{"id":1707,"date":"2025-07-30T16:03:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T16:03:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/?p=1707"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:21:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:21:49","slug":"from-waste-to-wonders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/from-waste-to-wonders\/","title":{"rendered":"From Waste to Wonders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"HeadshotWhen I first thought of being a Compost Fellow, I imagined spending my summer dealing with rotting food and other \u201cgross\u201d scraps. I couldn\u2019t have been more wrong. Yes, I do work with the smelly food waste, but it\u2019s so much more than that. I\u2019ve been wanting to be part of the Furman Farm for a long time, so when I got the opportunity to do it for the summer, I couldn\u2019t say no. The Furman Farm is truly something special, and its handled so thoughtfully and gracefully.<\/p>\n

My name is Maddie Krachon and I am a rising junior from Atlanta, Georgia. I am a Sustainability Science major with a minor in Science Education. As the Summer Compost Fellow, I get to learn the ins and outs of the Furman Farm. The farm itself is fully organic, meaning we don\u2019t use synthetic fertilizers. Instead, we make our own rich, nutrient-filled compost. This compost is the backbone of the farm, and it\u2019s part of an amazing closed-loop system with the dining hall.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how it works: Barrels of food waste are picked up from the dining hall and other spots on campus, including the Paladen food court, Library Cafe, Herring Center, and even the Bookstore Bistro. They are then taken to an off campus composting site. There we mix the food waste with dried leaves and other yard waste from around campus and let it break down into compost.<\/p>\n

Once it\u2019s ready, we bring it back to the farm and spread it around the garden, where it nourishes the plants and helps them thrive. The produce we grow is sold back to the dining hall, where it\u2019s cooked into meals that students enjoy. And the cycle begins again when those meals generate food waste! The system doesn\u2019t just grow healthy food; it has a big impact on Furman as a whole. Each academic year, this loop diverts about 300 tons of food waste from the landfills, saving the university upwards of $30,000 annually.<\/p>\n

People often ask me, what makes Furman\u2019s compost so good? The answer is: life! Our compost is filled with macroorganisms like worms, roly-polies, and other tiny creatures you can see, and microorganisms, which you can\u2019t see, but are absolutely essential. These microbes are the key to breaking down organic material. There are three main types of microbes: Psychrophiles, Mesophiles, and Thermophiles. They thrive when conditions are just right. The most important factor is the carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C:N ratio). Great compost needs the perfect balance of carbon-rich \u201cbrowns\u201d (like dry leaves) and nitrogen-rich \u201cgreens\u201d (like food scraps).<\/p>\n

\"Roly-poly

Roly-polies thriving in the compost.<\/p><\/div>\n

When the C:N ratio is right, the pile heats up, sometimes reaching up to 250\u00b0F, and it turns into wonderful compost. We also look for something called actinomycetes, which signals that the compost is ready to use in the garden. The Furman Farm does a lot of behind-the-scenes work to keep this system running smoothly. In addition to collecting and processing food waste, we balance two main areas of focus. On the business side, we sell our produce to the dining hall and locals during the summer, and our compost to the local community. On the educational side, we offer fellowships and opportunities for students and locals to volunteer to learn about sustainable and organic food systems first-hand.<\/p>\n

My daily activities on the farm are never the same. Somedays, I\u2019m picking up barrels of food waste, other days, I\u2019m shoveling compost into the garden, weeding, delivering produce to the dining hall, or making \u201ccompost tea.\u201d Compost tea is nutrient-rich water made from soaking the compost to feed the plants as we water them. This fellowship has given me a whole new appreciation for what happens behind the scenes to help our campus be more sustainable. I\u2019ve learned that even waste can become something wonderful, and that’s what makes the Furman Farm so special.<\/p>\n

\"Steam

Heat exiting the compost pile as it is being turned.<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019re curious about what happens at the farm or want to see the magic of composting up close, I encourage you to come visit! Walk through the garden, smell the rich, fresh soil, and see how food scraps help sustain this beautiful space. And if you\u2019re looking for a hands-on way to make a difference, consider volunteering. Whether you\u2019re turning the compost, planting seeds, or harvesting produce, there\u2019s always something meaningful to do at Furman Farm. During the summer we host volunteers every Thursday morning starting at 9 am or you can email shi.institute@furman.edu<\/a> to set up a group volunteer experience.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I first thought of being a Compost Fellow, I imagined spending my summer dealing with rotting food and other \u201cgross\u201d scraps. I couldn\u2019t have been more wrong. Yes, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1707"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1716,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1707\/revisions\/1716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/shi-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}