FOOD SCRAPS
CARROT, celery, onion skins and ends and any good green vegetable scraps go into the crockpot with bones to simmer into stock.
MEAT fat gets skimmed off and kept in the fridge for cooking. Much more nutritious (and a lot less food miles!) than imported oils.
SECOND to human consumption comes the cat – he is a fussy mouse hunter so gets first pick of any scraps.
NEXT are the dogs. Green veggie scraps, fridge and pantry cleanings, excess milk and meat scrapings get cooked up with a bit of rice into dog food (see page 59). Mum throws all her meat scraps into a bag in the freezer and brings them over occasionally to add to the pot.
THE cows get most of the orchard excess pipfruit, and they love oranges and grapefruit. This is how I know my cow can fit three grapefruit in her mouth at once.
THE pigs are at the bottom of the food chain. They get anything leftover, except onion and lemon skins and avocado pips.
VEGETABLE garden waste goes over the fence to the sheep – they are partial to brassica leaves and bolting spinach.
EGG shells are put into a sack to dry, crushed by stamping, then used in the garden or blended into a powder and fed to the poultry (particularly quail) as a calcium supplement.
BLOOD from thawed meat is dribbled into container pots as fertiliser.
The result is some leftover onion skins and avocado pips. I have been putting them into a compost hole but the avocadoes keep growing. My next hole is going to be where I want a tree!