Question of the Week: Eating Damaged Fruits

August 16, 2011  |  5 Comments  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Gardening

Wildlife, imperfections, and disease are a part of gardening life. There are aphids, evil squirrels, scavenging raccoons, crazy winds, and blossom end rot, just to name a few.

For the most part, if a fruit is plucked early enough, some of it might be salvageable. As Colleen Vanderlinden at About.com puts it:

It’s perfectly fine to eat tomatoes that have blossom end rot You can cut away the rotted portion, and eat the rest of the tomato as usual. You’ll want to take a look inside the tomato, because sometimes the rot will extend up into the interior of the tomato a little, even though the outside seems fine. You won’t get sick from eating it if you miss some, it will just taste “off” to you, most likely

Generally, I compost BER tomatoes because they don’t make it to the reddening stage. I don’t want to leave them on the plant to suck up nutrients that the healthier fruits might need. With peppers (yes, even they can get blossom-end rot), I let them grow and cut away any damaged areas, once the peppers reach the desired coloring.

So, would you eat insect or disease -riddled fruits?

Question of the Week: Eating Produce Grown With Human Waste

August 8, 2011  |  Comments Off  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Gardening

The folks over at Root Simple are doing an interesting, two year experiment. They’re in the process of composting their cat’s waste product. Newspaper kitty litter would probably be a great medium for this. Composting cat and dog excrement, for the most part, is a huge no-no, based on conventional wisdom; this is because of what could be living in their waste. However, Kelly and Erik have faith in their composting skills and won’t be using the end-result on edible plants.

A few years ago, I read an article about a study done that fertilized tomatoes with human urine. While my immediate reaction was UGH GROSS, I found that their results, while inconclusive, were still interesting. With composting toilets and other “humanure” processes, this is making me ask:

Would you ever eat produce that was grown with any level of human waste?

I would probably try it to compare against another similarly grown plant. I feel, at the point of eating it, the waste would be treated and the plant would have converted it into another form, entirely.

Question of the Week: Do You Compost?

August 3, 2011  |  4 Comments  |  by Ben Czajkowski  |  Gardening
Zits-Composting

Copyright 2011 ZITS Partnership. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.

Do you compost?

Regardless of where you live, do you compost? If so, how? How long have you been doing it for?

If you don’t compost, what would it take for you to start? More space? Education? Fear of stink, bugs, creatures, etc?

Personally, I wanted to compost for a long time, but I didn’t know what it took. So, I signed up for a free class that was offered by the Cox Arboretum, in Dayton, OH. The best part about it was that they gave us a free composting bin! When I moved in May, I set the bin up, in my back yard. Whatever I don’t feed to my worms, in terms of food waste, goes into the compost bin. So does all of my grass clippings and plant cuttings that aren’t infected with some disease or bacteria. In the fall, most of the leaves that I rake will go into there, as well. Hopefully, in the Spring or Summer, I will have my first load of compost!