Vitamix FoodCycler

Posted on August 21, 2022

I need to give you a little backstory here so you understand why I am writing about this piece of machinery. I am not a city girl, nor am I a country girl, although if I had to pick one or the other, I would have to go to the farm. An older article on Pediaa broke it down on several levels but three simple things hit me: Nature, Life and People.

Nature:

City distances people from nature.
Country facilitates a closer to nature lifestyle.

Life:

City is crowded and busy.
Country is calm and quiet.

People:

City dwellers are busy and lead solitary lives.
Country dwellers are more friendly, kind and warm-hearted.

I lean way into being a country person in geographic suburbia. I am not the proverbial tree-hugger but I strongly believe in being good stewards to our planet and give back when I can. Don’t get me wrong, I am a carnivore, love my SUV and hemp chafes like an SOB. With that said, I don’t do bottled water and I recycle everything I can break apart on my own. I go as organic as feasible, avoiding chemicals and processed foods as much as possible. I try to buy local and sustainable whenever I can and really try to grow my own, I really do. So far rosemary, thyme, limes, kumquats, strawberries and chives are the only survivors. It’s a process. So now you know me a little better.

The amount of waste in restaurant kitchens is remarkable. Health and safety laws, liability, logistics all make the well-meaning new laws in California easier said than done. Specifically Senate Bill 1383 and Food Recovery.Telling someone it’s now the law so get it done, but providing no resources or tools to do so in an already strapped economy, really? As Michael Jackson sang so eloquently “I’m starting with the (wo)man in the mirror”.

Do you know how many carrots I went through practicing my knife cuts? I have a compost rolling barrel thingy on the side of the house but it’s not easy in my circumstances. I have my little bucket with the filter in my kitchen sink that I put all my scraps in. After a few days, when it’s full, I haul it to the barrel, add fresh dirt, turn it, add more scraps, turn it, over and over. In a month or so, I have enough compost to add to a pot. Yay me. In the SoCal heat, it also stinks. There are flies. But I am doing good for the yard, the plants and the planet.

When time is at a premium the compost bucket is finding its way to the kitchen sink less and less. Then, one magical day I got a text from the Treasure Truck about this impossible deal on a confounding contraption. The Vitamix FoodCycler. What is this unicorn of a machine?

Behold the video!

With all the scraps I create with my culinary classes, the leftovers that inevitably remain on my mother’s plate, tea bags, egg shells, just to name a few, this machine should have my name on it. My bucket sits in my sink as I load it up throughout the day. Before I turn the lights out in the kitchen at night, I move the bucket to the FoodCycler, screw on the lid to lock, press one button, turn out the lights and BAM! The next morning I have perfect nutrient rich fertilizer ready to go into the planter. No bugs. No stink. No mess. The bucket is even dishwasher safe! A dream come true at a price. It’s not cheap. Not knowing how great this was beforehand, I would never have made the investment but for the Treasure Truck’s ridiculous deal. Now that I do know, I would pay full price. An 8 pound bag of concentrated super compost as of this writing goes for $29.98 at a place that rhymes with. It takes way more than ten bags to do my yard which means my FoodCycler is a bargain. Plus, I know exactly what’s in my fertilizer so there’s that too. City girl and Country in one machine. Fusion baby! I really didn’t expect to love this thing the way I do. It’s a pure geek-out for me. A tech toy that enriches my garden with minimal effort . Who knows what next spring will look like! It’s so exciting!

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