I have cleaned out my freezer (yes I'm THAT desperate for something to do when cooped up inside) and I found several almost-empty bags of coffee grounds. Can they be used in my compost or garden, just as I use the already-used ones from my coffee maker?
Probably a dumb question, but I'm just not sure if the hot-water makes coffee grounds "safer" or less acid in any way for my beloved compost pile!
Thanks!
Can FRESH coffee grounds be used in compost?
Not a problem, throw in the compost! Coffee ground in any shape is good stuff! It would take dump truck loads of coffee grounds to make any difference in the ph of your soil, btw. :)
Thank you, doccat5, you've answered my question, and very promptly! I appreciate your help! (My compost thanks you as well.)
Go Compost! Check out the Boskashi thread on composting. This stuff is nifty!
Thank you doccat, for the suggestion! Recently I became a card-carrying member of the Bokashi thread and love it! Well, this is since I heard about it and got to know "Eric"! I now have two Bokashi buckets of food scraps gently pickling in my mud room--plus two 5-gall. buckets "aging" in the garage. I'm also supporting three Biostacks-worth of compost, into one of which which I have already tipped a bucket of Bokashi-treated food scraps. (I also threw in the fresh coffee grounds.) The ground is too hard to dig a trench at this point. I do love being able to recycle ALL my table scraps with Bokashi, even meat, cheese, fish, etc.
Anyway, thanks again.
OK- I gotta ask. Why not use the coffee first? Brew it, drink it, then compost the grounds? Coffee never gets wasted at my house. Or does storing in the freezer ruin it somehow? I've never done that either.
Karen
Quoting:
OK- I gotta ask. Why not use the coffee first?
Karen, that's a valid question. This is just my own taste buds I'm talking about here, but I've found that previously-opened bags of ground coffee acquire a sort of "freezer-ish taste" after many moons in the freezer (we're talking several months). That is, the coffee brewed from them tastes stale and seems to have some off-odors. This doesn't happen with whole beans stored in the freezer, for me at least.
Now as to WHY those partially-used bags were lurking for so long. . . they'd sort of slipped behind other, more important items like cartons of Klondike ice-cream bars!!
I do understand the slipping behind important stuff like Klondike bars.
Why not just keep it in the pantry instead of the freezer? Sometimes I lose bits that slip behind the important stuff there, like potato chips. But when brewed it always still tastes good.
I think bread, after freezing, tastes funny when stored in the freezer, though I know many people think it's fine.
Karen
Quoting:
Why not just keep it in the pantry instead of the freezer?
You know, Karen. . . I don't really know why I keep those bags of coffee in the freezer! Must have read something somewhere about some benefits. But I'm definitely reconsidering the freezer-practice now that I found I've ended up "wasting" quite a lot of grounds 'cause they don't taste good anymore.
Amazing what one can learn on DG!
But isn't it neat that with composting-in-place (or in bins for that matter) nothing is wasted!
Good idea. I think it keeps just fine in the pantry for a long time. And always better if you can enjoy the coffee first before composting it. I love my coffee, and the price certainly has gone up in recent years. Not to mention that the "3 lb." can now is only about 32 or 34 oz.
Karen
Bokashi? Can someone post a link?
Here's the Bokashi thread :) http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/796403/