Althouse: "We just became very passionate about turning waste into food in our local communities."

November 14, 2011

"We just became very passionate about turning waste into food in our local communities."

Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora collect used coffee grounds from coffee shops for the manufacture of mushroom-growing kits.

20 comments:

Wince said...: ...used coffee grounds from coffee shops for the manufacture of mushroom-growing kits.

Over my dead body?; 11/14/11, 11:04 AM
Shouting Thomas said...: Also good for growing magic mushrooms.

Coffee grounds are excellent fertilizer, and an excellent method of balancing acid levels in the soil.; 11/14/11, 11:05 AM
Palladian said...: And the plants JUST LOVE IT! Have you ever seen a TOTALLY WIRED ficus?! WOOO!; 11/14/11, 11:09 AM
traditionalguy said...: Ground up coffee beans are seeds that carry the nutrients needed to germinate and feed new coffee plants.

This once more demonstrates that man has dominion over the plants and the animals. But don't let goddess Gaia hear about that thought. The EPA could lose its greatest powers back to men that it stole them from to make plants and animals "more than equal."; 11/14/11, 11:17 AM
coketown said...: At my last job, we had a few ladies that went around to all of our company's 10 locations to collect the used animal bedding from the petrooms so they could compost it in our town's community compost pile.

Really. Piss-and-shit soaked recycled paper pulp. In the compost pile. The smell was unholy. But it saved us from having to haul it to the dumpster, and it gave the ladies a clean conscience and something to do with their lives. What beautiful souls.; 11/14/11, 11:24 AM
edutcher said...: What would they do in the Occupied areas, one wonders?; 11/14/11, 11:24 AM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: This is actually a well-demonstrated approach. Some 20 years ago I was working with coffee growers in Colombia who used coffee pulp, straw, and off-grade coffee beans as the substrate for some quite profitable Pleurotis production, sold to the ex-pats and other wealthy of Bogota.

Should work fine and actually make some money, even without government grants.; 11/14/11, 11:31 AM
Superdad said...: Any good farmer knows you use every single part of the plant and/or animal. It has nothing to do with being green - it has to do with poor people learning to survive.; 11/14/11, 11:47 AM
MSG said...: Traditionally, prudent housewives were advised to dry out coffee grounds and use them to stuff pin cushions.; 11/14/11, 11:47 AM
Richard Dolan said...: "We just became very passionate about ..."

Another unfortunate new-agey usage that's taken hold. Passion comes from a Latin verb meaning suffering; from there it took on the meaning of strong emotions having the power to overcome reason. In this phrase, it means "enthusiastic," more or less, with an undertone of self-affirmation. If you don't say you're "passionate" about soemthing today, it's almost as if you're signalling indifference.

Since these two guys don't have much of an ear for language, they would be well advised to stick to growing mushrooms in used coffee grounds.; 11/14/11, 11:58 AM
Chip S. said...: from there it took on the meaning of strong emotions having the power to overcome reason.

Good point on the contemporary, weak usage of "passionate." But in this particular case, isn't that in fact how the word's being used, however inadvertently?; 11/14/11, 12:42 PM
gail said...: During the depression my Grandpa went around to businesses collecting their wood ashes (0-1-3) to use as fertilizer for the farm. It was a struggle for survival, not gaia love; but even with poaching and a still behind the bull's pen they still lost their farm. Family depression stories make good grounding points in life.; 11/14/11, 12:44 PM
virgil xenophon said...: Richard Dolan/

Sort of like the use of the word "pathetic" which used to be taken to mean someone deserving of our concern; whereas now it's usually used in a derogatory fashion as a term of contempt...; 11/14/11, 12:47 PM
Chip S. said...: @virgil-- True, but "bathetic" just looks silly.; 11/14/11, 12:53 PM
Methadras said...: Waste management is a science unto itself. Many things can be recycled and reused. Some should not be however.; 11/14/11, 1:32 PM
Curious George said...: Alterra in Milwaukee gives it to worm farmers as bedding. Seems the worms like.; 11/14/11, 1:55 PM
Roger J. said...: Recycled is good: soylent green is people

Look at all the biomass we are wasting; 11/14/11, 2:29 PM
Nora said...: I use coffee grounds and tea leaves around my plants. Coffee grounds are especially good for acid soil plans like mushroom and most other shade plants, hostas, azaleas, etc.; 11/15/11, 4:40 AM
Dave said...: I think it's good that a private company has found a way to recycle. It seems a pricy way to acquire mushrooms though.

Personally I'd buy it as a way to teach my daughter about growing things, but not as a routine way to grow mushrooms. So in a couple of years, I'll pick up one of these kits, and teach my daughter about growing food.; 11/15/11, 12:00 PM
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