Will Composting Save You Money?

Those big beautiful gardens are the envy of the neighborhood, right? Lush, green vegetation, colorful flowers, and big tomatoes. And no matter where you garden, the gardeners themselves will eventually turn the conversation to compost. Compost! That broken down, aged, seemingly magical combination of leaves, manure, and food scraps all come together to make such a difference in the garden. And the compost pile itself can be a topic of varied conversation you’ll hear quite often. So many ways to do it. Pallet compost bins. Commercial compost bins. In the sun or in the shade.  And there’s always those who will brag on saving every scrap morsel from the kitchen to go in the compost bin. Others just add kitchen scraps only after the chickens get them, or the goats. At least we are recycling it back into the garden!

But, at what cost are we feeding our compost piles? Sure, its an environmentally sound practice instead of just dumping food waste into the trash. Oh, you feed scraps to your chickens? Why yes, that is a great way to reduce waste as well! We all try to pretty much stay within a food budget these days. Food has gotten outrageously high. Growing our food seems to help the bottom line, but still, the work can be hard, especially for new gardeners. So doesn’t it make sense to really maximize our food dollars and make the most of what we grow or buy?

Now, before we go any further, let me just say that I think the practice of keeping food scraps out of the landfills is commendable. Its admirable! There’s no reason most food scraps should end up there, not when we can make use of them in the garden!
What I’m getting at is this.. have you really gotten every ounce of nutrition from your food BEFORE it goes to the compost pile? Or to the chickens? Thinking of food outside the proverbial ‘little blue box’ (that’s one of my favorite sayings, and we all are familiar with that commercially processed blue box of mac n cheese, yes?) to ensure that the most nutrition stays on our tables and not out the back door. Dollar for dollar, we probably can squeeze just a little more value out of our food. And I’m going to give you some suggestions on how to do just that. And that’s some pretty costly additives to go into the compost, and purchased food scrap leftovers are certainly way more expensive than chicken feed!

Take a look at an ordinary zucchini. Beautiful green, smooth skin, pale greenish yellow flesh, just waiting to be used in a variety of dishes. So easy to grow. So what do we typically do to prepare it? Slice the ends off, slice it up and batter and fry it, or scoop out the seeds for zucchini boats. And of course, those scraps will go to the compost or to the chickens for a treat. But.. why don’t we use those ends or those seeds? What about the stem that sometimes comes with the zucchini, the short fat green stem/vine that gets cut off. Did you know its just as edible as any other slice of the zucchini? How about the crook necks of yellow squash and the butt ends? They are edible! Its just that they aren’t as pretty or appealing in a dish, so we tend to throw those out. What if we extend our nutrition to include them?

Vegetable ends can be used as seasoning! Dehydrate the normally unused ends and then powder for a seasoning blend for meats, fish, vegetables, you name it! At last count, I have over thirty vegetables in my seasoning mix. That doesn’t include the herbs. More on that recipe later.

Lets take a look at other vegetables that can be used for nutrition for the family, instead of feeding the compost pile:

• Zucchini butts, tops, and stems
• Crookneck squash necks and butt ends
• Onion peels – that outer layer AND the brown skins
• Garlic skins
• Celery bottoms (the little cluster where all the stalks come together)
• Eggplant skins and top slices
• Scrubbed carrot peels and tips as well as top root part
• Parsnip tops
• Beet tips
• Broccoli leaves
• Cauliflower stems and leaves (the leafy stems on the bottom of the head are delish!
• Leek ends/roots
• Green onion fronds
• Kohlrabi leaves and stems
• Collard stems
• Kale stems
• Okra caps
• Pepper stems
• Tomato cores, peels and end slices
• Leftover innards from cleaning a pumpkin or winter squash. (Separate the seeds and roast them for a treat!)

Each of these items can be saved in a plastic zipper bag and stored in the freezer until you have enough to work with. In my kitchen, it doesn’t take long!

Here’s a few ideas on reusing these ‘unappetizing’ bits that will save a substantial amount on your food budget, as well as adding flavor, nutrition and variety to your cooking:

• Ferment a big bag of food scraps in 3% brine (see brine chart) for three days, keeping vegetables submerged. Drain and dehydrate.
• Powder in a coffee grinder for seasoning mixes
• Crush to use as a topping for mashed or baked potatoes or acorn squash
• Crush for soup base mix
• Add to breadcrumbs for breading fish, chicken, etc.
• Use as a topping for casseroles or stuffing.

These same food scraps can also be made into a delicious vegetable broth. Or save the bones from a rotisserie chicken or other chicken, simmer for 24 hours for a delicious nutritious broth, and add a few cups of the ‘food savings’ in the last few hours of simmering. When ready to store the broth, strain out the vegetables scraps and either can the broth or store in the freezer.

What are your favorite ways to extend your food nutrition dollar and limit food scraps going to the compost?