Up at the Big House

More sort of rust coloured today.

About the same colour as the one next to it. Although they are of very different design.

I wanted to replenish my Kelp supply from a beach somewhere this summer. Unfortunately I saw none, only fine grassy seaweed which is not so useful. Kelp I dry in the sun and break up into bag-able material.
Once back to base I feed it into a Kitchen Waste Disposal unit, this produces a material between dust and small pieces ideal to use like Fish Blood and Bone.

My relationship with the Waste Disposal is quite odd. In a former life I was involved with the sale of them, or rather non sale. I cannot for the life of me see any conceivable reason to grind up good compost-able material and flush it down the sewer. Thus enriching the sewage and adding unnecessary solids for the treatment works to deal with.

Imagine little me at a sales seminar being asked to give some good reasons to recommend them to the public and giving my reply above. I could never sell something I do not believe in. Then I asked a manufacturers rep. if they could be run completely dry, he didn't know but after a little research I decided they could and purchased one.

I grind bones for bonemeal and seaweed in it, when I kept chickens I ground all their food.
What I did bring from the coast was Cuttlefish and Oyster Shells. Oh what hard work eating all those Oysters at 2 Euro a Kilo.
These will be ground up too. Both are a source of Calcium with traces of salt and iodine etc. I like to put a little around my cabbage plants. Cabbages being originally coastal species I am sure they appreciate it.
Incidentally Cuttlefish has a greasy texture if Oyster Shell is ground with it, it 'kicks' it through the system.

The ideal mounting place for the unit is in the waste of a stainless steel sink in the potting shed. Compost is mixed and stored in the sink and the draining board used for potting. Any coarse peat lumps can be ground up when making compost too. The whole arrangement is easy to clean and sterilise. The output of the Waste Disposal of course goes via a short pipe direct to a bucket, not the sewer.