The model of NatureMill automatic composter I bought is the NatureMill PLUS. The manufacturer is NatureMill, and this is their website: http://www.naturemill.com/. NatureMill also makes the NatureMill PRO, which has a few convenience features, comes in fancy designer colors, has a longer warrantee, and costs $100 more than the NatureMill PLUS. They also make the Pet-Friendly Nature Mill, which is specifically tuned to process pet waste. The Pet-Friendly Nature Mill can also be used for kitchen waste. Like the PRO, it also costs $100 more than the NatureMill PLUS.
You can order the products straight from the manufacturer on their website. There are other online vendors as well. The manufacturer’s website lists a few brick-and-mortar retail dealers. I did not see a significant difference in price between any of these different sources --- they were all selling it for within about $5 of the manufacturer’s list price. I did see one online vendor that was exorbitantly overpriced, so obviously don’t pay more than list price!
I wanted to actually see and touch one of these things before I bought it, and I didn’t want to pay for shipping or have to wait while it shipped out, so I went to one of the retailers, Ecohome Improvement, in Berkeley. This is their website: http://www.ecohomeimprovement.com/. (Note: I don’t think they actually feature the NatureMill on their website, but they do have it in the store.) I paid $299.95 plus tax.
The salesperson I spoke to at Ecohome Improvement was knowledgeable and helpful. She owns a NatureMill PLUS and uses it at home, so she was able to share her first-hand impressions with me.
It looks like if you order the composter straight from NatureMill, you can get about 15% off each one if you buy three or more. That’s 50 bucks off of the PLUS model. It looks like you can team up with a few people to order three at one time, even if they are shipped to different places and billed to different people.
Mine came with internet coupons inside the box that allow people I refer to get $50 off the price of their NatureMill when they order online straight from NatureMill and use the coupon code. The code is CXJBL87.
If you want to order one of these things, be sure to save yourself 50 bucks and use the code. When you place the order, they will ask how you found out about NatureMill, at which point you enter my name, Eric Renger. According to info on the coupon and the website, if you use the code and reference me, I can get a free six-month supply of sawdust pellets. In order for me to claim my vast fortune in sawdust, after you place your order, I need to know your full name and your state and approximate order date. So if you know me, let me know about your order through the normal channels. If you don’t know me, but you feel grateful for having saved 50 bucks, please post a comment with the necessary info.
Whatever you do, please save yourself 50 dollars. If I can also get a six-month supply of sawdust, then it’s a win-win! Remember, Eric Renger sent you.
Disclaimer: I’m not trying to sell you a NatureMill, and I have no relationship with the NatureMill company. I don’t know enough about this thing yet to recommend it. This post and all other posts related to NatureMill, are just me rambling on about my experiences and are only for your information and amusement. (But if you decide on your own to get one, be sure to save yourself the 50 bucks and get me my sawdust.) If you are considering buying one and are not sure, then don’t do so on my recommendation at this point --- wait for the upcoming posts. I’m going to be detailing my experiences as I set up the NatureMill and use it.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
The Amazing NatureMill
I recently took another step on my journey into compost madness. I bought a NatureMill automatic composter.
The NatureMill automatic composter is an in-vessel composter for household food waste that automatically turns and aerates the compost. It is insulated, so it attains high temperatures. The high temperatures, mixing, and aeration create an optimized composting environment where the decomposition is supposed to be accelerated.
The NatureMill is supposed to be able to process up to about five pounds of food waste a day, or about 120 pounds per month (which is a lot more than we generate at this house). The NatureMill is also able to process things that are not appropriate for your outside compost bin or a worm bin. It can process cooked food, meat, cheese, and bread. There is a special model that is designed to handle pet waste as well. Those kinds of items are generally not appropriate for other kinds of home composting because of nuisances like smells, pests, or pathogens.
Because of the temperatures and aeration, the decomposition is supposed to occur very rapidly, and the food waste is not supposed to have time to get smelly. It also has an activated charcoal air filter to remove any residual odors. Because it is fully self contained, it is not supposed to attract any kinds of pests --- no rodents or flies. And because of the high temperatures, it is supposed to pasteurize pathogens.
At first glance, it seems like a silly high-tech solution to a process that can occur naturally with no technology whatsoever. But the fact is that even though “compost happens,” unless you put some knowledge and effort into controlling the environment and method of composting, you can invite some problems, especially when dealing with food waste. Yard waste is generally problem free, but I wanted a problem-free way to deal with the kitchen waste.
I had decided some time ago that I mostly did not want to process food waste through the regular outdoor Biostack bin. We have had rodents around the neighborhood at different times, and I did not want to be the cause of any of those problems. I don’t think rats or mice were feeding out of my bin or nesting in there, but I didn’t want to create any possibility of that happening. If you have been reading the blog, you know I did feed Fertilemyrtle Rottenpile a lot of food waste, but that was mostly for demonstration purposes. And whenever I did put food waste in the outdoor bin, I buried it deep and made sure to check it and aerate it frequently until it was completely decomposed. That can be a bit of a hassle.
I also have a worm bin that works for composting food waste. But the worm bin has its own set of hassles too. When everything is working perfectly, it can handle a maximum of about a half pound of food waste per day, but I was never able to get mine to actually accept that much. So it really didn’t process much waste. And when I did “overfeed” it, it tended to get fruit flies. Personally, I can deal with fruit flies and worms, but it’s not something most people would be interested in messing with.
If the NatureMill works as described, most of those problems should go away. I’ll be able to just open the lid of the NatureMill and dump in all the kitchen scraps, without having to pick through and pull out inappropriate ingredients the way I used to do with the worm bin. I’ll be able to put it all in, up to five pounds a day, without worrying whether I have “overfed” it the way I used to do with the worm bin. And because it is less of a hassle, and it sits right in the garage, outside the kitchen door, I’m more likely to actually take the food waste out instead of letting it “pre-compost” on the kitchen counter, a practice that Kathy never really seemed to appreciate very much. In fact, Kathy might actually take out the kitchen waste herself, which is not something she liked to do when it had to be buried in the Biostack or fed to the worms.
I think the NatureMill is going to be a bit like the gas barbeque I got a few years ago to replace the beloved charcoal Weber Kettle. I loved the old Weber and the authenticity of cooking over real burning charcoal, with real wood smoke, and real fire. But there were some inconveniences to it, and when I finally got the gas grill, I loved it too. I loved being able to turn the knob, hit a button and then just grill, rather than having to start a fire a half hour beforehand. I loved being able to adjust the temperature with a knob. I loved being able to cook something for over an hour without having to add more charcoal. A gas grill brings a lot of unnecessary technology to grilling for the sake of convenience, and I think the NatureMill is basically the same concept. I’m definitely going to keep the Biostack for yard waste, and I’ll probably keep the worm bin for the sake of harvesting worm castings. But, assuming everything works as described, I think I’m going to like the NatureMill for the convenience.
I’ll post more information about my experiences with the amazing NatureMill. Until then, for more info, you can check out the NatureMill website: http://www.naturemill.com/.
The NatureMill automatic composter is an in-vessel composter for household food waste that automatically turns and aerates the compost. It is insulated, so it attains high temperatures. The high temperatures, mixing, and aeration create an optimized composting environment where the decomposition is supposed to be accelerated.
The NatureMill is supposed to be able to process up to about five pounds of food waste a day, or about 120 pounds per month (which is a lot more than we generate at this house). The NatureMill is also able to process things that are not appropriate for your outside compost bin or a worm bin. It can process cooked food, meat, cheese, and bread. There is a special model that is designed to handle pet waste as well. Those kinds of items are generally not appropriate for other kinds of home composting because of nuisances like smells, pests, or pathogens.
Because of the temperatures and aeration, the decomposition is supposed to occur very rapidly, and the food waste is not supposed to have time to get smelly. It also has an activated charcoal air filter to remove any residual odors. Because it is fully self contained, it is not supposed to attract any kinds of pests --- no rodents or flies. And because of the high temperatures, it is supposed to pasteurize pathogens.
At first glance, it seems like a silly high-tech solution to a process that can occur naturally with no technology whatsoever. But the fact is that even though “compost happens,” unless you put some knowledge and effort into controlling the environment and method of composting, you can invite some problems, especially when dealing with food waste. Yard waste is generally problem free, but I wanted a problem-free way to deal with the kitchen waste.
I had decided some time ago that I mostly did not want to process food waste through the regular outdoor Biostack bin. We have had rodents around the neighborhood at different times, and I did not want to be the cause of any of those problems. I don’t think rats or mice were feeding out of my bin or nesting in there, but I didn’t want to create any possibility of that happening. If you have been reading the blog, you know I did feed Fertilemyrtle Rottenpile a lot of food waste, but that was mostly for demonstration purposes. And whenever I did put food waste in the outdoor bin, I buried it deep and made sure to check it and aerate it frequently until it was completely decomposed. That can be a bit of a hassle.
I also have a worm bin that works for composting food waste. But the worm bin has its own set of hassles too. When everything is working perfectly, it can handle a maximum of about a half pound of food waste per day, but I was never able to get mine to actually accept that much. So it really didn’t process much waste. And when I did “overfeed” it, it tended to get fruit flies. Personally, I can deal with fruit flies and worms, but it’s not something most people would be interested in messing with.
If the NatureMill works as described, most of those problems should go away. I’ll be able to just open the lid of the NatureMill and dump in all the kitchen scraps, without having to pick through and pull out inappropriate ingredients the way I used to do with the worm bin. I’ll be able to put it all in, up to five pounds a day, without worrying whether I have “overfed” it the way I used to do with the worm bin. And because it is less of a hassle, and it sits right in the garage, outside the kitchen door, I’m more likely to actually take the food waste out instead of letting it “pre-compost” on the kitchen counter, a practice that Kathy never really seemed to appreciate very much. In fact, Kathy might actually take out the kitchen waste herself, which is not something she liked to do when it had to be buried in the Biostack or fed to the worms.
I think the NatureMill is going to be a bit like the gas barbeque I got a few years ago to replace the beloved charcoal Weber Kettle. I loved the old Weber and the authenticity of cooking over real burning charcoal, with real wood smoke, and real fire. But there were some inconveniences to it, and when I finally got the gas grill, I loved it too. I loved being able to turn the knob, hit a button and then just grill, rather than having to start a fire a half hour beforehand. I loved being able to adjust the temperature with a knob. I loved being able to cook something for over an hour without having to add more charcoal. A gas grill brings a lot of unnecessary technology to grilling for the sake of convenience, and I think the NatureMill is basically the same concept. I’m definitely going to keep the Biostack for yard waste, and I’ll probably keep the worm bin for the sake of harvesting worm castings. But, assuming everything works as described, I think I’m going to like the NatureMill for the convenience.
I’ll post more information about my experiences with the amazing NatureMill. Until then, for more info, you can check out the NatureMill website: http://www.naturemill.com/.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Diary of a Compost Pile - May 22
Here is the latest in the ongoing series of diary entries by guest author Fertilemyrtle Rottenpile, the compost pile built during my Basic Compost Workshop. I am sorry for the long break, and I hope it did not disrupt the "narrative thread" too much. --- Eric
Dear Diary,
I know it’s been awhile, but I’m back --- it’s me, Fertilemyrtle Rottenpile. The last time I wrote, I was nearly out of my bin with excitement. After that amazing tumble and all the great food scraps, I got up to about 100 degrees the next day, and quickly climbed up to about 130. I held that for a long time. I was still at 130 on the day of the garden tour, nearly a week after the turning. I never got back up into those stratospheric high temps of my wild youth, but I was certainly able to hold my own.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had a few more good turns, and I’ve had a few more additions of choice greens. One time it was a big bucket of food scraps, another time a bag full of Starbucks coffee grounds, and one time it was a bunch of fresh, green plants pulled from the garden --- Eric planted a load of California poppies for the tour and had to thin them as they got too big. That’s always the best --- fresh, green, succulent growth, buried deep in the pile. I can digest that kind of stuff in just a couple of days.
I don’t think I’ll ever get as hot as I used to, and I’m OK with that. Right now I’m just hovering around 80 degrees --- just about ambient temperature outside.
I’ve still got plenty of identifiable twigs and woody prunings. So I’m not what you would call “mature” pile yet, but I am getting there. Sometimes I look back at the way I was in the past, and I can’t believe how I behaved, the wild swings and ravenous appetites --- I am definitely maturing.
But now that I don’t get as fired up as I used to, I can start new hobbies, like collecting worms and other compost pile invertebrates. Maybe I’ll get a few roly-poly bugs to keep as pets. I wouldn’t mind a few more loads of coffee grounds to fill out the bin a bit. I’m definitely down a full third from where I started.
And maybe with a bit more greens I’d get a nice boost of temperature to remind me of the crazy old days. I might get up somewhere around 120 or so if I had a good turning and a good load of coffee. I’d like to finish off some of the coarser unfinished material I’ve still got before I get sifted and put out to pasture (or out to veggie garden, as the case may be).
-- FR
Dear Diary,
I know it’s been awhile, but I’m back --- it’s me, Fertilemyrtle Rottenpile. The last time I wrote, I was nearly out of my bin with excitement. After that amazing tumble and all the great food scraps, I got up to about 100 degrees the next day, and quickly climbed up to about 130. I held that for a long time. I was still at 130 on the day of the garden tour, nearly a week after the turning. I never got back up into those stratospheric high temps of my wild youth, but I was certainly able to hold my own.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had a few more good turns, and I’ve had a few more additions of choice greens. One time it was a big bucket of food scraps, another time a bag full of Starbucks coffee grounds, and one time it was a bunch of fresh, green plants pulled from the garden --- Eric planted a load of California poppies for the tour and had to thin them as they got too big. That’s always the best --- fresh, green, succulent growth, buried deep in the pile. I can digest that kind of stuff in just a couple of days.
I don’t think I’ll ever get as hot as I used to, and I’m OK with that. Right now I’m just hovering around 80 degrees --- just about ambient temperature outside.
I’ve still got plenty of identifiable twigs and woody prunings. So I’m not what you would call “mature” pile yet, but I am getting there. Sometimes I look back at the way I was in the past, and I can’t believe how I behaved, the wild swings and ravenous appetites --- I am definitely maturing.
But now that I don’t get as fired up as I used to, I can start new hobbies, like collecting worms and other compost pile invertebrates. Maybe I’ll get a few roly-poly bugs to keep as pets. I wouldn’t mind a few more loads of coffee grounds to fill out the bin a bit. I’m definitely down a full third from where I started.
And maybe with a bit more greens I’d get a nice boost of temperature to remind me of the crazy old days. I might get up somewhere around 120 or so if I had a good turning and a good load of coffee. I’d like to finish off some of the coarser unfinished material I’ve still got before I get sifted and put out to pasture (or out to veggie garden, as the case may be).
-- FR
Bay-Friendly Garden Tour and Master Composter Graduation
Wow, it’s been some time since I posted anything to the blog! This blog business is tricky because the times when you have the most interesting things to say are also usually when you have no time to post. I’ve been really busy lately hosting the Bay-Friendly garden tour and wrapping up my Master Composter training.
The Bay-Friendly Garden Tour went very well and was a lot of fun. According to the official count, we had 316 visitors to our garden. There were several thousand visitors on the whole tour.
It turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year so far, getting up toward 100. Fortunately, I had people making sure that I took a break from yammering at visitors now and then so I could have a drink of water and something to eat. Otherwise, left to my own devices, I probably would have passed out.
I think garden tours generally have a reputation for being sort of hoity-toity affairs, but the Bay-Friendly Garden Tour is designed to be very accessible and to give people real, practical examples of how to reduce garden waste, cut down on the use of chemicals, decrease runoff, conserve water, build healthy soil, provide habitat, and save energy. I've been interested in these things for some time, and it was great to be able to share my experiences with people. Almost everyone who came was looking for ideas to take home and try on their own.
I think the garden looked pretty nice for the tour. I did a lot of work to get everything cleaned up, and I think it paid off nicely. Here are a few pictures:
The place cleans up OK.
Everyone asked what the big red plant is. It is Jupiter’s Beard, sometimes called Red Valerian, botanical name centranthus ruber. It’s beautiful, but I had to warn everyone that it makes millions of little parachute seeds, and volunteers come up all over the place. A significant part of my weeding involves pulling up volunteer Jupiter’s Beard.
I never plant California poppies anymore because they reseed like mad, but I scattered some seeds this spring to fill in some empty spots, and they really looked nice for the tour, providing some nice spots of orange color.
The tour organizers gave us signs to highlight specific Bay-Friendly practices. This garden bed is on drip irrigation with each plant receiving water tailored to its exact needs --- some get none at all, some get a deep watering once a week, some get light water 2 times a week and some get heavy water two times a week, but nobody gets more than they need. So this area highlights how irrigation techniques can save water.
Here are the reliable old succulents.
And more succulents.
The azalea decided to cooperate and bloom the week of the tour.
The clivia cooperated as well.
Awwwww … what a lovely vignette.
Kathy and I yammering at guests in the vegetable garden.
In addition to prepping for and hosting the tour, I also finished my Master Composter class. I successfully graduated and am now a Master Composter.
This is the Master Composter Class of 2008, posing with our instructors.
I shared the honor of being the class Vermadictorian with another student. Here we are posing with Wriggly.
I’m sure many of you are wondering what ever happened to Fertilemyrtle Rottenpile. As I mentioned I was just a bit too busy for the blog for awhile, but, to be honest, I also felt maybe that pile had gotten a bit out of hand. Don’t get me wrong, she was no problem as a compost pile and was doing a great job of making compost. But Myrtle seemed to me to be having wild unpredictable mood swings, and I was never really sure what she might end up posting. If I had thought she was able to leave the bin, I probably would have sought a restraining order, because she seemed to have an unnatural obsession with me. Kinda freaky. It seems like she has matured a bit, and maybe it’s time to hear from her again. I’ll see if she has anything to say.
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