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In our ongoing work to use on farm resources to enhance the health of our orchard and the sustainability of our operations we have embarked on a new system for feeding our compost. We are juicing it!
In the summer when stone fruit is abundant, we freeze much of the harvest for making conserves later in the year. The fruit is minimally processed – we clean it, cut it and then store it in 5 gallon buckets. When fruit is taken out of freezer we thaw, the solids separate from the liquids in the fruit and we end up with a lot of extra juice. We estimate we produce about 100 gallons a week, or 5,200 gallons of juice a year!
Currently, we are in the brainstorming phase of coming up with a concept for how we can turn the juice into a delicious edible product. Fruit vinegars, kombuchas, sodas, and more are under discussion.
In the meantime, we are putting all that juice to good work in our compost piles! Once the juice comes out of the kitchen, it is stored in 275 gallon vats. When it is time to apply it to the compost we put the juice into a big 1,100 gallon tank and mix it with water. The water tank and a machine that simultaneously turns and waters the compost is attached to the tractor. The machine moves over top of the long rows of compost and turns and waters as it goes. We apply juice to the piles once every couple of weeks.
Adding juice to our compost speeds up the decomposition process in our piles. The bacteria in the piles love sugars. The bacteria go into overtime to consume the sugars which increases the metabolic activity in our piles so our compost is processed faster. Juicing the compost is particularly useful in the winter when ambient temperatures are cooler.
