The closed loop cycle…

For my first post I couldn’t help myself, but to go back to the beginning. So this is where food starts… Or ends… Not exactly sure…

I spent today turning compost.
These particular piles are made up of mostly leaves in a simple circular bin made with 4 foot chicken wire. I like these type of bins for this material because they are cheap and easy to set up and tear down when the pile gets turned and therefore moved.
This material will be fed to the composting worms along with kitchen scraps…

The critters in the soil work together to break down all this organic material into fertilizer for plants.
In this particular case it is worm castings…

The plants then feed off of this nutrient rich soil and use it to become bigger, stronger and more disease resistant.

Also the more nutrients in the soil, the more the plant is able to absorb and therefore pass on to whatever eats it.

Humans and animals eat the plants and more materials are created to be processed in to plant fertilizer again…
This is the closed loop cycle that I think should be happening in our food production.

*For more information on composting please see http://lowcostyardservices.com/getting-started/