Farm to Fork to compost

By Hannah Ross | Solving Sacramento Master Gardener Bill Maynard teaches a workshop on composting at Brooks Truitt Community Garden in Sacramento April 24. The workshop provided information on how backyard composting works, what materials should and should not compost, getting the right balance of food, air and moisture, maintaining compost pile, and home gardening tips. Andri Tambunan, Solving Sacramento Brooks Truitt Community Garden — a pearlescent oyster shell sits atop a softly steaming pile of mulch next to the light rail track, the cherry on a compost sundae. The mulch, now in its fourth week of rotations, is waiting for the worm to turn.& Community members take a few steps closer, holding notepads and new compost pales to their chests, sometimes poking the hodgepodge mulch, spotting egg shells, fruit peels, the occasional bone and last year’s leaves. A few students step forward to take turns on a twisty crank that aerates the stack like a wine opener.& At this late April session, City of Sacramento Master Gardener and Community Garden Program Coordinator Bill Maynard shows how to work it: flip it, and reverse it. Taking down the side slats of the large wooden box holding together the “compost cake,”...