Composting - back to roots

I grew up in a small town which you could these days call a largish village in Kerala. Long before it became fashionable to talk about composting and utilising garbage to make manure it was a common practice in the countryside. People would dig a compost pit and throw all the leaves and kitchen waste into it. Compared to today there was very little household waste those days but we had the seeds and the skin of vegetables and fruits so they were always available for throwing into the compost pit.  Later this would be covered up with soil and a fresh pit would be dug.  Sometime the compost pit would be forgotten and it will only be later that we would stumble upon it full of rich soil.  Neighbouring farm workers would come into our house and cart away as much as they could carry.  My grandfather used to allow them to take it away as long as they didn't leave anything strewn around or in the compound. That used to drive my grandmother crazy and you would end up with a lot of yelling and screaming.  Composting was part of life In the villages and we should continue practicing it in at least a small manner even in the cities.

Madhavan Nair, Thrissur

The above video can be seen at: