Unity Farm Journal - First Week of July 2016

When running a farm you sometimes feel like MacGyver - given a few 2x4s, a piece of hardware cloth, and a box of bags, create a compost bagging machine. Every year, we produce about 10,000 pounds of organic compost from alpaca manure (a 16:1 carbon to nitrogen ratio) and timothy hay (a 45:1 carbon to nitrogen ratio), resulting in a perfect blend of Unity Farm “Llama beans” which has a 25:1 carbon to nitrogen ratio.   Alpaca compost has been described as “gardener’s gold” because of its perfect balance of nutrients.    One cubic foot weighs 33 pounds, so we can produce 300 bags for sale each year.  How do you bag 10,000 pounds of composted manure - the prototype is shown above.    10 shovelfuls of compost onto a sifting screen of 1/2 hardware cloth results in one cubic foot of fine compost in the box below.   At the bottom of the box is a cutout for polypak heat sealable bags.   Just move the compost into the bag, then set it in the heat sealer.      We’re planning to retail it for $9.99 per 33 pound bag at Tilly and Salvy’s farmstandOur next step is to add a motorized trommel so that the sifting is done automatically.We’ve delivered fresh organic sweet basil, swiss chard, and purple beauty bell peppers to Tuilly and Salvy's farmstand this week.  Cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes are all ripening fast.Our early blueberries are just about ready to pick - all our netting is up so the blueberries, gooseber...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs