Black gold, made on-site

Since we launched our compost collective in mid-March, we collect organic matter from 10 families on our road, a deli on route 9 and a local supermarket in Peekskill. We now have 2 heaps of finished compost... about 4 cubic yards worth of black gold.

Sifting the compost

Black gold

Every week for the past 3 months we have layered our browns and greens, throwing in a little horse manure and lime here and there, and turned each pile to encourage the microorganisms to do their job. We have two more heaps that we've been working on for the past month. We sift the compost through a screen to separate out rocks, sticks and things that are not fully broken down and then apply it to our vegetable beds. Our tomato plants and asparagus seem to be starving for some nutrients, so we know they'll be happy.

Thanks to all of our neighbors who are participating!