Comments on Homegrown Evolution: Compost Field Trip

JJ: A tool I have found useful is the trunk of an...

2009-11-30T12:49:19.931-08:00

JJ:

A tool I have found useful is the trunk of an old Christmas tree, with all branches clipped off. I use it to pound things against my patio and break them up; it has been a good way of working broken terra cotta pots into the soil, for example, but it also makes fairly short work of partly-rotten wood.

If I needed sifted compost, I'd put the compostables that didn't pass the mesh through such a treatment before composting them again.

As a backyard composter, I was looking for somethi...

2009-11-26T08:27:53.588-08:00

As a backyard composter, I was looking for something to take my refuse and grind and shred it into small pcs. Unfortunately, there don't appear to be any small compost shredder. I use a lawn mover for grass and leaves, and for vegetable stalks, fruit rinds, and small branches I find machetes work great.

Finished reading most of your book last night, rea...

2009-11-25T07:19:44.846-08:00

Finished reading most of your book last night, really enjoyed it. I'm going to be starting the worm bin composting this weekend. I'll keep listening on here....

The stuff is unloaded and transferred in Sun Valle...

2009-11-24T14:32:00.136-08:00

The stuff is unloaded and transferred in Sun Valley, then trucked up to the compost facility and farm in Lamont, CA which is in the Bakersfield area.

They might use Daniel Burd's strain of Sphingomona...

2009-11-24T13:05:18.659-08:00

They might use Daniel Burd's strain of Sphingomonas bacteria.

They are apparently able to digest polyethylene: they were dicovered in a compost pile, as a highschool science project.

His report from the fair

How far away from LA City is this facility?

2009-11-24T09:16:51.878-08:00

How far away from LA City is this facility?

Over the summer I got to see one of those windrow ...

2009-11-24T03:34:35.201-08:00

Over the summer I got to see one of those windrow machines in action where it was invented - at the Rodale Institute. (It's even possible that the modern concept of compost was invented there as well. I'd have to check though.) The windrow machine was mighty impressive. That's a machine for some serious compost production. We got to see working demonstrations of some other cool machinery designed in house as well. Most of the folks on this tour were farmers, and I can tell you that farmers admire cool gear as much as the next person.

I am still trying to get my compost to look like t...

2009-11-23T20:34:22.548-08:00

I am still trying to get my compost to look like that. There was a story on the news recently about the city of San Francisco and the efforts they've been making to compost as much as possible, and I mean from everybody- not just restaurants and the like. I wish I could remember the numbers but I was pretty impressed with the percentage of their landfill that they're composting. Here's a link to info about it: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/10/mandatory-composting-law-success-san-francisco.php

Yeah for composting!