You can compost much more than you may realize. Any food scraps and leftovers you would normally throw away or put in the garbage disposal can be composted, from pizza crusts to takeout noodles to the half popped popcorn kernels and bits at the bottom of the bag.

• Pasta, beans, rice, bread, cereal
• Vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs, leaves, flowers
• Egg shells, orange rinds, grapefruit halves, nut shells, seed hulls

Anything of organic origin is perfectly suitable for composting, from pits and cores, to seeds and skins, to liquids and moldy cheese. But you can also compost some unusual things.

The key for composting is to make sure that what you are putting in the pile is something that has a reasonable chance of breaking down and the quicker it can break down the sooner you will have usable compost. As great as it is for getting rid of food scraps, you’ll need more than that for successful compost. Nitrogen is necessary to break down the scraps of food from a foul smelling sludge into the deep rich compost that will help your fruits and veggies grow strong. So where do we get nitrogen from? Grass clippings, green leaves and live pine needles are a simple and easily available source of nitrogen.