The Merits of Mushroom Compost!

Fiona and Diego filled the entire back of the truck with mushroom compost!

Hidden Valley's original owner, Dr. Jensen, was at the forefront of the health movement. He consistently promoted organic, sustainable ways of eating and growing food. As a part of our efforts to keep his iconic principles alive, Hidden Valley Retreat and Spa still continues the tradition of keeping a compost pile as a part of the garden! Our retreats and family reunions like to participate in our compost by contributing fruit peels and discarded organic material. It is just one of the ways that Hidden Valley remains a healthy environment where our guests can come to have a refreshing experience for the body and mind. Still, we have such a vast garden that even our own compost cannot sustain our fertilizing needs. That is why yesterday, we went to a San Diego mushroom farm to get some fabulous mushroom compost! This compost is a nutrient rich, sustainable alternative to traditional fertilizers. We will spread the compost into the soil around our fruit trees to help them grow even more fertile and fragrant fruit.

Fun facts about mushroom compost:

• Mushroom compost is a natural by-product of mushroom farming. After the mushrooms are harvested, the soil that they grew in is steam treated to remove any weeds or pests. At that point, it can be used moist, organic, nutrient-rich compost fertilizer to replenish and condition the soil in your garden or farm.
• Mushroom compost is composed of natural, organic substances like hay, peat moss, cotton seed, grape mulch, ground corn cobs, and cocoa shells. Therefore, it smells much better than traditional fertilizers! It has a fresh, earthy smell that is sure to enliven our gardens.
• The particular mushroom compost that we collected came from a farm that grows white button mushrooms. They do not use any chemicals or pesticides. 

Diego unloads the mushroom compost at Hidden Valley!

Find out more about this mushroom compost from NBC San Diego! 

Rebecca's 12th Birthday

all bets in

friends

turning the compost

stop and smell the flowers

slumber party

rock climbing

poker anyone?

What a wonderful celebration that we had for Rebecca's 12th birthday. Lots of her friends and many of their families were able to join us for a celebration. You can see the girls working the compost. They also enjoyed lots of great food, hanging out in the jacuzzi as well as late night Karoke. Thanks Nomi for the great pictures,

Compost Tea

Compost tea is compost that has been mixed with water and fermented.  The benefits include a biodynamic culture of healthy bacterial and fungi that not only feed the plants with nutrients but also ward off bad bacteria, molds and fungi. While the jury is still out on whether or not it is better than using regular compost we decided to give it a try.  At the very least there are asthetic benefits to using a tea rather than sprinkling compost or fertilizer on our lawn :)

I found the directions to build a fermenter online here http://www.care2.com/greenliving/guide-to-compost-tea.html.  It cost me about $25 in parts and 15 minutes to put it together and start it up.  After letting it run for about 4 days (the weather stopped me from doing it any earlier) we opened the lid and were greeted by the very pungent aroma of fermented, decayed plant material...yum.  We strained it and used a watering can to sprinkle the new grass coming up on the lawn.  We also plan on adding it to the soil of our vegetable garden before we put in our new seedlings.  The directions also recommend using the tea on the folliage to prevent diseases.  I'll keep you posted on how it works out.  In the mean time we think compost tea is a great way to get living micro organizims back into the soil.