I now have a sudden embarrassment of riches with respect to eggshells and my normal method of processing seems to be inadequate.

In the past I was dealing with much smaller quantities. I have been trying to process the same but I have shells stacking up. I'd like to make eggshell powder (or even fine sand) but on a larger scale. My little nutribullet can only do so much before it overheats and quits. Then it takes hours to cool down.

I now have probably three 5-gallon buckets of crushed with more shells coming this week. Has anyone used a larger system for similar efforts? Thoughts?

I need to come up with a long-term solution for processing as I'm getting roughly 8 cases of 15 dozen shells (1440 eggs) every week and there may be more during busy weeks.

I'll be using them for vermicomposting as well as soil amendments.

Wow... You win the crazy about eggshells award. I have 12 a week and just add them to the compost. I know the calcium isn't available to plants but it will be. Still structure for now. I have watched videos that bake the shells then crushed them with a blender as you do. Crazy that you're overheating your unit. Simply awesome the volume you have. Are you sure all that calcium won't hurt your soil? How about a weed whacker... Just put it in the five gallon bucket and turn it on?

The volume shouldn't hurt the soil. I'm mainly adding it to the vermicomposting areas. It aids the worms in their crops by helping grind what they ingest. Better worms, better castings, better compost, better soil. I was just saving my own but about 5-6 weeks ago started getting them from a local bakery. It's been great...but that poor old nutribullet struggles. I have a lot of crushed in the compost as well as a mess of ground in the worm areas. I also added 30 lbs of eggshell powder to beds, containers, and potting mix a couple of weeks ago.

I think a weed whacker would sling them all over the place. Even with the enclosed nutribullet use, when I open them clouds of powder waft away.

Try a refurbished Vitamix, you can blend a tank in them😀

BTW @thommesM,

If you're after eggshells definitely try to find a local bakery of some kind with a sympathetic owner. I did and now can't believe the windfall of eggshells. I've received more in a couple of months than I'd have had in YEARS! It's allowing me to ramp up soil treatments. I am already seeing increases in worms when compared to areas where I haven't added lots of powdered eggshells.

Before Covid, I used to p/u egg shells from a cafe on the week ends from May to July, picking up at closing time. I hosed them in a Rubbermaid tote with the garden hose, then left them in the sun on the driveway to dry. Once I had enough shells, I baked them at 250F for 15 to 20 m. on baking sheets. Once they cooled down, I crushed them by rolling a beer/wine bottle over them, just to reduce the volume for temporary storage, before further grinding. After I have ruined 3 mixer/blenders, I got a $35 manual grain grinder from Amazon, and have been using it ever since. I sift it with a flour sifter; re-ground a 2nd time. I use this powdered egg shells in my worm bins.

I just crunch them up a bit with my hands and throw them in the compost bin - they disappear in days - the worms eat them. I would not be too worried about COVID - it is more air borne and does not transmit very well on food. Unless someone sick coughed on them. You could just leave the container untouched for few days before using them if you want to be safe. and always wash your hands afterwards, which you should do anyway,

Do the same as Christie, break them up and throw them in the compost bin. Get a Vitamix blender, mine is 27 years old and still going strong.

I now use a Ninja blender. It has multiple sets of blades up the stem. What I end up with isn't powder though... More like bran flakes. Still, it processes volume really well and allows me to get in with other tasks.

BTW, see frequent mentions of people making eggshells and wonder why. It seems to be a holdover from people using them in potted houseplants. They're mineral so I don't see any reason to add that step or smell processing for the garden/worms. Thoughts?

You meant it to say NUKING?
To kill salmonella.

It was supposed to be baking.

On the salmonella front...

https://sfamjournals.onlinelib...

Baking made the egg shells brittle. Therefore easier to grind. Even by "baking" using the residual heat in the oven (power turned off, after being used for people food) it's noticeable. In order not to waste electricity, I did it in batches. No rush.

That's what I figured. I get so many though that baking them isn't really an option. When I can, they dry first. Yesterday I brought home a batch. Temps are low here and we have a few days off melt coming from the freezing rain and sleet we received so they just got dumped into one of the compost bins roughly as halves. The opossums and raccoons will make use of some of them anyway. Plenty to go around.

Great compost day. Yesterday I added all the cut banana trunks and leaves. I had to wait until there was enough of a thaw that I could split the giant frozen mass. Got them added to the compost bins. Just before that I had a load of eggshells. Today a friend brought several large cans of leaves and covered the bins. Then I picked up another load of eggshells and covered the piles. At the end of the day I got a load of spent brewery grain... Around a hundred gallons. Got them home just before dark and got them layered into the tops of my bins by just after dark.

It was a great compost day.

Now if I can find coffee tomorrow it would be awesome.

I've had canna stems and leaves, which I'd guess are like banana in texture and they were hard to work with- big slimy mess. Did you chop up your banana stuff?
Spent grain should be awesome , have you had that before?
With all that going on,I'd be thinking about just sprinkling the coffee right on the garden. It already looks like dirt..

When getting coffee is easy, it goes into bins and all the beds also get covered. Priority goes to bins when it gets tighter because it seems to be the best way to ensure happy black soldier fly larvae.

My bananas in the back get to about 24-26 get high. But they have something not only worms love in the compost piles but you can see them between leaf layers in the living stems. The trunks run from 4"-10" wide. I have to use a battery recrocating saw to chunk them up about the time of first fall frost. I did it late this year. Then it all froze into a giant lump that only recently thawed enough to move. I usually prefer to get them on the piles when green.

Re: spent grain...

Yes. I've used it for a while. Each fall I trench my food beds about 1.5 feet deep and about 2.5 feet wide for the length of each bed. I fill them with grain and cover for the winter. I also often layer the compost bins with spent grain. A local brew works gives them to me. I try to get them same day as a brew because the grain starts decomposition quickly and since I live next to people, it's best to get it covered. After a few days uncovered the smell goes from that nice steeped grain smell to an offputting aroma. So if you use it, you'll want to cover it. Once it ages a bit it is much better.

Someone 0n DG once wrote a hilarious tale of getting old spent grain.. how much it reeked

Well.... It's been another good compost day.


A friend just brought me a truckload of leaves. So, I don't have to wait to cover the spent grain layers from last night. His timing was perfect! The bins are now covered by a couple of feet of leaves!! Still searching for a carload of coffee grounds....

Car load!
Get out the world's tiniest violin for my pity party please.. I get grounds from just a few coworkers, just dumped one large plastic coffee tub of this weeks grounds from work.
I learned about soldier flies when son worked at a coffee place and got a couple gallon at a time. Now I have black and golden SF.

That's about what I'm getting now. However, in years where I can lay in a LOT of coffee grounds, the population of BSF explodes. This is a great help to both my compost as well as bird food options.

Also, I make about 250-300 cubic feet of compost a year in the bins alone. That doesn't take into account all the trench composting and layered beds. Once I do the digging planned in the next few months, I'll probably have to triple that for at least a couple of years.

I'd kill for a good local source of biochar.