The Circle of Life - Healthy Living and Composting

Today I was cutting up my veggies for our Asparagus Cream Soup that I made for dinner and I couldn't get over the massive amounts of FRESH FOOD that I have been going through lately!!  I LOVE it!  It's such a beautiful experience to open up my refrigerator and see so many vibrant colors and LIFE.  And then to get to "play" with the bounty of fresh fruits and veggies by peeling, chopping, slicing and creating healthy - and super yummy - dishes.  My kids are even getting on board with all this healthy eating.  We haven't gone so far as to put them on the "detox" (although I would once we get them use to all the changes) but they are picking out fresh foods to eat since that's all we have to choose from anymore! 

Anyway, back to my point of this post.

So, I was peeling carrots and chopping the ends off the celery and asparagus stalks and peeling the paper off the onions and garlic and throwing these "scraps" in my little kitchen compost/trash can and thinking "How could anyone EAT this way and not compost all of these usable, organic scraps?"  We have literally been taking our compost can out every day and tossing it in the outside compost pile.  TONS and TONS of food scraps (that I paid for) is now breaking down in my backyard to produce rich, organic soil for us to reuse in our vegetable garden!!  How awesome is that?? 

So, here's literally how simple it is to compost your food waste, grass clipping, leaves, weeds from your garden or flower bed, etc.  My husband made this last year which is when these two pictures were taken.  Four posts in the ground and chicken wire and it sits in the corner of our garden.  I bought a little step-can from Wal-Mart for about 12 bucks that has a removable insert that I use in the house.  When it's full, it's my sons' job to take it out and dump it in the compost pile.  Every couple days or so my husband goes out and turns the soil.

See the steam coming off the compost pile?  It literally heats up as it breaking down into soil!  So after doing this ALL YEAR we had a TON of rich soil to dump on our garden this year.  And now that I am doing this detox/lifestyle change, I have been buying more expensive "organic" foods and it's been easier to justify the expense not only since the food is less toxic, but because I am also paying for organic soil in it's raw-est form! HA!

 

Everything can be justified.  No excuses.  Come on people, jump on the band wagon.  Live healthy, eat healthy - what are you waiting for?  It's your life, you only get one and you are in control of it.  (Stepping off my soapbox for now.)