• I’ve added a casual chat room to CookingBites as a place for off-topic banter, light conversation, and short-lived chit-chat that doesn’t belong in forum threads. The chat room is informal and lightly-to-not moderated, with messages being temporary, so it’s ideal for friendly back-and-forth that would otherwise derail discussions. Site rules still apply, but there’s no reporting system or expectation of post-by-post moderation - if something becomes uncomfortable, the right response is to step away. If a topic has substance or lasting value, it still belongs in the forums; everything else can head to chat.

What did you cook or eat today? (January 2026)

It takes the calcium in egg shells around 100 years to get in the soil so I'd imagine bone calcium is about the same.
It changes considerably if you bake the egg shells.

We collect them on a tray until we use the oven next and when we're done, the shells go into the oven as we turn it off. We just put the tray directly onto the bottom of the oven. Don't stack the shells, you'll want them 1 deep, not both halves together. By the time the oven is cold, they've changed and become very brittle. We crush them by hand at this point. And those go into the garden. Even not crushing them, you'll find they vanish very quickly in compost.

Many decades ago, we ran a test and it was the unbaked ones that were still whole after 2 years in the compost pile. The baked ones were gone within months even though we had not crushed them. Now we crush them as well.
 
I cut my credit cards and used them as mulch in my garden
I'd definitely not do that. Micro plastics are a problem and those cards will next decompose, just disintegrate over decades, remaining as plastic just in smaller pieces.

If you're worried about someone piecing then back together, just shred them into smaller pieces and put some of the contents out with the bins over a couple of collections. We cut them by hand into 5mm×5mm squares and just throw the lot in one go. My view is that all the stuff that can't decompose is best off in one location contaminating one known location locally, not here there and everywhere.
 
This stuff is like magic.
1000009427.jpg
 
I'd definitely not do that. Micro plastics are a problem and those cards will next decompose, just disintegrate over decades, remaining as plastic just in smaller pieces.

If you're worried about someone piecing then back together, just shred them into smaller pieces and put some of the contents out with the bins over a couple of collections. We cut them by hand into 5mm×5mm squares and just throw the lot in one go. My view is that all the stuff that can't decompose is best off in one location contaminating one known location locally, not here there and everywhere.
I wouldn't put plastic out either. When I have to toss a credit card, they're magnetic, I just heat a spot on the mag strip until it starts to melt. I've got the ever present blow torch in the kitchen like kaneohegirlinaz has white rice... 😁
 
They are in my alley, next time I see them, I will slowly toss them away. I still have bags of them, already cut in half, they are not easy to cut in smaller pieces.
 
They are in my alley, next time I see them, I will slowly toss them away. I still have bags of them, already cut in half, they are not easy to cut in smaller pieces.
I think she to have a shredder that would do them. It was one of those ones that cut vertically and horizontally, lots of pieces...
 
"Chicken Bordeaux" tonight, since I didn't have marsala wine. I got a deal on a bunch of frozen whole chickens for $1/pound recently, like my one a couple of pages back. That one chicken provided 10 meals among two different dishes, and made 3 pints of stock, which breaks down to about 60 cents of chicken per plate. 👍
55047635092_a1c361f39a_b.jpg

55048872170_a309104878_b.jpg
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom