Welcome everyone, we're going to wait just a couple minutes to let everyone else in from the waiting room. maybe one more minute. Alright, I think we've got a, we've got some folks still coming in but I think we're going to go ahead and get started. Welcome, everyone. My name is Kat Buxton, and welcome to the third of six events for the soil health and community resilience stories 00:02:23.000 --> 00:02:30.000 from the north series. This 21 2021 series is our third annual soil series. 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:43.000 Tonight's event is called closing local nutrient loops and building soil with speakers Tim, Tim. When rich, Donna pion Eric Paris and Brian dros. 00:02:43.000 --> 00:02:59.000 My name is Kat Buxton as I said, and I'll be the facilitator for this evening's discussion, and I am one of the organizers for the series. First I want to thank the other members of the organizing team including grace for shooting, Becky culprits. 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:06.000 Lauren Weston Avi Bauer, and Melissa Laurita Cole, thank you all so much. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:13.000 I'd also like to thank all of you who are here this evening, or watching the recording in the future. 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:25.000 I want to thank those of you who are filling out the surveys we really appreciate that they are changing the way that we are designing our events so thank you thank you thank you. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:40.000 I'd also like to thank all of our incredible partners who have made this series possible. The 50 plus organizations and businesses that you see on the bottom and side of your screen have helped us to fundraise for our speakers to spread the word about 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:48.000 these events and shared countless resources with us that we are really excited to share with you. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:52.000 We'd like to give a special thank you to the Cooperative Education Fund. 00:03:52.000 --> 00:04:08.000 The Vermont healthy soils coalition, the little tin food Co Op, and to learn more about all of the partners and to take a look at all of the resources that we've gathered from partners through the pre event planning survey, please visit our website for 00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:13.000 all of that information, I you should find that link in the chat. 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:18.000 We'd like to let you all know that we are recording tonight's event. 00:04:18.000 --> 00:04:24.000 Additionally, we are keeping you muted for now and we ask that you keep your cameras off. 00:04:24.000 --> 00:04:30.000 Our team will be doing our best to keep disruptions to a minimum. 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:45.000 We have a lot of wonderful content that our speakers want to share today so the q amp a will be short. If you don't get a chance to ask a question, be sure to follow up on the Vermont healthy soils coalition listserv, Depending on your version of zoom. 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:51.000 You should also have a button at the bottom of your screen called Live transcript. 00:04:51.000 --> 00:05:02.000 If you click on the arrow next to those words, you should be able to turn on or off an auto generated live feed of subtitles of tonight's discussions. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.000 We apologize in advance. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:09.000 If the transcription services captures any of the words incorrectly. 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:18.000 The entire scratch transcript will be saved and posted with the recording. If people want to come back to it later. And don't have access to it. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:30.000 If you don't have any questions, if you do have any questions for us, please submit them through the zoom chat box will be monitoring that throughout the night. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:34.000 We'd like to open this evening with a land acknowledgement. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:50.000 This land acknowledgement for what for what is referred to some as the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, and the North Country of New Hampshire has been shared with us and others by Chief Don Stevens of the Mohegan band of the coast sick of Inaki nation. 00:05:50.000 --> 00:06:04.000 Many of us are on the land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange among indigenous peoples for thousands of years and is the home of the Western Abernathy people. 00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:18.000 The team organizing this event today honors recognizes and respects these peoples, especially the urban Aki, as the traditional stewards of the lands and waters, on which we gather today. 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:25.000 In that spirit today will begin by acknowledging that we are guests on this land. 00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:32.000 We need to respect and help protect the land within our use 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:54.000 like to take a moment of silence to honor and respect the elders of the past and the present, who were and are stewards of this. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:07:01.000 Thank 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:18.000 making this series we wanted to create a community for all together safely. We created a list of community values and guidelines that we are being shown on your screen right now, in this space we agree to respect and recognize all voices, lived experiences 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:26.000 perspectives and worldviews we seek to create a safe space for learning and sharing. 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:33.000 And we ask that we all use inclusive and respectful language. 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:37.000 Violations of these values and guidelines will lead to removal from the event. 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:39.000 This evening by our team. 00:07:39.000 --> 00:07:43.000 Thank you for understanding 00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:50.000 with those in mind, let's get to know each other as you feel comfortable, please introduce yourself in the chat box. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:08:01.000 We ask that you list your name, where you are participating from tonight. and maybe respond if you are feeling called to do so to this burning question. 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:16.000 Do you have one burning question about compost and or bio char. This will also help us to gather some questions for later on you'll have opportunities to ask questions in the chat throughout the night. 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:33.000 I want to announce the winners from last week's raffle, we did mention that everyone who takes the survey within one week of watching our event. Live is entered into a raffle and so last week's winner the two weeks ago the last sessions winners were Nicole 00:08:33.000 --> 00:08:47.000 Murphy, Debbie anchor Roberta McKinney, and Dakota Butterfield. Congratulations winners. 00:08:47.000 --> 00:08:48.000 Tonight survey. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:56.000 So, while you're entering all of your information in the chat and introducing each yourself to each other. 00:08:56.000 --> 00:09:09.000 We do have a post event survey that I want to tell you about it shouldn't take more than three minutes to complete, and it will be sent out with the recording of tonight's event, the event bright so look for your look for that in your email. 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:15.000 If you fill out the survey within one week of tonight's event, you will be entered into a raffle for prizes. 00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:32.000 The for the five prizes for tonight are a five gallon pail of biochar from Green State biochar mighty mini micro coloring books from the NRC Yes, they're really cool. 00:09:32.000 --> 00:09:45.000 The Rodale book of composting edited by our own grace cartoony and Deborah Martin, a book, organic revolution by organic revolutionary by Grace, Grace uni. 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:55.000 And the fifth prize could be a compost and worm castings, a bag of compost and worm castings from black dirt farm, really good stuff. 00:09:55.000 --> 00:10:09.000 In addition, Chelsea green publishing has generously offered, all participants of the soil series, a 35% discount off a discount code off of their books. 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:16.000 There's more on their website so check them out online. The code is PWEB, three. 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:27.000 That should be up on your screen. And it's good for all participants here tonight and watching the recording this spring. Thank you Thank you thank you Chelsea green. 00:10:27.000 --> 00:10:48.000 With that, I am excited to introduce our speakers for this evening, we'll be hearing stories from Tim when rich of metal stone fun first, and then Donna pion of green state bio char then Eric Paris of Tamerlane farm, and then Brian dros of Agra lab technologies. 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:52.000 We're so grateful that you're all here joining us tonight. 00:10:52.000 --> 00:11:05.000 We're grateful to everyone who's made this event possible. And thank you to all of you who have hit the donate button on our website that really makes a difference and helping us to afford to pay people to do this work. 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:08.000 It's important work and we hope you think so too. 00:11:08.000 --> 00:11:21.000 With that, I'm going to hand it right over to Tim, to get us going on our presentation. 00:11:21.000 --> 00:11:35.000 Alright, well thank you thanks, Kat and thanks for the Vermont, healthy soils Coalition for kind of putting this together and inviting me from metal stone farm to talk about how we think about soil and how we look at soil and how we improve soil. 00:11:35.000 --> 00:11:39.000 Over here at our farm, although we are in. 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:56.000 In Bethlehem New Hampshire, just across the border about 20 miles from st Johnsbury. I'm going to try to share my screen, see if this works. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:00.000 See, 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:03.000 again. 00:12:03.000 --> 00:12:16.000 So like I said were over invest on New Hampshire, just outside of the town of Littleton, so we're kind of close to a little population center we started our farm and 2004. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:34.000 It was an old dairy farm defunct dairy farm that we have been slowly reinventing and reinvigorating, and our things some things have changed on our farm but our lens has always been, how do we improve our soil health, and how do we become this. 00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:38.000 How do we strengthen our community through agriculture here. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:44.000 Currently, and 2021. 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:48.000 Let's see. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:53.000 We're growing at about eight acres of cultivated land. 00:12:53.000 --> 00:13:05.000 About half of that is least we grow a big selection of market vegetables we have a pretty busy farm stand and CSA, most of our products go through direct to consumer. 00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:25.000 We also have three heated greenhouses and six unheated hoop houses, four of those unheated hoop houses are also movable, we're really trying to push the seasons on on either end of the, of the growing season. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:41.000 We do, along with our farm stand. We also have pick your own flowers and pick your own blueberry orchard, to keep to bring to the farm, the rest of our products are a wholesale through small grocery like the Littleton food Co Op, or the Franconia market 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:50.000 and deli, there's a few other stores we wholesale to and then we have a few restaurants that we work with, in the area. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:57.000 We grow like I mentioned we grow the large selection of vegetables market vegetables. We also raised pork. 00:13:57.000 --> 00:14:02.000 We have eggs from chickens. Right now we have about 1000 layers. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:05.000 We do beef. 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:12.000 And we have our own goat Creamery, we make three different kinds of cheeses. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:25.000 Since the beginning, We have always focused on food waste and original intent was to collect food scraps from local businesses and turn that into compost. 00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:41.000 This was back in 2004 that was kind of our original business idea we quickly pivoted to growing vegetables because we saw that as a bigger need in the area, but we've always kept this vision of clipping food scraps, using it to improve our soil health, 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:44.000 but also diverting it from the waste stream. 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:49.000 And with the food scraps, you can see here we've got the chickens going after it. 00:14:49.000 --> 00:14:54.000 And then we make compost with it, and window in a window complex system. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:15:02.000 We gather about we collect about 500 gallons, a week of compost. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:15.000 From a couple different sources, and that's wax and wane over the years right now there's some renewed energy locally about food waste, and we're trying to capitalize on that, to see if we can't become more of an outlet for folks. 00:15:15.000 --> 00:15:27.000 We have some drop off sites that people are bringing it to, and then we collect from Littleton food Co Op, and Frank 20 market and deli those are the big ones that we collect from now. 00:15:27.000 --> 00:15:41.000 We also are a drop off site we get wood chips from all sorts of landscapers and tree folks, we get leaves, probably about a boy I'm not even sure. 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:57.000 But 100 100 yards of leaves, every fall from local towns, and then we also get spend rivers grain from local breweries, which goes to the chickens and then goes into our into our complex system. 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:07.000 Like I mentioned, we just have a basic, basic Window System, we're looking at some other possibilities but we're just moving it around, around with tractors. 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:17.000 And like I said, we are, we have always been focused on food scraps, we it's been a big 00:16:17.000 --> 00:16:33.000 idea for us for for making this compost, but we sell most of it. At this point, we probably use, maybe a quarter or so on farm. The rest we sell locally, either in bulk or in bags. 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:49.000 And we're really part of it is that we're transitioning into improving soils to cover crops, which is a big, big push all over the country in the northeast but really we're looking to. 00:16:49.000 --> 00:17:05.000 We look to the force of the North East and the fact that they're as our inspiration there they're undisturbed for us. And they grow millions of tons of biomass every year and the only thing that really gets added in our organic matter in the form of leaves 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:20.000 needles and, and then downward and that's kind of our goal, I mean we're trying to cheat a little bit when we, when we're growing tropical tomatoes and greenhouses, but really we're looking to have a minimal till system, and undisturbed system. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:26.000 We're really all we're adding is as much organic matter, as we can to the soils. 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:31.000 So, and we're using we're using different cocktails of cover crops. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:35.000 This setting some oats and peas and some beings. 00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:45.000 Here we've got some summer squash and winter squash under see under sewn with some medium red clover. 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:51.000 This is one of our hoop houses, some radishes and some oats. 00:17:51.000 --> 00:18:08.000 This was our one of our greenhouses last year and just really you can see just the leaves that we, we just put in and around all of our plants have keeps the weeds down, but also just just adding that organic matter to the soil. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:22.000 Every year of the by far the hardest worker on our farm, we do have a small apiary, but just making sure that our bluebirds get pollinated here, blue, the bees are on a little bit of buckwheat. 00:18:22.000 --> 00:18:28.000 And then this is another shot of one of our green tomato greenhouses just 00:18:28.000 --> 00:18:32.000 once it tomatoes kind of mid July, early August. 00:18:32.000 --> 00:18:35.000 We then go under so a cover crop in there. 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:41.000 As the tomatoes getting taller, mostly oats and oats and peas and beans. 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:52.000 There's looks like there's some maybe some batch in there, some trickling that's maybe, but a lot of it is cover crops I will winter kill, so that when we go back and plant next fall. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:57.000 It's kind of a clean slate but it lets the, the root systems. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:02.000 The library systems just encourage the micro micro as a young guy. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:09.000 and here we can see a couple couple fruiting heads, which we always look to see in the greenhouses. 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:15.000 So yeah, kind of a brief overview of how we look at soils at our farm. 00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:22.000 What we're growing, how we're growing it, and then and then how we're distributing it to the community. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:29.000 And a little shot of the some of the pharmacy we're missing a few but, but yeah. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:35.000 So, thank you. 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:40.000 And see if I can. 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:47.000 Thank you so much, Tim. 00:19:47.000 --> 00:19:49.000 All right. 00:19:49.000 --> 00:20:05.000 Wonderful and we're going to transition right into Donna from Green State Dr. 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:11.000 This this sheet This screen is the PowerPoint up there. 00:20:11.000 --> 00:20:13.000 No, no. 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:15.000 Let's try this one. 00:20:15.000 --> 00:20:23.000 Cheese, straight yet. 00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:25.000 Sit up now. 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.000 It is right 00:20:29.000 --> 00:20:31.000 there. 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:34.000 So, see if I can. 00:20:34.000 --> 00:20:37.000 They are perfect. 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:44.000 So my name is Don appeal, and I'm the general manager of going to stay file char. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:57.000 And I have over 35 years experience in accounting and business management. I worked as a controller for Sterling college for close to 15 years. 00:20:57.000 --> 00:21:16.000 Several years ago, my partners Roger and Luke, were interested in starting a business that would utilize local organic waste materials and turn them into something viable, their particular focus was on keeping phosphorus out of romance rivers, lakes and 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:24.000 and streams, and they discovered biochar 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:44.000 biochar is simply the conversion of organic waste materials into a stable solid high in carbon and highly porous. It has a honeycomb structure. It is this structure that allows the bio char to capture hold retain water and nutrients, until needed by the 00:21:44.000 --> 00:22:09.000 root systems of plants, trees and grasses. When used on contaminated soil such as remind reclamation it captures and holds the toxins found in the dirt biochar is a hard carbon 50 to 90% of its volume is carbon, 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:33.000 some materials that are used to make bio char cow manure nut shells poultry later switchgrass. We use wood chips that we purchased by the trip the trailer load from local would males in loggers in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. 00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:46.000 The process to make bio char is called paralysis. We bake our wood chips in an innovative working prototype killed that we designed and built. It is a continuous flow system. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:23:06.000 Similar accounts can be purchased a cost in excess of $300,000 hours cost 20,000 to build labor and source materials and mostly from junkyards, the wood chips are baked with very little oxygen and at high temperatures, close to 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:28.000 The process of converting the biomass into bio char sequesters most of the carbon in the bio char rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. We produce 300 pounds of biochar in an eight hour day. 00:23:28.000 --> 00:23:46.000 Municipalities on the West Coast are putting bio trying to filter units in drains to capture heavy metals and toxins from stormwater runoff. In Europe, it is being mixed with feed and added to poultry litter for the health and well being of livestock 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:52.000 across the globe that is being used as a soil amendment 00:23:52.000 --> 00:24:07.000 to increase plant health yield shorten the times to harvest biochar when added to compost improves aeration reduces moisture loss, thus improving the microbial activity. 00:24:07.000 --> 00:24:35.000 When this mixture is added to your soil. It conserves nutrients, acting as a sponge and releasing them on needed by the plants compost amended with bio char is reported to mature faster, it reaches that sweet smelling, and pleasant hand feel more quickly. 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:47.000 For the past few years, we used our bio chart and filters on local dairy farms to capture runoff from cleaning waters barn yards, and the overflow from the newer pits. 00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:53.000 Green State biochar was one of the recipients of the Vermont phosphorus Innovation Challenge. 00:24:53.000 --> 00:24:58.000 Our filters each old between seven and 8000 pounds of biochar. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:06.000 We have been successful at capturing between 90 and 98% of the phosphorus running through these filters. 00:25:06.000 --> 00:25:24.000 This spring, we will be using our bio char enriched with phosphorus, and as removed from the filters and field trials, across the state at universities, a community garden, garden in Holland and accomplice facility and Linden though. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:38.000 We are also providing our bio chart to the no Hagen band of the Ave Jackie tribe. It is to be used in field trials with some of their programs they partner with to provide fresh produce, to local food shells. 00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:46.000 We also have some available for sale in addition to our non inoculated bio child and the kill him. 00:25:46.000 --> 00:26:05.000 We want to continue installing our filters on dairy farms, but without funding from the state farmers are not able to afford them until such time we can get them into the best management practices program. 00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:23.000 Clean Water is a concern everywhere, the excessive use of fertilizers top dressing and shallow application of soil conditioners and the ensuing runoff are all causes of the deterioration in our waterways, agricultural practices are being blamed as stormwater 00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:48.000 runoff and aging sewage and septic systems bio char can be used as a filter material and all of these situations when use to capture toxins and from stormwater runoff, it can be put back into the killed to remove these materials and then get used again. 00:26:48.000 --> 00:27:06.000 We like to say on earth. the Earth is our customer, but quickly found out that doesn't fare well with banks. I do see this changing those the market for carbon credits is quickly coming into its own a ton of biochar is now worth a $200 credit, a highly 00:27:06.000 --> 00:27:15.000 stable carbon, it can be sequestered for hundreds of years. That's reducing greenhouse gas emissions and maybe someday reverse climate change. 00:27:15.000 --> 00:27:31.000 A study at Cornell estimates that the conversion of residues from commercial forestry and crop production to bio char could offset as much as a third of us carbon emissions from fossil fuels. 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:43.000 Consumers gardeners landscapers tree farmers horticulturist all will be using bio char soon. 00:27:43.000 --> 00:28:00.000 Our mission is to utilize local waste would produce high quality bio char and create a viable sustainable company that offers good paying jobs and grows the economy in this rural part of Vermont, while reducing our carbon footprint. 00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:07.000 Thank you for this opportunity. 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:11.000 Thank you so much, Donna. Thank you. 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:15.000 Fascinating. We've got a lot of questions coming in about bio char. 00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:20.000 And we're going to transition over to Eric Paris of Cameron lane. 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:25.000 Thank you. Okay, I appreciate the opportunity to participate. 00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:32.000 I run a certified organic dairy and beef and operation and Linda doe Vermont. 00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:40.000 We do a few vegetables and, of course, we also have a commercial composting operation located on our farm. 00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:46.000 My parents purchase the farm in 1956, I've worked there full time since 1979. 00:28:46.000 --> 00:29:01.000 In 1983, I married Kathy, and we raised our two children, Bonnie who is now 35 and then was 32 on the farm. So, through the years we we made a lot of changes. 00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:10.000 Kathy and I took over management of the farm in 1988, and we took over ownership of the farm in 1993. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:30.000 And we were conventional dairy for many years. And then, in the early years of 2000 2001 2002 I just didn't like the way conventional farming was going just started seeming like I had to, you know, use so it was seemed to be going in the way that we had 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:47.000 to use synthetic hormones or were told we had to use synthetic hormones and, you know, graner cows and any biotics and, you know, some fungicides and pesticides and insecticides and, and I just didn't like the whole the way the whole thing was going so 00:29:47.000 --> 00:30:02.000 the more I looked into certified organic farming. The more I realized that certified organic farming really paralleled the philosophies that I had about farming so we transition to certified organic farming. 00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:11.000 We started our transition in 2003 and in 2004 we shift our first tank of certified organic milk. 00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:23.000 So, not long after we went we decided to be certified organic in our dairy operation. We began a certified organic beef operation as well. 00:30:23.000 --> 00:30:40.000 And during the fall of 2003 in 2004, we renovated the 1866 freight house in downtown London bill into what our family owns and operates today known as the free house marketing cafe. 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:58.000 All of the in 19, actually in 20 2019 we also added a second restaurant, the mosaic restaurant in all of the beef found on the menus at both places as well as some of the vegetables, actually come off our farm, so it's kind of a cool food loop because 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:14.000 we raise the beef and the vegetables on the farm. It goes, it's for sale and also is on the menu at the restaurants. Of course we, you know, separate food scraps which go back to the farm back into the composing stream. 00:31:14.000 --> 00:31:32.000 Some of the compost gets spread on our fields and pastures, which of course is used to raise more beef and grow Hey for the beef and also erase more vegetables which come back to the restaurant so that's kind of cool little food cycle that we have. 00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:49.000 But, so this is mainly about composting gun so I'm going to try to stick to mostly about the composting operation on our farm. So as I said in 2003 2004, we renovated a free house into the free house market and cafe to back up a little bit after one. 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:53.000 After we transition to certified organic farming. 00:31:53.000 --> 00:32:06.000 I, one of my concerns was how I was going to meet the fertility needs of our pastors in our fields, and the more I looked into this, the more I realize that composting to be the way to go. 00:32:06.000 --> 00:32:25.000 So I was thinking about how I would start composting and then kind of light came on one afternoon. In May of, 2004, I was carrying a buck. A bag of trash to the dumpster from the free house market in cafe. 00:32:25.000 --> 00:32:34.000 And I was carrying it thinking boy you know this this bag is heavy what's making this bag so heavy. Then I realized there were food scraps, in that bag of trash. 00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:43.000 And I'm like, wait, wait, this is this is not right I'm taking were thrown away. Nutrients here so kind of the light kind of came on and I knew exactly what I had to do. 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:59.000 I had to start composting using some of the food scraps that we're producing, as well as I'm dairy manure. So during the summer of 2000 for idea was taking food scraps from the restaurant home dumping it into the manure spreader and then, you know, taking 00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:12.000 the manure that was produced daily from the farm and I made a crude wind row on the site we're actually our compost operation is today. I rolled it with a tractor and somehow by the grace of God, it became compost. 00:33:12.000 --> 00:33:24.000 So, and it was good stuff so one thing led to another I partnered with the Northeast Kingdom voice Management District, and the Highfields Institute, which was in Hardwick Ramona at the time. 00:33:24.000 --> 00:33:45.000 And in 2005 we put down a gravel pad and we begin, accepting food scraps from originally six food scrap generators, and we were using our own dairy manure and some wood chip and some horse manure, and so we began our composting operation in 2005. 00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:55.000 Through the years, is grown originally were except we were accepting two or three tons of food scraps a week and I thought that was a large amount. 00:33:55.000 --> 00:34:11.000 So, in I think it was 2014 or 15. We got to work in lands grant we were we expanded the footprint of our composting operation. And we redid the receiving day. 00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:17.000 And at the time we just had, we're just making windows that we were turning with a tractor and. 00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:23.000 But what happened, eventually is even though we had expanded our composting pad. 00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:28.000 We were running out of room because as we begin accepting more and more food scraps. 00:34:28.000 --> 00:34:40.000 We realized that we were not able to turn finished compost over in time in the way that we wanted to, to, to produce it. We just didn't feel like we had the time to really finish the compost. 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:45.000 Most of the compost is spread on our own farm anyway but we do market some. 00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:57.000 So back starting about six years ago actually I started working with Brian Jones from agro lab on the concept of creating an ASP and areas static pile. 00:34:57.000 --> 00:35:15.000 And so for a few years we were in the planning process and searching out funding so finally, last year, the entire concept came to fruition in last fall when start, we installed her area to static file system, which, you know, has a heat recovery unit 00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:30.000 we're capturing the heat from the compost, and it does ASP has actually exceeded my expectations were able to turn off finished compost far faster now than we were able to before. 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:46.000 And that, it's just working remarkably well we ran out of time, this fall because the winter closed in, but we did get our underground piping installed so then in the spring, we'll be able to build a shop on site and we'll be able to heat the shop with 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:58.000 radiant heat from captured from the composting operation and Brian in a little bit. We'll talk more about the nuts and bolts so to speak of the composting operation in the ASP. 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:16.000 But I just wanted to share with you a couple of things that I'm really interested in, and I'm very interested in, and I don't pretend to know a lot about it but I'm very interested in the biological activity and, and, and, and things that are going on 00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:28.000 beneath the soil in terms of things like the bacteria micro rise up in the phone guy I sell him, which I think is you know I really think there's cool stuff and I've been learning all that he can about it. 00:36:28.000 --> 00:36:39.000 A couple of cool things about myself, that most of you probably know that I find fascinating is that one cubic inch of mycelium contains like eight miles of its thread. 00:36:39.000 --> 00:36:55.000 It's the mother of all humanists, and it is the largest organism in the world, and I think that's pretty cool stuff. But I also my belief that there's growing data, leading to the realization that we need to focus as much more on the biological cycles 00:36:55.000 --> 00:37:00.000 and activities in the soil, as we do for soil fertility. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:05.000 Side note to this is the fact that too much faster as combined Mike arise. 00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:18.000 In my opinion, compost is a universal soil amendment. As already contains most of the biological activity that still needs and it's an excellent soil and knock on as well. 00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:27.000 So I'm thinking that perhaps soil tests don't always give us an actual pulse reading of the soil as long been protocol. 00:37:27.000 --> 00:37:35.000 And by the way, if more of you folks would like to learn more about the some of the biological activity that's going on in soil. 00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:48.000 I came upon a really cool thing on YouTube by Paul Stamets. It's called six ways mushrooms can save the world. And believe me, folks, it's worth watching. 00:37:48.000 --> 00:37:56.000 So that's all I have for now. Thank you. 00:37:56.000 --> 00:38:05.000 Thank you so much, Eric, lots lots to say there, and Brian, take it away. 00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:13.000 Great, thank you there. Thank you, everyone, and thanks for those attending learning more about these healthy soils. 00:38:13.000 --> 00:38:41.000 To add to what Eric said, I'm going to run through several slides from the construction work last year, and will also be able to give a description of the site, if I can get the slides to advance 00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:45.000 is my screen, I believe my screen is sharing 00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.000 your screen is up. 00:38:49.000 --> 00:38:57.000 All right, I found a workaround. Alright so, just this is some of what Eric already described. 00:38:57.000 --> 00:39:11.000 But again, he became a state certified facility in order to be able to accept the food scraps and mix it in with his existing on farm materials the largely the mirrors, as well as wood chips. 00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:30.000 Also credit Highfields and then James McSweeney of complex technical services for small pilot system, and other planning to help improve the site. And then finally were able to work with Eric and several funders through slow money and clean energy development 00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:39.000 Development Fund and the agency of Ag to pull together the capital to to install these improvement. 00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:51.000 So we, we have different stages of composting as Eric mentioned previously, he's exclusively been flipping and turning the material with tractor and now has a payload. 00:39:51.000 --> 00:40:02.000 But the premise behind the aeration system is we're able to either pull or push air in its oxygen into those batches and accelerate the process. 00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:06.000 Fun fact is in a big hot compost pile. 00:40:06.000 --> 00:40:10.000 After turning it with a loader or tractor. 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:22.000 An active pile and all that biology and bacteria at the initial stages can use up all the oxygen that is in the core and as little as an hour, and then the process will slow down until the pile is turned again. 00:40:22.000 --> 00:40:37.000 So on a busy farm when you're not able to turn every day or even every week sometimes having an irrigation system that can push or pull oxygen into that pile multiple times a day on a timer cycle can really speed things up. 00:40:37.000 --> 00:40:42.000 We're fortunate to work with a lot of different great partners locally. 00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:55.000 Jane construction Goodwin electric pattern construction Harrison plumbing and heating and Tamblyn farms staff was closely involved as well, so I'll go quickly through these slides but it's always helpful to say all right what is this actually look like. 00:40:55.000 --> 00:41:02.000 So the compost was pushed to the side and a clear working pad. 00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:09.000 It was leveled or pitched to to the one direction and and flattened. 00:41:09.000 --> 00:41:27.000 And this is our equipment. This is our compost aeration and heat recovery unit. So those four pipes coming out of the side, we're able to again pull and push air in the vapor from pipes on that go on to the compost piles, and then into the heat exchanger 00:41:27.000 --> 00:41:45.000 and in a blower that provides that suction those different valves on they're able to be controlled with a timer that we're able to punch in the settings on site or able to work remotely from Franklin County or Cambridge and work with Eric. 00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:50.000 So we got to bring up that equipment to the site. 00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:53.000 And who Eric built deck. 00:41:53.000 --> 00:42:09.000 To put it on, and then that shed gets enclosed Jason on our team is up there mounting a flow sensor so we can see how fast that air and vapors moving and getting a great view by the way you'll see this is one of the most scenic combo sites I've gotten 00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:10.000 to work with. 00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:20.000 Burke mountain and in the, in the direction. So there's Eric's moving some of these big heavy HTTP plastic pipes. 00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:30.000 Earlier projects we would use PVC pipes these high density polyethylene are much more durable and less prone to shattering and breaking. 00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:39.000 So we're able to get these into place, lay them out, and then that machine that Jason's working with is called a fusion welder. 00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:44.000 Some of these same pipes are using utilities or even gas lines. 00:42:44.000 --> 00:42:56.000 Ours is a much lower pressure application but you can fuse these together with a specialized heating fusion welder 00:42:56.000 --> 00:43:04.000 as Eric mentioned we did put in some of the plumbing connections so beyond trying to be an efficient composting system. 00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:13.000 All that hot vapor that gets pulled in from the piles as much as 150 degrees heats up a water and glycol loop through a specialized heat exchanger. 00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:30.000 Eric's holding on to the call it a badger pipe, but basically it's a corrugated pipe that has insulated lines of packs plumbing pipe. And that's going to allow us to circulate that heated hot water, kind of similar to a solar thermal system or a geothermal 00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:46.000 system, be able to circulate that up to the new garage and greenhouse yeah here's, here's a view of where the greenhouse will sit and that's the dairy barn across the pasture in the background. 00:43:46.000 --> 00:43:59.000 So it's a 10th of a mile down the road from where the cows are and right across from Caledonia County Airport is across the road. 00:43:59.000 --> 00:44:15.000 Few things that you can't see now that the system is built, but minor details like if you insulate the lines. We're going to keep that temperature of the hot vapor is close to the temperature in the pile, by the time it gets to the heat exchanger so we're 00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:26.000 conserving energy. And that allows us to get hot water hot or water and glycol to us when we're able to circulate it to a heating load. 00:44:26.000 --> 00:44:53.000 Working with again those construction and and dang construction, to have the faith based were improved with concrete, we all needed to to minimize the costs, but that also gives us a chance to have in all seasons of the year, whether it's money transition 00:44:53.000 --> 00:44:53.000 spring. 00:44:53.000 --> 00:45:00.000 spring air can get on these zones and load and unload material. 00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:07.000 Another pic of block walls lining parts of the pad in those insulated pipes going up to it. 00:45:07.000 --> 00:45:17.000 Once the concrete is set, we put the aeration pipes for to the zones down in a trench. 00:45:17.000 --> 00:45:30.000 And then we before loading the mixed compost will put the wood chips, either over the pipes that sit on grade in the upper parts, the zones three and four on the working pad. 00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:41.000 There's a nice sunset picture of air with a mixed load of food scraps wood chips and manure loading on the loading on top of those pipes. 00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:58.000 And then in the concrete zones one and two, you can see what chips are laid down into that trench around the pipes that helps prevent those pipes from getting clogged with the wet particles of manure and food scraps and helps distribute the air under 00:45:58.000 --> 00:45:59.000 the center of the pile. 00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:06.000 And there's a view of the system as it started to get loaded in December. 00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:23.000 And another view of the, the, one of the concrete base with the aeration trench underneath so you can picture the blower back in that shadow that equipment, it's basically putting a big suction or pole, also known as negative variation that compost pile, 00:46:23.000 --> 00:46:32.000 and it draws the oxygen out of the air and pulls that hot vapor into the exchange unit. We can also. 00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:35.000 This is the one of the control screens. 00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:49.000 In addition to pulling we can also push. So one of the ways that we've been able to extend that winter operation instead of going into dormant or hibernation mode is we can re circulate, if we have, you do need a hot batch but if we've got a hot batch 00:46:49.000 --> 00:46:51.000 in one pile. 00:46:51.000 --> 00:47:08.000 You could push the exhaust once it gets up to adequate oxygen levels, 10% or more, you can push that hot vapor into a new Cold mixture. So instead of it taking a week to warm up to those hundred 31 degrees Fahrenheit or greater. 00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:16.000 We can do that process down to a day or two. When, when things are going well. 00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:26.000 So these are this is what we track and Eric and I sometimes talk on the phone looking at the screen and talk about how to change the timer settings and what we can do next. 00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:29.000 Couple recent shots just to close with. 00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:42.000 Again, as Eric described Scott food scraps coming in from different sources. Black dirt farm. I believe delivered this load they've got a customized sealed trailer that brings in the food scraps. 00:47:42.000 --> 00:47:58.000 It's tipped onto a concrete pad, mixed with the chips in the manure. And then, as described gets loaded onto those aeration zones and Eric sent this picture, this week of clearing out parts of the batches. 00:47:58.000 --> 00:48:14.000 You can kind of make out the wood chips give a guide for how low the bucket operates. And you can start to see parts of the pipe tucked in there. But again the wood chips at the bottom center of the pile help distribute the air, and make sure all portions 00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:20.000 of that window, and mixture of feedstocks gets well edited. 00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:30.000 So hopefully that gives you a sense of, of how we're doing it, and happy to move into the next part of the presentation. 00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:33.000 Thank you very much. 00:48:33.000 --> 00:48:37.000 Thank you, Brian, thank you all so much. 00:48:37.000 --> 00:48:44.000 And I am just so inspired by everything I'm battling in. 00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:55.000 We're gonna, we're going to hand it over to QA, and while we get organized for that I, I do have one question, it sounds like. 00:48:55.000 --> 00:49:06.000 Donna and Eric, maybe you're going to be doing some work together with bio char mixing Donna's bio char into Eric's compost and Brian's technology. 00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:36.000 Yes, that's the plan and do some field trials and it'll be both bio try that's not not populated in bow char that is it's being pulled from the filters so they'll be side by side and I believe Heather Darby from New VM is going to be able to record data 00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:39.000 from those field trials which will be good. 00:49:39.000 --> 00:49:41.000 So yeah, that's the plan. 00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:51.000 We have about, oh, at least 810 thousand pounds, maybe a little more of the biochar that we've pulled from the filters. 00:49:51.000 --> 00:50:10.000 So that's phosphorus and rich done. And then we just substrate biochar the killing so I'm we're doing the same with a few other groups, so we can really have some good field trials this year. 00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:18.000 That's really exciting. How can we stay tuned to that research or should we just be patient and wait. 00:50:18.000 --> 00:50:23.000 Well, well, you have to go through growing seasons. 00:50:23.000 --> 00:50:28.000 So maybe some patients have to wait. 00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:44.000 Wait, hopeful, hopefully we'll get a few trials in relatively small plots, but with different settings air Eric's in a situation, different than many farms where he actually needs from phosphorus for the size of his herd and his land base, so he's in 00:50:44.000 --> 00:51:01.000 a good position to bring in some of these materials and see what the crop responses and particularly if there's even extended benefits by blending the bio char in the compost. 00:51:01.000 --> 00:51:03.000 All right, great. 00:51:03.000 --> 00:51:19.000 Thank you guys. We're going to go to audience questions now. And I would like to ask people to, you can go ahead and turn on your cameras, let's have a conversation and see each other if you're comfortable, please turn your cameras on. 00:51:19.000 --> 00:51:27.000 And we're going to go ahead and ask you some questions and I might ask you to unmute yourself. 00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:35.000 So, Carl, I'm going to apologize for not saying names properly. Please forgive me. 00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:46.000 I'm Carl buckles from Manchester. You had a question about compost ratios, would you like to unmute yourself and ask that question. 00:51:46.000 --> 00:51:49.000 They can unmute themselves. 00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:51.000 Oh. 00:51:51.000 --> 00:51:55.000 So we have to ask them to unmute. 00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:58.000 Correct. 00:51:58.000 --> 00:52:01.000 I'm also not seeing Carl name anymore. 00:52:01.000 --> 00:52:07.000 I'm not either. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and ask Carl's question. 00:52:07.000 --> 00:52:27.000 He was wondering about a ratio recommendations, it sounds like some folks recommend a 10 to one ratio of brown to green for compost while many others recommend 321, does that have to do with hearing time fungal microbiology, or firing temperatures. 00:52:27.000 --> 00:52:47.000 Any of you who would like to address that question, love to hear from you, Brian can take a shot there. There's different ways to look at that there's a by volume, 321 is a great starting point by weight. 00:52:47.000 --> 00:53:02.000 It's actually a driveway does that 32 one, like the carbon, nitrogen so typically leaves wood chips bedding straw, things of that nature going to be more fibrous and more rich and carbon. 00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:04.000 So the. 00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:13.000 If you tend to have more carbon rich feedstock, you may end up with a more fungal rich compost at the end. 00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:24.000 Typically in a more mature compost that takes longer to make, there's more opportunity for those beneficial fungal organisms to form. 00:53:24.000 --> 00:53:42.000 Certain crops like strawberries I believe actually like a more bacterial dominated compost. So, something that isn't composted for as long, and maybe something that doesn't have as much wood has more fresh greens that'll degrade faster. 00:53:42.000 --> 00:54:01.000 The other big differences in the carbon, or their particle size small tiny particles like sawdust are going to break down a lot faster than wood chips and also the form of lignin so woody materials and, and certain stems like hamper straw are going to 00:54:01.000 --> 00:54:16.000 have more lignin, whereas leaves and some other forms of carbon, are going to be less resistant and break down faster with whatever your source of nitrogen us. 00:54:16.000 --> 00:54:25.000 Thank you, Brian. Yeah, so it sounds like it's pretty contextual based on materials, and what your end goal is. 00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.000 I hope that you're at least partially answered your question. 00:54:29.000 --> 00:54:31.000 Yeah, yeah, I think that was good. 00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:38.000 Thank you so much. Okay, next question is, Amanda from Gilman Vermont. 00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:41.000 We are going to try and unmute folks. 00:54:41.000 --> 00:54:50.000 Because I always like to hear people's voices and I think it's it's just much nicer if we can, if we can hear from individuals. 00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:59.000 I'm seeing that hasn't happened yet so I'm going to go ahead and ask this question for Amanda from Guillemot or Ma. Oh, did I hear somebody. 00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:13.000 I'm here, so forgive me ignorance, but I'm really just curious if I'm starting with organic matter that isn't organic if it's just a spot at the store and it's cheap and it's probably full of pesticides and all sorts of things. 00:55:13.000 --> 00:55:24.000 Am I running the soil like composting that am I making things worse or better, I don't know, help. 00:55:24.000 --> 00:55:39.000 What is it that you're contrary what is it that you're using in your compost. Oh banana peels and oranges and things like that that are bought. Just a regular grocery store that aren't grown organically and I'm composting them, am I creating a nutrient 00:55:39.000 --> 00:55:57.000 deficient compost pile essentially and then spreading that out, am I creating a larger problem or am I doing something better than doing nothing, by volume How large is your compost pile it's small, and maybe to two yards, Brian. 00:55:57.000 --> 00:56:06.000 Brian I think you're in a better position to answer that that I am because you know more about the chemical makeup of compost so I'll hand it to you. 00:56:06.000 --> 00:56:26.000 Yeah, I'll try to answer it quickly the compost, the composting process has been shown to actually break down the vast majority of herbicides, pesticides, it can't break down completely synthetic materials so, particularly looking at at organic agriculture, 00:56:26.000 --> 00:56:28.000 there's a lot of prohibited inputs. 00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:32.000 But in the case of like food scraps from the store. 00:56:32.000 --> 00:56:49.000 You only a small fraction of those materials are going to be certified organic. So the understanding is that the original banana peel or apple core is turned into 10 different things by the time it gets eaten by the large different bacteria which are 00:56:49.000 --> 00:57:01.000 eaten by other parts of the microbial ecosystem or the ecosystem of a compost pile. So based on on that. 00:57:01.000 --> 00:57:12.000 If you follow enough time and temperature. It may not be so much true in your backyard pile. you may need to wait for a longer time period. 00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:27.000 But at least for having it approved for organic use if it's composted for 15 days above 131 degrees and turn five times or in an area that system over that temperature for three days or more. 00:57:27.000 --> 00:57:45.000 It's been shown where the most almost all of those materials are going to be broken down and not identifiable or detectable at the end of the process that big exception to that is a category of persistent herbicides, Carolyn being one of them that's like 00:57:45.000 --> 00:58:02.000 used in grass. And that was like a big concern with Green Mountain compost and other facilities around the country a few years ago. So, trying to avoid sprayed grass clippings, which really aren't allowed in Vermont, or in some cases horse. 00:58:02.000 --> 00:58:04.000 feed two horses. 00:58:04.000 --> 00:58:18.000 From irrigated plots out west can contain that clearly but in your case, you are doing nothing wrong by that putting that banana peel and your compost pile and, ultimately, returning it to your garden. 00:58:18.000 --> 00:58:23.000 But, but, break it down if it still looks like a banana peel, put it back in the compost pile. 00:58:23.000 --> 00:58:30.000 When it's finally broken down and it's crumbly and soil like it's ready for your garden. 00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:33.000 Thank you. 00:58:33.000 --> 00:58:35.000 Wonderful. Thank you, Brian. 00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:48.000 Next question is coming in from Donna O'Malley, Donna, speak up if you can hear us in our unmute to ask the question, wonderful Yeah, I'm here. 00:58:48.000 --> 00:58:55.000 Yeah, again, just small family garden questions around compost, and the materials that go that in them. 00:58:55.000 --> 00:59:12.000 And so I was just wondering, did the leaves, need to be broken down before added either to the garden, or to the compost pile. I've always mold them, and it would be nice to know if they didn't have to be broken down. 00:59:12.000 --> 00:59:19.000 So I think that was the main compost question. 00:59:19.000 --> 00:59:45.000 Yeah, and then I had another one about cover crops for again a small farm where we're trying to avoid doing a lot of, well, no more tilling, knowing that that's not good but you know what cover crops are the are we able to just break down by by digging 00:59:45.000 --> 00:59:49.000 Right. That sounds like it might be a good question for Tim. 00:59:49.000 --> 00:59:52.000 Yeah. Can you hear me okay. 00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:57.000 Um, the first question was a great, great questions. 00:59:57.000 --> 01:00:10.000 And just, I'll actually go back to the previous question, I feel I can't remember who asked it but maybe it was Donna but I feel your pain those kind of discussion thoughts about what am I putting into my compost I mean we have those. 01:00:10.000 --> 01:00:27.000 It always nx me putting banana peels in and knowing where they're coming from and but, but, Brian. Brian answered a great way back to leaves it for us, it really, it comes down to it always like me farmers I mean we always it's either you're spending 01:00:27.000 --> 01:00:44.000 time or money and farmers have neither is the way I look at it and so it depends on what we're using mostly we don't we don't do anything to our leaves yet will be great if we got them pre shredded, but the the towns and some customers bring them shredded 01:00:44.000 --> 01:00:53.000 but really trend of leaves do if I had a choice that would use shredded leaves all the time they're easier to handle, there's less volume they break down quicker. 01:00:53.000 --> 01:00:55.000 They're just nicer to work with. 01:00:55.000 --> 01:01:04.000 But we just don't have the capacity to shred them once we get them except for we use leaves tomato garlic. and I do rent a shredder for that. 01:01:04.000 --> 01:01:11.000 And it works great, and we shred them and then we use that on our on our tomato garlic with. 01:01:11.000 --> 01:01:18.000 Otherwise the leaves just become too matted, and the garlic has trouble kind of making its way through it in the spring. 01:01:18.000 --> 01:01:24.000 So, And then the other question with cover crops being cover crops. 01:01:24.000 --> 01:01:38.000 They are. It all depends a lot on what you're trying to accomplish. Are you trying to smother weeds are you trying to add organic matter Are you trying to add nutrients, or are you trying to do all of it all the time. 01:01:38.000 --> 01:01:50.000 And really, it comes down for us. It comes down to what cover crops will cover, cover, cover crop cocktails Can we put together. 01:01:50.000 --> 01:02:00.000 So we we always try to put in something that's going to fix the nitrogen. We use a lot of field peas we use a lot of beings. 01:02:00.000 --> 01:02:05.000 And then what's can provide a lot of organic matter for that we use a lot of votes. 01:02:05.000 --> 01:02:11.000 And we always for us. We're trying to think of something that's going to winter kill. 01:02:11.000 --> 01:02:17.000 There are a lot of cover crops that will survive the winter, not a lot but like winter Ryan that's hairy vetch from one. 01:02:17.000 --> 01:02:20.000 But for us, and our soils. 01:02:20.000 --> 01:02:33.000 Our solos tend to be very wet and cold in the spring, and they don't dry out. And so, the cover crops that overwintered actually can get away from us too much in the spring. 01:02:33.000 --> 01:02:46.000 But how, how we deal with the cover crops and not telling is, we get them to the size, where they kind of admit their maximum efficiency before they go to see. 01:02:46.000 --> 01:02:49.000 And we have a, what's called a creeper. 01:02:49.000 --> 01:03:01.000 Which kind of pushes pushes the cover crops down, it's something that we use on our tractor for bigger sections, but we also have a couple smaller one that we've kind of made that push. 01:03:01.000 --> 01:03:06.000 And we've even used I mean sometimes in a pinch, we use a weed whacker or mower. 01:03:06.000 --> 01:03:23.000 But then we turn up tarp that garden with a silence chart, which is which is doesn't look like through it kind of smothers whatever is there, and it kills a cover crop completely doesn't have to be a salad chart, those are just kind of readily available 01:03:23.000 --> 01:03:32.000 for us, dairy farmers use them they're kind of the big white tarps You see, covering covering farm silo edge. 01:03:32.000 --> 01:03:35.000 There's usually black on one side or you can get black on both sides. 01:03:35.000 --> 01:03:44.000 And that's and you can cut it, we have, we have at this point we have different size silence target for different gardens or greenhouses and. 01:03:44.000 --> 01:03:54.000 And that's what we're used to kind of smaller, smaller the cover crop and kill it, and then before we plant will pull it up, and whatever debris is there will kind of break into the past. 01:03:54.000 --> 01:04:12.000 And usually an ideal world will left like with it with a nice planting surface to put transplants in, or to direct seed and it kind of gives us a little bit of a head start on whatever weed seeds may still be in there surviving. 01:04:12.000 --> 01:04:15.000 Thank you, Tim. 01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:19.000 I hope that was helpful Donna. 01:04:19.000 --> 01:04:22.000 Yeah, thank you very much 01:04:22.000 --> 01:04:33.000 I'm like to transition into a question about bio turn, I'm going to ask this one because I'm combining a few questions, we got a lot of questions on about bio char. 01:04:33.000 --> 01:04:39.000 There are a lot, a lot of people are curious about bio shower and cute including myself. 01:04:39.000 --> 01:04:57.000 Want to hear a little bit about the methods of inoculating bio char with microbes and rock dust. Donna you did mention inoculated bio char Can you talk a little bit more about how you inoculate, and what what results you're seeing with that and have you 01:04:57.000 --> 01:05:15.000 have you done anything with rock dust as well as compost and inoculation, and we have not but Tanzanite court does have inoculated biochar with rock dust. That's his company's called rock dust local. 01:05:15.000 --> 01:05:18.000 And 01:05:18.000 --> 01:05:29.000 we, we have used some of his inoculated biochar with the rock just just to do some small field trials and we think it's, it's great. 01:05:29.000 --> 01:05:35.000 So, but we're not inoculating our own bio child with rock dust 01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:44.000 are inoculated biochar is simply that of coming out of the filters from the organic dairy farms where the filters were installed. 01:05:44.000 --> 01:05:54.000 So, we let the, the dairy farms inoculate the BART bio char. 01:05:54.000 --> 01:06:06.000 And there are many ways to inoculate biochar I mean, you can use poultry litter. You can use compost, any anything that's going to break down into a nutrient. 01:06:06.000 --> 01:06:15.000 The biochar is going to absorb and holes, that's the that's the beauty of the bio charts a hard carbon. 01:06:15.000 --> 01:06:19.000 It's very porous. 01:06:19.000 --> 01:06:30.000 It holds on to those nutrients until the plants need refreshment and, and then takes it, so it doesn't dissipate in the ground. 01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:50.000 There are some people that urinate on their bio char, and you know that's a method of inoculation, you could take an any organic liquid fertilizer and put it on your bio char, that would be inoculating it. 01:06:50.000 --> 01:06:55.000 So there's many methods to inoculate the biochar. 01:06:55.000 --> 01:07:03.000 I prefer to sell it. Not inoculated and let people use what they have if it's compost if it's poultry litter. 01:07:03.000 --> 01:07:08.000 If it's warm casings if it's rock dust. 01:07:08.000 --> 01:07:26.000 It's almost like let people be their own soil scientists and what are you growing, you know, so different plants need different nutrients so that it's really kind of broad I, I wouldn't sell, I wouldn't I would prefer not to sell inoculated biochar I 01:07:26.000 --> 01:07:39.000 prefer to have the consumer, and not feel like their own, or when pulled from the filters. I've got another product that that can be used. 01:07:39.000 --> 01:07:47.000 But rock dust locals a good source for bio char inoculated with rock dust. 01:07:47.000 --> 01:07:56.000 Thanks so much and thanks to our team for finding that link and throwing it in the check into the chat for rock, rock dust local. 01:07:56.000 --> 01:08:01.000 Another question about bio char and quantities. 01:08:01.000 --> 01:08:17.000 Is there too much biotech or in a garden, and I think we have a lot of gardeners here, maybe some farmers as well so if we were to think about not pounds per acre but yogurt cups per garden or something like that. 01:08:17.000 --> 01:08:33.000 And I say, and again it depends on your soil, we talking soil are we talking, dirt, are you talking, you know something that's already rich soil or poor soil or clay soil or sandy soil. 01:08:33.000 --> 01:08:40.000 But I say that a five gallon pail will cover 400 square feet. 01:08:40.000 --> 01:08:52.000 And that's assuming you have a decent soil, a relatively decent soil. 01:08:52.000 --> 01:09:03.000 But, is that something you would recommend replacing at some frequency or this is a long term, new addition to your soil. It's a long term new addition. 01:09:03.000 --> 01:09:05.000 It's not going to break down. 01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:11.000 So you don't have to fertilize is often if, if 01:09:11.000 --> 01:09:26.000 I don't, if you don't have biochar in your soil, it's safe to say that when you do for when you do put fertilizer there, that the ground takes a lot of it if there are no plants there. 01:09:26.000 --> 01:09:47.000 If there are plants there they take what they need, but you know excess watering dissipates that fertilizer. So that's where the that's the beauty of the biochar is that it holds on to it and you get the bigger bang for your buck when you are fertilizing. 01:09:47.000 --> 01:10:00.000 Great, thank you and I have another question about bio char from Tatiana Schreiber, Tatiana if you're on. If you'd like to ask your question. 01:10:00.000 --> 01:10:01.000 Okay. 01:10:01.000 --> 01:10:06.000 I'm trying to undo my video there. 01:10:06.000 --> 01:10:16.000 Yeah, my mate. One question I have is, when you use the bio chart as filters, like you described which was very interesting. 01:10:16.000 --> 01:10:22.000 You were filtering cow when you were primarily in dairy farm. 01:10:22.000 --> 01:10:41.000 But if it's used as a filter like that and one of the goals is to capture potential like micro contaminants that might be in the manure, then when you go to use that as a soil amendment wouldn't wouldn't some of those contaminants potentially be released. 01:10:41.000 --> 01:10:59.000 I just, I'm not understanding the theory because you're saying that the nutrients are released, but not the, not the other potential toxins, if there are contaminants in the manure off the organic dairy farm. 01:10:59.000 --> 01:11:11.000 Yes, it's very possible that if a plant is requesting nutrition. And it's pulling from what the bio chars holding and there's contaminants in that. 01:11:11.000 --> 01:11:29.000 Yes, You're right. You know, I'm gonna say we test our bio char when it comes out of the filters. But, you know, we have 8000 pounds of it you can do it tests are random sampling to see what's in there and it's pretty extensive those tests what they're 01:11:29.000 --> 01:11:35.000 testing it for, and thus far. Nothing has come up that's a contaminant. 01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:50.000 If you're using biochar for like mine reclamation yes there's, you wouldn't reuse that you could throw that biochar back in the film, and it will kill some of it, it will kill all of it. 01:11:50.000 --> 01:11:53.000 Especially this does not die. 01:11:53.000 --> 01:12:11.000 So you don't want to use that kind of bio char in your ground as a soil conditioner. The only thing you can do with that kind of bio chars throw back in the killing to feed the killing to produce energy. 01:12:11.000 --> 01:12:25.000 But no, you wouldn't want to put that in the ground. And what and when we do pull it out of the filters, it does go through extensive testing and make sure we're not putting contaminants in. 01:12:25.000 --> 01:12:26.000 Thanks. 01:12:26.000 --> 01:12:28.000 Thank you. Good question, Tatiana. 01:12:28.000 --> 01:12:44.000 Um, I see a question in the chat that came from Lauren Western. I'm really curious about to and I want to I want to ask about it. We all know that we have water quality issues in Vermont and in Lake Champlain we have serious phosphorus overload but in 01:12:44.000 --> 01:12:57.000 the Connecticut River Valley we have nitrogen issues we have too much nitrogen in the water and y'all are in the Connecticut River Valley and I wonder, I'd love to hear from our speakers. 01:12:57.000 --> 01:13:11.000 What, what, how you think your work is influencing the nitrogen cycle. hopefully in a positive way, in our region. 01:13:11.000 --> 01:13:30.000 I can, I can speak a little to that, um, it is in it it's always a concern for us I mean we are an m&e River Valley and we're only we're less than about a half a mile from the shamanistic river and we've got a couple streams and border our property so 01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:33.000 it is always on our on our mind. 01:13:33.000 --> 01:13:42.000 I mean, part of part of how we mitigate it is that we always have our buffer zones to these bodies of water to the streams from our fields. 01:13:42.000 --> 01:13:52.000 Anywhere from 20 to 50 yards of grass and, and kind of natural habitat alders and vegetation. 01:13:52.000 --> 01:13:58.000 And as far as how we deal with our manure and our compost. 01:13:58.000 --> 01:14:11.000 One of them is, I mean we have a specific manure pit concrete manure pit to collect everything, but also with our compost. We don't have a specific site that is always our compost site. 01:14:11.000 --> 01:14:15.000 We were for wind rose we tend to move it. 01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:24.000 Every year, which is a little bit of work but it also kind of doesn't impact one, one location. 01:14:24.000 --> 01:14:37.000 With that compost, and we tend to because we have a lot of wood chips, we tend to set the compost on a bed of wood chips to help if there is any excess nitrogen from the compost from the newer. 01:14:37.000 --> 01:14:45.000 Hopefully it's getting captured by that organic matter in the wood chips and not getting put into the to the 01:14:45.000 --> 01:15:05.000 hydroponics system. And I think with our with our field it is all about having organic matter to capture any excess nitrogen whether that organic matter is roots from cover crops or stems from cover crops on the surface, or even crop debris or leaves 01:15:05.000 --> 01:15:25.000 just kind of having organic matter. Available in in the soil or on the soil to capture to help capture any available nitrogen, so that it doesn't get get put into the either the atmosphere or in the, in the water because it is nitrogen is incredibly volatile, 01:15:25.000 --> 01:15:31.000 but necessary nutrients, so 01:15:31.000 --> 01:15:38.000 wonderful. I'm Donna, or Eric did you want to add anything to that. 01:15:38.000 --> 01:15:50.000 Well, yeah, I can just add that, you know, I do have a dairy farm certified organic dairy farm and our manure system is is a solid manure system we don't have. 01:15:50.000 --> 01:16:07.000 We don't have liquid manure, but I prefer to use our manure in the compost and then spread it. We have a couple of streams on the farm and we have some rented land that had streams and those streams, eventually run into the Connecticut River. 01:16:07.000 --> 01:16:26.000 But, you know, in terms of spreading manure versus compost I think compost is the better alternative because it lessens the likelihood of runoff. And I think Brian might want to talk a little bit about actually the phosphorus issue because I know Brian's 01:16:26.000 --> 01:16:46.000 been working on some Foster's projects, Ryan Do you have anything to add. With that, just try to add to what you and and Tim said as well as the phosphorus but just for folks who aren't aware nitrogen and phosphorus behaved quite differently, phosphorus 01:16:46.000 --> 01:17:00.000 is a little more sticky, in the sense that it adheres to the sides of soil particles and is mostly lost through erosion, or when manure physically runs off of a field and into a into a waterway. 01:17:00.000 --> 01:17:07.000 Whereas, what Tim was describing its nitrogen as much more volatile. So whether it can go off. 01:17:07.000 --> 01:17:16.000 If you smell liquid manure after spread that's that's largely ammonia and nitrogen being lost to the air, but it also can be lost. 01:17:16.000 --> 01:17:20.000 But we can't see is down through the soil profile. 01:17:20.000 --> 01:17:23.000 So to loop back and try to answer the original question. 01:17:23.000 --> 01:17:31.000 Really what our work and our company is doing is trying to make better compost more efficiently and rapidly. 01:17:31.000 --> 01:17:49.000 But and then that compost is used to add to the soils which builds up the carbon soil carbon or soil organic matter level, which has the big impact of retaining more moisture and increasing the cat ion exchange capacity so when manure, or any other type 01:17:49.000 --> 01:17:51.000 of fertilizer is applied. 01:17:51.000 --> 01:18:08.000 It's going to be less prone to rapidly running through the soil profile and being held in the soil zone, and ultimately taken up and utilized by the plants, rather than getting into those shallow groundwater layers and then into the streams and the river 01:18:08.000 --> 01:18:27.000 so that's part of the system that I see and then the phosphorus is again very different it's it's really more focused on erosion control practices and not, and really watching soil phosphorus levels in fields where it accumulates or where it's actually 01:18:27.000 --> 01:18:32.000 needed by crops. 01:18:32.000 --> 01:18:37.000 Thank you very much. 01:18:37.000 --> 01:18:47.000 I saw a new question come in from Chris hub, Chris, do you want to unmute yourself and ask that question. 01:18:47.000 --> 01:18:49.000 Yeah. 01:18:49.000 --> 01:19:09.000 My question is, what's the difference between hardware and software when it comes both to mulching the veggie garden, and for making this is chips compost is their preferred type of what 01:19:09.000 --> 01:19:13.000 anybody who wants to take that go for it. 01:19:13.000 --> 01:19:16.000 Oh, I'll give it a shot. 01:19:16.000 --> 01:19:27.000 There's, it's gonna come down to a few factors in, in terms of composting. Some of the soft words because of their oils can be a little more resistant to decay. 01:19:27.000 --> 01:19:32.000 So cedars pine hemlock things of that nature. 01:19:32.000 --> 01:19:40.000 They're going to do great for making that area, aeration the porosity like avoiding the pile from collapsing on itself. 01:19:40.000 --> 01:19:50.000 But you don't expect them to break down as quick, or as rapidly as a hardwood material so hardwoods may break down a little bit faster. 01:19:50.000 --> 01:20:02.000 And then in terms of just using it straight as a mulch whether it was compost, perhaps even not composted probably more the issue around that as the pH. 01:20:02.000 --> 01:20:19.000 So softwood, maybe a little more acidic and maybe more appropriate for blueberries or certain crops that like a little more acid, and then the hardwoods, I believe, and this may not be a true across the board but I believe are closer to neutral and could 01:20:19.000 --> 01:20:24.000 be probably a better word mulcher for other crops. 01:20:24.000 --> 01:20:28.000 Thank you. Very good. 01:20:28.000 --> 01:20:44.000 Okay, I'm Becky Columbus, would you like to unmute and ask your questions. 01:20:44.000 --> 01:20:47.000 Can you hear me. We can hear you. 01:20:47.000 --> 01:20:51.000 Okay, I can't, i can't start my video but I can unmute. 01:20:51.000 --> 01:20:55.000 And I forget my question. 01:20:55.000 --> 01:21:12.000 You had a question for Tim, about, drop, drop off sites. Oh yeah, I was wondering Tim if you have food scraps drop off sites that anyone can drop off food scraps to and if so, where are they located. 01:21:12.000 --> 01:21:16.000 Thanks for reminding me cat. 01:21:16.000 --> 01:21:32.000 Um, yeah so right now we have our drop off site at the farm, which anyone can drop off to, we're kind of in discussions with folks at the Littleton transit transfer station and the Bethlehem. 01:21:32.000 --> 01:21:50.000 Transfer committee about establishing some other ones that are going to be more available to folks for right now the best is is ready to farm right by our farm stand drop off everything you got and we'll we'll take anything but raw meat or liquids, is, 01:21:50.000 --> 01:22:08.000 that, like, known throughout our community. Do you know we're slowly putting it out there we're putting it out in Bethlehem for right now first and we're kind of putting it out more by word of mouth or went and through our kind of a farm email group. 01:22:08.000 --> 01:22:17.000 And obviously, we're putting it out there tonight. We haven't really publicize it tremendously until weekend we're not quite sure how much volume. 01:22:17.000 --> 01:22:27.000 We don't want to end up with too much volume that we can't deal with too soon, so we're kind of trying to slowly grow it. 01:22:27.000 --> 01:22:33.000 Thank you. Don't put it on the little 10 Co Op website. 01:22:33.000 --> 01:22:37.000 Give us a month. 01:22:37.000 --> 01:22:48.000 I would like to I think we have time for maybe two more questions, I'd like to call on Charlie Costello, and then Rob curse. 01:22:48.000 --> 01:22:59.000 Charlie if you want to unmute and ask your questions. 01:22:59.000 --> 01:23:09.000 Um, again my questions were way at the beginning of one of it was just about how do you make bio char. 01:23:09.000 --> 01:23:15.000 I don't know the exact question on the other one, but 01:23:15.000 --> 01:23:31.000 I member Berkeley, California, so I have a small little farm with a community seed bank and so I do mostly cover crops but bio char is really interesting so I'm just kind of interested in a home gardener, making bio char. 01:23:31.000 --> 01:23:33.000 Is that possible. 01:23:33.000 --> 01:23:35.000 Yes, it's possible. 01:23:35.000 --> 01:23:53.000 And there are plenty of videos on YouTube for someone that wants to, you know, dig a hole in the ground, put in the wood chips cover it with leaves suffocate it and make sure that way. 01:23:53.000 --> 01:24:05.000 Yes, there, there are ways that small farmers can make or just do it yourselfers that want to make small quantities of biochar. 01:24:05.000 --> 01:24:25.000 There's, there's actually a person by the name of Kelsey Wilson, who makes a unit it's, it's a little $2,000. It's called the Ring of Fire. And that's a nice unit for someone that really wants to go at it a little bit more. 01:24:25.000 --> 01:24:40.000 And maybe, you know, do bio char for a few block radius of their home or, or has an acre garden or, you know, once wants some but not not doesn't want to. 01:24:40.000 --> 01:24:55.000 We sell it so I'd look at Kelsey Wilson's Ring of Fire, or look at YouTube and you can also do it in 55 gallon drums. There's many ways you can make file char. 01:24:55.000 --> 01:25:09.000 And of course, the more sophisticated machines are in the millions. So you can go from anything from digging a hole in your backyard to five $8 million for a big unit. 01:25:09.000 --> 01:25:14.000 But yeah, you can do it. 01:25:14.000 --> 01:25:25.000 Thanks Don and I think you might have answered a few questions that were in the chat with that one. but Rob's might still be a little different so Rob Do you want to unmute yourself. 01:25:25.000 --> 01:25:35.000 Rob Kurth. 01:25:35.000 --> 01:25:40.000 Not sure if Rob is still on so I'll go ahead and ask his question. 01:25:40.000 --> 01:25:44.000 I've seen people use lump hardwood charcoal. 01:25:44.000 --> 01:25:55.000 For example, cowboy brand, which are claimed to be natural with no additives Could I crush this and use it in the garden after charging. 01:25:55.000 --> 01:26:06.000 I think that's for you, Donna. I'm charcoal, when you put water to charcoal if you take lump charcoal and crush it, and you put, it's going to dissolve. 01:26:06.000 --> 01:26:22.000 And that's the difference between a charcoal and a bio chart of bio charts hard carbon it's not going to dissolve. So, yes, you can use it, but it's not doing the same thing that a hard carbon is doing a lot of people take their. 01:26:22.000 --> 01:26:36.000 And again, it depends what you're planting what you want to use it for lilacs like wood ash from, you know, wood stoves. 01:26:36.000 --> 01:26:43.000 Depends what you're using it for it's, it's not the same. It dissolves in water and 01:26:43.000 --> 01:26:47.000 does it. 01:26:47.000 --> 01:26:56.000 Great. Thank you, Donna and I want to encourage everybody to also look at the chat, there are some really great answers to questions coming from audience members as well. 01:26:56.000 --> 01:27:04.000 So check those out and we still have a little more time, I'd like to direct a question to Eric. 01:27:04.000 --> 01:27:08.000 Our last question of the night before we do our closing. 01:27:08.000 --> 01:27:15.000 Can you just talk about the process of what it What's it like to get 01:27:15.000 --> 01:27:27.000 registered the chat went away so I can't see it anymore but like with the agency of natural resources, what was your permitting process like, and where might someone go to get started in that process. 01:27:27.000 --> 01:27:42.000 Yeah, that's a great question cap. So yeah, you begin the process with comp by contacting the agency of natural resources, it's really not as painstaking as a lot of people think it might be. 01:27:42.000 --> 01:27:49.000 We have a categorical certification that we have to renew each year but it's really super simple. 01:27:49.000 --> 01:28:06.000 Get an online forum that just asks, approximately how much of each ingredient in our compost that we're using. I'd failed to mention earlier that we use wood chip Kalman or from our own dairy horse manure and of course food waste and we do compost about 01:28:06.000 --> 01:28:09.000 12 tons of food waste a week. 01:28:09.000 --> 01:28:24.000 So, one would start by contacting the agency of natural resources and they'll come out there are there is some criteria that has to be met. You have to have the correct soils, to make sure that lead shape, if it does run off your pad will not make it 01:28:24.000 --> 01:28:39.000 to waterway obviously your composting operation has to be XML away from water sources of any kind, someone's well a stream a river. 01:28:39.000 --> 01:28:56.000 And again, so it has to be correct so that it doesn't any run off wouldn't make it to that waterway. You have to be X amount of feet away from a road, you can compost but my accomplishing facilities right beside putting Hill Road, but I can't come make 01:28:56.000 --> 01:29:05.000 active compost within I think 100 feet of the traveling so there's, you know, there are certain criteria is have to be met. 01:29:05.000 --> 01:29:23.000 But they're not. They're not that restrictive so one does have to start by contacting the agency of natural resources. And again, it's not a painstaking process it's really, I think it's a lot smoother and easier than some folks have been led to believe. 01:29:23.000 --> 01:29:37.000 Thanks so much for that. We need more people out there composting doing all the great work you guys are doing Thank you all so much for a wonderful chat and to everyone for joining and for all of the questions, sorry we didn't get to answer all of the 01:29:37.000 --> 01:29:40.000 questions and we want to keep the conversation going. 01:29:40.000 --> 01:29:56.000 So we are using our listserv at Vermont healthy soils coalition to keep the conversation going so please go ahead and join our listserv, you can elect to join the listserv when you fill out the post event survey please fill that out, and it will be sent 01:29:56.000 --> 01:30:10.000 along with the recording by email from Lauren, make sure to fill out the survey. This week, in order to enter the rapper raffle and win some of those great prizes. 01:30:10.000 --> 01:30:30.000 Two weeks from tonight. We will be back with the fourth event of the soil series on March 24 at 6:30pm it's called healing the land with farm animals, and our featured presenters will be bill Folger from the New Hampshire association of conservation districts 01:30:30.000 --> 01:30:40.000 Diana Jones from the Jones farm in st Johnsbury Vermont and Rebecca Bigler and Jeffrey Ellis of piece of Earth farm and Albany, Vermont, so tune in on the 24th. 01:30:40.000 --> 01:30:43.000 It's going to be great again. 01:30:43.000 --> 01:31:01.000 Thank you all so much for joining us tonight and making this a great series.