I haven't been this excited about a product since my parents bought me the original NES in the fifth grade. I've been wanting to compost for a few years now, but the idea of breaking down organic material inside has been intimidating (the cold New York winters and stifling summers don't make composting very viable outside). I've done some reading on the matter and I just didn't know if I could handle balancing the ratios of soil to worm to green and brown items properly. I envisioned coming home and my house smelling like, well, a New York City street in the middle of summer.
That's why when I read about NatureMill's tech solution to composting I immediately wanted to try it.
The fine folks at the San Francisco-based company were kind enough to overnight a testing unit last week. I was warned and warned again by their PR rep that when I got the item I needed to read the starter instructions before I did anything in order to ensure a positive composting experience. Here's what I found out.
Like a saltwater fish tank, before you can really get started making your own nutritious compost, you have to slowly create the proper cultures to your composter. This involves adding two cups of natural soil, two cups of sawdust pellets, which NatureMill provides, and two tablespoons of baking soda, along with a starter amount of food scraps into the Plus Edition composter. 
Then you turn it on and let it do its thing, uninterrupted, for a week. The NatureMill Plus has a motor-powered mixer in it that occasionally mixes and grinds the items together. An air pump brings in a continuous flow of oxygen to the cultures, while a powerful carbon filter removes odors.
Over the past few days I've been like a kid who has figured out where the Christmas presents are stashed but knows she can't get away with opening the wrapping without being caught. I so wanted to open the lid to the composter to see how things were moving along. Every time I walked into the kitchen and heard the low hum of the air pump I wanted the thing to be composted already!!! Every time I had leftovers from cooking I wanted to just throw them in, but knew I couldn't just yet. It was torturous, but I also knew that it was well worth the wait.
Some of you may already know that I'm a novice, but very enthusiastic gardener. You can see some of my gardening ideas in The Kitchn. The fact that, soon, I'll have my own compost to add to my many planted friends just makes me giggly with anticipation.
Everything was going smoothly until yesterday. I woke up, walked into the kitchen, and the glowing green light I'm so used to seeing from the composter was red. I bent down and it indicated that there was a jam. Shoot. What do I do? I was terrified of opening it, assuming if I did it would be like moving a souffle before it's fully set. I didn't want my inflated garden dreams to deflate.
I skimmed through the instruction book and found out that if a jam occurs to first wait 24 hours, as organic material softens as its composting and the mixer could eventually be able to get through the jam. This morning, when I went to press OK, so that the mixer could do its thing I heard it try, try, and then give up. Still jammed.
Next up, via the instruction manual was to *gasp* open the container and manually remove what's causing the jam. I held my breath and slowly opened the lid, unsure of what I'd find. Poof, a wave of hot air hit me in the face and then I saw beautiful, brown, compost!!! Sure, there were a few things still mushing, but everything else I had thrown in had already broken down. The culprit of my jam was a hard twig from my plant clippings that was splitting and creating a tough rope-like material. I cleared it all out, first noticing how nice and toasting my compost was, and closed the lid. Whirrrrrrr... the mixer started up again and hasn't stopped since. I'm going to wait another day or so before I begin adding organic materials on a regular basis.
I've moved my trashcan into the backyard in the hopes that I can minimize my trash footprint to just a few items a week -- recycling, reusing, and composting the rest. Updates along the way.
please keep us updated. the obvious question on everyone's mind is "does it smell?" I'm in a brooklyn apt, and have been debating this thing for over a year now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for all around positive reviews...
view amt230's profile
amt230,
so far no smells. Even when I opened the lid to deal with the jam and that wave of hot air hit me, there were no smells. I believe the sawdust and baking soda you add when you add organic material is supposed to help with any smells that may occur. But also, the thing is pretty sealed up.
More updates as I move forward in my adventures in composting.
view lil' soso's profile
Is it just me, or does it seem weird to be using a composter with a power supply? Compost doesn't need to be constantly turned. I have a regular composter that is basically a garbage can with a removable top. I turn it once a week, and stuff breaks down super fast.
view Detective Ventriloquist's profile
Detective Ventriloquist,
Does your composter sit inside your apartment? Did you have to get worms to help with the process? Does it smell?
According to NatureMill the power supply is the equivalent to a nightlight, fwiw.
view lil' soso's profile
I have one of these and it's been really sweet. the churning at first is a little loud.. especially at night but the instructions say that will get quiet within a month once the unit breaks in. Mine smells when I open the lid.. but it's not a bad smellâ¦. just earthy.. it would probably smell less if i added more baking soda.
I dig it because I am pretty lazy, I tried more traditional composting and was too impatient to wait the 3 to 6 months, and not disciplined enough get crazy with worm management skills. So far this is the perfect solution for me.. within a week most of what I chuck into is very nearly broken down into compost.
view simpleoctopus's profile
the speed of "regular" composting really depends where you live-- I live in Alberta, Canada, and really there is about 6 months of freeze where nothing breaks down outside so for a family of four I need 3 (outside) composters to get through the winter. the "woomph" that they make when the melt finally comes is pretty incredible, though.
My point is that this kind of thing is perfect for apartment dwellers and for those of us with very limited growing seasons.
view dpeacey's profile
a question for you fellow composters -- how does the naturemill compare to the happy farmer kitchen composter?
view dpeacey's profile
i really wanted to buy one of these for my condo but after a lot of reading i found out that you cant use the compost straight out of the machine on houseplants. you have to let it "age" outside first which kind of makes it useless for me.
boo
view roar's profile
Actually, my composter does sit outside.
My point is not that, gee it's convenient for me everyone else should do it that way. It's that it can be done without a power cord, and if there's a cordless alternative, maybe the inconvenience of having worms in your apartment is worth not using even more electricity to do something that nature does in it's own time (how annoying!).
I feel like this is a more viable idea environmentally if you're on wind power. Whatever. My opinion.
view Detective Ventriloquist's profile
We have one of these at work, we just started using it. We ordered it from the states (we're in TO, ON). So far so good. We are trying to lesson our carbon footprint so this was a cool thing to bring it. As for wasting electricity for something that can be done naturally - we don't have the option but we also pay a premium on top of our energy use to another company who in turn gives it to companies who are creating greener power (windmills, watermills, etc). We have tons of plants around our office, so we will be using the compost for that.
view TrishM's profile
The only downside seems to be the use of electricity to run this thing. How much energy does it use per month?
view sylvangirl's profile
Just FYI - there is a new version out for this product. I picked one up at Costco. It seems to be very similar to the one pictured above except that it has a heavy duty mode of operation, and an energy saving setting. Both are very convenient for obvious reasons. So far so good. Already it has made two batches of compost which would take like years for my old compost bin, which I imagine now I will have to sell on eBay.
view tidybot's profile