Why Compost?...

...Its a question I have been asked a few times since discussing our new composting adventures with friends. Quite simply, its cheap, its natural and its darn good for the environment and your soil! I also discovered that composting at home for one year would save global warming gases equivalent to all the CO2 your kettle produces annually, or what your washing machine would produce in just three months.
Another question I was curious to learn the answer to before we delved into composting was, 'why bother when we have landfill'? After researching this I found a pretty clear answer; When waste is sent to landfill the air struggles to reach the organic waste. As waste breaks down harmful methane is produced. However, if the same waste were to be composted above ground like we do at home, the oxygen is able to help break down the waste while producing significantly less methane, not to mention the added bonus of awesome fertiliser for your garden after 9 or so months..

After researching what the big deal was regarding composting it was a no-brainer and a few months ago Luke got busy whipping up our very own compost bin for out the back. Time will tell if it produces good soil, but hey, you can't go too far wrong!

Luke used left over chicken wire and metal grates and stuffed them with 'hay' we have grown and harvested down the back

There is a hatch that we open when it rains to get some water into the soil

The inside (growing some weeds)

Lila is an awesome composting helper now, whenever she sees food scraps in the kitchen she grabs the bowl and heads straight to the back door.

We've been experimenting with some new recipes lately as a result of going wheat free (which I will go into more detail about at a later time). For now lets discuss my annoyance at cooking beautiful stirfrys in tiny frying pans! It was driving me insane, it was a fine art of slowly turning the food to ensure it stayed in the pan and by the time I got through mixing it all together the food had usually been on the heat longer than I would like and the crispness of veges lost. As well as the lack of cooking space issue there was the chopping of garlic nightmare, after making some changes to our diet we have been using more raw foods than ever before; gone are the jars of garlic, we always buy it in its purest form. This is all well and good except when the recipe calls for minced garlic and crushed ginger. Sitting there finely chopping the two with a toddler clawing at my legs was not how I liked to spend my evenings. Needless to say we had to find some solutions, and today in the Op-shop we did.

Our garlic crusher, $2

The Wok - My initial reaction was "ugh gross", Luke apparently knew what to do though so I took his word for it. $3 

Luke hard at work with a wire wheel on a drill to clean the scum off the wok 

All cleaned up...

...and seasoned with peanut oil. Stir fry cooking tonight confirmed the wok's awesome non-stick characteristics after seasoning.

We have also been on the hunt for a grater to more efficiently grate our bars of soap when making our laundry powder, we had a win with that also. $4.