A few weeks ago Starbucks closed all of their stores for 3 hours so that they could “retrain” all of their employees. Well that opened the flood gates for plenty of free or steeply discounted coffee for the same 3 hour period. Which, fueled the hell out of the bloggers, and there was plenty of free publicity. So that’s about all I’m going to say on that one. But I will get on a bit of a rant here. Now I love Starbucks, not as much as I love Dunkin’ Donuts, but I do love them. I just hate that I can’t order a “large coffee”, actually I can because I kinda want “iIl Will” style one day at my local Starbucks and now I don’t get any shit about my coffee. As I digress, I have to be honest I can’t stand the pretentious coffee experience at Starbucks. As far as the coffee is concerned, I like Dunkin’ Donuts better, even if it is in a crappy styrofoam cup.
Dunkin’ Donuts does have some big balls though, just look at one of their commercials from 2006 (this is still one of the funniest ones). How could you hate anyone that has John Goodman doing a voice over? Then again, Dunkin’ Donuts is a private company, and let’s be honest it is not an American company any longer. So once again, our dollars are leaving as fast as we plunk them down on the counter.
Although it may seem like I’m bashing Starbucks, well I guess I sorta am, I still like them. They give me free coffee! Well free coffee grinds that they have used and would otherwise toss out because no one in Medford would even think of reusing something. But again, I digress. Starbucks has a really nifty program called “Grounds for Growers“. Which is exactly what it sounds like, they give you the used coffee grounds and you can use them to compost.
Coffee grounds make a great “green” to mix with your “browns” aka leaves. So I now have two hot compost piles which I’m experimenting with. The first is a BioStack system that I purchased for $20 from Lowes because it was dirty and they were willing to play “Let’s make a deal”. The second, is a trashcan which I have drilled holes along the sides for aeration. I was originally going to try running this as a closed system, but discovered that even the expensive commercial tumblers have a lot of air flo.
My garden is going to kick even more ass this year than it did last year. If all goes well, I’m going to be up to my ears in fresh salads and veggies all while paying nearly nothing for maintenance. I also have another idea for the grounds which I plan to enact before the winter months, but I’ll explain that when I get more details worked out.