Conquering composting: Rosetta Star breaks down which kitchen scraps are perfect for the compost bin and which ones still have a little life left in them.

Compost Happens. It's a bumper sticker I've always liked. The Breaking clown of organic materials is so natural. In fact, it's such a simple, reliable fact of nature that, though you can read big fat Books about how to do it, in the end, you can't really get it wrong. It just happens!

Therefore, what makes it to the compost Bucket in my kitchen gets a lot more thought in terms of reducing waste and squeezing every little tidbit of available nutrition out than worry about what will or won't break down. If it's organic, it will break down.

So, in talking about compost, I must first begin with a few methods to reduce the waste of your valuable vegetable matter. What can be used that is often overlooked, you ask? Onion peels, Broccoli stalks, celery stubs, stems from parsley and cilantro, tough greens, carrot ends, cucumber peels, tomato cores and peelings galore!

Vegetable stock is one of the simplest and most foolproof ways to get the last Bit of nutrition out of your veggies. At my restaurant, we keep a Bucket in the walk-in refrigerator labeled "stock options." It gathers an odd assortment of bits and pieces for a clay or two. Then, they get simmered down for an hour or so with some salt. Strained, this magical and nutritious concoction becomes a start to our cauldron soups. You can use anything you would use in a soup for this stock, meaning no eggshells, orange peels or avocado pits, to name a few. You can also use this type of stock when cooking grains for extra flavor and nutritional value.

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Another way to lessen the amount of material heading to the compost bucket is to use a food processor to break up the tough stems of kale, collards, broccoli, parsley and similar things. These parts are completely edible; they're just a Bit much to chew. But ground or finely chopped, they become a useful ingredient in veggie burgers, casseroles, soups and stuffing. Broccoli stems can also be peeled of their toughest outer skin; the inside is a great vegetable for anything you'd use the crown in, even a salad or slaw.

Once you're sure you've eaten every bit of the vegetables you can or want to, it's time to think a bit further clown the line. Many people I know make raw dog food for their pets. At a 20 percent vegetable to 80 percent meat/bone ratio, you can use a good Bit of leftover veggie ends, ground up or finely chopped, to fill the plant matter part of the mix. How about a pet rat, parrot, bunny or the chickens? Your kitchen compost stack 'may not be that big by the time everybody has eaten what they want! Just be sure not to feed spoiled or rotting foods to your pets.

And then, when you're left with only the coffee grounds, orange and banana peels, avocado pits, and other just plain in-edibles, I suggest a worm farm! There's still a creature out there who would love to dine on your odd useless bits and give you beautiful fertilizer for your plants in return. Worm composting is easy and cheap to begin; it's called vermiposting, and there's great information online and in books on how to get started.

You can even compost paper, cardboard and clothes made from natural fibers. These types of items can help offset the "wet" compost of rotting food that may make your pile stinky. It might take a little longer for these things, but it feels good to watch a once loved old shirt eventually become a cleaning rag and then a layer in the compost heap!

Rosetta Star shares her home with her wonderful, patient partner Jack, their four Children, three dogs, foster parrots and a handful of other species. She shares her downtown Asheville restaurant, Rosetta's Kitchen, with foodies, gypsies, punks, hippies, hikers, pirates, visionaries and other hungry folk of all persuasions. She can be reached at [e-mail], on Facebook at Rosetta's Kitchen and even on Twitter.