New Composting Bin

My garbage can turned compost bin has served me well, but it was time for a larger capacity container to compost in. My garbage can was 32 gallons, and the new bin 410 liters (108 gallons!), so it was definitely one hell of an increase. The plan if to continue to use the garbage can to hold the leaves in the yard. I layer the compost and typically cover the kitchen scraps with a layer of leaves (keeps a lot of the flies away) so having a container of just leaves will be very convenient. Once the garbage can is full of leaves, I plan to start bagging the excess leaves to create leaf molds as per Recycle Now.

The box actually seemed a bit smaller than I expected:


Inside there some documents on composting and a free ounce of compost starter:


The bin arrived unassembled in the box:


But was quick and easy to put together:


And hide in:


Here's a shot of the new bin in the old bin's spot, and the old bin in it's temporary location. I told you I had a lot of leaves in my yard!


Just a shot of the new bin in all it's glory!

So that's why the house has been smelling weird today?

Seems my cabbage packing job last night was a little too good. Moments ago, I discovered that the towel that the crock was sitting on was covered in brine. Yeah, that's why the house has been smelling a bit off today. Note to self, covered the cabbage with two plates was only good in theory, as it didn't allow any gas to escape and thus caused a bubbly mess. On a brighter note, it's still bubbling, sauerkraut here we come!

Packing Cabbage for Dummies

So I repacked my stinky ol' fermenting cabbage last night and now feel like I fully understand the fine art of packing & weighting. When I originally packed it, I experimented with just having a bag on top, laying saran wrap over it and pressing it down to create a seal, and then eventually placing a small saucer in the middle and placing the bag over that. The saucer worked out well except that the crock was oval and the plate didn't cover it fully. Cabbage was floating to the top by the time the fermentation actually started, no good. So that's why I opted to repack it last night.

I made sure to pick up some cheese cloth from the store (my wife had advised earlier on that we didn't have but a foot of cloth at the house). Cheese cloth was the missing piece I needed. The cheese cloth can be laid over the cabbage and pushed down while still letting the brine through. I doubled the number of plates used as well, this covered more surface area and kept everybody right where I wanted them. From there I added the obligatory bag filled with water on top. I'm a dare devil, so I didn't double bag, nor did I fill it with brine in case it leaked! From there I draped the cheese cloth over the bag and then covered the whole thing with plastic wrap. I had read that people leave the cloth hanging outside of the container, but that just seemed like trouble since the cheese cloth can pull and retain moisture. I'd just rather the whole thing contained. After that, I covered it with a tea towel and stuck it under the built-in in the kitchen. And now we wait.

Speaking of waiting, my wife threw out another batch of sour dough starter she made. She keeps claiming that it should be "doing more" even after two weeks. I say it needs fed or it's just going to sit there. She's supposed to be purchasing a starter from King Arthur Flour soon, or as I called it "cheating"

Where's my damn recycle bin?

So I was patient with the city and not only waited the 7 business days they suggested, but also an additional 12 days after that. Still no recycle bin. I've re-opened by request with the county, and I'm hoping that they'll get on the ball and get a bin out to me this week.

Speaking of patience, my new compost bin hasn't arrived yet, and there's no tracking information on the website I ordered it from. Kind of frustrating, my current compost bin (the recycled garbage can) is full, and so is my trash bucket on the porch (no place to dump it until the new bin comes). Hoping it will be here in the next couple of days.

Operation Fermented Cabbage in Full Effect

I didn't want to write about it until I started to get some actual fermentation, but I started a batch of sauerkraut Saturday night. It's pretty easy to get started, the proportions are 5lbs of cabbage to 3-4 Tbsp of non-iodized salt (I also added caraway seeds). I used grocery store bought cabbage so I had to make some additional brine water to make sure the cabbage was fully submerged.

What really amazed me was how much water can be pulled out of the shredded and chopped cabbage by pounding it a bit. Apparently with very fresh cabbage you can pull enough water to full submerge it.

The hardest part for me was actually packing it in. I read multiple ways to do it and tried a few different ways on top of that. The issue is, you need to keep the cabbage under the water. If it's exposed to air it will rot. As of this morning, there are a few pieces of cabbage floating on the surface along with the bubbles. I plan to repack tonight and use cheese cloth to help keep the cabbage under the brine. Right now I simply have a plate in the middle with a baggie full of water on top of that. It keeps it weighted down, but since it's in a crock, there's exposed areas on both sides of the plate.

It's been a pretty exciting process thus far, it was great to wake up to bubbles all over the surface, especially considering I wasn't sure if I was doing it right. Only thing I need to do now is get some additional crocks, so that I can return the one I'm using to my wife's slow cooker (no pot roast until I do).

Florida Strawberry Festival

The weather didn't pan out the way I would have liked. Heavy rain in the AM, dropping temperatures and decent wind gusts (upwards of 16 MPH). It was enough to have me scrambling this morning to pull all the plants up to the house in a frenzy. After the ran passed through, the sun came out and the weather warmed up a bit, so we decided to make it to the Florida Strawberry Festival after all.

It was my second or third time going (first time as an adult) and my wife and daughter's first time. Unfortunately, coming on the heals of the Florida State Fair, the Strawberry Festival didn't have much to offer other than lots of strawberries!

Instead of getting your very typical strawberry shortcake (something we can make ourselves) we ended up finding strawberry cookies. They tastes like Fruity Pebbles cereal and were amazing. Unfortunately, we bought the last 3 from the vendor selling them.

My daughter got another chance to be apprehensive about livestock, and I ended up getting a strawberry plant, so all in all a good day. Oh yeah, we got some shirts from the Geico booth that say "This person is an actual Geico customer and not a paid celebrity". How cool is that?