The Latest from Camp Compost…
Five BFS team members attended the annual Compost Conference at Rhode Island College on March 8.
March 4, 2023
We have improved containment and coverage of our compost piles to deter pests. We are adding fencing and covering piles more stringently. Wood chips, saw dust from Barrington Middle School and a wood shop in Portsmouth are added to the mix to reduce pests and odors. There are more improvements to come. Thank you to Mike and Insa for running the electric shredder overtime to create more wood chips. And thank you to Karen for adding new slats to the bins.
The Compost Crew is looking forward to the RI Compost Conference and Trade Show at Rhode Island College on Weds., March 8. It’s not too late to register.
February 17, 2023
Food scrap collection at Barrington High School has been underway for about a month. It was created by the BHS Environmental Club. The scrap, about 45 pounds per week, is collected weekly by the Compost Bus e-bike and brought to the Farm School for processing into soil for organic farming.
Five members of the Compost Crew will be attending the RI Compost Conference on March 8. Please join us! More info here.
February 10, 2023
Congratulations to Dustin Berkowitz for completing his BHS senior project with the compost crew. Dustin participated in all aspect of processing compost and prepping our fields for growing. We wish him well and look forward to seeing him back at BFS.
Every year, a handful of seniors fulfill their public service projects at BFS in a wide range of farming programs. If interested please email us at BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com.
The recent frigid temps solidified lots of food scrap, like these carrots and bananas collected from Barrington High School. Thanks to Kelvin and Mike, we stored some of the scrap in the greenhouse to to thaw out.
February 3, 2023
January collections are up over last year when we collected 3,500 pounds of local food scrap.
| Month | Volunteer Hrs. | Kent Street | Barrington Middle School | Barrington High School | St. Andrews | Nayatt School | Total Scraps |
| January | 104 | 405 lbs. | 101 lbs. | 241 lbs. | 289 lbs. | 309 lbs. | 4395 lbs. |
Barrington High School is collecting food scrap from the cafeteria that is brought by Compost Bus to the farm. We are getting apples, bananas, celery, and carrots. Much is unspoiled. All ingredients that could be used for cooking or juicing.
January 21, 2023
The piles are staying hot in the cold weather. Temps in the compost regularly top 150 degrees. We are building up a nice supply of finished compost for winter seedlings and spring field prep.
We are also gearing up for the RI Compost Conference and Trade Show at Rhode Island College on March 8.
Several of our volunteer crew are participating in a composter certificate program in February and March.
The town is also hosting a program for beginner composters on Jan. 31
Join us for compost mixing Sundays at 9 a..m. (We are there most Saturdays at 9 a.m. too.) And Wednesdays at 3:15 p.m.
January 7, 2023
It was another record year for food scrap collected and turned into homemade compost for the Farm School. Students, families, civic-minded residents diverted 51,939 pounds of food scrap from the landfill in 2022. In 2021, we collected 43,660 pounds, and 19,000 pounds collected in 2020.
We collected 3,573 pounds in our first year with the remote drop-off (and e-bike collection) at Kent Street.
Thank you all who participated and gave us your food waste. It is the lifeblood of our growing. It allows us to teach students about organic farming and ecosystem management while providing great produce to the public and the Tap-In food pantry.
Barrington Farm School practices regenerative farming, which uses lots of compost to grow food. This is in place of tilling the soil and disrupting the natural health and balance of the nutrients that form naturally.
Come join us to make compost and keep the cycle going as we anticipate another record year. Our volunteer compost team needs more teammates.
Visit us Wednesdays at 3:15 p.m. or Sundays at 9 for temp taking and mixing. We are there most Saturday mornings too. Just look for Jill, Lindsay, Kelvin, Mike, Karen, Vikram, or Tim. Email us anytime at BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com
December 18, 2022
High school students collected, weighed, and mixed compost on Dec. 17.
Make it your 2023 resolution to join our weekly mixing sessions. Enjoy the fresh air and exercise.
Visit us Wednesdays at 3:15 p.m. or Sundays at 9 for temp taking and mixing. We are there most Saturday mornings too. Just look for Jill, Lindsay, Kelvin, Mike, Karen, Vikram, or Tim. Or email us at BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com
December 10, 2022
We collected a record 598 pounds of food scrap on one day of our biweekly collection. Much of it was Thanksgiving leftovers.
Weekly collections from Nayatt School are going well. And buckets were delivered to Barrington High School for the launch of a student-led project for cafeteria scrap collection. Stay tuned for updates.
You have done a great job keeping compostable bags and takeout containers out of the drop-off bins. But white paper towels are a no-no due to their chemical content. Please use and compost brown napkins and brown paper towels.
Visit us Wednesdays at 3:15 p.m. or Sundays at 9 for temp taking and mixing. We are there most Saturday mornings too. Just look for Jill, Lindsay, Kelvin, Mike, Karen, Vikram, or Tim.
November 29, 2022
Save the date. The 2023 RI Compost conference & Trade Show will be held on Wednesday March 8, 2023 at Rhode Island College in Providence. This event is hosted by the Rhode Island College Environmental Club. Details soon. BFS compost program has presented twice at the conference.
PFAS are getting more attention. The harmful chemicals used in water-resistant products like compostable takeout containers and raincoats is getting heightened attention from the U.S. Composting Council. The trade group is calling for a ban on the use of PFAS in all products and a study of plant uptake. Due to these concerns BFS prohibits compostable takeout containers and products from our food scrap collection.
November 11, 2022
Another busy week, as high schoolers transported wheelbarrows of our homemade compost to the fields for winter bed prep.
We also rounded up another haul of pumpkins from the Bay Spring Community Center.
We collected 3,820 pounds of food scrap in September and 3,976 in October. We are on track to exceed our record of 44,000 pounds of scrap collected in 2021.
Visit us Wednesdays at 3:15 p.m. or Sundays at 9 for temp taking and mixing. We are there most Saturday mornings too. Just look for Jill, Lindsay, Kelvin, Mike, Karen, Vikram, or Tim.
November 4, 2022
It’s been busy at Camp Compost. The first weekly delivery of food scrap from the Nayatt School cafeteria was delivered by two high school students. It’s great to have Nayatt back on board.
Pumpkins go full circle and reused in the cycle of life.
Jack-o-lanterns from the Primrose Hill School Spooky Stroll were collected by volunteers– the Misiurski family — and brought to Bay Spring Community Center for Halloween events. They were then brought to the farm for composting for next year’s pumpkins. And do it all over again.
BHS students take the temperature of a pile of compost. Temps are taken twice weekly to be sure the compost process is happening correctly. Temps can reach as high at 170 degrees.
Visit us Wednesdays at 3:15 p.m. or Sundays at 9 for temp taking and mixing. We are there most Saturday mornings too. Just look for Jill, Lindsay, Kelvin, Mike, Karen, Vikram, or Tim.
October 22, 2022
Pre-Covid, we were collecting food scraps from all Barrington Public School and St. Andrew’s School. But during the pandemic many cafeterias closed and collection suspended. Currently, we collect via the e-bike Compost Bus from St. Andrew’s, Barrington Middle School kitchen and cafeteria, Barrington High School kitchen and now Nayatt is rejoining collection, thanks to a parent and student helpers. BHS students are also working on a collection program for their cafeteria.
September totals. The food scrap collection is robust. In September we collected and mixed 3,820 pounds of scrap from our bins at the farm stand, on Kent Street and from local schools.
Total scrap collected in 2022
January: 3,500 approx.
February: 3,524 lbs.
March: 3,811
April: 4,177
May: 4,333
June: 4,740
July: 4,388
August: 4,731
September: 3,820
YTD: 37,024
And we are always in need of more help mixing. Email us if you are interested at BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com. Or visit BFS during our mixing sessions, Sundays at 9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. and Wednesdays at 3:15 p.m. Ages 10 and up.
October 14, 2022
Volunteers from the District Green Team and later Barrington Farm School have been composting food scrap from local schools for more than 12 years. COVID curtailed some collection, but now Nayatt School is collecting its food scrap again. We need a volunteer to collect the scrap once a week and deliver it to the farm. Email us if you are interested at BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com. Or visit BFS during our mixing sessions, Sundays at 9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. and Wednesdays at 3:15 p.m.
October 7, 2022
The signs at the compost drop-off area have nearly eliminated trash from our food scrap. Thank you all for keeping compostable bags, compostable food ware and pet waste out of the bins.
Look for worm tea on October 15.
Compost mixing the usual times this week. Sunday at 9 a.m. and Wednesday at 3:15 p.m.
September 30, 2022
No worm tea this weekend. But join us for mixing Sunday at 9 a.m. and Wednesday at 3:15 p.m. for fall mixing.
Lots of finished compost is being spread on fields during the week. And we can’t wait for the bounty of leaves to come our way for mixing.
Thanks to Mike for shredding lots of sticks with our electric shredder.
September 16, 2022
We’re running low on leaves from last fall. So we’ve fired up our trusty electric shredder, donated by Clean Ocean Access, to shred sticks and add carbon to our compost piles.
Tip Please keep white (bleached) paper towels out of your food scrap. Bleached paper towels, napkins, and bags contain toxic chemicals. Brown paper towels are fine to compost as long as they were not used to clean chemicals, cleaners, paints, and pet waste.
We need volunteers. Join us Wednesdays at 3:15 p.m. and Sundays at 9 a.m. for mixing. It’s easy and great exercise. Email questions to BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com
September 9, 2022
Mike and Theo having fun flipping a pile of wonderful compost.
Our numbers are in for July and August
Total scrap collected
January: 3,500 approx.
February 2022: 3,524 lbs.
March 2022: 3,811
April 2022: 4,177
May 2022: 4,333
June 2022: 4,740
July: 4,388
August: 4,731
Please visit us to see the compost mixing operation Sunday mornings 9-10:30 and Wednesdays 3:15 p.m. – 5 p.m. Questions: BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com
September 2, 2022
Please visit us Sunday at 9 a.m. and Wednesday at 3:15 p.m. to mix the scrap. All are welcome.
No compost tea this weekend. But we have lots of finished compost that we are spreading on the fields for our fall crops and bed preparation for next year.
The food scrap drop-off looks great. Folks are doing a great job keeping plastic and compostable bags out of the drop-off bins. Please email us if you have any questions about items we accept at BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com
August 26, 2022
Compost tea is back this weekend. Stop by the farm stand between 10-noon on Saturday to grab a jug. Or take a walk back to Camp Compost to see the brewer and our operations. Join in the compost mixing if you like. It’s a great workout.
A reminder to please keep compostable bags and compostable paper and fiber items like to-go containers out of the food scrap. They contain harmful plastics and chemicals like PFAs.
Here’s a video on some of the sneaky chemicals that harm compost.
August 19, 2022
No worm tea this weekend but likely next Saturday.
Well be spreading BFS compost on fields this week as some fall and cover crops are planted.
Kent Street drop-off site is filling regularly. Email us to join this site.
Send inquires to BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com
August 12, 2022
We had a great turnout with volunteers, with three high-school students joining us Wednesday. Karen got “Camp Compost” looking sharp. We added signs to the stalls and and filled some gaps in the wood.
We brewed worm tea on Wednesday too and brought some via Compost Bus to the farmers market Thursday. There may be a couple extra jugs at the farm stand on Saturday.
The Kent Street drop-off site is going strong. We are cleaning it more often. Email us if you’d like to use the site for scrap drop-off. BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com
August 5, 2022
Thanks to a great group of volunteers keeping up with the growing supply for food scrap. Grover, James, Vikram and others from LaSalle Academy have made a big difference during the hot days. Fortunately, we have lots of shade and take water breaks.
No worm tea this Saturday, but we’ll have some on Thursday. We can brew at request so let is know if you are looking for some.
Please stop by any Weds. at 3:15 p.m. , Sunday 9 a.m.- 10:30 a.m. and Saturdays 9 a.m. – 11 a.m. to see the compost operations in action or join the volunteer mixing crew. Ask for Jill, Tim, Kelvin, Mike, or Lindsay.
July 29, 2022
We’ll have worm tea at the farm stand Saturday morning by 10 a.m. Stop by and purchase some and learn about its benefits for home gardening and growing.
Participants have been doing an excellent job of keeping plastic bags, compostable bags and compostable to-go and food-ware out of the collection bins. It keeps our compost clean, healthy and chemical-free. Thank you!
July 22, 2022
The food scrap collection continues to climb. Here are some recent monthly collection numbers:
January: 3,500 approx.
February 2022: 3,524 lbs.
March 2022: 3,811
April 2022: 4177
May 2022: 4333
June 2022: 4,740
Thank you for participating. Please visit us to see the compost mixing operation Sunday mornings 9-10:30 and Wednesdays 3:15 p.m. – 5 p.m.
July 15, 2022
We’ll have compost tea this weekend at the farm stand. Please visit us between 9 a.m.-11 a.m. on Saturday at 9-10:30 on Sunday to see our operations. And check out our Compost Bus electric bike at the Barrington Farmers Market on July 21.
Be on the lookout for upgrades to the food scrap drop-off at the farm stand.
July 8, 2022
No compost tea this weekend but stay tuned for more next week.
The food scrap drop-off has been going well. Folks are remembering not to include compostable bags and compostable food-ware and to-go containers. These contain plastics and harmful chemicals that are not suitable for making compost that grows food.
Here is an excellent presentation on worm composting by our friend Monique Bosch.
July 1, 2022
What is compost tea? It’s a mix of organic ingredients and compost or worm castings. We brew them in a 50-gallon vat for 24-hours. The result is rocket-fuel for your garden. Available at the farm stand on Saturdays.
June 24, 2022
A wave of finished compost is nearly ready for using on the crops. Several new bins for curing and turning the food scrap have been constructed out of used wood. The unwanted lumber and posts were salvaged from pallets and curbside waste. We always prefer repurposed material to help the environment. Many of our tools and equipment are from donations.
A reminded to keep compostable food-ware and compostable bags, or plastics bags of any type, out of the drop-off bins at Kent Street and the farm stand. They contain plastics and other additives that we don’t want to use for compost that grows food. Thank you!
Compost Goes Full Circle at Middle School |
| In September 2021, Barrington Middle School students in Julia Texeira’s after-school program brought food scrap from the cafeteria to the farm’s compost operation. Throughout the year, they delivered scrap and mixed and turned it into rich compost. In early June it was returned by bike to the Middle School’s new garden. Students have planted pumpkins, tomatoes, cukes, squash, and carrots in their farm compost. Contact Julia at BMS to help tend the garden. |
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May 2022 Collection Totals
Center for EcoTechnology recognizes the Community Compost Program for efforts to cut food waste in Rhode Island. See the report here.
Record Compost in 2021
Volunteers processed a record 44,000 pounds of food scrap in 2021. In 2020 we processed 19,000 pounds. (See the chart below.) Most of the scrap came from the free community drop-off at the farm stand. But we saw increases from other sources such as St. Andrew’s School, Barrington High School and Barrington Middle School and a few businesses like Bevvies Juice Bar and Bagels Etc.
BFS and the town Conservation Commission started a remote drop-off at the Kent Street tennis courts with an e-bike collection. Email us to participate. Or let us know if you need help getting your scrap to the farm. BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com
See the article in the Barrington Times.
Bring Us Your Leaves
Leaves are in abundance right now, so bring these unwanted gifts of nature to the farm and help turn your food scraps into compost. In bags or by truck, just send us an e-mail at BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com
Thank you to TerraCorps: A team of local TerraCorps members pitched in at the farm for their annual day of service. Throughout the day they turned many large piles, dug, trenches and put down wood chips.
New drop-off site: Our Community Compost Program, in partnership with the town Conservation Commission, wants more residents to enjoy the benefits of composting. So we are launching a new drop-off “hub spot” next to the tennis courts on Kent Street. Unlike our open drop-off system at the farm stand, this bin has a lock. This allows us to manage the scrap and communicate with users. The service is still free, but we need your email to share information on keeping it running smoothly. So please email us for the combination to the lock and enjoy the new service. BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com
September was a record month with more than 6,000 pounds of scrap collected at our drop-off site next to the farm stand. Also in September, we resumed collection from St. Andrew’s School, Barrington High School, and Barrington Middle School. We are also looking for coffee grounds, so please let us know of businesses that might spare some.
We are getting lots of fresh fruit pulp from Bevvies Juice and Smoothie Bar in Warren. This is great food for our worm compost program
See 2021 collection totals below.
Community Compost Program
The story: Collecting and harvesting food scrap from local schools and the public mitigates the volume of reusable energy sources from entering the landfill is a priority for us at Barrington Farm School. We remain invigorated and determined to deepen the stream of local awareness and the harvesting of energy sources in order to create richly complex soil amendments right here in Barrington.
Public Food Scrap Drop Off
We collect food scrap from seven local schools and provide a drop off location adjacent to our farm stand. There you will see a green toter where you drop in the food scraps you’ve been collecting in a bucket or container. We do the rest. It is a good idea to add shredded paper to your bucket or container as it assists in curbing any odors and allows for the decomposition process to take hold.
Consider what you can do to curb reusable energy – such as – building a collection system in your neighborhood. Imagine if each home on a street had a five-gallon bucket, and they collected these weekly into a larger toter .. then we came by in the farm truck to collect the toter, wash the buckets, and so on.
Creative and systemic changes and viable easy to do solutions are essential if we are to change the world by changing our local spaces.
History
The Community Composting Program got its start in 2009 with its first food-scarp collection operation at Sowams Elementary School.
windrow of excellent food scrap collected from local schools mixed with thick layers of browns (leaves and other carbon sources)
With a team up of parents, students, administrators, and custodians and led by the Barrington School District Green Team, the program began by collecting food scrap in the Sowams School cafeteria. Students eagerly embraced the program, volunteering at collection stations during lunch to guide classmates on the do’s and don’ts of food scraps and recycling. Teachers and administrators marveled at the students’ enthusiasm for the program and how it made the lunch experience more orderly.
Sowams has since served as a model program visited by other school districts interested in learning about composting at their schools and the many educational opportunities it offers.
Hampden Meadows School, Primrose Hill School and Nayatt School followed about a year later with the same results. Several efforts led by students and the District Green Team to replicate the program at the Middle School and High School have, so far, failed. But St. Andrew’s School has since come on board and embraced food-scrap collection.
Food scraps were initially composted onsite at Sowams School for use in the school garden. Kelvin Misiurski and his son Klein also built a compost collection system at Hampden Meadows. A third multi-bin system was built at the Middle School by high school student Will Robichauxs for his Troop 2 Eagle project. Several students have performed senior projects and other school initiatives focused on expanding the program.
Led by a team of volunteers, all compost is now brought to the Barrington Farm School for processing where the program continues to serves as an educational tool for students and the public. Fresh compost is used at the farm and returned to schools for onsite use. District Green Team/Farm School members also visit schools each spring to give composting presentations.
Public food-scrap collection has been a success at the farm, reducing the local waste stream while offering a way to engage students and the community about farming, food, and resource management.
New additions for 2021 are a worm tea brewer purchased from the Rhode Wormer Farmers Co-Op. We start brewing at the farm every Friday morning and distribute it on Saturday mornings. Learn more and join the fun by emailing us BarringtonFarmSchool@gmail.com
Thank you to our donors for 2021. BankNewport and Clean Ocean Access- 11th Hour Racing. These partners have allowed us to purchase key tools like our new electric-powered shredder and equipment for our ever-growing volume of scrap and volunteers.
2021 Monthly Collections
2019-2020 Totals: Click here