From Grounds to Grounds

What do you do with your old coffee grounds? Our grounds become fresh herbs. Here's how:

First I should say that I really love my little espresso maker, and therefore produce a LOT of used coffee grounds. We grind the beans immediately before brewing (and after sweeping them off the floor because we forget to replace the hopper.) It never occurred to me that the grounds had any value beyond producing the blessed beverage that keeps me human until I noticed a bushel basket  filled with fat packets of used grounds at our local Starbucks. Watching customers happily snatching up this treasure for their gardens I thought perhaps I should change my ways.

From that day forward, I've kept a plastic container on the side of my sink for our own soil enhancers.

Because we live in the Sonoran Desert, we really don't have a garden as such, and anyone who plans to do any digging rents a jackhammer, not a shovel. So instead of tipping the used coffee grounds directly onto the base of the prickly pear cactus, I dump them, along with miscellaneous vegetable peels, wilted greens and just about any other sort of food scraps (except meat) into a big plastic bin at the side of the house. The bin also gets regular contributions of peat moss and potting soil, usually from dead or dying house plants our neighbors considerately contribute. Because, as mentioned before, we live in a desert, the bin gets regular doses of water as well.

Within a surprisingly short time, the coffee grounds, carrot parings and onion skins disappear into a rich, sweet-smelling black mulch. This, then, goes into nifty little pots and planters where Sage, Thyme, Marjoram, Oregano and lots and lots of Basil grow most of the year.

Want fresh herbs to brighten up dinner? Put your grounds into the ground.