The Return of the Backyard Garden: Earth Care Farm Sees Increased Compost Demand During Coronavirus

The Return of the Backyard Garden: Earth Care Farm Sees Increased Compost Demand During Coronavirus

Jayne Senecal with Earth Care Farm in Charlestown declared that “compost has never been as sexy as it is right now” with people gardening during COVID — and talked about the growth the family farm has seen in 2020. 

"People are suddenly realizing the value of food and have more time at home to garden, and it might be something they’ve always wanted to do and now can," she said. 

"So we’ve just been here for 40 years. preparing for this moment for everybody to have compost, and we have plenty of it," said Senecal. "We’ve been able to provide it to gardens not just in Rhode Island but across New England -- and even farther into the midwest. 

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

Earth Care Farm is Rhode Island’s oldest compost farm, taking a variety of materials (see here) to compost and providing a number of soil products for purchase once the compost is ready. 

Senecal spoke with GoLocal as part of working with the Rhode Island Food Policy Council. 

Gardening During Pandemic

"I’m glad people are spending this time reconnecting with nature and their backyards with what they can grow and just providing food for their families," said Senecal. "I think people just need a positive focus — and we’re concerned about food access — so this has just been a great way to focus on something really positive."

"We’ve doubled our sales this spring compared to last spring and that took a lot just getting more efficient," she said. "Figuring out systems [and] logistics is super challenging, getting all that compost out to people, so we’ve hired a little bit more — I’ve got some teenagers here working in the fields, where I just used to be able to do a lot more of that."

"So we definitely have grown and gotten more efficient at the same time — we got some help from Commerce RI and Social Enterprise Greenhouse helped us be able to have my office manager work from home by providing a laptop," she said. 

Growth Potential 

"We have a pretty limited footprint here but we’ve gotten our systems so much more efficient that we can take in a lot more material," said Senecal. "Right now we take in about a 100 tons a day of compostable fish scraps, yard materials, food scraps, bedding, and manure — and we could take in a lot more material."

"If you come to the farm to get compost, you can stay in your vehicle — we can load it for you," she said. "I’m really hoping that gardening really sticks now as a hobby."