Dirty Secrets By Susan Heydon

Editors notes: Here is another of my sister’s articles to share with you all. I cook a pretty good dirt too! Nick

As children growing up on a farm know, we had our fair share of being covered in dirt. We would track in into the house from the barn, from the sandbox, from the fields and from our excursions into the bush. So you can imagine our total surprise when on a beautiful fall morning, my Dad told us were going to make dirt.!! Make it, good grief we were surrounded by it. Maybe he had been out in the sun too long. Maybe digging in the garden all day was just too much for him!!! Okay, we decided, let’s humour him and see what he’s up too. After all, my Dad was a smart guy and didn’t usual have such fancy ideas. If he said he could make dirt who were we to argue!!!


So on that morning I stood clutching a big bucket of kitchen waste, ( vegetable peelings, egg shells , tea bags etc. ) You get the idea!! My big brother hauled over a wheel barrow load of leaves and my sister ‘s job was to empty all the flower pots. Hmmmm this was interesting. Then we were told to make a layer cake from all those ingredients. We nodded at each other, no problem ,we could do that. So we carefully layered all the material, while my little sister watered the pile in between layers. She thought this was a great job as she hosed down her three siblings at the same time!!! Well okay so far this “cake” looks like a great big soggy pile of “stuff”. No dirt here we thought. Now cover it with a pile of straw and leave it until spring. It had to cook we were told. At this point the four of us agreed that this was a total waste of time and off we went to play.


By May of the following year we had all but forgotten our soggy pile until Dad announced he was ready to plant the garden and needed his new dirt. Oh no, not this again!!, we thought as we all followed him out. Let’s get this over with. As he started to pull back the straw we couldn’t believe our eyes. We just stood there and stared. This couldn’t be “our” pile. This , my Dad said is called “black gold”. The best kind of dirt you can put in your garden. Well, we agreed it looked like soil, it had a nice earthy smell like soil and it sure feels like soil. It was perfect.!! As we spread the dirt over the garden for Dad to dig in we felt pretty proud of ourselves. We had actually made soil and found it hadn’t been work at all. Today all four of his children still make their own “ black gold” and use it in their gardens. Composting has been around a long time and with land fill sites closing and garbage becoming a huge issue it only makes sense to carry on this skill. Compost bins are cheap and most municipalities have a special price once a year to make them affordable for all homes. Even if you are not a gardener you can use the soil on your lawn. It’s great for top dressing. It doesn’t cost you a cent to make and Mother Nature will thank you. Think of all the kitchen waste you throw away. Put it too good use. The leaves are free and fall right at your feet. Next time you are lugging around bags of soil, remember you could be making it yourself.!!!
Footnote: I now have to admit that with all this “cooking” going on, my brother ended up being a good “soil” cook and also a better cook in the kitchen. Go figure. Although it is nice having a Chef in the family!!! I’ll expect you all to keep my dirty little secret.
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