Adventures in Composting, Part I

As a wedding present to ourselves, Paul and I purchased a NatureMill automatic indoor composter. Though pricey ($400), it seemed a less intimidating way to break into composting than trying to build a compost system ourselves. (I tried that before — it was a maggot-infested failure.) This little gadget has a motor which churns the composting material, and a fan which pulls in air, providing oxygen to all those hungry microorganisms.

We got it last week, and, irritatingly, I wasn’t able to make use of it right away (I was quite excited). Rather, I had to let microorganisms populate the thing by throwing in some soil from the backyard with some kitchen scraps and sawdust, and letting it sit there for a week. Without opening it. A week!

So, for a week, tapping my toes with impatience, I listened to the composter occasionally grunt and grind, wondering what exciting things were happening in there. Finally, this evening, we were able to open it up and begin adding more scraps.

I eagerly opened the lid and was welcomed by stinking steam rising from its bowels. And in the mixing chamber was dark, hot, sweaty composting waste. It was more wonderful than I could have imagined!

It did stink more than I expected. The NatureMill website described the composting smell as “a slight aroma of fresh cut grass or sourdough bread”. Paul thought it smelled “earthy”.  I thought it smelled like the city dump. Perhaps the odor will get a bit better as the microorganisms better establish themselves. In the meantime, I’m quite relieved we decided to keep this thing outside, rather than in the kitchen.

So, I’ll post as more things develop in our composting adventure. I’m quite giddy watching the process of kitchen scraps transforming into dark, rich good-for-the-earth goodness.

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