no bread in compost?

[Honeybee'smama]

I know not to put dairy or meat stuff in compost, but I was at a friends house the other night and she mentioned that she does not put bread or cooked things in her compost. She said she heard they don't break down the same. I have not heard this before.

Do you put bread in your compost? Cooked things? If not why.

[liawbh]

THe only bad thing I have heard about cooked things in compost is sometimes they're more likely to attract critters.
But all growing up and as an adult, I've always composted everything except meat and citrus peels. THe only thing that seems to take a long time to break down is eggshells, but they can be tossed back in the pile, or left in the garden without hurting anything.

[Mama Lori]

I compost bread. You don't want to compost dairy or meat products, but bread contains so little dairy (if any) that it's fine. The only reason not to compost cooked foods is if they contain dairy or meat products.

[armonia]

I put everything except meat. I sometimes just throw the bread near the compost for the birds and squirrels, but I have thrown it in the pile, too.

hmmm...waiting for more responses to see if I should stop that...

[stafl]

everything and anything will eventually turn into compost (well, except plastic). meat and dairy will stink if the pile isn't hot enough, and draws critters and yellowjackets, but is still compostable. anything organic is compostable, given the right conditions and enough time.

[tboroson]

I seem to recall that grains will promote growth of bacteria that aren't ideal for composting. Yes, they will eventually break down, too, but you could end up with a slow-decaying, smelly pile. But, I'm writing from memory because I have a sleepy baby on my chest, so I'm not digging into my resources right now, and I can guarantee you my Mommy brain will forget to look it up in the morning so I won't stand behind my words very strongly...

That said, I don't think a few scraps of anything, meat or bread or dairy, will hurt anything. I don't dump in entire chicken carcasses, but if I'm scraping veggie scraps from a plate, I don't worry about a few grains of rice or scraps of meat. I've never had any particular stink or pest problems

[BinahYeteirah]

bs"d

How about eggs? I know eggshells are fine, but are cooked eggs?

I generally follow tboroson's philosophy. Most of our food scraps are fruit and veggie peels, cores, etc. the small amount of cooked food that goes in, I don't worry about. Our family consumes very few animal products anyway.

[Mama Lori]

I would not do eggs - animal products will attract critters.

[UUMom]

One year I put a couple of pieces of raw chicken breast in my compost-- I know you are not supposed to do that- but I had forgotten about this chicken. It was in the back of my fridge and went bad. I felt so guilty for wasting that poor chicken's life so totally. I couldn't put in the trash, it seemed too wretched.

I put it in my compost. It didn't attract critters, but it was disgusting. And for a time it stank when I lifted the cover. But oh, did that thing break down and compost. My contractor, who is also a great gardener, said not to worry. If it didn't bring an animal, it will rot just like anything else. (It actually rotted very quicky). He said back in 'the old country' his parents composted everything (no garbage pickup then).

I usually leave out the bread , if i have any, for birds. I also compost banana peels and citrus. It takes much longer, but as you are working the dirt, any big chunks can be tossed back into the composter. I like finding those eggshells in the dirt. I usually crush the egg shells when I put the in my counter contianer. That way, they are already small.

[MaggiesMom]

http://www.mastercomposter.com/

[Chanley]

Bread is not healthy for birds. Just so ya know, this comes from a LONG time bread feeding birds person....


I throw my eggs, bread and other stuff in the compost.

A great book on this is Let It Rot. I love that book. I mostly give meat leftovers to the dog. She loves them. We use our bones to make stock and when I have cooked my stock for 36 hours, the bones are literally mushy, so the dog gets those too.

Cooked stuff with animal products gets thrown in the compost. if it has alot of animal fats, the dog will eat it.

now my cooked eggs go to the ducks. We never throw away any food here. Just packaging goes in our trash.