While it’s better to recycle than send rubbish to the landfill, it’s even better to start with whole foods. That way you make compost, not recycled packaging.
I enjoyed a refreshing smoothie today and when I went to clean up, I realized a happy fact: all I had was compost. Absolutely nothing went into the trash. Aside from all the nutritional benefits of eating whole, fresh foods, the scraps they leave go right into the compost, and are returned to the earth as fertility. Nature doesn’t make trash, and we should endeavor not to.
Watermelon, orange and mango smoothie
Peel a small mango, scoop out some watermelon flesh and peel an orange. Put all ingredients into a high powered blender (I use a
VitaMix), along with some coconut water. I get mine from a fresh, young coconut, and I like to put the water in the freezer for 20 minutes before blending it into my smoothie.
This would be good with some mint or basil as well.
Compost and vermicompost
I have both a
composter in my yard and a worm bin. The worms love the watermelon rind and the coconut shell. It takes them a long time to break it down, but meanwhile they really like to climb inside and hang out. When I’m emptying my worm bin, I make sure to keep the coconut shells through several cycles until they’ve completely broken down.
Worms don’t like very acidic foods, so I put the mango skin and pit and orange rind into the other
composter.
I’ll name this:
Smoothie Sans Trash. Or maybe,
Trashless Temptation? Okay, maybe not.
