Composting begins!!! January 28, 2013

Our first composting day

We are the Composting Club!!!

Compost Club interview with Scott Koepke

Scott Koepke

 

Scott Koepke from the New Pioneer Coop (Iowa City) recently came to Hiawatha Elementary to teach us about composting. Here is the Compost Club’s interview with him. The Compost Club is a small group of Hiawatha 5th grade students who are leading our school’s new composting project.

Compost Club: How did you learn about compost? Was it in school?

Scott Koepke: I wasn’t taught composting in school. That’s partly why I want to do it now for the next generation. I didn’t formally learn until I studied urban agriculture with Will Allen at Growing Power in Milwaukee in 2007 (www.growingpower.org). I don’t have many, but he is one of my heroes & mentors.

Compost Club: What first got you interested in plants and soil? When did you start composting?

Scott Koepke: My grandmother, Helen, my mom’s mom, was the first person to introduce me to plants & soil when I was a very young boy. One of my earliest memories is picking green beans with her. She passed on a lot of ancient wisdom that she had been taught as a farm girl about how to work with nature, not fight it. When I was an adult, I joined the Peace Corps after college, and that’s where I really started to strengthen my knowledge & passion for gardening — not just for the food it produces, but the lifeskills it teaches. I also was lucky to grow up next to some woods and a creek to play in everyday. Nature was/is my classroom!

Compost Club: Is composting expensive?

Scott Koepke: Composting is free! All of the source materials, both the greens and the browns, are all laying around all over the place if we just collect them. And the wooden shipping pallets that I use for corrals can also be given away for free at most of the stores that use them if you just ask politely.

Compost Club: Do you have a garden? Is it big or small? What do you grow in it?

Scott Koepke: Yes, I have a personal garden in addition to the many community & school gardens I help out in. My garden at home is 400 square feet. I grow lots of vegetables, flowers, herbs, grains and beans. I even grew some rice last year, believe it or not! Also have some fruit: raspberries, blueberries, apples, and last year started some ginger root.

Compost Club: What is your favorite part of nature?

Scott Koepke: Great question! I’d say a few things: a.) soil, since that is what the plant needs for nutrition and, like I always say in my classes, when we make compost we’re helping build that part of the soil that provides nutrients to the … next favorite part of nature for me which is b.) roots! One of my favorite spots in nature is that place where the root connects with the soil. That’s where the nutrients are absorbed (the “door” opening & closing to let the nutrients in, like I said at the class the other day for you guys). And finally c.) change. Nature teaches me so much about adapting to changes instead of being scared of them. Whatever life gives us, we can make choices to transform it into something positive!

Compost Club: What other schools have you helped with composting?

Scott Koepke: Other schools I’ve helped recently on composting projects are: West High School, S.E. Junior High, Longfellow Elementary, Tate Alternative High and Prairie Point Middle School.

Compost Club: When will you stop composting, if ever?

Scott Koepke: No, I’ll never stop composting!!!

Composting at Isaac Newton Academy January 16, 2013

On January 14, 2013, two Hiawatha students and two teachers went to Isaac Newton Christian School to see their 4th graders’ composting bins.  They have three composting bins outside their school.  We got to go outside and see their composting work.  It is really beautiful.   They have been doing composting for two years.  Inside, they have this really awesome poster of composting.  A book they recommended is called “Let It Rot” By Stu Campbell. Their composting  logo is “If it grows it goes”.  

Here’s how they do their composting:  Students take the food they didn’t eat and put it in their composting bucket in the cafeteria.  They only put in fruit or vegetables – not dairy or meat!  Then 4th graders take that food from the cafeteria and put it  in the composting bin outside.  They empty the bin whenever it’s full.  Their last bin from last year is just full of compost – you can’t see the original fruit or vegetables. They also have a storage bin outside with things they need, such as shovels, buckets, and a long thermometer to see the temperature of the composting bin.  If they need leaves they go outside for leaves in the back.   We all really enjoyed our trip to Isaac Newton School!

Article and photos by Estefani & Jonathan

Hiawatha’s new compost bins

Hiawatha’s compost system

Fruits & veggies go to the compost pile: “If it grows, it goes!”

Compost system at Isaac Newton Christian Academy