On the first day of spring, in this corner of the Epi office, thoughts are turning to deck-, backyard- and rooftop-based urban farming. Some of us have a headstart.
Last winter my boyfriend and I bought an indoor composter. I was skeptical.
But the NatureMill is pretty straightforward, and makes composting in one-bedroom apartments both easier (it heats and mixes the compost to help it break down faster) and safer (it's meant to seal tightly, and has a charcoal air filter to keep the smell down).
We learned, for example, that the device could jam, but only after spending a half hour on our knees, elbow-deep in eerily familiar food scraps while quartering a few-dozen Brussels sprouts with a pair of scissors (this was also when we realized we were in it for good).
We've also been a bit surprised, in an enjoyable, science-project kind of way, by the variety of smells emanating from gray, PC-sized box. Before becoming more vigilant about adding baking soda to the mix, the utility closet has smelled variously like barnyard, landfill, chocolate, medieval plagues, and a fifth-grade classroom.
But the payoff has been terrific. First, it's wholly satisfying to have a useful place to recycle food scraps, along with the paper, plastic, and metal that NYC already recycles.
Second, the guilt about not eating yet another bag of grocery store lettuce lessens when you can use it to make dirt to grow "real" lettuce.
Then there's the unexpected thrill of terroir planning, and wondering whether we'll be able to taste this winter's discarded horseradish in next year's harvest.
But mostly the payoff is the ordinary but deep fun of making something.
And, with spring upon us, each bag of sweet, steaming, boggy proto-dirt we move to the roof gets us one step closer to summer's first round of produce.
By Megan O. Steintrager
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