The Worm Monger

🍎 Legends, do me a favour and *save* this handy reference for later. Also, scroll to the last slide to hear me nerd out on the ‘why’ 🙏🤓

Hi legends! It’s Food Waste Action Week this week so I’m playing my part to raise food waste awareness. Food waste is a global problem - if it were a country it would be the worlds third largest emitter! As you know, my PhD thesis is about how we can better use our food waste to meet Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 (halve food waste by 2030). It’s a subject close to my heart. If this is something you think your friends should know about (and they should!), share these tips to get them on board the movement to reduce the food waste and help reverse climate change! Here are my top tips for those who can’t be bothered scrolling left:

Even though I’m a compost tragic, this mantra stands strong when it comes to food waste: REDUCE IS BEST, COMPOST THE REST! Sing it!

💚 Buy only what you need. Make a shopping list and definitely don’t shop while you’ve got a big hunger coming on!

🍎 Plan meals: so helpful with buying only what you need!

🥦 Use your scraps. Ferment them, pickle them, preserve them. There are countless options - give those leftovers a new lease on life! If you’re stuck for ideas, does amazing reels on how to cook your scraps into delicious goodness.

🥶 Freeze them. Freezing food extends its life span by a long shot and makes for a quick meal or snack some time down the track - thank yourself later.

🍊 Buy seasonal produce. Seasonal produce is better quality and tastes better and is therefore more likely to end up in your belly than in the trash.

🫒 eat left-overs. Save leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch or cook them up into a creative something for tomorrow’s dinner.

🥥 Store food properly. There are a multitude of tips and tricks for this: One of my favourite Instagram accounts is the . Anne-Marie is an absolute wealth of knowledge on how to reduce your food waste to 🍩. You’ll get so much out of following her 💚

🌸 I’ve reached that glorious moment each year where I’m awe struck by the beauty of the blossoming magnolia and then just as quickly awe struck by the beauty of its decay. Nothing else quite has the pull of the magnolia flower for me when it comes to stopping me in my tracks to simply observe the wonder of life, it’s one of the few times in life’s busy-ness that I literally stop to smell the flowers. They are so spectacular.

💩 Anyway, it’s made me realise that the magnolia’s quick life/death turnaround is a microcosm of what the composting process is for me. My bath tub hub isn’t as instagrammable, sure, but it does deliver the same mindful goodness that pausing to watch the life cycle of the magnolia does. The whole while I’m marvelling at the glorious process of decay as all of that scrappy goodness once again builds life. Because the true beauty of compost is that in its decay, it is brimming with life!

🐕💩 Calling all fur parents, it’s a dog pootorial! Do you compost your dog poo? Would you like to? Read on……it’s a real stinker.

🐕 Our landfills are comprised of an inordinate amount of dog poo (a whopping 4%). That’s a s**tload of poo. The great news is that your hound’s poo can be composted, avoiding the greenhouse gases that poo emits in landfill. Woohoo!! 🎉

💩 Here’s how you do it: 1) choose your preferred method of composting (it doesn’t matter what it is, just choose what suits you); and 2) compost your dog poo. Voila!

🧚‍♀️ IMPORTANT! Remember that the finished composted product can’t be used on your edible plants (dog poo contains pathogens that might not be processed through composting) so use the product on your ornamentals only! If you have edibles in your garden, run two composting systems concurrently - one exclusively for pet poo and one that is useable on your edibles.

🌈 There is no dog poo fairy. Do the planet a doggy doo favour, and get composting that s**t. 🐕🌈🦄💩🪱🧚‍♀️

💩 Legends! As promised I’ve put together a short infographic outlining the ways you can harvest your urban worm castings if you don’t have a sieve! There are many plays on the word 💩 involved. How many can you count? Anyway, I digress - don some gloves (or not) and sink your hands into that glorious glorious 💩! Is this the way you harvest your castings? Or do you have a preferred method of your own - tell me what’s easiest for you! 💩 ☮️✌️🌈🦄

🌍 There’s been a big reaction in response to the IPCC report in my little Instabubble.😔 TBH, I haven’t had the heart to engage with it in detail yet but the (unsurprising) headlines and news reports have been impossible to avoid so I’m getting the gist loud and clear. In preparation for my inevitable sadness/fury/anxiety when I do read it, I’ve reflected on some messages of hope to keep me motivated to action. I’m sharing those with you in case it also helps. ✌️❤️💩♻️🪱🌍🆘🌈🦄

Hi legends! 👋💚As you know, I’ve been resting like these here worms the last couple of weeks and thank goodness I snuck in a quick break because I’ve returned to the latest situation. I’ll be honest, I’m not feeling buoyed by it and I have a sinking feeling we may be here a while…...

💜 Here’s a short ‘before and after’ photo essay using compost metaphors, because who doesn’t love a good old compost metaphor . Accompanying captions below:

1) rest and relaxation. O the serenity! 🤗🧘‍♀️

2) home to a load of crap. 2.8 tonnes of the glorious good kind and a fair chunk of the not-so-good lockdown kind. The scribble really tells the shambolic story of downward turn we’ve taken in tackling the COVID beast IMHO💩🤎

3) my glorious compost hub just for good measure. It’s my symbol of community and it’s what has kept me buoyed for the duration of this pandemic. Long may it do so!! 🌈🦄

💚🪱 To all the glorious folks in lockdown, 🤞 it’s short-lived wherever you are. And please feel free to regale me with your stories of how you keep buoyed! Or just have a whinge - I’m here for it all 🤗🌈🪱💉✅

💜🌈🦄 Legends, I’m taking a wee break from real and virtual life at the moment and I’m lavender the serenity! Speaking of which, I have fields of the glorious stuff at the moment. Eleventy teeny bunches now accommodate various nooks of my household - just tantalizing the olfactory receptors because I lilac it A LOT. I feel like there’s a treasure trove of other awesome uses just waiting to happen too. 💜 Do you have a kickass use for lavender that I can add to my repertoire? Regale me in the comments 🙏. I feel like or might have some hot tips?