I had high hopes for my fish emulsion project. You may recall how I wound up with an extra 15 pounds of fresh sardines that went s...
If using homemade fish emulsion is a good thing, is getting rid of it even better?

I had high hopes for my fish emulsion project. You may recall how I wound up with an extra 15 pounds of fresh sardines that went south, and brought them home to turn into nutritious fish emulsion for my plants. I imagined the results as big as Jack-in-the-beanstalk’s garden. Well, the fish emulsion “emulsified” all right. The problem is, I’ve been afraid to use it.

If blogs had an aroma option, you’d understand what I mean.

Now, I did dump the emulsion onto the tomatoes about a month ago, and they’ve been quite happy. Unfortunately, my kids had to avoid our trampoline (which is nearby) for 3 days afterwards, and the bucket has been sealed up ever since.

 

Happy tomatoes (photo taken recently), oblivious to the fragrant brew before them

So, I realized I had to buck up and get rid of this stuff. Lacking a salt mine or other nuclear waste site, I poured the liquid portion onto this spindly Meyer lemon in the driveway (fortunately, the next-door-neighbor was away).

 

But what to do with the solids at the bottom of the bucket (the compost and fish remains)? Ah ha, I thought, bury them in the compost!

 

A quick heave-ho, and my problems were over. Or so I thought.

The next day, my husband came in from the backyard.

“You’ll never guess what just happened,” he said. “I went out to the compost pile and fainted for 45 minutes. Oh, and the pitchfork stinks.”

 

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