Sifting the compost.

About a month ago we sifted the material in our oldest compost bin. It seemed like it had done all the cooking it was going to do in its present state and it was time to see what we had.

We bought some 1/4 in screen and stapled it on a wooden frame and just went for it.
There was still a lot of stuff that had yet to break down - you can see the some seeds and a lot of eggshells.

It took all afternoon to unpack the whole bin but then the final product was amazing, well worth the effort - light, rich and beautiful in every way.

We filled about 8 five gallon tubs with this incredible "black gold" - that's what they call it - a miraculous transformation - total success on a New York City rooftop. Now if everyone took their kitchen scraps and ..... "what a wonderful world it would be".

Well at least a small step.

Compost

We have been composting for a couple of years now and it is amazing to see our scraps turn into soil. What is really incredible is all the plants that volunteer to grow of their own volition out of the compost.

At the moment I have transplanted about 15 tomato plants of unknown species as well as and various squash? or melon? plants that took root and grew out of the pots with the various seedlings I grew from seed and purposefully planted.

I can't bear to throw them out so I repot them, or at least the bulk of them. The only problem is that the seeds I purchased are labeled organic, but the volunteer plants could be anything.

Right now I have this pepper plant growing out of the back of the compost bin. I'm waiting to sift the rest of the compost and dismantle the bin to liberate the pepper and repot it.