Flax seed meal

[sprtsguy76]

My wife is quite the baker and she was cleaning out here pantry. She had a whole 4 lb bag of flax seed meal that was old and scheduled to be thrown out. I was wonder if it would be better suited being thrown in the compost pile. Any thoughts?

Damon

[cornbreadlouie]

Compost it!! Maybe mix it up so it doesn't get clumped up though.

[Mudman]

Definitely compost it. It will give the compost that nutty flavor. No really though, anything organic that is headed for the trash, I say compost it.

[habitat_gardener]

Last year I helped someone clean out a pantry and dumped all the organics into my compost pile -- protein powders, old pasta, grains, outdated boxed soups and soymilk, etc. And then I had to move the compost bins shortly after that, along with all the compost. That was the stinkiest compost I ever saw, because it all glopped together, and there was 5-10 gallons of stuff! But when I moved the compost I added more browns as I rebuilt the piles, and when I moved them again, it was just compost.

If I had that much outdated flaxseed meal, I'd research using it as a fertilizer.

[Mudman]

I didn't really think about it smelling it up bad. I guess only experience will tell. I no longer put any onions in my compost for that reason. There is nothing more repulsive in the compost to me than rotting onions.

[habitat_gardener]

Normal compost piles don't smell bad!

The smell was only because of all the gloppy stuff added together, and having to move it all before the bacteria had enough time to break it all down. If I'd let it be, the bacteria would have done their work, and all I'd find would be wonderful compost.

I wouldn't hesitate to do it again! I really enjoy composting everything I can. For the stinkiest stuff, all you have to do is bury it in the pile, or if you don't have enough of a pile going yet, cover it with some soil.

I cover my daily additions to the compost with green trimmings from my garden, and when I have a big-enough layer of kitchen and garden trimmings, I cover them with a layer of branches and wood chips that I sifted out of the last batch of compost.

[dice]

It works for fertilizer. I mixed it with alfalfa meal in a raised bed back
around 2007. The plants grew great. (They had lots of horse manure,
but one end of it was mostly oak leaves with handfuls of alfalfa meal
and the flax seed meal scattered around on it. Those plants did well,
too.) It is about like using soybean meal or cottonseed meal.