Recently, I bought an Earth Machine with high hopes that my composting efforts will become more effective. For a few years now I have been accumulating a big heap of our compostable kitchen wastes in the back of the garden. And while composting and recycling have reduced our regular net household garbage to less than one large garbage bag per week, the messy pile in the garden doesn’t decompose without some help. Ok, I admit it, I am somewhat lazy when it comes to certain things. I was hoping that it would do it by itself. But I don’t usually happen to have piles of dried leaves sitting next to the compost pile to mix in with the kitchen scraps, nor do I feel like getting the pitch fork out of the basement to turn the pile when I am in the middle of making dinner and find myself with a full compost bucket that I quickly need to empty in order to continue peeling onions and garlic. So I am hoping that this Earth Machine will make things easier and produce actual compost, that rich fertile stuff that is supposed to come out of the bottom. Yet, their instructions, too, specify that I need to add either some soil, or dried leaves or weeds, although I am hoping that “kitchen browns,” such as paper towels, tissues, coffee filters, or teabags, will do the job (stale bread is another "kitchen brown," but I don't throw my stale bread out, I collect it in the freezer and make bread pudding or a breakfast strata out of it). I will keep you posted of my composting success (or lack thereof).