Zero Food Waste
"We don't have to sacrifice a strong economy for a healthy environment.
- Dennis Weaver
Zero Food Waste
We compost everything!
Our farm to table wild game Field Kitchen Restaurant is Bozeman's first zero waste restaurant and maybe the first in the whole state.
This means that we do not send any food waste to the landfill but instead recycle it through various composting methods
Being on a farm helps us accomplish this goal and it is cool to think about the fact that all food grown on property or purchased elsewhere is either consumed by our guests or farm animals or converted into nutrient rich soil for our gardens.
Aerobic
Composting
Our compost pile.
Aerobic composting is the type of composting you're probably most familiar with. We mix a balance of greens and browns… greens are primarily kitchen trimmings and garden clippings mixed with browns like grass clippings, leaves and cardboard.
We pile them all together and introduce air by mixing or turning the piles. They can reach an internal temperature of up to 170 degrees!
Bokashi
Composting
The secret ingredient.
Bokashi, or anaerobic composting is a lesser known type of composting. It is used to compost the food waste that doesn’t work in the traditional aerobic composting like meats, oils and other fatty items.
We found early on that while we were successful in being very efficient with our kitchen prep waste, we were not able to control the amount of food left over on plates that are scraped after customers are finished so we increased our composting processes to include Bokashi so that all food waste has a way to be composted.
Farm Animals
The pigs & chickens pull their weight.
We share our delicious kitchen scraps with our chickens and pigs! They love it and it is a great way to recycle the nutrients on the property.
The animals get to have a nutrient rich diet containing more than just store bought food and grazing, and their manure adds nitrogen into the ground and the animals also aerate the soil! That is why we move the chickens around the farm in their mobile coop!
