how long can you keep food scraps for?

11 years ago

we eat a lot of fruits mainly banana's and i mean the food scraps just pile up and i don't even have a big vermicompost going yet not even a pound of worms or 1/4 a pound. i got all these food scraps and i was just wondering how long can you typically hold them for such as just keep them to rot/w.e. before they are too bad for the worms?

usually i only see people keep their food scraps for a week and they usually have a pound or more. i mean is a week all they can handle or can it go for say 3-4weeks? usually by then i would think it would be all soupy but just wondering if anyone knows of how long one can keep food scraps for.

PS- they are not refrigerated.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (8)

Aindra
11 years ago
You freeze your scraps so you can use them when you need them. I have a ice cream bucket I use for freezing scraps. I would take that bucket out of the freezer and let it thaw. Then I take stuff I want for my bin. You can use ziploc bags, buckets, or what you have on your hand.
Celbrise
Original Author
11 years ago
never heard of freezing it but i guess that is actually a good idea. i will do this :) thanks for the idea
Related Discussions
How long can you keep them in containers?
Q
Comments (8)
Ummm....ahem...I actually still have some last year sprouters in containers on my porch. So I would say, as long as they look viable. I wouldn't let Lupine stay in a container that long-- I don't think it would last-- but in a milk jug, with 3-4 inches of dirt, it's amazing how long the plants will survive. Just keep watering them. When it gets to the point where I am overwhelmed with the number of containers sprouting, I usually plant out by what is crowding out of the container the most. Linda
...See More
How do you store your food scraps?
Q
Comments (30)
I keep a small 4 litre pail by the kitchen sink. All of my coffee grounds, egg shells, veggie scraps, mouldy bread and other non dairy, non meat scraps go in there. I only put a tiny amount of this into my worm bin at a rate that they can handle. The rest goes outside to the compost bin at least every week. I never store food for the worms as there is always an endless supply of fresh scraps for them. Since I use small pieces of corrugated cardboard for bedding, the worms will survive for months and months just on their bedding alone. The worms don't actually eat the bedding and compost scraps; they feed on the mould, fungus and other organisms that are breaking down the bedding and the kitchen scraps. I add a bit of powdered limestone to the bedding as the worms use this "grit" to grind up their food. (Red wigglers don't have teeth for chewing). The limestone also helps to neutralise acids in the worm bin. I do NOT bring food for the worms back in from the outdoor compost pile as this can be a source of some nasties that I don't want inside my home or in my worm bin. At the first "whiff" of rotting material (like the inside of your garbage can on a hot day), my pail of kitchen scraps goes outside to the compost pile. If this smell should ever come from my worm barrel, it means I'm feeding them too much and the moisture content is too high. It's better that the worms have too little food as opposed to too much. The key thing to me is the temperature and the moisture level. I think that the commonly used phrase, that " A worm can eat it's own weight in food scraps every day" is somewhat misleading. Most vegetable scraps are mostly water and the idea that one pound of worms will eat one pound of lettuce (for example) in a day does not hold water ( Yes...... pun intended). Most of the vegetable matter simply loses it's water content into the bedding and to evaporation. Besides, it takes several days for the scraps to decompose to the point where there is food in a form that the worms can process (digest).
...See More
How long can you keep old paint?
Q
Comments (13)
I've just been going through this. Was repainting a bedroom and found 3/4 of a gallon of the old paint--gone solid. Started going through cans and found a nice yellow, set it down on the kitchen counter to come back later to find it was leaking out the bottom in two pinholes! So I'm going through all of the cans now and cleaning things out. It was long overdue, anyway, but to find one leaking, well, that was too much. But I did find a nice leftover blue for the bedroom. :)
...See More
How long can you keep saved frozen bananas for banana bread?
Q
Comments (14)
The food charts I have for how long you can keep bananas in the freezer gave no amounts of time, and one said "extended freezer time" - whatever that means (LOL). I guess the goal should be to use the frozen bananas in a timely manner (few months), but I was moving some things around in my refrigerator freezer and I found several ripe bargain bananas that were quick-frozen then placed in a FoodSaver bag, vacuum-sealed shut -- early last summer and promptly forgotten about. I made them into banana bread the other day for yet one more offering to the "throngs" for breakfast during their Christmas visit. When you vacuum-seal peeled bananas (or most food destined for freezer storage), they will last longer than in a typical storage bag because they are stored oxygen-free. Oxygen-free storage prevents the moisture inside the food from migrating from the surface of the food into the bag, drying out or creating ice crystals in the bag. A food science tidbit about using overly-ripe bananas for banana bread. When a banana bread recipe only calls for baking soda as the only chemical leavening, overly-ripe bananas are not as acid (6.5-7.0 pH) as a regular banana (4.6 pH) in order to react in partnership with the baking soda. The reaction may be a weak one resulting in a heavy banana bread. A good banana bread recipe, one that ensures adequate leavening, will use both baking powder and baking soda. If the recipe only has baking soda, make sure a portion of the bananas aren't overly-ripe, or there is another ingredient in the recipe that provides an acid ingredient. That could be some lemon juice added to the bananas to keep them from oxidizing and turning dark, orange juice, honey used as the sweetener, or yogurt, sour cream or buttermilk, which are all acid foods that will react with the baking soda. -Grainlady
...See More
machinist17
11 years ago
I think the idea is that freezing it (besides preserving the food) ruptures the cell walls of the food, because water expands when frozen. Then when you thaw it, it's mushier and decomposes faster.
boreal_wormer
11 years ago
"i got all these food scraps and i was just wondering how long can you typically hold them for such as just keep them to rot/w.e. before they are too bad for the worms?"

I don't think they would ever become 'too bad' for worms but they might be objectionable for you. Can you have a compost bin/pile outside for the excess material?
11otis
11 years ago
There is no expiry date on worm food. In time my freezer got so full with worm food & the rest of the family complaining not finding human food in it. So I resorted to just stuff the scraps in 3 gal buckets I have, put them at the shady side of the house. When it got too mushy I added shredded corr. CB (newspaper will mat). The worms love it.
Celbrise
Original Author
11 years ago
yea i decided not to freeze it after all because my family will become very violent when they find rotting food in the freezer. they don't garden and the ones who do like my dad don't even know what composting is.

in the end im just keeping it in a tuppawear container and when it does over flow i will resort to a 5gal bucket with a lid. this way it has time to decompose at least unlike before where i just put in the food fresh and it takes like a week just to start molding and is still untouched. i found out the hard way that they like the moldy stuff better then the fresh stuff
rygo796
11 years ago
I tried keeping scraps for a while in a rubbermaid but that was a disaster. I just throw extra stuff into my regulat compost bin and feed the compost to the worms.
Celbrise
Original Author
11 years ago
i wish i could do that but sadly my outdoor compost bin is full of twigs and huge leaves. i was thinking of putting the leaves in the food scrap bin as we have a lot of food scraps i almost filled my 5gal bucket with food scraps in just a week. but i don't think i will be able to compost my outdoor bin and feed it to my worms.

i only have a few worms atm but i will be buying a pound soon or half a pound so that is why my scraps are plentiful

how long can you keep food scraps for?

Comments (8)

Aindra

Celbrise
Original Author

Related Discussions

machinist17

boreal_wormer

11otis

Celbrise
Original Author

rygo796

Celbrise
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

how long can you keep food scraps for?

Comments (8)

Aindra

CelbriseOriginal Author

Related Discussions

machinist17

boreal_wormer

11otis

CelbriseOriginal Author

rygo796

CelbriseOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Celbrise
Original Author

Celbrise
Original Author

Celbrise
Original Author