The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

The first full year we were in Waitsburg, we started a compost pile. We placed a countertop container by the kitchen sink and put everything we might normally put down the garbage disposal or in the trash can into this container: vegetable peels, coffee grounds, fruit cores, burnt toast, you name it.

Using pallets gifted by a generous neighbor, we set up three bays in the backyard: one for new compost, one for aging compost and one for straw (from a kind, local farmer), leaves and grass clippings to mix with every batch of new kitchen waste.

When the Whetstone was still open, we would even get...