Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Thursday, 14 February 2013

A day of not mentioning the "V" word and random musings on bananas


Bananas to you all. Lots of bananas. Our local Co op had loads of them reduced a few   6 days ago (GREEN ONES! So why oh why reduced? ) So I bought 6 bags of them, well actually I could have bought another 5 bags but that seemed a bit greedy.

Since then I have been waiting for a sunny day so I could use the free electricity the pv's would generate, to dehydrate them in the Excalibur ( that's the make of the dehydrator btw, not some fanciful equipment naming whim of mine - I don't name inanimate objects. well not very often, anyway.) And today was gloriously sunny!





 I ended up cutting up 22 bananas - I bought 6 bags originally and we have eaten some of them fresh.




After prepping 5 trays, like the above one, and putting them in the dehydrator I went outside into the glorious sunshine with a mug of tea. I let out the hens, talked to the guinea pigs and had a wander around the garden with Cassi cat, in the sunshine. Well a squelch around, at least.

I had thought about doing some veg bed weeding or maybe flower bed clearing, as the bulbs are beginning to poke through the soil so I need to get the dense thatch of last years growth off the surface before the raking damages the new shoots.

But as I wandered around I realised that I could hear a lot of squelching and when I looked around I could see muddy, ooozy footprints on the grass behind me. Not the sort of ground conditions for walking on, repeatedly, with wheelbarrows.

I could also (sigh) see lots of hens wherever I went. It is lovely that the ex battery girls love me so much that they want to be near me all the time - but do they really need to try to sit on my feet as I am walking along? I really think not.

So I decided to come inside and wrestle with invoices, unwilling Blogger and PayPal, instead. Which was fun (not) and with which I am still struggling.

The house now smells extremely bananary... I am reminded of a time when, driving back from Scotland with the trailer after we had competed at a Hillclimb at Doune, we overtook a lorry which proudly proclaimed on the sides that the firm were the "largest independent banana ripeners in the UK"   I  often wondered what their premises would smell like - I guess like Compost Mansions does today!

And the title? Well, to each their own and if you have had a lovely day getting and sending cards, flowers, chocolates etc - good luck to you and we have had occasionally done so in the past but surprise surprise actually no, we don't go in for all that.  I don't want or get given any over priced, flown from overseas, chemically grown and sprayed flowers from Compostman, or chocolate or whatever else. We show and tell each other how we feel day in day out, not leave it for one commercially driven day of the year.

After being together for 28 years of marriage and 33 years since we first became friends, I guess Compostman and I must be doing something right!

So bah humbug to all that :-) But as I say, if it is what you enjoy then I hope you have a lovely evening with your beloved :-) And many more of them in the future :-)


Thank you for reading  xxx




5 comments:

  1. :)) Loving the image of you with hens on your wellies.

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  2. Must get Compostman to film it!

    They are lovely, but very needy and very much an obstacle sometimes.

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  3. If....I had a fella, I wouldn't want him to spend loads of dosh on V presents, just being nice to me would be enough. Bananas are bril, I love them.

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  4. Brilliant banana purchase!!

    And we enjoyed our Valentines evening together with our special meal at home.

    And yes, we do tell each other we love each other many times every day, it's just sometimes nice to go the extra mile :-)

    Sue xx

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  5. NIce to find your blog today. NIce also to find other organic minded people. In time, most people will probably learn the benefits of such and leave the unhealthy word of so much of our food today. I garden here on the shores of Lake Michigan and have a small organic garden as part of my larger flower gardens. I wish you well. See you again. Jack

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Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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