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Cooked food in copost?

I know that I can put grass cuttings, weeds and uncooked vegetable waste into my compost bin but can one put cooked food waste into it?

Are there such things as compost generator material? 

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  • The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • No ... cooked food waste attracts rats so don't put it in your compost bin. 

    You can buy 'hot composters' which are ok for cooked food, and wormeries will also cope with a bit of cooked food waste, but both take a bit more effort to look after than ordinary garden composting.

    You can buy compost activator from garden centres, but personally I've never done so ... some chicken manure or rabbit or guinea pig manure from a friend whose children keep such things, or a bag of pony poo or goat manure bought for 50p from a gateway on a drive in the countryside will do the job perfectly adequately, and of course, there's always what Bob Flowerdew euphemistically calls 'recycled beer and cider' ... all I have to do to get that is buy OH a couple of bottles of Adnams and place a bucket in the downstairs loo image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    Never put in  cooked food waste, best thing is to only cook what you know will be eaten.

    the only waste I have is the occasional chicken bone, but most times buy fillets.

    never thought of a bucket, I send him up top of garden to water direct?

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • Think your garden's a little more isolated than our Lyn image


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • You CAN compost cooked food waste in a normal home compost bin in small quantities. Absolutely nothing wrong with it despite what traditional types say.

    A closed bin is better for this though. 


  • Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190

    I like to be known as a ‘traditional type’ thankfully there are a few of us left. 

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • WelshonionWelshonion Posts: 3,114

    Our Council supply a waste food bin to every household. They empty it every week and use the contents to make compost which we can buy by the bag or trailer-load.  And it's nice stuff too.

    Lobby your Council if it doesn't do the same.

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889

    for the tiny amount of cooked food we don't eat, mine goes in the compost bin.

    Devon.
  • josusa47josusa47 Posts: 3,530

    I'm with hostafan, we eat almost everything we cook, and the birds get first dibs at the leftovers. What they don't eat goes in my lidded compost bin which stands on wooden planks.  I don't think rats would get in, but if ever I see one, I'll stop composting the scraps. 

    What do others do with potatoes that are too green or damaged to eat?  I used to put them in the compost bin but they just hibernate and grow as soon as temperatures start to rise.  Is there any alternative to putting them in the landfill bin?

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