DineIn • TakeOut • Catering Westovers Country Grill creates delicious, good ole’ fashion home cooking in a nostalgic country setting. From comfort food like BBQ to delicious steaks and pasta, you’ll love every bite. We even make homemade desserts! Stop by anytime, especially if you’re on your way to nearby Ricketts Glen.
Dine inside or relax outside on our all weather outdoor deck/pavilion. It’s also the perfect place to have your next party, event, or business gathering.
4438 Red Rock Rd. Benton PA 17814 570-925-0330 Open at 11am Tuesday-Sunday
B.Y.O.B. Welcome!
There are articles, books, workshops, and websites devoted to composting, and as many ways to compost as people who practice it. The topic cannot be covered in one short article, so we’ll just cover the basics. There are two methods of composting: the so-called “hot” and “cold” methods. Cold composting is what nature does. Gather organic material in a pile, add air and rain, and give it time. Much of it will have decomposed into compost in a year or two. Hot composting is an artificial way to speed up the composting process, and the method is most commonly advocated. If you build a pile big enough (3 feet by 3 feet is considered a bare minimum), the interior begins to heat, ideally to 130°F or more. The heat accelerates the process and has the side benefit of killing off weed seeds and some plant diseases that might make it into your pile. You must periodically turn the pile to aerate the interior and keep the material uniformly mixed. Under ideal conditions, one can produce compost in as little as three weeks.
Some municipalities and farms practice an industrial-scale version of this. Municipalities (like my own) will collect and accept yard waste and compost it on a large scale, then give it away to their citizens. I’ve been to a farm where all agricultural waste, including animal carcasses, are put in piles 25+ feet long that are 6 feet high, 12 feet wide, and reach 170°F inside. Machinery turns the pile every few days, and the beautiful compost is ready to be spread on the fields in a few weeks. I’ve tried hot composting and had two difficulties. First, I never have enough waste at any one time to build a pile large enough to get hot. I have a little every day. Second, like most busy people, I forget to turn the piles. I met a farm professional who makes tons of compost with the hot method and asked what he did at home. He cold-composts, and now I do too. It’s slower, but it’s easy and sure. I used a roll of galvanized wire mesh to make two cylinders about 3-4 feet in diameter and 4 feet high, though any airy containers of this size will do. These will contain my piles. I collect kitchen
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