Snowy and Steamy Greetings from Fraser Richmond Soil & Fibre

It is late-January 2010, and I am bundled up in a jacket and mittens.  I write to you from Fraser Richmond Soil & Fibre Ltd. (FRSF), Harvest’s composting facility just south of Vancouver BC.

I have climbed up to the top of one of our mulch piles, and I look to the north.  The mountains are topped with snow.  This is a good thing: the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are just a few weeks away, and the skiers and snowboarders need lots of snow for their races.

I turn to the south and admire H2O in another form: steam.  Wafts of steam rise up from hot mounds of compost into the crisp, winter air.  In the background, our screening operation is running, literally, full steam ahead.

I pause and wonder, “Why do compost piles get so hot?”  The Practical Handbook of Compost Engineering tells me, “Composting is the biological decomposition and stabilization of organic substrates, under conditions that allow development of thermophilic temperatures as a result of biologically produced heat, to produce a final product that is stable, free of pathogens and plant seeds, and can beneficially be applied to land.”

Ahhh.  Of course.  My body does not quite reach these temperatures, so I put my hands back in my jacket and head inside for yet another form of H2O: a cup of hot tea.

Dispatch from the field by Meredith Sorensen, Outreach Manager for Harvest.  Get in touch with Meredith at msorensen@harvestpower.com