Keeping an eye out...

This morning, we started at about four a.m. gathering buckets of compostable materials.  We are developing quite  a routine and more than a few followers.  It takes about 3 hours to hit all of our hot spots and as the sun rose and we could only barely see our breath.  We stopped for a moment to have some coffee and think about our next move.

We are holding steady across all of our piles at an estimated 8 tons.  That is nearly 16,000 pounds of stuff that could have gone into a landfill.  We are not fooling ourselves and though we are a pretty competitive bunch, we do not dare dream that our small band of is going to get it all.  We are out to get a fair chunk.  The curse of this job and this competitiveness is that our eyes are always open.

As the sun rose, and people began to stir, as the city began to come to life we saw a man with a pond skimmer.  My partner and I looked at each other and thought the same thing at the same time.  A few simple questions to the young man and we found out that the park cleans the pond every Friday and that when he is done he dumps it in the dumpster about 50 ft away.

We tipped the garbage can back and felt that it was about 100 pounds.  There are fish in the pond and they do not use chemicals to maintain it.  Just aeration and circulation.  The circulation pump rises out of the water at one corner and throws the water in the air about a foot and shoots it causing a mild whirlpool.  The algae that grows during the week, because of the current, collects in one corner where it is very easy to skim off the top.  About a 100 pounds a week.

So this is what comes from keeping our eyes open.  100 pounds a week of nitrogen rich mass that would have gone into a landfill is now going into the compost pile and will soon be going to gardens all across SC.  We keep our eyes open.

Sadly, there was not a lot that we could do about the pumpkins from Halloween.  You win some, you lose some!

Wanna find out more about us and what we are doing?  Just sign up for our mailing list!

Subscribe to our mailing list

The Numbers Coming In...Our first week with CompostSC

This morning, we made our first rounds of compost pickup for CompostSC and we gathered a nifty thousand pounds now that all the numbers are coming in.

In Clemson, 5 different households were able to fill four gallon buckets with compostable material in the course of 5 days.  In Greenville, it was 9 households and Columbia and Charleston each had 10.  The others were considerably less per household.  Some people just forgot they were there.  Some people continually dumped their compostables in the regular trash out of habit.

This was the first week, though and the thing is that people are activating on this and the numbers are promising.  We can see that people are thinking about this and getting more interested in what this means.

It means lowering their carbon footprint.
It means revitalizing the soil for farms and gardens across the state.
It means food being grown for food banks and our CSA, all across the state.
It means a group of people learning.
It means we are forming a network.

Compost pile at about 130 degrees!

It also means that we have a lot farther to go.

Joining means a lot.  Here's how it works.  Sign up and we give you a sealable 4 gallon container.  We pick it up once a week and give you a clean one.  We also give you points towards our CSA, weekly gifts, and you also become a member of our book and tool library.  As a member, you are eligible for discounts on the events like Epoch Fest SC 2015.  This is going to be a strong year for growth in all areas. Contact us at Epochpeople@gmail.com if you would like to join!

Not all about the compost, throwing some education in there, too!

So we have started routes of gathering compost in Columbia, Greenville, Moncks Corner and Charleston with Summerville, Clemson and Forest Acres in another week.  We have collected over 6 tons and now have 106 members and the community is growing steadily.

We did not want to form groups of people who do not know one another. Someone started thinking about how to make it easier to form a community.  Should we put together a bunch of events that people will never come to?  No.  Should we spend endless hours talking on the phone, emailing, skyping, instagramming, etc. etc.?  I do not think it is possible.  We have pretty much concluded that we needed to do something new and different and still manage to link people to what we are doing.


We are building a library.  99Knives cookbook is going on the list of course, but we are also starting off with The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and Animal Vegetable or Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  With 106 subscribers, they are going to take some time to make the rounds, but people are encouraged to add their own books to the list and lend them or give them to the cause.

It may be a single book that you could not bring yourself to take to the library, or one that is dog eared, written in or whatever.  We are happy to take it along with us, add it to our catalogue and pass it to the next person who requests it when it is available (We are heading that way anyway!)

It is nice to learn something and share some of what you know along the way!

This spring, we will be launching our tool garden as well.  The books, tools, and appliances will be available to every member.  So join up!  Send us an e-mail if you would like to join us! The more the merrier with 94 tons to go!

Subscribe to our mailing list

Theresa McDaniel, New Farm Girl a Long Way From Long Beach!

I grew up on the beaches of California enjoying hot summers and winters that would find me hanging Christmas lights in shorts and having to drive hundreds of miles north to see snow in the winter.  When I was asked to come out here to South Carolina to do some work on my masters, I thought that it would be a parallel experience just trading one coast for another.

This past week has found me doing a lot of talking (I am ok with that, many people say that I never shut up!), digging through garbage (I am less ok with this, but I like to think of myself as being open to new things and down to accomplish missions!) and handling worms (this one stretched my mind a bit...)

I never thought I would be doing anything like this.  Nor did I ever think that I would ever like something like this.  Yes, I said like.  It is more the competitor in me than the latent "farm girl".  I like to see things accumulate.  I like to see things build up and form.

The average earthworm

can eat its own weight in food every day and, like a 2nd grader, I like to watch them work.  I like to see things that were once there, gone and changed into more useful stuff.

I read somewhere that worms can be the hardest workers on the farm.  It is somewhat true.  Keep them warm and moist and well fed and they will do amazing things for you.

In about two weeks, we are going to do our first "harvest" of their castings.  They are going to be bagged and sold and we will go on from there.  Much the same way I feel about Tetris, where I like to see the blocks stack up, I will watch the bags stack up and then go out the door.

That is what the farm and work overall are all about, I guess, watching the things you put your time and work into pay off.





We have nearly 50 pounds of worms just working away at Corner Stone Farms and as long as we can keep them happy, we will have twice that amount very soon and then twice again soon after that.  We are off to a good start, but we are a long way from home and so am I!

Life Goes on Without Me...The core of a movement

Yesterday morning I welcomed a beautiful little girl into the world.  I am tired but I know that things will go forward with 99knives because that is the way that it was designed.  To have one person at the center, holding things together in the face of something that we think is so vital.  I can take off knowing that things are moving along and that I can take some time with my new soul in my arms, my new husband, our new farm and know that things are going to go on.
I am musing on this and writing about this as think about so many things that wait for exceptional people to espouse common sense.  Did we really need Betty Friedan to tell us that women are equal to men?  Did we really need Martin Luther King to tell us that blacks are equal to whites?  Looking at the world as it is I think there is too much to be done to wait for an individual to step up.  We have work to do.  We have to stop waiting for someone to arrive to tell us to do it.

97 and Counting...Composting: All the cool kids are doing it!

We have 97 customers who have subscribed to this service from all across the state in our pilot program.
We have collected nearly 3 tons in the last two

weeks alone and things are only getting better!

We have sites in Clemson, Greenville, Columbia, Forest Acres, Moncks Corner, and Charleston.  Here is the good news, we are expanding!

How does it work.  For just $15 every month or it is included if you are a member of our CSA, we stop by every other day, pick up your bucket, and leave you a new one.

What happens next?
From there it is take to one of our nearby facilities and the process starts.  We turn it into compost.  We are aiming for 100 tons by the time planting starts in spring of 2013 and it looks like we are going to make it!

What's in it for you?
Cleaner planet...sure.  Less waste going to landfills...heck, yeah!   You get all sorts of other things too like discounts on Corner Stone Farm items, discounts at local events at great restaurants, and even discounts at Starbucks and local concerts.  Every month you will receive your tax deductible receipt and your packet of rewards!

What else?
How about the satisfaction of knowing that your trash is being turned into something that will support local farms gardens because the majority of our produce will go into local schools and community gardens go to grow food for people in need.

A lot of great people have come together to make this happen and we at 99Knives could not be more excited to do this for you!

Interested?  Email us at 99knivesca@gmail.com and we will get you set up!  You will get a sealable container that will be picked up and switched out routinely and lots of really cool rewards each month!

Subscribe to our mailing list

The New CSA: Chefs Invest in Chefs

Want to know how a business should be run?  Listening to the people who do it daily would be a good start.  That is the idea that we are basing our investment strategy on and funneling over $100,000 into the creation of new restaurants and food based endeavors.

We are out to create a community of ownership and internal investment among our members.  We are promoting and supporting profitable entities run by people who know what they are doing.  We are looking for projects based with chefs and food based workers that need a boost and will provide a viable return for 99Knives.

We are funding chefs who have a unique vision for the future of their ventures and solid ideas for how to make them work.  These are people with know-how and will.

Imagine a family of chefs who own their own restaurants.  Imagine the profits from that restaurant goes to support the people who own and run it, providing benefits beyond just a shift meal at the end of the day.

Imagine a community of where the chefs own the farm that produces the food they serve with a knowledgeable and courteous staff.

We are going to make this happen with three restaurants by the end of 2015 and more the following year.

When we think about the ways that we want to grow we think about words like "slow", "steady", "inclusive" and "sustainable".  We are making decisions based on the culture of quality with a diverse range of projects that will feed the whole.  $100,000 is a good start.

The New CSA: Building the Better Tomato and the Start of the Cycle.

We need to form communities.  Every day I look at tv and social media and I see complaints about
GMO's and Monsanto in particular.  Whatever they are doing, we have to ask why they are so successful and why they are able to capture so much of the food dollars?
Monsanto is able to make a lot of food, relatively cheaply.  Rather, they have been able to make a lot of food more cheaply than the next guy.  The same goes for McDonald's and Taco Bell.  Bad food is more affordable. On the other hand, Whole Foods is not on every corner because good food is expensive.

 The problem is simple and the solution is simple.  Bad food is cheap so it we have to make good food cheap.  We have to provide more of an incentive for people to eat good food, support positive projects, and be knowledgeable about what they consume than the bad stuff.

In the mid eighties and into the nineties, American car sales were abysmal to the point where some were on the verge of failing.  The marketing was focused on buying American cars just because they were made in America.  Fuel prices rose and so did the MPG's these cars and trucks got.  Quality fell.  We were encouraged to buy bad cars that guzzled gas because it was American to do so.  Then Honda hit the market with vehicles that were smaller, better quality, and more fuel efficient.  Essentially, they created a better cheaper product.

We find ourselves in the same position today, except now we are talking about food so it could be argued that the stakes are higher.  We are asked to buy local, which is a good thing.  Sadly though, buying local does not necessarily weigh in when people are considering budgets and thus a tomato, picked in Argentina becomes less expensive and even though it is often picked green and ripened on the trip to the U.S. in a cargo hold flooded with ethelyne gas to make them red by the time they arrive.
We came up with something different.

The Start of the Cycle

We are part of a cycle.  To create a community we had to form a system that was beneficial to the organization and it's participants as well as inclusive.  We started by offsetting our costs for things that we were going to need by gathering them where we could and having others contribute in some way.  We needed good organic soil. The soil and grow medium we use comes from compost.  That compost comes from our members.  As incentive, the cost of their member share is reduced by the amount of compost they contribute on a weekly basis.  A bucket full of compostable material on a weekly basis means a dollar off of their CSA share.  Essentially, you are getting a rebate from you share for your garbage.

We use the composted material as fertilizer and growing medium for our plants and we also donate a large amount of it to local organizations and schools.  Members can even get a bucket or three for their own gardens at home.

Because we collect from so many sources and are instituting vermicomposting as well, we are looking good to have a great deal of compost left over after composting for sale.  Members could even eventually make a profit with their purchase of a share.

This is just the beginning of the cycle!

This is just the beginning of the cycle.