How do you turn food scraps or garden waste into something useful?

[SS Project Manager]

Every kitchen and garden produces waste—but what if that "waste" is actually a valuable resource? From composting and vermiculture to creative upcycling and homemade fertilizers, there are countless ways to give food scraps and garden waste a second life. Do you have a favorite method for reducing waste and maximizing what you grow?

Whether it’s turning veggie peels into broth, using eggshells in the garden, or finding innovative ways to repurpose leftovers, share your best tips and tricks for making the most of every bit!

 

[Mini Horses]

Most of mine goes to chickens or cats. Even coffee grounds are repurposed. Once I've used food from raw/grown to savory eating, broths, etc, balance is fed out. Excess garden veggies to animals, etc. Minimal waste for trash here. Even excess milk from goats is made into cheese or soaps, or fed to animals...be it bottle kids, cats, chickens or pigs when any being fed out.

Bedding, hay waste, manures, that goes back to garden &/or pastures. A continual recycling system.

I believe that's true at most farms.

 

[R2elk]

I bury compostables in the garden. It is too dry here to get away with a compost pile. Buried organic materials decompose rapidly.

 

[flowerbug]

i keep buckets of worms indoors for all cooking scraps other than a lot of fatty stuff which we don't have very often at all. even cooked bones i'll put in the worm buckets to let them finish it off and then when i take the buckets out to use them in the gardens they all get buried and eventually fall apart.

the worm buckets also take care of all the shredded paper - i just have to make sure there isn't any plastic mixed in that sometimes comes with envelopes or labels. if i have extra shredded paper i put that out in the gardens in the trenches i put down for the worm buckets.

when Mom was cooking a lot more i was keeping 17 buckets of worms - i'm now down to 7 buckets and that is working out ok.