South Park Farmer’s Market: LA Compost - Just the Ticket!
Anyone who has any regard for Mother Earth in the last few years is aware of the benefits of turning everyday garbage and food scraps into compost. Everybody and everything benefit when these everyday products from our existence are returned to dirt. The only problem is: How do we get there?
When dealing with the uncertainty of compost, at least here in the concrete jungle, the big question has been how we get the raw product from our kitchens to the next step on the way to compost. We’ve got to find someone or some system that will take the stuff we save, instead of throwing it down the garbage disposal, and transporting it to the factory (so to speak).
While there are some South Park condo buildings that have compost bins in their trash rooms, you might be looking for a reward for composting. This is where LA Compost comes in. Every Saturday at the South Park Farmer’s Market, rain or shine, you will find Elizabeth staffing the LA Compost tent. Here, she will weigh and accept your week’s treasure of compostables and offer you a bag of dark, rich composted soil for your potted plants or garden if you would like – a very nice exchange indeed.
Last Saturday morning (a wet one for sure!) I spoke to Elizabeth about her operation when I delivered five pounds of compostable materials from the week’s kitchen activities. She informed me that she was one of many composting enthusiasts with LA Compost that collect compostables from all Southern California farmers markets and transfers them to their compost farm where they create the final product – beautiful, rich, black soil. This soil is then shared with the folks in Southern California who grow all the great stuff that you can purchase at the farmers market. This is a nice round-trip operation that works for all of us.
So now you have a “market” for your compostable kitchen products that requires only that you tote them to the Grand Avenue Farmer’s Market anytime between 9:00 am and 2:00 pm on any Saturday. Drop off your compostables, pick up a loaf of bread, a tomato, a bottle of wine, and some dirt. What could be nicer and more efficient?
By John Nilsson