If you do not like the idea of waste food hanging about the house waiting for collection by the council and do not fancy hot composting or using a Bokashi system the Smart Cara might be the  kitchen gadget for you. It  grinds heats and dehydrates food waste reducing it in volume by up to ninety percent in three hours.  The dry odour free material produced can be dug directly to the garden, be added to a conventional home-composting bin or to the normal council bin collection.

The kitchen waste is put, or scraped from the plate, into a special  bucket that is then placed in the machine. In three hours, the waste will  heated, dehydrated and reduced by about 90% to produce a dry material that can be used as a soil enhancer. 

The Smart Cara is not cheap costing about £400 and about £4 a month to run but it does offer an alternative method of dealing with cooked food, meat and other  food waste for those living in flats or houses without gardens or gardeners that only have a cold composting system who are not happy using a Bokashi bin. 

A longer version of this blog can be found on the Food Composting section.

Buckingham Nurseries & Garden Centre
Tingewick Road, Buckingham, MK18 4AE

Tel: 01280 827910 Fax: 01280 815491
www.buckinghamgardencentre.co.uk
www.buckingham-nurseries.co.uk

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I  am giving the following talks and attending the events  on composting over the next three months.

3rd May  Talk at Welwyn Garden City for allotment gardeners. Organised by the Council Allotment Officer. Starts at 7pm

9 May Attending NWLDC Composting Road Show at Coalville Market 10-2pm. Part of Intenational Compost Awareness Week activities. Information on Composting, current council offers on bins etc.

10th May. Talk starting at 4pm Composting with Worms at Buckingham Nurseries & Garden Centre.  

24th May  Home Composting talk Market Harborough   1:30 - 3pm Talk to Carers for Voluntary Action South Leicestershire

27th 28th May Food Gusto Festival at Ashby de la Zouch. We will have a stand at this two day event promoting home composting of food and garden waste

3rd June Talk to Duffield Garden Club Composting at Home and on the Allotment

6th June Stand at Brocks Hill Country Park Promoting composting and giving children the chance to make Rotbots (a compost bin in a bottle)

10th June 12pm - 5pm Stand at Loughborough Picnic in the Park event organised by Charnwood Arts

12 June Cross Farm Garden Club A change from the composting theme a talk on Garden Safety looking at peoples efforts to injure themselves in the garden. including Bill and bens Revenge the 4.000+  serious accidents invoving flower pots

Blackberries enter the composting chain when we are clearing an overgrown site to make a garden or when pruning a plant grown for fruit. The thorns make the plant difficult to handle when composting and the previous years growth will be dry and hard  and as a consequence very slow to decomposting in the compost heap. A new page at www.carryoncomposting looks at composting  bramble and the advantages of shredding the plant. Its use in making a Dead Hedge is also considered as this offers both a wildlfe haven and a easy to build screen for the composting area.