Food going to waste

I’m not afraid to admit I’m a bit under the thumb, the better half does keep me in line and pretty much wears the pants most of the time, but yesterday she called me to tell me she’d be “keep fatting” and that making tea was my duty tonight.

She always cooks, I clean – it’s a house rule, she tells me she hates scraping food wastes off plates hates having to clean dishes, it’s a routine now and I’m happy to find myself with “fairy” soft hands whilst “head banging” what’s left of my greying hair over a frothy sink bowl listening to Australians with an aversion to different types of electrical current.

So what shall I make? Spag Bol.



Spag’ Bol’s a favourite of mine and probably the majority of the male populous of our little island, I’m so keen on mine I’ll even give you my recipe.
I know what pans I need as soon as I walk in the kitchen; I know what vegetables, how many stock cubes, how much chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper and minced beef. I know when to put these together and in what order. It always takes the same amount of time and it always tastes just as good and it did again last night.

That’s what got me thinking, I was on autopilot last night and I made “Rocky’s Spag Bol” without even thinking, there were a total of 3 different pans, three processes at different temperatures and 11 different ingredients that made it, if you include water.

Now why do people think composting is so difficult I asked myself?

There’s only two “ingredients” in my composting, there’s only one piece of equipment. How do I get this across to people? So I’ve decided that when I talk with people to explain the simplicity of composting I’m going to ask them for a recipe. Every one knows a recipe, even if it’s jam on toast, if you can recite a recipe you’ve done it so many times its second nature.

The best composters are just that, it’s second nature, you just know what to do and what to look for, just like cooking. My best projects are just that too.

But the reverse will also be applied to certain situations. Occasionally I get asked about large composting projects that involve food waste. The client will picture composting like it’s a compactor or baler that you can just turn on or off, it’s not. It takes a little care and a little learning.

Imagine you’ve never stepped foot in the kitchen before, you’ve never seen an oven and you have never, ever made your own food. This kitchen though is a special kitchen, it’s huge and there is a single line menu on a table, but no recipe in sight. All the ingredients line the shelves around you, the clocks ticking and the “Maitre D” tells you you’ve got to cook Chicken Stroganoff for 200 people. Bugger.

Never get yourself in that situation, learn small, learn the recipe and grow the project that’s my advice. If you can make “Spag Bol” for two, blindfolded, then the chances are through pure mathematics you’ll be able to make it for 200.

The other I thought about too was, why is it sometimes it goes wrong?

If I was making “Rocky’s Spag Bol” last night and at a critical tomato puree moment, my better half took over – it’d go wrong. Why? Too many cooks spoil the broth. Simple.

So I’m going to use two cooking analogies when talking about composting food wastes, one the recipe and two, make sure that whoever uses the composting equipment is either limited by number or knowledge.

Have one or two people only, who know the recipe backwards and it works every time. Just like my Spag Bol.


Rocky