apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I was cooking in a friend's kitchen once where they took this idea one step further and put the food scraps in a HUGE bail top canning jar until they had a chance to take the scraps out to the compost bin. The rubber seal kept the odor from escaping, and the veggie bits and fruit peels looked absolutely gorgeous in the jar. (Obviously, you do have to empty it fairly frequently to retain the gorgeous factor.)

my lo-fi version of this is an empty plastic ice cream container which I use as my "pre-compost bin".

As I cook or prep, the vegetable scraps go right into the container. When I'm done, the lid goes back on and it goes right into the freezer of my fridge. No smells, no fruit flies, no problem. And, the freeze-thaw cycle helps to break down some of the tougher stuff before it goes in the composter. Works like a charm.

Our family has been doing this for at least 3 generations. My grandma always had a bowl next to the kitchen counter for 'scraps' mom my continued the tradition and so have I.

Quite frankly I am amazed that this is considered worthy of mention, although I suspect it has more to do with Rachel Ray making an additional buck than it dies about her concern for the planet.

Save your $15 and reuse an existing container.

Unfortunately Rachael really uses it as a garbage bowl, throwing in food scraps, wrappers, rubber bangs from produce, Styrofoam packaging, etc. Then everything goes in the garbage.

We do the same at out house but we use 2 bowls, one for compost, one for garbage and recyclables go in a pile on the counter.

When you said "Garbage Bowl", I thought you were talking about a Rachael Ray marathon. ;-)

An alternative to a GARBAGE BOWL is a big pot of simmering water on the stove. Throw in some salt, a bay leaf and all the edible scraps you produce in the course of making dinner. Another word for this is SOUP.

If you don't get too crazy with what you throw in, you'll have a delicious bouillon for the next day or for whenever. In France it's traditional and folks just keep adding and adding to this pot of slow simmering water. There are pots of bouillon that have never been washed in 15 years simmering away in France. Think about it.

Don't worry about the soup's composition too much, good ingredients taste good together - you'll see. Apple peel, chicken parts and bones, veggie tops, the outer leaves of lettuce, bunches of old herbs and root balls chopped off onions. Just throw it in the simmering pot of water.

IMPORTANT TIP: DO NOT STIR, EVER. NEVER LET THE BOUILLON BOIL. There will be dirt and yuckiness from the vegetable scraps, and meat trimmings if you eat meat. Just let the dirt fall to the bottom and occasionally skim off any scum the floats to the top - and discard.

TIP: DO NOT OVER-THINK THE SOUP. Before you go to bed, turn off the heat and in the morning, carefully pour off the beautiful and CLEAR bouillon to use as soup, as an ingredient in other dishes, to freeze. It's so dang handy. It will use up most of your scraps. And it makes the house smell great.