httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1908VmFlQ8Y Good short clip showing the steam... probably the coolest part of composting through the cold months. How to do it? Have a pile at least 3'x3'x3' in size, comprised of half shredded browns (preferably leaves). Add the food scraps, cover with more browns, moisten, cover the pile with a tarp or lots of straw.
originally found here: http://woodsend.org/2013/09/left-hand-doesnt-right-hand-pla-doing/ American and European consumers are very familiar with PLA widely marketed as compostable for just about everything from chip-bags to golf-tees. This renowned PLA, a biological plastic made from a “left-hand” lactic-acid molecule, also has a quirk: it requires a pre-heat phase before it will actually biodegrade. That trait is referred to as Tg or “glassy transition” in the trade. Tg is a feature of all plastics and can occur over a very wide range of temperatures, but none as convenient as PLA’s at 55-58°C, making it eligible to be called compostable,- that is, if the compostability test is conducted at or just above the Tg temperature. To be certified compostable means a standard is upheld such as ASTM 6400 for USA or EN 13432 for…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veLSPo423KM Daphne Richards has a nice video here explaining why it's OK to put weeds in your compost pile if it's one that's really cooking. Once you get into the 130 and up range, the weed seeds die off in a matter of hours...she mentions 150 degrees, but in my experience it doesn't need to get THAT hot...although it's cool if you do. I would simplify the video by saying that if you're working with a large compost bin, you can definitely compost weeds with no problem. However, in smaller volumes there's just not enough heat generated for a sustained period of time to kill the weed seeds. Personally I like to put a big stack of weeds on top of my compost as an insulating layer, because I simply…