Queens County Farm Compost Project

We will begin outreach to visitors by tabling at the farm beginning in mid-June on a weekly basis through the end of the 2011 growing season. We will engage visitors by providing information about compsting at home, and encouraging folks to bring food scraps to the farm. We will also be creating colorful signs to educate visitors on the basics of composting and outline/specify the types of materials which we will be collecting. Simultaneously, as our funding becomes available, we will construct the two Pickle/Olive barrel tumblers (as used by the folks at the Western Queens Compost Initiative) using design plans that have been made available to us. The Queens Farm already has two small wooden vermicompost bins in place which will suffice for the time being, while we carefully gauge the volume/input of materials coming into the farm as a result of our outreach efforts.

We feel that the diversity of visitors to the farm offer us an ideal audience that will benefit from learning about the ecological principles which composting teaches. We want to simultaneously expose visitors to this information and also give them an opportunity to connect with this place that many of them love in a deeper and more direct way (by bringing what they may have considered “waste” to provide an important nourishment for soil and vegetables grown there). We are excited by idea of implementing a tumbler system as a key ingredient in the community drop-off, as it provides visitors with a hands-on experience of composting. Additionally, as volunteers, we are excited about the opportunity to provide the Queens Farm with rich, premium vermicompost.