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grinder for food waste - 2008/09/21 02:36I've read that the better you can grind up food waste, the better it is for the worms to feed on. Is there a way to just grind this all up into a mush that you could pour on the bed? I'm mainly thinking of melon rinds; apple peelings; banana peelings; broccoli & other vegetable scraps, etc. Wonder what a garbage disposal rigged up so it goes into a bucket would do? Any ideas?
Larry
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and180
User A Hatchling Earthworm
Posts: 16
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/09/21 08:24Larry,
I sometimes use a food processor or a old hand crank meat grinder to grind up my vegetable waste. This works fine for me. This can be easier and safer than using a garbage disposal. Andy
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timnbama
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 167
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/09/21 18:40Do you have any idea of the particle size that comes out of a food disposer? I've got a couple of old sinks out in the barn that were picked up real cheap and had thought about putting in one with a grinder in it. I've contacted Maytag to see how fine the stuff is ground.
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FloridaSunshine
User A Hatchling Earthworm
Posts: 12
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/09/21 20:41I'm glad someone else posted about this. I can with with real authority, say that you should not use your good electric blender, to grind up corn husk. The husks get wound around the blade and causes the cogs to break off. May be if I had cut them small and then tried, it would have been less of a mess. I like the idea of a hank crank grinder, but next time I will not try it with husks. Just cut them suckers into little bitty pieces.
Sunshine
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timnbama
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 167
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/09/21 22:45I've got a hand crank meat grinder, a small electric one and a big one but I don't want to make a mess out of them as I use them for grinding deer meat and making sausage, mainly the big electric one. If the food disposer will grind small enough that's what I want to set up over in one of my barns. If it won't grind small enough then I may donate the small electric grinder to the worms.
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Larry C
User A Mature Breeder Earthworm
Posts: 96
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/09/22 01:31Thanks for all the ideas. I have thought about picking up a handcrank meat grinder as one alternative. Not sure what consistency a disposal would do. I assume you would have to pour off the juices and just use the thick stuff. As my beds multiply, I would want to find a quick way to process it. The disposal sounds tempting.
Larry
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wormwrangler
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 40
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/10/11 00:44We use a portable stand with a sink setup w/ garbage disposal. The food comes out into a 5 gallon bucket. Works great
It will roll around anywhere you need it, and the worm food is perfect for the worms.Worm Wrangler
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timnbama
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 167
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/10/11 06:52wormwrangler wrote: We use a portable stand with a sink setup w/ garbage disposal. The food comes out into a 5 gallon bucket. Works great
It will roll around anywhere you need it, and the worm food is perfect for the worms.
Wormwrangler, I'd like to ask what type of disposer are you using: batch or continuous feed? Also how much water do you have to run to keep it from clogging up? In other words are you winding up mainly food waste or a very watery consistency?
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sauce man
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 43
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/10/11 09:35I just chop it up on a big recycled wooden cutting board using a large meat cutting knife. Easy clean up and no electricity waste. If you freeze your worm feed first it makes it alot softer and you can get alot of the moisture out of it.
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redhen
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 703
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/10/11 13:07Just be aware that when you grind/blenderize fruits and veggies and add to you bins it will heat up quickly.Susan Quinby-Honer redhen@nc.rr.com Starve the Landfill...Feed the Earth.
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Larry C
User A Mature Breeder Earthworm
Posts: 96
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/10/11 14:49wormwrangler wrote: We use a portable stand with a sink setup w/ garbage disposal. The food comes out into a 5 gallon bucket. Works great
It will roll around anywhere you need it, and the worm food is perfect for the worms.
Just bought a used kitchen sink and the cheapest garbage disposal that Home Depot had to make this set-up. Sounds like yours works great. I'm assuming that since it isn't going down drain pipes, you don't need much water to use it? What Tim mentioned was also my concern about being too watery and having to drain it.
Larry
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redhen
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 703
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/10/11 18:31The old garbage disposal that I turned into a processor like this, recycles the water and has a screen over a catch basin for the water. The screen catches all the ground up food. The rolling base was made from an old (recycled) base for my old gas grill.
Post edited by: redhen, at: 2008/10/11 18:32Susan Quinby-Honer redhen@nc.rr.com Starve the Landfill...Feed the Earth.
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wormwrangler
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 40
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/10/13 14:45We bought an old garbage disposal from a yard sale and mounted it on a sink and 2x4 frame, any would do for ya it works really nice.Worm Wrangler
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wormdirt
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 25
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/10/13 21:29what about egg shells does it pulverize them, if not what is a good method. i put them in a food processor but it did not get them small enough. any ideas.
as far as processing food i was going to try my motherinlaw's juicer, but i think it would take too long, but it does mince the food up good. seeing how the garbage disposal works, i think i may hook me up one.
woody
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timnbama
User A Protected Species Earthworm
Posts: 167
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/10/14 16:41I've got one of the old Corona hand cranked grain mills, it'll make flour out of egg shells. It took just a few minutes to run over 3 pounds of shells thru it the other day.
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wormdirt
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 25
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/10/15 22:21where can you find one of these grain mills?
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wormwrangler
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 40
Re:grinder for food waste - 2008/10/16 01:29I never used one for egg shells, but was wondering if one of those electric coffee grinders would grind up the shells?
The one I have chops up the coffee grounds pretty fine, fast too. I guess it would make a difference how dry the egg shells are, and it wont do a lot at a time maybe 1/2 a cup or so.
I will give it a try and let you know. Worm Wrangler
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Brenda
User A Juvenile Earthworm
Posts: 36
Re:grinder for food waste - 2009/01/15 01:22Try this 'high tech' method for grinding eggshells: It not only accomplishes the task of pulverizing eggshells, it saves a trip to the psychotherapist
Supplies: 2 ziploc freezer bags (size = quantity of shells) One tack hammer Garage floor, driveway or other hard surface Directions Place washed and dried eggshells into one bag, squeeze out as much as air as possible, zip closed. Place first bag into second bag and repeat closing sequence. Locate hard surface Place baggies with egg shells onto hard surface Grasp tack hammer firmly Envision any person, place, thing, or situation you choose...pound away! You may need only one bag; however, as a divorcee, the second bag usually catches the shells from the first bag after it ruptures. My shells are as smooth as talc~
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Any ideas?
