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jamb_gw

bread in compost

jamb
12 years ago

New to composting and confused now.

What is wrong with throwing bread into the compost?

I just cleaned out my freezer and was planning on throwing a stale loaf of rye bread in, is that a no no, should I let it mold first.

I have a "earth machine" mostly for kitchen waste, dead heading, etc. although this fall I will have a lot of leaves.

Comments (72)

  • toxcrusadr
    11 years ago

    Them's fightin' words. Everybody knows el Chupacabra is attracted to compost.

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Trop, please search & I think u will find your sense of humor about compost. Really. I'll help u get started. This forum that discusses dirt & rotting putrescence is one of the busiest on GW. Surely u find that funny! Smiles!

    Chupacabra is welcome to my pile, as long as he/she doesn't eat too much. He'll have to get approval from the dog first, though...

  • berryman135678
    11 years ago

    Which reminds me, I need to go to the local food pantry to pick up my weekly load of moldy bread for my compost.

    There are two kinds of people in this world, those who compost bread and those who don't...or is it listen to Neil Diamond???

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    Good times never seemed so good!

  • joule
    11 years ago

    What did the Planaria say to the slice of bread?

    Will you please leaf me alone.

  • tsugajunkie z5 SE WI ♱
    11 years ago

    What did annpat say to the bread in the compost?

    "Loaf's a breach!"

    tj

  • elisa_z5
    11 years ago

    Where's Annpat when we need her?

    Those threads kept me up way past my bedtime laughing. I was still afraid to look at the photos, though.

  • joule
    11 years ago

    What did the Planaria say to the bread in the compost?

    White,Wheat or Rye?

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    11 years ago

    The planarian prayer... Give us this day our daily bread...

  • toxcrusadr
    11 years ago

    What kind of music does bread listen to while biodegrading in the compost?

    Moldy oldies and mushy love songs.

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago

    So all the annpat threads I read about planarians are wrong? I had nightmares for a few days afterwards.

    Yesterday I put some moldy bread in my pile for the very first time as a tribute to this thread :)

  • toxcrusadr
    11 years ago

    What did you read about planarians?

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago

    Please Im trying to forget it. Plus the looks of them creep me out.

    Im the kind of guy that will go into a den of knife wielding maniacs with nothing but my bare fists but if you confront me with a caterpillar or a "planarian" type of animal, I run screaming while flailing my arms hysterically saying "GET IT OFF OF ME GET IT OFF OF ME!"

  • annpat
    11 years ago

    I'm thinking that composting breadstuffs is not for you, blaze. I mean, some people say that it's not true---the relationship between composting wheat sog and planaria infestations in the pile---but then there's them who say that you Absolutely cannot do the one without attracting the other.

    Me? I'm just not a big risk taker. I may be alone in this, but I find planaria really disgusting. For me, it's not worth it.

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago

    YES. If there is even a MAYBE that planarians will be attracted I will not bother. There is much stuff to compost. Besides, we eat ALL the bread in this house. It is my grandmothers weakness. Besides planarians feed off of worms. And I love my red worms like children.

    We had a rain today and I went around picking up all the worms that had come up to breath. I got 18 of them. So I put them a few inches away from the pile and watched them. Eventually them crawled their way to my pile and disappeared underneath. They knew it was a planarian free zone;-)

  • annpat
    11 years ago

    Oh. My. Gosh! You are my new favorite Garden Webber!! By a long shot. Absolutely bar none. (Not counting Flora.)

    There are some really dumb composters here (BerryMan comes immediately to mind)---just between you and me---who think that planaria are nothing to snort at. NOTHING TO SNORT AT!!!

    Are you kidding me!?
    If anyone asks you why Maine is Planaria free, do not feel unabashed (or...feel abashed, whichever works in my favor here) to mention my name.

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago

    Thanks! The feelings are mutual. It feels good to be appreciated! I always liked Maine. Although Ive never been there, I hear they have good lobsters.

    And I would hate to lift my pile to put an apple core in the center just to have some slimy looking fish creature hiss at me and spit venom in my eyes. Thank god for pitch forks:=)

  • emmers_m
    11 years ago

    Bask in Annpat's favor, blazeaglory. Bask in it, I say!

    I once, all too briefly, enjoyed a similar glow.

    But then I posted an experience that was too raw, too personal, too soggy. In my horror, I unwittingly exposed Annpat to secondhand sog, and lost the approbation that had warmed the very cockles of my soul.

    Here is a link that might be useful: This is my sad story.

  • Lloyd
    11 years ago

    AP is kinda fickle that way. (she also steals socks and then claims people "left them behind").

    ;-)

    Lloyd

    P.S. Don't even ask what she does to snowblowers!!

  • flora_uk
    11 years ago

    Oh, Annpat - you've been away so much of late I thought it was all over between us. Hope all is well in Maine.

    Have you seen the one about the ground up Planaria? Have a sick bag ready and then go to the paragraph on biochemical memory in flat worms. Maybe they could be trained to hate bread?

    Here is a link that might be useful: Planaria training

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago

    LOL!! BAD! BAD PLANARIANS!

  • annpat
    11 years ago

    "Maybe they could be trained to hate bread?"

    Seriously!!! That's brilliant! If the scientists could shock the planaria right as they're holding a damp cheerio out to them, it might just possibly solve one of the most troublesome problems that slovenly composters come up against.

    (I am not fickle! I've just never met a fresh breeze that I didn't find myself swayed by.)

  • david52 Zone 6
    11 years ago

    Now thats a find, Flora_uk.

    Reconstructing the history of worm-running (McConnell ran a journal called the Worm Runner's Digest for a while!) can be a bit tricky.

    And, of course, I looked up the "Worm Runner's Digest" which is, unfortunately, now out of print. We missed something.

    "The Worm Runner's Digest (W.R.D.) was created in 1959 by biologist James V. McConnell after his experiments with memory transfer in planarian worms generated a torrent of mail enquiries[1]. The W.R.D. published both satirical articles, such as A Stress Analysis of a Strapless Evening Gown, and scientific papers, the most famous of which, Memory transfer through cannibalism in planaria, was a result of McConnell's RNA memory transfer experiments with planarian worms and was later published in the Journal of Neurophysiology.

    The title for the W.R.D., McConnell explained, was an extension of the psychological jargon that terms psychologists who work with rats "rat runners" and those who work with insects "bug runners."[2]

    Amid complaint that the satirical articles and the scientific publications were not distinguishable, the satirical articles were printed upside down in the back half of the W.R.D. along with a topsy turvy back cover. In 1966, the title was changed to the Journal of Biological Psychology in an effort to make the publication more accessible to the scientific community[2].

    Articles from the Worm Runner's Digest have been compiled and printed in a number of anthologies, including Science, Sex, and Sacred Cows and The Worm Re-Turns.

    Here is a link that might be useful: what ever would we do without wikipedia

  • annpat
    11 years ago

    Look how much all of us have learned about planaria over the years!

    (You're welcome.)

  • berryman135678
    11 years ago

    Come over to the Dark side Annpat (rye that is) and you will see the true power of composting bread. I am looking for a new apprentice....

  • berryman135678
    11 years ago

    Annpat.....Its pointless to resist!

    {{gwi:298230}}

  • toxcrusadr
    11 years ago

    "ANNPAT! I, SOGGY BREAD, AM YOUR FATHER!"

    Bwahahahahaa!

  • david52 Zone 6
    11 years ago

    The Planarian Whisperer.

    /coming soon to a theater near you

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago

    I EAT my bread 'round these parts!

  • berryman135678
    11 years ago

    I have an incredible problem this week...I have too much bread for my bins....

    Well do I just leave it to mold in the bags?? No because I will have to breath that in when unwrapping it, when I go to use it.

    Maybe throw the excess in the woods for critters??? Don't want them hanging out.

    Nope just jam it all in the bins as much as I can, then hose it down, then stuff more in and repeat...problem solved.

  • toxcrusadr
    11 years ago

    How about drying it out, grinding it up and applying it as a decorative mulch? It would be fun to watch what happens next time it rains.

  • Nevermore44 - 6a
    11 years ago

    how about you do something completely ridiculous like i did years back... i had taking home 20 some bags of hamburger buns from my job where they had order in hundreds more for a photo shoot (where they end up just picking the best buns for the shoot).

    Anyway, i was digging in a garden bed.. and decided that worms like bread.. so i was double digging the bed, adding in compost, leaf mold, etc... and i just tossed the buns under as well.. before i added back on the top layer of dirt. I even wetted them down, so they would be mush.... but the good of raccoons sniffed them out and would come by every night and proceed to start digging them up. So every day i would come out to having a ton of wholes dug in the newly planted bed.. dirt everywhere.. plant dug up.

    This lasted for a week .... and i learned my lesson. :)

  • annpat
    11 years ago

    I don't think that that raccoon was eating sog. (Raccoons are notoriously fastidious.)

    Here is a link that might be useful: a raccoon eating a planarian unearthed in a sloven's compost bin.

  • rookie09
    11 years ago

    Thank you annpat. Nice link title.
    I was afraid they were wearing you down.

  • Nevermore44 - 6a
    11 years ago

    even if i watched them dig up the mush and eat it after the 1st night?

  • annpat
    11 years ago

    Yes, even so.

    Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:280096}}

  • annpat
    11 years ago

    I gotta admit. Your Barf Vader was pretty good.

  • Nevermore44 - 6a
    11 years ago

    What if they were also wearing t-shirts that said "I will not eat planarian... Sam I am"?

  • elisa_z5
    11 years ago

    Been reading up on planarians.
    Interesting Planarian facts:
    They've been known to eradicate entire earthworm populations on farms.
    They eat each other.
    They can't ride the bus.

  • annpat
    11 years ago

    rookie, it gets rough sometimes, but I'm determined to ride it out.

  • annpat
    11 years ago

    And tox, you're pretty funny sometimes, eh?(As Patrick and Llloyd and my dear, missing, Paul might say.)

  • toxcrusadr
    11 years ago

    Well thank you, same to you...you should meet my brother, he's even funnier. :-p I don't know if this forum could handle both of us so I'm keeping this one secret.

  • Lloyd
    11 years ago

    "eh?"

    Wipes coffee from keyboard...

    Lloyd

  • annpat
    11 years ago

    I am actually sometimes an 'eh sayer'. I spent my first five years in Newfoundland, and the next thirteen in a neighborhood in Maine that was at least 50% Canadian Air Force. (I'm not polite, though, and I don't say 'oot and aboot' like I like to imagine Patrick does.)

  • blazeaglory
    11 years ago

    All my great relatives are newfies (newfys?) My great great grandfather(the original planarian hunter) on my grandmothers side was born in Newfoundland.

    Thats another reason I dont want planarians in my pile! They eat earthworms! My great great grandfather did not die cursing planarians so I could start feeding them bread and earthworms now!

  • annpat
    11 years ago

    That's the Newfie spirit!!

  • QuinnaBrennan
    9 years ago

    Any updates on what's dealio with putting bread in. I searched google for bread in compost and I found out there is a war between annpat and the world about this subject. I just wanted to find out if its okay to do and now I am looking at my moldy bread with visions of Anakin Vader's burning body in Star Wars Episode III, Meeko the Raccoon from Pocahontas biting Harrison Ford's broken ankle everytime he tries to get back on set and a soggy Pizzanarian the Hutt grabbing vegetables off of his body to lure and eat millions upon millions of composting worms. I guess I'll just post this and see if anyone has any new info on the subject and check back in a few months

    This post was edited by QuinnaBrennan on Mon, Jun 16, 14 at 17:29

  • david52 Zone 6
    9 years ago

    I, for one, am glad to see this subject brought to discussion again, and thanks, QuinnaBrennan for the heartfelt, thoughtful post.

  • david52 Zone 6
    9 years ago

    Whats bothering me?

    Do planaria ignore gluten-free products?

  • annpat
    9 years ago

    Oh! Quinna! Snort!

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