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Posted on May 20, 2016

No Food Waste Courtmay Challenge: Pits, Bones, Shells

A successful start to my Courtmay Challenge of sending no food waste to landfill. A tough challenge to power through with family staying, a big baptism party, several birthday celebrations, and what’s more, a delicious Mother’s Day dinner of lobster and oysters! But I love crushing goals so consider this month compost gravy. Challenge within a challenge: Avocado Pits What to do with this deliciously fatty fruit that we eat every day? I recently learned that the pits of avocadoes are nutritious so I’ve collected them in a mason jar and placed it in a sunny window to dry the pits until I use the oven. I tossed them on a pan to roast for 10 minutes. The skins flake off the pits into the compost and I tossed the pits into my Vitamix and pulverized them. The resulting gritty powder is great in soup, perfect for baby food, and disguises well in shakes. Next challenge: Shells & Bones In addition to being a frugal new mom, I also believe that bone broth is good for one’s health. I get at least 3 meals from chicken wings: chicken bouillon when I gently boil wings before coating, sitting, then BBQ’ing; the actual chicken wing meal; and the flavoured bouillon of the roasted bones. Every bone that comes in this house gets turned into bouillon. I was not sure what to do with the bones post-boil so I put it to Facebook – a former dance student suggested I bury them in the garden for added calcium for the plants. Brilliant! So after picking every striation of lobster meat from my Mother’s Day dinner, I buried the lobster and 24 oyster shells (that I had no problems finishing all by myself) deep in the ground on top of which a Japanese Maple was recently planted. Thanks, Facebook and thanks, Matt Lukeman! Final Challenge: Frozen Composter, Vitamix Delight I went out with a full bucket ready to compost and discovered that things take longer than expected to thaw in Canada – particularly if it’s in the shade. So after several failed attempts at opening the composter I hauled out my trusty Vitamix again and started with some water, then added some food waste, a little more water, then blasted that food waste on high for 30 seconds. The result was a thick sludge with traces of coffee grinds and speckled white with broken eggshells. I marched that stinky canister straight out to the garden and dumped it on top of the greens I had planted. This Vitamix method is simple and blending the food waste makes it so easy to spread on the garden (and reduces decomposition time) but consider yourself warned: the smell of old onions, wilted leftover salad, and dangerously old quinoa is anything but pleasing in the olfactory sense! Therefore, use this method on outdoor gardens, not indoor plants like yours truly admittedly tried. Got any ideas to share? Use #CourtmayChallenge in your media posts or message me directly!