Absinthia Returns, Part 5

Compost in UK, photo by John Winfield

This is part of a continuing series of email letters exchanged with my Swedish friend, Absinthia. To see the whole series, start with  Living a Simple Life.

Dear Absinthia,

Composting seems like a great way to manage our garbage and get it into a form that benefits the Earth.  But I always run into problems with unwanted visitors taking up residence in the pile, bin, or whatever.  Last year I set up a worm farm in a plastic box in the house. It was great for composting food scraps and even paper. But it produced so many little fruit flies, that I had to get rid of it.

- amanda

Hello!

I had a friend who kept a worm farm. She kept it under the zink during the winters, but as soon as the spring started, she put it out on her balcony.

Small tip to get rid of fruit flies: take garlic, just a piece or two, punch it with a fork so it gets some holes in it. Place it where the flies are gathering. Works like a charm ;-)

To handle regular flies, make a bouquet of silver absinthum, and hang it in the window. No more flies ;-)   If you prefer not to have poisonous flowers in the home, grow lavender in a pot or in the garden. When it’s in bloom, cut some and make small bouquets of fresh lavender and hang in the windows to protect against flies, hang in the closets to protect against moths. They will look and smell just as lovely when dried. And don´t forget to put dried lavender in the drawers for a nice smell and protection against all sorts of bugs :-)

We compost anything that is biological in our house. And we very seldom throw away any food. We eat our food, and we don´t make more than we need. We use the clothes until they are too worn out, then we make tarn (yarn made from strips of fabric) of whatever is still usable and compost the rest.

We grow a lot of leafy greens for food, as potted plants indoors. Outdoors, we harvest a lot of what others consider as weeds. We dry them, or put them in the freezer and eat them as greens.  We also grow berries, fruits, and greens in our garden. We have raised beds for that.

- Absinthia

Dear Absinthia,

We are also very careful to eat all of our food, but some of it is so damaged by the time it gets to the store, that the outer parts often have to be disposed of or composted.

- amanda

The conversation is continued here:
Absinthia Returns, Part 6