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Organic food is as simple as starting with a cup of coffee
James Marinos • Mar 25, 2021
Organic food is as simple as starting with a cup of coffee
Organic food is as simple as starting with a cup of coffee, and as part of our sustainability mission, we're encouraging all of our coffee drinkers to take advantage of the benefits of recycling your coffee beans to grow your own food this Spring.
Firstly, composting coffee grounds is as easy as throwing the used grounds onto your compost pile and a great way to make use of something that would otherwise end up in landfill. Used coffee filters can be composted as well.
If you are adding used coffee grounds to your compost pile, bear in mind they're considered green compost materials which are nitrogen and/or protein rich and will need to be balanced with brown compost material such as leaves, sawdust, paper, corn stalks which are carbohydrate-rich.
One of the things we love most about our coffee
is that it is organic, but the benefits dont stop there when used as a compost. Adding used coffee grounds will improve drainage, water retention and aeration in the soil. Additionally it attracts microorganisms beneficial to plant growth including earthworms, while suppressing weeds and deterring pests including snails, ants, slugs, fungal pathogens, rabbits and cats.
Should you have concerns of interrupting the pH levels of your soil, rest assured, used coffee grounds are pH neutral (approx 6.5) and will not affect the acid levels of the soil. It is only unused coffee grounds which are higher in acidity. However, if you felt like donating some of your unused ground coffee to your vegetables and plants such as azaleas, hydrangeas, blueberries and root crops like radishes and carrots, these higher acidity soil lovers will do nothing but thank you for it.
While many vegetables do like slightly acidic soil, tomatoes typically don’t respond well to the addition of coffee grounds. If you do choose to use them for your tomato plants, you can benefit as long as your grounds are used, washed and decaffeinated. Bear in mind that with using decaffeinated coffee, deterring pests may be inhibited, as it is the caffeine content which plays a large part here.
So why wait any longer when it's this easy to put a spring in both yours and your garden's step? Explore our range of natural coffee blends here, or for the very highest grade of Organic coffee available, try our Organico blend here.
BENEFITS OVERVIEW
• Coffee is a recyclable material
• Coffee is great as compost
• It is soil fertilising
• Coffee grounds can be included as part of an organic pesticide
• Deters cats and other wildlife
• Encourages vermicompostings - welcome in the worms!
• Suppresses fungal disease
FURTHER COMPOSTING TIPS!
Green compostable materials include:
• Grass clippings
• Coffee grounds and tea bags
• Vegetable and fruit scraps
• Trimmings from perennial and annual plants
• Eggshells
• Animal manures - Dont use dog or cat manure
• Seaweed
Brown compostable materials include:
• Leaves
• Pine needles
• Twigs, chipped tree branches/bark
• Straw or hay
• Sawdust
• Corn stalks
• Paper including: newspaper, writing, printing paper, paper plates and napkins, coffee filters
• Dryer lint
• Cotton fabric
• Corrugated cardboard
THE RATIOS
You do not need to be exact with your balance of green to brown composting materials, but it is recommended that you use three or four-parts browns to one-part greens. The great thing about composting is you can usually remedy an imbalance by tweaking the ratio by adding more of one or the other!
Beans stay fresher for longer, and so your coffee should taste better, too. As soon as green coffee beans are roasted, they start to release CO2, which affects the taste. They will oxidise and slowly start to go 'stale' and have a flat taste after a while. When coffee is ground, there is a higher surface area which is exposed to oxygen and that will cause them to lose their freshness faster, so it's best to keep coffee beans whole as close to brewing as possible. Treat your coffee beans similarly to potatoes: store them in a dark, dry place. It's best they are kept in a container or the bag they come in to stop oxygen and moisture getting in.
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