I always sprinkle cornmeal & other corn products over the surface of my beds - supposedly it promotes some type of disease-fighting bacteria...?

And there is no reason not to put old fruit, dried or not, in your compost.

For further composting FYI, you can visit the Soil, Compost & Mulch forum. It's linked through the Garden Forums page.

I would compost it with out a second thought

Grits are good to sprinkle around ant mounds as a natural way to kill them...sprinkle a circle around the mound not on it...ants take it in as food...colony slow weakens a dies with repeated application.

Well, it all went into the bin, and the worms seemed to be having a field day!

Pea, I know, stupid question, but do you mean uncooked grits?