"I want my freezer back." With those words, my wife, Elle, marched out of the house carrying 17 newspaper-wrapped bundles of cryogenically preserved apple cores, broccoli stalks, tea bags, eggshells, and carrot peelings and dumped the whole frosty lot into our giant yard-trimmings bin. We both knew this day was coming.The appliance in question, an Energy Star-rated Danby we still intend one day to fill with a bulk order of free-range beef, was always meant to be a stopgap solution to our disposal crisis. Our family generates more than its fair share of kitchen waste, largely due to the painfully expensive organic vegetables we very briefly place in front of our two small children at mealtimes before dumping them in the scraps bowl.The parenting handbooks tell us to keep trying, and so we do, year after year, while Duncan and Sabrina remain committed to their individual scurvy and malnutrition programs. Until recently, their premium cast-offs had landed in our "rodent resistant" black plastic compost box, on the way to the garden as rich soil.
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