MouldyC

I like this approach. It seems conceptually easy enough for my middle school students to understand. Now to try it out with them....

I followed Sandor Katz's approach (start a ginger bug with a cup of water, a tablespoon of sugar, and some grated ginger). It usually takes me a day to get that bubbling away. My recipes are fairly general: ~10-12% sugar solution, with enough roselle (or ginger, or ginger/turmeric, or mint/lemon) to give sufficient flavour. Ginger I usually boil with the water to extract more flavour. Mint and roselle I just steep in the water after bringing it to a boil. I almost always add some lemon, as that always makes it taste better. I rarely measure these amounts (apart from the water & sugar), but tend to go heavy on ginger if I'm using that.

Sure! First of all, our dog uses a tray, rather like a cat. We fill it with sawdust or coir (and sometimes planer shavings), and it soaks up the urine. We scoop off solids and put them into a barrel that I drilled a load of holes into for drainage/aeration. I have 3 sizes of container: a 20-litre bucket for collection, a 110-litre barrel and a 200-litre barrel, which I cycle the materials through as each gets filled. That makes turning easy, and gives me over a year to age everything. The compost then goes to fertilize fruit trees, so no direct contact with food sources.

It is primarily for park-generated materials, though a few neighbours put their yard wastes in, and sometimes picnic or lunch leftovers get put in. There isn't much yard waste here, just occasional branch trimmings or dead potted plants. Volunteers who help with turns sometimes take some compost home, otherwise it gets returned to the park. The park volunteers rake leaves a little too enthusiastically, so grass tends to get killed off if it is somewhat over-shaded under the trees, so it's good to get some compost on the soil to keep the dust down.

Hey! I'm living in a row house in Taiwan. I've got various aerated barrels/buckets going, using guinea pig bedding for browns, and composting all our kitchen scraps and various vegetation from our rooftop gardens. In the garage I've got dog waste composting (with wood shavings/coconut coir), and I set up and am managing a park leaf/grass composting system across the street. I've killed off several batches of worms over the years, attract soldier flies and sometimes beetle larvae help process materials.

Nice! I regularly bake, and have one of this type of Solar cooker. I was thinking about doing this, but was worried my bread would expand too much in the baking and get stuck. I suppose sizing is key to good results. It is encouraging. Thanks for sharing, and I'll have to try!

Thanks for asking this, and for everyone who has chimed in with advice. It is encouraging me to become more proactive.

Hey! As an(other) re-ddit-fugee, welcome!

Once I got my hands on some water kefir/tibicos I didn't use ginger bugs anymore (though I have since killed off my tibicos). They are faster and more stable, but rather voracious. I ended up starving them off, though the acid they created probably was a big part of that as well.

I'm using the wild yeast from the ginger/turmeric. It only takes a day or so to get the "ginger bug" going, and I've never had any issues. Ginger is all local and unprocessed (I'm washing dirt off it), so maybe that makes a difference?

Looks good! Did you need to remove the skins from the chickpeas?

Yay! Welcome! I'm in the same situation, desperately looking for my communities. Looks like lurking isn't a viable approach here, though.