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I am a bit baffled by the concern over meats and cheeses in composts with regard to rats. To be sure, rats will eat these, but they will also go to composts for seeds (such as from squashes and cereals), breads and cakes, and peelings. So the best way to keep out rats is to contain the compost within a wire screen having a hole size too small for a rat to enter. Then you'll have a garden with lots of well-fed voles, to be followed by occasional visits by a hawk! I was raised from childhood in the 1940s to put all organic matter in a compost. No meat was thrown away in those days - we ate it all! When all that was left were bones, these were boiled for soup. This was in England and my father kept the compost in the traditional English way - in a shallow pit in a well-drained part of the garden. He periodically put a layer of regular garden soil over the rotting matter. I recommend this as the simplest and most sustainable solution (including eating ALL the meats and cheeses). If you have a fear of rats, then lock them out using a wire cage. In the winter in Nova Scotia, I sometimes put the compostibles on the snow for birds - crows and bluejays love it! Provided the snow is deep enough, rodents do not tunnel their way up to the frozen food. Composting is elementary common sense provided you listened to the biology teacher in school; the decomposing work is done by fungi and bacteria (generally of harmless varieties from a human health point of view) which are everywhere. All you have to do is leave the organic waste in a pile in a convenient place. I can't believe all the hoo-hah about it! Martin Willison -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- The preceding message was posted on the Sustainable Maritimes mailing list (sust-mar). http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/lists/sust-mar -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Volunteer moderator: Paul Falvo mailto:sust-mar-owner@chebucto.ns.ca To submit a message to sust-mar, please send it to: mailto:sust-mar@chebucto.ns.ca PLEASE SEND MESSAGES TO SUST-MAR IN PLAIN TEXT ONLY MESSAGES CONTAINING HTML (MIME) CANNOT BE POSTED
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