, with sponsorship from Veolia, the Councils waste management contractor.

The group went to meet up with volunteers from other similar volunteer schemes all around the country in order to exchange best practice and encourage joint working.   They heard all about the technical aspects of composting from eminent guest speakers from the Royal Horticultural Society, Garden Organic, University of Plymouth, Campaign for Real Farming and the Waste & Resource Action Programme. 

Several of the volunteers were presented with official graduation certificates in recognition of their success in volunteering for more than 30 hours to encourage others to compost.  One of the Shropshire volunteers - Linda Sheppard, was also presented with a special award - the "Individual Achievement Award" for her outstanding contribution to helping to get more people home composting.

Shropshire Master Composters (www.shropshirecomposters.co.uk) are a group of expert home composters with enthusiasm for helping others to learn about composting, they were established by Shropshire Council in 2006.  Since then almost 100 volunteers have been trained to go into their communities and spread the word about composting and waste reduction.  The Master Composters give up their time free of charge promote home composting through events, home visits, demonstrations, talks, roadshows and school visits.  This helps to reduce waste and reduce the need for artificial fertilisers as well as fostering community cohesion and lifelong learning - truly the big society in action...

Shropshire volunteer crowned National Master Composter of the Year 2011

There has been yet more recognition of the efforts of Shropshire Master Composter volunteers this weekend when Linda Sheppard was crowned Master Composter of the Year at the national Garden Organic Home Composting Conference 2011.
Linda, from Oswestry, has been volunteering with the scheme since 2006.  She has given up hundreds of hours of her time to help to get more people composting.  She has played a fundamental role in the success of the scheme from the outset taking a leading role in coordinating other volunteers in her area.  As a retired headmistress she has developed lesson plans and curriculum linked schools education programmes specifically designed to bring home composting to life for young people and she has done hundreds of school visits to assist schools in setting up composting and growing schemes.

Linda was presented with a certificate and an engraved crystal bowl in thanks for her efforts by Pauline Pears, Editor of The Organic Way magazine.  Linda dedicated her award to the memory of her friend and fellow Master Composter Val Oldaker who sadly passed away in 2010.

How to make a compost bin from old car tyres

We were chatting the other day about how to keep a recycling theme to your gardening and home composting and we really like the idea of making compost bins yourself out of recycled materials.  I've seen people compost in deceased fridge-freezers, old tea chests, sometimes using worn carpets or polyethelyne sheeting or making their own from old wooden pallets.   

But one of the simplest systems though is the old car tyre stack.  Its got alot of pros as a material its very robust and long lasting, its also insulating and because its black it gets a bit warmer in the sunshine which assists the composting process.  Its also very strong so its pretty rat-proof.

Here's one we made earlier...

I would add some caution though - old car tyres may be a great free source of ready to go, recycled material, but use them with caution because they are likely to have traces of oil and all sorts on the rubber.  So they're not exactly organic, and if that worries you, this isn’t for you. That said, I think the pros outweigh the cons personally.

So, here’s how to go about it:

• First, find yourself five used car tyres - you can get them free off Freecycle.org.uk - alternatively most garages have to pay a fortune to get rid of them so will be delighted that you want them!
• Find yourself a bin lid, or improvise with a bit of old plastic.

Build the stack

Put one of the tyres down on your solid base to get started and simply pile them lose on top of each other.  Their natural weight will hold them in place.  I've suggested five tyres but there’s no special reason for the stack being five tyres high, other than it makes it a convenient height for most people; you could just as easily use less or use six or more.

Rain-proof lid

Its not essential but useful to have a lid, its helps it sweat and keeps the rain out and ensures its rodent proof if secure.  You will find a couple of items which naturally are a perfect fit.  Of course a hub cap from a car tyre allows you to build on the recycling theme but also if you can get an old lid from one of those old fashioned dust bins they are a perfect fit for car tyres too.

Job done

A bin like this is pretty cheap and cheerful but its a good way to recycle waste materials and then you can transform your kitchen and garden waste into a useful fertiliser for your garden.

Composting Poster Competition

A national competition run by Garden Organic getting people to show off their creative talents by designing a poster highlighting their passion for compost has led to a fantastic response.
Garden Organic’s Celebrate Compost poster competition called people to put their love for compost on paper to urge more of us to make our own for Compost Awareness Week.

Garden Organic’s, Jane Griffiths said, “We were so impressed by the entries to the Celebrate Compost competition, even more so by the enthusiasm our entrants have shown for composting!  On a serious level, homemade compost diverts tonnes of food waste from landfill and we hope the poster will encourage more people to start making their own. Indeed our Master Composters will be using it during Compost Awareness Week to promote composting in their communities.”

The winning ‘Celebrate Compost’ poster (below) will be displayed on the Garden Organic, Community Composting Network and Recycle Now website during Compost Awareness Week 1 - 7 May 2011 and Garden Organic’s network of 500 Master Composters will use the poster at community events.

 

Madeley Green Fayre

One of the events which we regularly attend to promote home composting is the annual Madeley Green Fayre in Telford.  Master Composter Volunteer Trevor is pictured below demonstrating some top tips on home composting.  For more pictures from the event click here

The event is organised by Madeley Parish Council.

The event features donkey rides, sheep dog herding with a difference which is called the Quack Pack, craft stalls, wildlife nesting boxes, woodwork demonstrations, climbing wall, childrens activities, a barrel organ playing music during the festival, native owls for people to see aswell as guinea pigs, ducks and guinea fowl.

Last year the apple press made an appearance at the festival providing free apple juice.   There was also a wooden lathe making childrens toys and the younger visitors had the chance to make nest boxes.  Food is available during the event with lots of varieties on offer from Asian cuisine to pizza.

For further information call Madeley Parish Council on 01952 567282

Vron Gate Show

Last year volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters attended the Vron Gate Show, near Westbury. 

More than 600 people attend this show which is mainly about vegetable growing competatively, but also includes childrens entertainment, agricultural exhibitions and even donkey rides!  The show is a real Shropshire tradition which has been running for almost 50 years now.

We had a fabulous display for this event thanks to the efforts of some keen volunteers who made up some buckets of compost to demonstrate what can be composted.  Thanks again to all the volunteers who helped with this day.  If anyone is interested in attending this event in the coming years, get in touch. 

Welshampton Plant Sale - 02.05.11

This fantastic fair took place on Bank Holiday Monday 2nd May 2011 in the lovely village of Welshampton in North Shropshire.   Hundreds of people turned out and several volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters attended the event to give free expert advice on all aspects of home composting. 

We would like to say a massive thank you to all of the members of Welshampton Parish Council Committee for their fantastic efforts in organising this event and of course for such a good cause as through this day they are raising over £ 2,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.  This was through the sales of plants, homemade jams, cakes, crafts and numerous other stalls and raffles throughout the day. 

National Trust site using RIDAN

The National Trusts cafe at their Attingham Park site near Shrewsbury has become just the third site in Shropshire to start using a RIDAN in-vessel composting unit. 

The RIDAN unit, which is made in the UK has been piloted at Bishops Castle Community College in south Shropshire and we also recently were involved with one being installed at Fordhall Organic Farm in Market Drayton.

Shropshire Master Composter Volunteer and National Trust gardener Debbie has been instrumental in organising the composting and growing at this site.


 

With this additional investment the National Trust will now be able to safely compost a wider variety of their kitchen waste including meat and cooked food.  The unit is sited in the growing area by the greenhouse in the walled garden.  It will be used to pre-compost the kitchen waste generated by staff, volunteers and visitors and their busy cafe. 

The compost spends about a fortnight within the RIDAN hot composter where it gets up to about 65 degrees Celcius before being transfered into their huge composting bays in the orchard where it will be mixed with garden waste, chicken muck and other organic matter for final maturation. 

The final compost is dug into the beds in the walled garden and used to grow local food with volunteers which is sold in their shop and used for the cafe.  Now thats what I call reducing food miles!  The RIDAN composting unit was bought courtesy of a DEFRA grant from the Eat into Green Living project.  

Beanpole Event - 01.05.11

As part of our Compost Awareness Week promotions, volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters attended the Greenwood Trusts Beanpole Weekend at Ironbridge.

The event celebrated “all things beanpole” open day featuring advice and demonstrations to promote the benefits of using our very own, British, home grown product in all manner of ways. Hundreds of people came out to see live demonstrations of traditional pole lathe turning, basket and fence hurdle making, together with the chance to actually visit coppiced woodland as well as of course the opportunity to get free advice on home composting from an experienced Master Composter.

For more information on making bean poles visit the Greenwood Trust website.

Damson Day Event 30.04.11

Volunteers from Shropshire and Telford Master Composters have been out and about promoting home composting in Ironbridge Gorge. 

As part of our Compost Awareness Week promotions, volunteers attended the Damson Day event.  The event was organised by volunteers from the Coalbrookdale Arboretum who are working with lottery funding and this open day will help raise funds towards restoring the site.

The arboretum is on Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust land, in Abraham Darby's old garden.   In the 18th Century, it contained a collection of specimen trees and a National Damson Collection.
The volunteers are now applying for more money to do larger works such as repair paths and improve lighting.

Hundreds of visitors turned out to the Damson Day and were offered guided walks around the arboretum as well as Tai Chi lessons, Beekeeping advice, childrens activities, cookery demonstrations, a farmers market and live music and cream teas as well as the opportunity to get home composting advice from an experienced Master Composter.

Shrewsbury Square Event - 05.05.11

Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have been working in partnership with Shropshire Community Recycling Network, Re-play IT, Preston Montford FSC, Shropshire Wildlife Trust, Shropshire Organic Gardeners, Shropshire Council and Veolia to encourage people to compost their waste.

We all got together in Shrewsbury Town Square this week to engage face-to-face with local residents.  Its all part of the annual Compost Awareness Week promotions which we undertake to encourage a move away from peat based composts and to try to reduce the amount of rubbish which gets thrown away. 

It was a gloriously sunny day, and despite the recession, the shoppers were out in good force and we must have spoken to over 100 people over the course of the day.

We borrowed the mobile exhibition trailer from the Council to help create a centre peice and arranged some tables and gazebos around it. 

Social enterprise Re-play IT were making badges with the little ones...

Scientists from the Field Studies Centre were offering people the chance to look at worms and compost minibeasts under the microscope...

Master Composter Cheryl also took advantage of the media interest to get some valuable publicity from the Shropshire Star for promoting home composting.  Hopefully this will be published in the local paper so further helping to get the message out to people in Shropshire that by composting we can all save money and the environment.

Clun Green Man Festival 2011

 

Every year at the start of May, the tiny Shropshire town of Clun hosts the massive Clun Green Man Festival. The three-day event is held on the first May Bank Holiday weekend each year with festivities taking place throughout the town including the famous Battle of the Bridge where the Green Man battles with the Frost Queen to signify the environment triumphing over the winter.
Literally thousands of people desend on the town to celebrate the arrival of summer and of course there is a significant environmental presence at such events with local rural craft demonstrations, wildlife displays and such like. 

Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters attended the event to run a stall about home composting and recycling.  The event was a huge success, over the course of the weekend we must have spoken to over 400 people about how to compost more.  For more information see www.clungreenman.org.uk

Why are worms all congregating in the lid of my compost bin?

I don't know about you but I often get asked this one.

You know the scenario you go down to the garden to add your latest batch of tea bags and vegetable peelings into your bin.  You take the lid off and dozens of worms are all huddling into the lid almost as though they are trying to get out... I've asked all manner of horticultural experts and ecologists this one and nobody seems to have the answer.



I have heard that sometimes compost worms migrate, and that they do this in a herd like this, so maybe yours are trying this and then just getting stuck when they encounter the lid???

The most logical explanation I can offer is that the worms are likely to be finding the conditions in the compost unpleasant for them and are trying to get away from it.  Now worms are sensitive little creatures, bless them, so they could be unsettled by a number of factors such as pH, oxygen concentration, temperature or moisture content. 

So....it could be an indication perhaps that your compost is perhaps also too wet.  The worms won't be able to breath is the waste is too waterlogged so they will be going to the top for a breather.  We tend to put in loads of fruit and vegetable matter which has alot of moisture content, so this doesn't help.  So you could try putting some dry material in, such as newspaper, this will dry it out a bit.

It could be that your worms are unsettled by the pH.  In terms of pH, although composting tends to produce a relatively neutral (ph7) compost, in the early hot stages of composting there is likely to be a slight increase in acidity due to the presence of natural humic acids.  The other thing is of course if you are adding in alot of fruit peelings especially citrus fruits you will be decreasing the pH this way.  So perhaps avoid adding lemon and orange peel in such amounts or alternatively try adding a bit of lime to neutralise it. 

My other theory is that the council of worms may have planned a "great escape" and that they are waiting until you lift the lid then making a bid forf freedom over the top!


Anyhow I wouldnt worry about it too much, worms are mobile so if they dont like something they can get away from it and ultimately they have access to the ground so they could get out of the compost by tunneling down if they really weren't happy.

Attingham Plant Sale

Volunteers from Shropshire Master Composters have been out and about this weekend (Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th May) promoting the merits of home composting at the National Trusts Plant and Garden Fayre at Attingham Park.  The event was part of our Compost Awareness Week, a single week during which we have attended 10 different events, delivered over 100 hours of volunteering and spoken to over 2,000 people about composting!

Despite the inclement weather thousands of keen gardeners turned out over the weekend to take the opportunity to buy some fantastic plants courtesy of non-profit growers such as Shropshire Organic Gardeners and the National Trust.   There were also around a dozen other stalls from local gardening companies and several volunteer organisations such as ourselves.

The BBC Radio Shropshire mobile radio studio also attended and ran a mini gardeners question time which went out live throughout the day helping to publicise the event.  There was also talks given throughout the day in the main marquee on bee keeping, gardening for wildlife, flower arranging, Caribean gardens, and more. 

Despite the fact that to some extent we were perhaps preaching to the converted at this type of event I think we still managed to convince a few new people to have a go at home composting.  Also even with the really experienced home composters there is always something new they can learn and I think they appreciate the chance to talk through some of the problems they may have come across and get some trouble shooting top tips from a Master Composter. 

A big thanks to all the staff and volunteers at the National Trust for organising such a professional and well run event and for keeping us topped up with teas and coffees throughout the wet weekend.  And of course to all the volunteers from the Master Composters who gave up their time to help with this fantastically successful event.

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... 

Schools training

Many Master Composters do – or would like to help pupils, parents, teachers, and the wider community compost at school and at home and are involved with growing clubs.

So Garden Organic’s Food For Life Partnership team are inviting interested Master Composters and Master Gardeners to our charity’s home at Ryton Gardens, Coventry for an opportunity to consider how best to work with schools.

Typical topics that could be covered are:

1. The basics of working with schools : actively working with teachers and young people – and doing presentations, including assemblies.

2. What crops do and don’t work in school.

3. How to sustain and grow school food gardening.

4. Issues around composting at school.

The training will take place on Saturday 18th June at Ryton and the cost will be £20 plus vat per person, to be paid either by your scheme or by the individuals themselves. Places are limited to 25 though if oversubscribed it is likely that an additional date will be arranged.

Could you please let me know by 15th April if you would be interested.