COMPOSTING on the EIGHTH FLOOR

ORGANIC LIFE BEYOND the GARBAGE DISPOSAL & the TRASH CHUTE…

Our Eighth Heaven (Huitieme Ciel) has been called to prove its celestial presumptions… How does heaven do with waste? (Does heaven even have waste?)

While I usually have little desire to tout brands, I indeed celebrate a recent purchase.

I’d seen ads which intrigued me enough to explore the notion that I might make compost out of the waste we generate, living in a condominium… without either of the compost piles we left on Vashon.

I had doubts. Compost in twenty-four hours? On a kitchen counter? No way!

Then I was informed by our realtor that she had one & it worked. I only needed such a nudge… because I felt such need for some absolution from having left convenient depositories of my waste… those lively fertility factories… far away.

I bought a rather expensive toy called a Lomi, which has become a consciously playful tool, potentially proving useful insight toward more responsible urban life.

Result? We are now giving “eighth-floor” compost away!

I tested the efficiency of its product by “playing Mendel”… planting peas in several 4” pots filled with only this compost as a test of its actual fertility. They sprouted & made peas… which the birds ate before I could harvest. Oh well, I got the reward I needed!

Now I slyly gift friends with our garbage!

Even the time spent sorting out the coarser stems & coarsely chopping our kitchen waste before plugging in this device & spending a day’s worth of voltage seems worth it. I’ve been rather righteously practicing these rituals for enough months that I cannot deny that I’m sold on what I bought.

Responsibility is never cheap!

Because I am accustomed to composting ‘most everything, I sometimes have used the high- powered blender in which I make smoothies most mornings. But, after testing I find that simple pre-chopping with a knife of things like banana peels (notoriously problematic for disposals because of their fiber) accomplishes the job quite well.

Lidded, the machine hums along, almost musically to our ears, taking around 24 hours… plus an enzyme tablet… to assist & speed making lively composted material!

The machine has several faster cycles which can halve that time, using higher temperatures to produce a usable, but more sterile soil product. But…

I LIKE THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS!