Last Wednesday we had a certified Master Composter (Martha Sullivan) come in and talk to us about the science behind composting and the state of our current composting system. She taught us so much about what actually happens during the composting process and gave us some great pointers as to how we could improve upon our composting process. We had the Landscaping students and the Culinary students together for her presentation so that we could all better understand and be a part of the entire process together.
This lesson also really inspired many of the students to try composting at their homes as well as composting here at CTC. We also discussed including materials from other classes in our building like sawdust from the Carpentry class (from untreated wood, of course), hair clippings from the Cosmetology class, and shredded paper from our school wide recycling program.
Here are some pictures of the guest speaker, her PowerPoint presentation, and students trying to turn the already very heavy barrels. She suggested that we completely fill our barrels so that they would build up enough heat to be considered a "hot" composting system which breaks down the larger materials MUCH faster than cold composting. Our barrels had way to much green material (nitrogen rich) which contain a lot of moisture, so we needed to add more brown/dry material (carbon rich) to even it out and get the proper balance for the process to happen quicker.






















As we were looking at our current barrels we noticed that the maintenance crews were cleaning bird nests out of the street lights on the property, so we were able to use more of natures wonderful gifts to help accelerate our composting materials in the barrels.






















We are learning so much and plan to adjust our whole system next year based on the information and feedback that we received from Mrs. Sullivan. We are excited to have her come back and visit again next year so we can show off our finished product and our re-vamped composting system.

 The wild, wonderful world of composting!!








Just like we do, compost has these 5 basic needs:

Food, water, warmth, shelter, and air!!

And then you will end up with BLACK GOLD!!
Perfect planting material

We're making compost!!!

We have been using material from the culinary arts classes (food scraps) and material from the landscaping classes (dried leaves, flower petals & stems, and used soil) to mix in and help dry out the aging kitchen scraps from earlier in the year  . . . and we have begun to fill the barrels!! It's very exciting to see the hard work of these 3 programs (Welding, Culinary, & Landscaping) here at CTC come together to create usable compostable materials!! Here are 2 beautiful pictures of what our compost currently looks like (we are still adding material to it everyday) and how the barrels look when in use. Thank you so very much to the students in the welding program for their awesome handy work & creative genius. And a big thank you to Mr. Hering for giving them the time to work on it!!

 Take time to notice the metal rod that goes through the barrel to help break up and aerate the material inside the barrels. Also notice the opening they created in the barrel and how much forethought it required to add a metal lip to help eliminate any spillage or leakage issues. They really thought of everything. The hinges and the lock system definitely make this a high-end system that will hopefully last for many years to come.

Mounting the barrels

On Wednesday we finally had a break in the rainy weather here in Frederick so the welding students were able to touch up the post with a little spray paint and attach the barrels to the posts. They did a great job and they look amazing. I am impressed by how smoothly they move around and how well built they are. We plan to get compost in the tomorrow!!