composting

We got to talking about composting and under-sink worm bins lately. Keeping worms under the sink to feed table scraps to goes back a long way but current lifestyles could find it a bit funky- you have to put up with some smells sometimes, as well as fruitflies. Of course, some systems are cleaner than others but we are talking about a living process here.
This link: http://ecotality.com/life/2007/12/10/indoor-composting-made-simple/ goes to a new product featured on the Ecotality blog, an indoor composter. This one is sealed, with a fan and a heater, so it fits into the "modern" lifestyle by alleviating older complaints. The fan helps control the odor and the heater keeps the process running. Says it can handle meat because of the heater, which means it will kill worms (rather, take the place of). So, for lack of outdoor space, this isn't a bad idea but it has limits and it adds to your carbon footprint.
Keeping worms under the sink (or anywhere dark and quiet) is a much older alternative. Feed them your table scraps (no animal products or fat, though- this is the advantage the heated system enjoys), give them moist, shredded newspaper to bed in, empty the worm castings every couple months. A container with a lid, as well as the paper bedding, keeps the fruit flies to a minimum. Bigger households can run stacked containers to handle larger loads of daily refuse. While full containers are being converted to compost, the one on top is still receiving scraps. http://www.compost-bin.org/vermicomposting-with-can-o-worms/ is a good commercial site for seeing what you can buy towards this end, where here's the wikipedia entry on vermiculture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermicompost. This site is all about worms: http://www.wormdigest.org/.
Worm dirt is excellent plant food. Well-fed plants (i.e. not raised for commercial profit plants) are excellent people food. Table scraps converted to worm dirt saves landfill space and stretches our budgets, as scraps wind up in our bellies, just the way this planet has been recycling its upper layers for the last few million years. Oh, got a fishing trip coming up? Got worms!