Not long ago, someone raised the question of how to compost orange peelings.

We have a very vigorous 20+ year old Valencia orange that produces it's heart out. As a result, we have lots of oranges for juice, and a lot of falling fruit - when we don't keep up with it.

As a result, there is always the problem of how to control the falling fruit - to keep rats and insects from becoming a problem.

I do compost everything - but hesitated to add the fruit peels to a compost pile that is in various stages of decomposing.

Recently, I decided to start a worm bin for coffee grounds and kitchen garbage offerings. I put them in a heavy duty styrofoam cooler (a cast off) and found a cover of plywood. Added kitchen garbage - coffee grounds, and covered with a shovel full of compost, placed it in a sunny location and hoped it would decompose. To my surprise, the "stuff" heated up (smoking even), and really began to work on the orange peelings. By shifting the pile from side to side - adding more peels to an empty area, then covering with the decomposed half, I was able to keep the heat intense enough to do the job quicker.

When I made a new compost pile, this "hot stuff" was buried in the bottom, to help the pile along. Then I started a new orange peelings, coffee grounds, shovel compost in the styrofoam cooler for the next "go-round."

This has been the best solution to "all those falling oranges and orange peelings after juicing" that were such a nuisance in the trash collection.

Just my 2 c's - FWIW.

Bejay