so these are the wind rows that we started building and again we basically every few
weeks we build another wind row and so we had wind rows in different stages of how hot they
were so we had the coolest window over here that was one built like a year ago and then we started
building them along here and some of them we've this one was lower we just topped it off because
we needed a space to to compost this spring and we just didn't have space so most of them were
more like maybe that Heights maybe a little bit shorter than that when we built them and then
covered them with the hoops so you know this is basically just rediscovering something that
people have put to good use for centuries but um it's really exciting to find something that was
so easy and so reliable and like just you know spend one morning building the compost windrow
and like you're good for the next couple of months so will for this fall I won't use in the fall but
probably in March when we start needing moussa fothe side or maybe mid-february then we'll just
top them off build some more and making a little bit higher and then put it back to use again this
is our solar and compost heated greenhouse that we just finished building in January of this year so
in addition to gaining heat from the Sun during the day we also have a cup in a large compost
bin that's our heat source that off heats 24/7 so that's what keeps the cut the greenhouse warm and
above freezing at night so this is our compost bin the compost is now decomposed so it's low
down here but when we first built it back that would have been about 10 months ago it was topped
off right up to the top with compost as materials decompose they produce heat and so we were taking
advantage of that heat to heat the greenhouse it didn't hate the whole greenhouse but it heated
the area where we had the seedlings during the winter growing season compost was right up to
the top we put our seedling trays right on top of the compost pile there was wood chips on the
top of it so we had a nice surface for the trace and then that the trays kept warm during the day
from the Sun and from the heat from the compost pile on cold nights we would put roll cover and
or plastic over the trays and that would trap the heat from the compost then right in the area where
the seedlings were and keep the seedlings warm all night so on are very very coldest nights I
think it got down to 12 degrees outside and under the two layers of plastic over the compost bin
the ceilings were kept the lowest they got the coldest they got was 47 or 48 degrees and they
mostly stayed above 60 most nights so it worked really well for us was a very very reliable and
inexpensive method of heating our greenhouse without using fossil fuels so we also took
advantage of basic solar principles we use straw bales for the north wall to help insulate the
north wall and we built it really tight so all the plastic is sealed at the edges we're able
to close the door securely the windows all the edges so that we're not getting drafts to the
greenhouse in conventional agriculture they keep taking stuff out of the soil they're not putting
things back in the soil they're dependent on spring all the fertilizers and the pesticides
and herbicides and fungicides so the dirt is just something to hold the plant up it's not
feeding the plant anymore we're adding all that microbial richness back to the soil so the stuff
that we're growing is much I mean you all know you're in an organic stuff it's it's a lot more
nutritious everything since World War 2 all the nutritional value of a lot of our food has gone
down since World War two corn wheat vegetables fruits so we're trying to encourage people to
think about feeding your micro herd under the soil not your cattle herd above the soil but your
micro herd out of the soil if you're feeding that then you're keeping all that alive for the plants
there's a permaculture design principle called roots in the ground year-round so we're trying
to do that so that we're feeding all of that magic that happens that plants can convert sunshine into
through their plants and roots sugars that they exchange with other microbes and stuff that feed
off that that then I'm not a biologist so I don't know what about how to describe all that magic but
if we're feeding it then the plants will take care of themselves so what we're doing here
creating compost piles I don't know if you all have much experience composting but when you put
brown green water and air together then it starts doing that thing that we've been taught our whole
life to stay away from rotting fungus nasty and smelly future flying foods well you're in the
middle every time I go to Whole Foods I probably pick up like I said two to five pallets each one
of those pallets is about a half a ton so when we bring home here to make these piles in each
one of these piles is probably six eight ten tons of food waste so you're standing in the middle
probably a hundred and fifty tons of rotting food waste right now but probably it doesn't smell much
because we've got enough carbon that if you're smelling something stinking you're losing the
valuable quality of your compost because that's the nitrogen that's leaving in the air it smells
kind of like rotten eggs or rabbit hutch you smell that ammonia that's that's the nitrogen so you
want to put more carbon and more air every time we build one of these piles they're as full as that
one over there and as it breaks down it slowly settles and settles and settle so we made wind
rows here that have been covered with all these volunteer plants and that's probably the best
way to compost because there's a hot air rises it sucks cool air in from the side so it stays
real efficient and it doesn't get anaerobic which is out without oxygen these piles can obviously
do a lot more but we learned once we built those that we cut off the oxygen flow from the sides so
we started putting in chimneys our friend David and you can see that chimney and do you see the
steam coming out of that chimney and it goes it goes all the way down as we build the pile we
keep raising that bucket and the woodchips allows that hole to stay there and so that hole allows
air to circulate all the way to the bottom of the pile in the wintertime it's fun coming over here
because you'll see every pile is just steaming out there's no dirt in this no soil no dirt this is
completely broken down food waste and wood chips after it's gone through the hot compost pile and
then the worms stomach when a worm eats something that turns it into something ten to fifteen times
richer than when it starts so and worms don't have teeth so they can't eat the food but they can eat
the mold so moldy bread is great moldy food is great because that's what the worms can eat and
this is what this is the magic for plants this stuff will help resist the plant transplant shock
help plants resist disease and pests and this is what allows Lia to grow all the amazing stuff she
grows at the farm we were composting with worms across this fence 20 years ago so when we built
this and started composting here we thought we brought in one bucket of worms and put it over
there and we were gonna let the compost work and then after the compost cooled off we bring the
worms over by the time the compost pull it was completely full of worms the worms had migrated
over on their own and taken over the whole lot so now there's red wiggler worms everywhere in every
square inch of this this is our worm Harvester we built this slew on the front so it makes it easier
for us to for us to process our our finished compost it goes through here this is a thin
screen this is quarter inch screen and everything that goes through all the way to the end we call
tailings and we put that back in the compost pile the eighth is screen we call worm castings the
other part we call worm compost and we sell the eight dead screen stuff in the core stuff we use
in the farm and every time Leigha plants another Rose she asked for another couple wheelbarrows
of this stuff so we bring it over after 12 months the microbes have broke it down to the red wiggler
worms have processed it for about six months then we put it in here and that adds all that microbial
richness back to the soil and helps plants resist transplant shock helps plants lose this pests and
diseases and it feeds the microbes in the soil everywhere so that that soil becomes a living
a living soil in help support plants and that plants can take care of themselves and don't
need much care from us because all those microbes and enzymes and protozoa and all that stuff's in
the soil now because we've added it from here this is what we get there's no dirt in this no
soil this is all broken down food waste and wood chips from hope Whole Foods and tree companies