How to do composting at home

Don't waste your kitchen waste,its a resource. Use it to make Compost .

Composting is a process of recycling  kitchen and garden waste.

Its a very easy process.Its really amazing to see how nature works.  

Satymev jayate episode  'don't waste your garbage'  encouraged me to do waste segregation and composting. One scientist( don't remember his name) in this episode gave a perfect example to think us seriously why should we do composting. He said 'you eat banana but if you don't give it back to nature (just wasting it by dumping  in landfill which again got mixed with plastic) your next generation will not get banana in future.So do composting,make environment clean and green.

Formula for Aerobic Composting: Carbon+ Nitrogen+ Oxygen.

Carbon   - dry leaves,sawdust,wood scraps,cocopeat, pencil scraps etc.
Nitrogen - Food scraps, coffee ground/used filters  ,tea/tea bags,cut flowers/green leaves,corn cobs,eggshells etc.
To start you need:

•  A pot/plastic bin with 1 or many holes
•  Kitchen waste (uncooked only if doing at home) - Nitrogen
•  Dry leaves - Carbon
•  Khurpi /broken stick to mix pile
•  A newspaper 
•  1 spoon curd/buttermilk (To start aerobic process) 
•  Lid to cover pot

 Process: 

1. Take a pot with one or more holes in it. For oxygen.

2. Keep a newspaper to soak extra water.

3. Add a layer of soil or compost.I used soil for my first batch.

4. Add vegetable/fruit scraps - (nitrogen/Green).

5. Add dry leaves  -(Carbon/brown). Its better to dry out semi dry leaves and then use.Also crush them before mixing to pile to make process better.

 ( Nitrogen and carbon ratio should be 1:3. 3 parts of dry leaves etc and 1 part food scraps ,exact ration is not required ,just mix enough amount of both).
7. Make a layer of kitchen waste and dry leaves again to form a heap.

8. With kitchen waste add 1 tbsp of curd/buttermilk to activate process.

9. cover heap with a newspaper or dry leaves like shown in below image. This step is necessary to avoid flies.

10. cover pot with some kind of lid.
I have kept one plate under the pot to collect if any excess liquid is coming out which is called 'Leachate' ,which is very nutritious for plants. You will get very little/few drops in a day,which is unnoticeable. Some people collect it for a month or so n use in plants.

11.Next day add greens and brown and mix different materials. Add them in composting bin.After adding mix follow 9th(cover heap with newspaper/dry leaves) and 10th(cover pot with lid) step daily until your bin/pot is full.

12. Turn your pile regularly to produce a sweet smelling pile that will decompose faster.
     After 6 to 8 days pile will look like below image:

13:  Once your pot is full ,use another pot to continue this process. turn pile in first pot once in a week. After 30 to 45 days,your compost will get ready.In summer it takes lesser time than winter.

`13. Final product (compost)  looks like below image.

14. Sieve the ready compost (see below image) and use for your garden. There are some undone part once you sieve you can put leftover in next pile.This again help next pile to work faster.
Once you take out ready compost from pot and if second pot is filled ,use this first pot to continue the process.
                                                 Enjoy the touch of fine compost

                             

TIPS:
1. Add piece of lemon to avoid flies. 

2. Avoid cooked food if you are composting at home to avoid smell,it will also make process slow.

3. Pile should be moist (not soggy or dry). If its dry add more vegetables and if its too wet add dry leaves or cocopeat.
4. Break material in small pieces to make process faster.

For more tips and faq please check below link.

Please click here to check 'Tips and Faq for composting'

When you tell people about composting  they will say' very good thing' but get hesitate to start process. So I created 'go green-way to go' group to help my friends and beginners. If you are finding it difficult to continue this process. Please join this group,we will work together to make it a fun activity.
Go Green-Way to go

      

Banana Orange Smoothie

Delicious ,healthy and easy to make ,banana orange smoothie:

Ingredients:

2 small bananas

1 orange

3 to 4 tbsp honey 

1/4 cup Yogurt
4 to 5 walnuts

4 ice cubes

Method:

1. Peel and remove seeds from orange ,add to blender.

2. Add banana,honey,yogurt,walnut and ice. blend them together.

3. Pour in glass to serve chilled smoothie.

Egg-less Carrot Walnut Cake

Perfect eggless cake recipe with the benefits of carrot,walnut and yogurt.

Ingredients:

1 cup All purpose flour

1 cup Grated Carrot

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup yogurt

1 cup icing sugar

3/4 cup butter

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp baking soda

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degree C.

2. Add yogurt ,sugar,baking powder and baking soda. Mix to remove all the lumps and to form creamy texture.Leave mix for 5 minutes.

3. You can see some bubble formation on yogurt mixture. Add butter and vanilla essence to this,mix well.

4. To this mix add All purpose flour slowly and beat well to form smooth and creamy texture.

5. At last add carrot and walnuts and mix well.

6.Grease a baking tray with oil ,pour batter into tray.

7. Bake for 30 to 35 min at 200 degree C.

8. Allow cake to cool for 10 min ,then enjoy eating yummy cake.

Thanks for visiting,please leave your comments here if you like this recipe.

Related post:
Half n half oats banana cake

 Eggless Papaya walnut cake

Apple pie with crumble topping

Instant Dosa bytes for your little one

Instant dosa recipe.

Ingredients: 

1 cup Fine sooji

1 cup All purpose flour

2 cup Rice flour

(1:1:2 proportion) 

1 tsp cumin seeds

Salt to taste

Water as needed

Vegetables of your choice (Here I added grated carrot , finely chopped palak and coriander leaves).

Method:

1) Mix all the ingredients and make dosa batter in thin consistency.

2) Heat a non-stick pan and pour 1 tbsp of batter over the pan. No need to spread the batter just pour it and move pan.

3) Flip and cook the other side. 

4) Dosa is ready ,you can serve this with green chutney or Ketchup.

You can keep this mix ready. Mix sooji,all purpose flour,rice flour ,cumin seeds and salt. 

When needed add water and vegetables and make dosa.

Cheesy Chaat Tart.....

Easy to make ,Cheesy Chaat Tart:

For tart

8 to 10 bread slices (White/wheat bread) I like to use wheat bread.

1 tbsp of butter.

Pinch of salt 

1 to 2 tbsp of milk

For filling:

Half cup Tomato( Chopped)

Half cup  Onion (Chopped)
Green chutney
Dates tamarind  chutney

Half cup Cheese (grated)
1 cup Dry peas

Spices  (Amchoor powder,red chilly powder and salt)

:Method

 1: Grind bread slices to make breadcrumb 

 2: Now add butter, pinch of salt to breadcrumbs and make dough using little mil 

 3: Keep Dough in fridge for 10 min.

 4: Boil dry peas with salt and turmeric. You can also soak dry peas for some time and boil  it  5:  Add spices ,tomato, onion  and chutney to boiled peas to make chaat.

 6: Take muffin cups, place 2-inch ball of dough. Shape into tarts with your fingers.

 7:  Fill the cups with Chaat and sprinkle grated cheese.

 8: Bake tart for 20 min or until golden brown.

 9 : Decorate tart with cheese papad and garnish with tomato onion and tamarind chutney.