20 / matters magazine / home&garden 2018 ily of five will produce about five gal- lons of food waste a week, or about 20 pounds. Over the course of a year, with evaporation and decay, that will turn into 600 to 700 pounds of fin- ished compost – a gold mine for gar- dening and landscaping. Alison Barmas, also of Maplewood, points out that keeping her family’s ta- ble waste out of the garbage was a huge motivating factor for her in compost- ing. “I’m an engineer and I’ve worked on the design and construction of landfills and I don’t want to be con- tributing to them,” she says. Sarah Lester, director of the Maple- wood Library and a Maplewood resi- dent, started composting in Novem- ber. Almost immediately, she noticed that trash from her family of five went Food scraps go into one side of this tum- bler. When it's full, you close it up and let it "cook" and decompose. After about 6-8 weeks, you open it up and you have finished compost. Then you empty it out, close the other side and start again. Sarah Lester and her family have greatly reduced their trash since they started composting. Alison Barmas sees composting as a way to keep waste like this out of landfills. “from an embarrassing level to literally one kitchen bag a week.” Now in its second year, Java’s Com- post estimates that its 35 customers have diverted more than five tons of food waste from incinerators and land- fills. All of this material has been re- cycled back into their customer’s own property in the form of compost. Cus- tomers who don’t want the finished compost can also donate it to two community gardens in Newark. For further Information, or to sign up contact Paula at farbrookminicamp@gmail.com This Summer I will be a clown in the circus, dance in the sprinkler, ride a pony in a rodeo, sing songs around the campfire, jump through hoops, view wildlife in my binoculars, play the saxophone, learn to “downward dog”, make ice cream, and send a rocket to the moon. You can too ... The ultimate camping experience for 3-7 year olds. Directors: Paula Levin, Bill Deltz and Donna Deltz Hours: Mon.-Weds. 10–6pm • Thurs-Sat. 10–8pm • Closed Sunday 973.313.2722 • thetenthmusegallery.com • 170 Maplewood Avenue NEW ARTISTS • NEW COLLECTIONS • NEW COLORS S P R I N G H A S S P R U N G !