The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: colliewobbles on April 13, 2013, 12:52:42 pm

Title: Silly question
Post by: colliewobbles on April 13, 2013, 12:52:42 pm
What to do with used teabags?  At the moment ours go on the compost heap but is there any other wonderful use for them?   ??? 

Donna
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: tizaala on April 13, 2013, 02:01:09 pm
Defra frown on composting teabags in-case they were in your kitchen (WTF ?) and got contaminated with foot & mouth via milk, Bless e'm.
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: doganjo on April 13, 2013, 02:29:57 pm
Sounds as bad as the COSSH instructions - if you spill H2O you have to rinse with water  :roflanim: :roflanim: :roflanim:
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: Clarebelle on April 13, 2013, 03:27:02 pm
I put mine on kitchen paper on the kitchen radiator to dry, then i rip them open and pour into my 'plant feed' tin which is a old sweetie tin with a mixture of dried tea from the bags, dried coffee grounds and crushed egg shells. When potting up my plants i mix a handful in with the soil. It's a bit time consuming but I don't have a compost bin and don't like wasting them!  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: Bionic on April 13, 2013, 03:48:35 pm
I put them in the bottom of pots when I am potting up
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: Daisys Mum on April 13, 2013, 04:59:57 pm
Oh dear I just bin mine :-\  but then I don't have a compost heap either just a bl**dy great muck heap.
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: Mammyshaz on April 13, 2013, 05:14:32 pm
We don't use many, usually just when guests have a cuppa. Then they go on the compost  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: Backinwellies on April 13, 2013, 07:15:56 pm
Isn't the whole point of a compost heap to use kitchen left overs to produce some thing useful?   ...
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: JMB on April 13, 2013, 08:42:56 pm


http://english.eastday.com/e/top10/u1a5438369.html (http://english.eastday.com/e/top10/u1a5438369.html)



Google it and see what you get!
This link talks about using them as a house hold cleaner, and for warts...!

Not to mention puffy eyes when you're crying over a lost lamb.....
J xxxx
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: MAK on April 13, 2013, 08:52:50 pm
We re-use PG Tips bags to make more tea becuase we can not get PG tips in France. The tasteless, colourless French tea bags probabley have no value on a compost heap  :eyelashes: nor doe our 4 cup PG Tips .
Seriousley though - Roses grow on them - and not just the T roses.
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: SallyintNorth on April 14, 2013, 03:45:41 am
I've a friend is going to make a bag out of old tea-bags - but don't ask me how!

I tried saving mine for her, but they seemed to get mould on them before they'd dried out; if I dried them quickly (over the stove, for instance), they just stuck to whatever they were sat on.  I gave up and went back to lobbing them on the fire or binning them.

When I used to have no cows and a garden I used to put them in the compost.
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: Izzy on April 14, 2013, 09:09:35 am
There are 2 reasons why I don't compost t bags. First in my experience the bags don't rot that well so when using the compost you keep having to fish out wee scraps. The second is that tea is full of tannins which are I understand are designed to stop decomposing bacteria (think of tanning leather). Fortunately our council collects kitchen waste weekly so that has slightly solved the issue for me.
 
Incidentally I recently bought loose tea by mistake so have gone back to making a full teapot, tea cosy, strainer, the lot. It tastes so much better than a one cup, or even tea bags in a pot that I might not go back to tea bags.
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: colliewobbles on April 14, 2013, 11:39:18 am
Incidentally I recently bought loose tea by mistake so have gone back to making a full teapot, tea cosy, strainer, the lot. It tastes so much better than a one cup, or even tea bags in a pot that I might not go back to tea bags.

Might try that - I recently went back to butter from using margarine - loads better  ;)
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: Hassle on April 14, 2013, 09:22:34 pm
I used to use them to clean the bottom of my cooking pan after being used on an open fire. .....

And is that such a thing as a silly question....
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: HesterF on April 14, 2013, 09:31:51 pm
Treasure maps - gives the right aged look of ancient documents. Limited use though  ;)
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: colliewobbles on April 14, 2013, 09:51:51 pm
Treasure maps - gives the right aged look of ancient documents. Limited use though  ;)

Oh, I remember doing 'parchment' with my kids when they were in first school.  Maybe I should move from secondary to primary then I would have plenty of uses for them.   :thinking:
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: Plantoid on April 14, 2013, 10:31:32 pm
You can use opened up dead dried tea bags  as the smoker fuel in a wok for on the flame smoking sessions for salmon thinb cuts of meat or other fish if you want to lightly flavour the flesh . .
 You can dry the bags and use twow instead of one with a tiny pinch of sodium bicarb to get a strong  cup of brown stuff   lots of the cheaper stronger teas used to have it sprayed on the leaf for this effect. many a greasy spoon with the on the counter tea urn also use this trick of gettting more tannin out the tea leaves .
 
 They make emergency tobacco additives when  dried and opoened up along with dried clover knobs for those who want to kill themselves with each breath they take of the smoke.
 
Title: Re: Silly question
Post by: YorkshireLass on April 15, 2013, 02:30:27 pm
I put them in the bottom of pots when I am potting up


 :idea: