I'm composting for the first time this year, in a back-yard composter. I have some leaves in there, and I regularly throw in my coffee grounds. I also occasionally throw in vegetable and fruit scraps.

When I look online (websites, TED talks, etc.) it seems that people often say that it's "okay" to put in vegetable and fruit pieces, but then they act like it's not going to do much for you in terms of end-of-process compost. The common thing said here is "the only thing worth mixing from your kitchen with your leaves is coffee".

However, fruit and vegetable pieces have a C:N ratio of somewhere between 25:1-35:1 it seems, which is almost perfect with the 30:1 ratio that people say is ideal. So from this information alone, one might guess that fruit/vegetables are actually really good for your compost pile, not just tolerable.

So which is it? Are they *good* or are they merely *okay*. And why?