project leader
Aleksander J
location
73-50 Little Neck Parkway
Queens (Glen Oaks)
latest update rss
Composting, and Tumbler updates!

the project

 

The project is a volunteer-based project managed primarily by two Master Composters, with advice and guidance from staff of the Queens County Farm Museum.  Our goal is to provide an interactive/educational food waste drop off location in Far East Queens and to provide the Queens County Farm with an abundance of high quality vermicompost. Our immediate goal is to raise $150.00 for materials to build two "pickle barrel" compost tumblers, for “Stage I” of the project. The tumblers will be essential elements of the larger project which aims to meet two complimentary goals:

 

a-         The project strives  to connect visitors to the QueensCountyFarmMuseumin direct and meaningful way, and provide a drop off location for others who live in far eastern queens. We will, through outreach, encourage visitors & local residents to bring their vegetable and fruit scraps with them on their visit to the farm. Visitors will learn about composting by directly incorporating their food scraps into the tumbler systems that we are planning build. We will also be providing information about composting at home using vermicomposting and as other options such as outdoor bins.

 

b-         Our second goal is to  produce high quality vermicompost for use at the farm. Our planned compost system will replicate some aspects of the Added-Value Community Compost model in Redhook Brooklyn: The materials introduced into the tumblers will, after a few weeks, be introduced into worm bins to create rich vermicompost.

the steps

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.

why we're doing it

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.

budget

We anticipate procuring the Olive/Pickle drums for $5 a piece. We have a copy of the design plans for the tumblers from Build it Green, which specify the the items which are needed to build the frame and aeration system. This includes wood for the frame, bolts, nuts, PVC pipe and other items. We understand that the total cost of materials for building the frame and aeration system for the tumbler costs approximately $65-75 per tumbler unit. project total = $150 ioby fee = $12 8/5 - additional $100 donation

updates

Composting, and Tumbler updates!

 

 

I wanted to give an update on our project at the farm. 

 

Our beautiful tumbler has arrived. The project has moved at a slower pace than I had originally anticipated, however, I think we are now viewing this project in the context of a long-term gradual process. A good piece of advice by Leah has been to "start small", while working gradually towards whatever emerges. Leah employed the sheep to clear the compost area and they did a wonderful job!

 

Yesterday, Albert and I began to prepare what will become the community compost area. We set down our cardboard & woodchips in the compost area (see above pic), and will all be working to renovating the paths that lead to the compost area in the coming weeks. Though the tumbler is still not in use- we have been getting a great response from the community- we have seen an increase in the amount of materials that are being dropped off at the farm, all of which gets happily incorporated into the slow pile.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are really looking forward to the time when a tumbler/tumblers will be in place, complete with colorful signs and of-course the wormboxes, which we anticipate will be a big hit, although it will probably be some time before all of this is in place. Still I am excited for it, as it will be very fun for neighbors and fun lovers to learn about compost and connect to the farm in this way.

 

 

Thank You! And Stop By And Visit!

photos

This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration

donors

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