Composted meat, dairy, bones, bread, oil – even human waste! – Make it the black gold of your garden! Here’s how to compost safely.
Compost meat, dairy, bones and human waste!
When I tell people to compost meat, dairy, bones, bread, etc., I often get an immediate “but you can’t!” response from ordinary people who follow all the stupid rules about composting.
It’s funny how we make composting so complicated.
Today we’re going to talk about composting scary stuff – stuff they don’t want you to compost!
composted meat
Image Source Hans Braxmeier from focus on
The reason you’re often told “No!” on meat is because it attracts varmints when it’s in a litter box or glass on the ground. There is an easy solution to this problem: bury it.
blood meal and bone meal All are valuable organic fertilizers. Surimi is another good food for soil. Why do we buy these expensive slaughterhouse and fishery derived amendments while throwing bones and meat in the trash?
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You may have heard how the Indians taught pilgrims to bury fish carcasses under corn plants. That’s composting!
I followed them, burying organ meats, beef stew, carcasses, and rotting leftovers in holes 2-3 feet deep, then covering them with a mound of dirt. After a month or two, I planted pumpkin and sunflower seeds in the mountains.
What I’ll tell you – these plants don’t need any extra fertilization! Furthermore, these areas have been fertile for many years. The slow release of nutrients is exactly what the doctor ordered.
You can also add meat and bones to a regular compost bin. Just bury it in the middle. It would be a great help if you had a bug-proof litter box. I used to have a large galvanized metal case that held everything from fish guts to lasagna nicely.
Composted Bread, Dairy and Oil
Image Source Joanna Dubai from focus on
I was told not to compost bread, dairy or oil. Oils get sticky during rotting, bread takes a while to break down, and dairy stinks to the sky. So – are we going to throw them away? Now, no chance. You can bury them in trenches or add them to a compost pile. They will collapse.
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You can also feed them to chickens and then add chicken manure to the compost. Since chickens don’t easily eat a bowl of used cooking oil, I mix it into the other leftovers I feed them and they’ll gobble it with everything else. In return I get eggs and fertilizer.
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If you have a lot of material and no chickens, just bury the items and trust the bacteria and fungi to do their job over time.
One final note about bread: it’s a good food for fungi in the soil. If you make flaky compost, adding bread, rice, wheat, etc., can improve the longevity of the soil.
Composting human “waste”
Image Source Robert Smith from focus on
Composting your own urine and feces is controversial. Many people consider the invention of the flush toilet to be a giant leap for mankind. The idea of eating food grown with manure strikes a strong distaste for most Westerners.
However, in a survival situation – or for those seeking a closer connection to nature and tired of wasting water and potential sources of fertilizer – it makes perfect sense. We use animal poop – why not human poop?
The answer that immediately came to mind was: “Disease! About what Escherichia coli? Dysentery? tapeworm? “
Do not be afraid. These things can be destroyed by composting.
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The go-to guide on humanistic topics is Joseph Jenkins Humanities Handbook, It uses a 2-year hot composting system and a bucket sawdust toilet to make a completely safe, rich compost. If anyone wants an off-grid cabin setup, this is it.
Modify the ‘Humanure’ method
I’ve been using a modified version of this method for years, and was blown away by how quickly culinary compost was able to digest the often-horrific septic mess. I recently posted a video in which I built a Jenkins bucket toilet for a cabin I’m renovating – you can see it here:
However, there’s an easier way: Burying raw sewage under plants can do wonders for growth.
I remember reading about a mobile outhouse system designed for use in Africa. Basically a deep hole was dug in the barren soil and a toilet was placed on it. After one year of use, the outhouse was relocated and the pit roof was full of dirt. Then a tree was planted on it. The resulting concentrated fertility allows the saplings to stand firm even in harsh conditions.
I did the same thing with mulberry and it worked great.
Burial manure: can the harvest be contaminated?
Image Source Hans Braxmeier from focus on
Some people worry that the fruit of this tree will be contaminated in some way. A little scientific inquiry quickly dispels the concept.no way Escherichia colia gut bacterium that lives in the warm guts of animals and humans and can survive and spread upward in plants.
It just doesn’t happen.
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As we saw with the tainted spinach recall, the danger is that raw waste is spilled onto produce that is then consumed. As long as you’re not in a flooded area, burying it shouldn’t be a problem. In this case, compost first. Don’t take stupid risks.
But…if you just return the dung to the earth where they belong, your trees will thank you.
Compost with Chicken
Image Source Xuan Duan andang from focus on
As mentioned earlier, another great method is to feed things that don’t compost well directly into the chicken coop.
In addition to saving manure for later use, if your chickens run very little, you can simply throw a lot of stuff on the fence and let them compost directly on the ground. I throw a lot of tattered weed, kitchen waste, leftovers from church dinners and other hard-to-compost items in the same place on my chicken farm.
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They eat it, turn it in, shit on it, turn it over – and leave some really nice dirt. You can then sift this dirt through some hardware cloth and pour it into your dense bed or toss it around your tree.
Crops grow well on beds covered with microbes and the nutrient-rich dirt from the chicken farm.
Others build closed boxes where chickens can enter from the top. These birds love picking insects and digging up compost. It’s smarter – not harder.
There are many reasons to compost — and, as you can see, it doesn’t have to be rocket science. Using everything is the key to surviving situations and living frugally. If the supply line is off, you won’t get 10-10-10 anymore — and it’s not as good as homemade compost for your garden anyway.
Don’t be afraid, don’t throw the good stuff in the landfill. Composting meat, bones, bread, and more can add valuable fertility to your soil. When I named my bestseller Compost, “Compost Everything”!
What do you think?
What do you think of composted meat, dairy, bones and human waste? What’s your best advice for extreme composting? Let us know in the comments section below!
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This is an updated version of an article originally published on July 15, 2019. Authors may not be able to respond to comments at this time, but we encourage our community members to get involved, share their experiences and answer questions!
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