[Localvore Newsletter] Reclaim Your Food With Compost

Yard and food waste make up approximately thirty percent of the waste stream in the U.S. If every household participated in composting, it would divert a significant portion of the waste stream from our landfills and water treatment facilities.

General tips for starting a backyard compost pile:

Choose a moderately sunny, accessible area for your composter. If you are using a compost bin, turn the soil in your chosen location.
Start your green and brown layering process, beginning with a layer of small branches at the bottom that will allow for proper circulation and drainage.
Top off your new pile with finished compost or good garden soil to ensure an introduction of bacteria to your waste.
Aerate regularly by mixing, checking moisture content.
More tips.

Composting Troubleshooting

What to compost. And what not to compost.

What to do when your compost pile stinks! Visit http://cityofdavis.org/pw/compost/troubleshooting.cfm.

What is Vermicomposting?
From Compost Manual

Vermicomposting uses worms to convert your organic waste to compost rather than the microbial-dependent decomposition process used in backyard composters. The Redworm, also known as the Red Wriggler or Eisenia foetida, is the shining star of vermicomposters, although European Night Crawlers are a fine substitute. When you throw kitchen scraps into a worm bin, what the worms really seek to consume are the nourishing microorganisms decomposing the scraps.

One of the biggest differences that sets worm composting apart is that it can be done indoors, which allows for year-round composting, as well as composting in small places like apartments, classrooms, or homes without large yards. Because worms consume waste so quickly (they eat their weight in bedding and organic waste daily), it is ideal for kitchen scrap disposal, since food would not linger long enough to create an offensive odor. And since the worm compost bin cannot be exposed to extreme temperatures, the ideal storage spot is right in your home. Another winning benefit: as worms move through the bedding and compost, they aerate the pile for you, eliminating the need for manual pile turning.

Resource For Teachers: The Worm Cafe
Mid-Scale Vermicomposting of Lunchroom Wastes
by Paul Bourgeois, Binet Payne Worm Book

The Worm Cafe: Mid-Scale Vermicomposting of Lunchroom Wastes describes how a teacher and her students developed a system to compost lunchroom waste with worms and save their school $6000 per year. http://www.chelseagreen.com/bookstore/item/the_worm_cafe:paperback.

What is Compost Tea?
From the Compost Manual

Compost tea is best described as a liquid soil conditioner for your garden and lawn. For the organic gardener, it is just one more way to utilize the compost harvested from your compost bin, compost tumbler or worm compost bin. It can be used either as a spray for leaves or soil, depending on where your plants have problems. Compost tea can also provide a quick boost to ailing house plants or to seedlings and transplants. When you're done with the tea, you can use the dregs as mulch in the garden.

How to make compost tea: http://www.finegardening.com/how-to/articles/brewing-compost-tea.aspx.

From New Composter to Poo Composter:

A Green Garbage Guide, From Chelsea Green's Website

There are a bewildering amount of different composting systems and bins available on the market. This article will help you choose which bin or system suits your lifestyle, your family, your house, or apartment. http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/from-new-composter-to-poo-composter-a-green-garbage-guide.

Buy a Composter & Support the
Cheshire County Conservation District

The Cheshire County Conservation District has a limited number of compost bins and would love to sell them to interested folks. The bins are large 80 gallon capacity, made of recycled plastic, 33"x35" and cost $50 (retail price $100). They also have kitchen pails for $10. Contact: Amanda Costello, Cheshire County Conservation District, 603-756-2988 ext.116, [email protected].

Is It Waste or An Untapped Resource?
Municipal Composting Gains Acceptance
Provides Relief for Landfills
by James I. Miller, May 2004

Imagine a time when a significant portion of the solid waste stream we create quickly biodegrades into a valuable, new resource. Through the continued success and growing popularity of municipal composting programs, that time may not be so far off.

In spite of the obvious benefit, producing a saleable, organic product may not be the most significant payoff of municipal composting in the long run. In conjunction with curbside or community recycling efforts, successful programs involving composting are becoming an important and beneficial tool for diverting solid organic waste from our nation's landfills.

Among the most successful municipal recycling programs that includes composting is that of the City of San Francisco, where more than 63% of the city's waste - including its bio-waste - was recycled in 2002. http://www.americanrecycler.com/0504municipal.shtml.

From Tons of Manure, a Growth Industry

From the New York Times, By Gerri Hirshey, February 26, 2009

More than a decade ago - she thinks it was in 1998 - Jane Slupecki, a marketing representative for the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, took a group of Litchfield County dairy farmers to a brainstorming dinner at a lovely lakeside inn there. Her agency had a small grant to try to find possible solutions to a big, stinky problem.

"Cow manure," Ms. Slupecki recalls. "Endless tons of it. We were concerned about how farmers returned manure nutrients to their fields, and how we could prevent runoff of excess nitrogen and phosphorus into watersheds." Since farms in riparian areas were of particular concern, most of the dairymen invited to dinner were grazing cows near the Blackberry River, which in turn feeds the mighty Housatonic. Their hostess remembers it as "just a lovely dinner," but we will spare the reader the technical points of the conversation.

"Cow poop is cow poop," admits Ms. Slupecki, who was feeling some frustration at the paucity of workable suggestions by the time they reached dessert and coffee. Half in jest, she blurted, "Can't you guys do something with this stuff - make a flowerpot or something?"

Their answer: cow pots.

TerraCycle:
From Worm Poop and Waste to Eco-Capitalism
Watch their story at: http://www.terracycle.net/story.htm

It all started in 2001 when two Princeton University students set out to change the way people do business. Inspired by a box of worms, these students had a dream: a company could be financially successful while being ecologically and socially responsible.TerraCycle produces a potent, all-natural, eco-friendly plant food that is the first mass-produced product in the world to be packaged in used plastic soda bottles.

Composting Innovation: Bokashi?
From Upper Valley Localvore, Pat McGovern

I am curious to know if anyone has tried or heard reports about Bokashi? It seems as if it might be a good solution for winter composting and good for apartment dwellers especially.

From http://www.bokashicycle.com: Bokashi is a new and revolutionary way of fermenting (pickling) your kitchen waste. The method was developed in Japan and when done properly, breaks down the scrap material with many micro-organisms (lactobacilli, yeasts and phototropic microbes) all working together. It's easy to do once you have the right equipment.

How Much Compost Do You Need?

From Ideal Compost's Website:
Rule of thumb for how much compost to apply to your garden.

1" tilled in to maintain fertility from year to year. This assumes soil which produced a good crop the previous year.

2" tilled in to revitalize a poor garden. For when last year's garden soil lacked "kick".

3" tilled in when you are starting with very depleted soil.

How to figure the volume of compost to order for your garden, visit http://www.idealcompost.com/ordering.html.

Don't Have Enough Compost?
Buy Locally Made Compost!

Ideal Compost, Peterborough
Mike Lombard, 439 Old Greenfield Road, Peterborough, NH 03458
603-924-5050, [email protected]
Hours of operation: M - F by appt. only.
Saturdays 8:30 a.m. - 1 p.m (April, May, June),
Closed Sundays and Memorial Weekend.
Materials accepted: leaves.
Sells compost bulk or bagged, will load trucks for customers, will deliver.
From http://www.idealcompost.com

To make our compost, we start out with piles and piles of horse litter, cow and chicken manure, spoiled grain, grass, hay, straw, silage and leaves. We monitor progress with thermometers and moisture meters.After months and months of the slow burning of decay, each compost batch is tested for maturity. When ready, the compost is screened, blended into a range of products, and stacked up, ready for you.

Stonewall Farm, Keene
Amanda Hopkins, Garden Manager 603-357-7278
http://www.stonewallfarm.org/farmstand.html

Rich, Organic Compost - $20/bucket-load (approximately a half-yard).
Special pick-up times: Every Saturday in May from 2:30 to 5:30 pm, and every Sunday in May from 9 am to 1 pm. Drive past the Learning Center to the greenhouses.

Keene Recycling Center, Keene
Duncan Watson, 603-352-5739 Ext. 2
Hours of operation: M-F 7-3, Sat 8-1
Website: http://www.ci.keene.nh.us/publicworks/recycle/
composting.html
Materials accepted: Leaf and yard waste, small brush.
Compost available free of charge to Keene residents only, one cubic yard limit; product unscreened.

Brookfield Farm, Walpole
Chris Gowdy, Walpole, NH 03608
603-445-5104
Hours of operation: Call first.
Sells compost.

Echo Moon Farm, Walpole
Tom & Charlene Beaudry, Walpole, NH 03608
603-756-9582
Hours of operation: Call first for bulk compost, bagged materials available anytime on the honor system.
Sells compost bagged and bulk, wholesale and retail.

Are we missing someone? Email [email protected].

Earth Day Festival Buy Local Survey

The Monadnock Farm & Community Connection Co-op Committee surveyed seventy-two Earth Day participants to gauge interest in and demand for local food in downtown Keene.

Interested in taking this survey too? Click here.

1) Are you interested in more year round access to locally grown/produced food?
Not interested: 0%
Somewhat interested: 0%
Interested: 15%
Very interested: 85%

2) What is the most important characteristic when deciding what food you buy? (Assign #1-5 to each category: 1 is least important, 5 most important)
Freshness (score calculated by adding up all response values): 210
Distance food travels: 204
Taste of food: 203
Cost of food: 189
Appearance of food: 185

3) How important is it to you that a local food market be walkable from downtown Keene?
Not important: 7%
Somewhat important: 19%
Important: 26%
Very important: 47%

4) Are you a member of a community garden or a CSA farm?
Yes: 22.5%
No: 77.5%

5) How many times do you shop at the Keene Farmers Market?
Never: 14%
Twice a week: 6%
Every week: 33%
Every two weeks: 19%
Every month: 14%
Every other month: 3%
A few times between May and October: 11%

6) If you are a member of a CSA and/or currently shop at the Farmer's Market, would you still continue to support them if a food co-op existed?
Yes: 100%
No: 0%