The Story of a Banana Peel

Watch The Story of a Banana Peel. It's a short film I made during a 16mm filmmaking class in June. I'd never done anything like this before and wanted to make something compost-related. It's not perfect but makes me happy when I watch it. I think the song adds so much as well.

Fascinating story about Cafeteria Composting in NYC!

http://domaphile.com/2013/03/05/school-lunch-confidential-inside-cafeteria-composting/

I've been thinking about avocado pits a bunch today

Stuff that doesn't break down too quickly in the compost heap.

 I spent some time turning a compost pile that's been sitting since April. As I turned the pile, I separated out random pieces of miscellaneous non-biodegradable items. I also spent a lot of time thinking about avocado pits. These are usually the last to break down in a compost pile. Today however, I was able to open all but one pit.  Most were soft and easily broken apart. Most were orange-ish on the inside. I think we're ready for siftin'!

Pineapples in the Compost Pile

Pineapples in the Compost Pile

Turning the compost pile this morning, I became fixated on pineapples. I'd transferred food scraps from a tumbler where they'd been for two weeks into a bin so most of the food was broken down into a dark, wet, mucky kind of material. There are always some scraps still recognizable - egg shells, cabbage, citrus, and avocado pits but today I encountered three pineapple crowns, completely intact. The leaves were loose but the crowns of each were still in one piece.  I peeled off the leaves and threw them back into a tumbler for further breaking down.

My mind wandered as I continued to turn, thinking about how to share the beauty of the pile, how to share the meaning of avocado and banana peel stickers, how to document the bits of plastic.  I wondered why I love this so much, this messy job sorting banana peels, coffee grounds, and broccoli stalks.  A light bulb went off (energy-efficient, of course) and I thought, why not write about some of these enlightening morsels?

Lots of other blogs about composting exist, but I'm going to attempt to write about my composting experiences at a small community garden with a goal of amusing, educating, and memorializing all of it.  My only regret is that the beautiful smell of the finished compost can't be transmitted via cyberspace (yet.)

Image source: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/DM-Resize/photos.demandstudios.com/getty/article/78/34/87451512.jpg?w=600&h=600&keep_ratio=1