Staying Creative When Being Green: A Story of Compost Cooking

By: Colleen Heenan

Does it sometimes seem stressful to be ecologically conscious? Does it seem over-whelming to always try to be green in every aspect of your life? And doesn’t it always seem like no matter what you are wasting water when washing, energy when cooking, and guilt-stricken when you travel to a chain grocery store? Well, I know someone who has beaten one of the eco-blues; energy use.

One of my friends has a very creative brother-in-law that is a chef. One day this chef was stirring his mulch/yard clipping compost pile and was blown away by the amount of heat emerging from the decomposing pile. He immediately ran to his house to grab his thermometer and checked the internal temperature of his compost pile. With the temperatures around 165 degrees F, the compost pile is the exact temperature needed to heat a piece of pork up to when barbequing. So this creative chef took his raw pork, threw it in a burlap bag and buried in the compost pile.

After several hours of “cooking” the pork, the meat came out ready to be slathered with sauce and grilled to perfection. Though it did take a bit longer then conventional cooking, the compost’s heat slowly cooked the pork to a safe meat-cooking temperature with zero energy needed. This creative cooking method made me wonder, what else could be cooked in a compost pile? Just some fun food for thought!