Apply by today for Compost Course grants

If you’re interested in attending the Ohio Compost Operator Education Course on March 21-22 in Wooster, four grants are available to help you pay for some of your costs. But act fast: the deadline to apply for them is today, Monday, Feb. 26.

Two $225 grants are being offered to members of the Organics Recycling Association of Ohio (ORAO), which is hosting the course together with CFAES, and two $150 grants are being offered to nonmembers.

Get details on the grants and an application form.

Dig into large-scale composting

Hands holding soil with young plant.The Ohio Compost Operator Education Course, called a “comprehensive program on the science and art” of large-scale compost production, is March 28-29 at CFAES’s research arm, OARDC in Wooster. Of note: Four new professional development grants are being offered to help pay for the cost of attending. Apply for them by March 1.

Making compost, growing grains

August 19th - National Aviation DayThe Organic Compost Farm Tour, part of the Ohio Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series, is this Friday, Aug. 19, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Hirzel Canning Company and Farms in Luckey in northwest Ohio. You’ll visit the farm’s licensed compost facility, which turns crop, grain, livestock and canning waste into soil-improving compost, which is used on the farm or is sold to other farms. You’ll also learn about small grains and how the farm prepares custom, regional and international orders. The fifth-generation farm grows on more than 2,000 acres, some 700 of which are certified organic. Learn more here on p. 13.

Registration open for course on large-scale composting

Compost course coming in MarchKeep organic material such as yard waste, food waste and manure out of landfills. Compost it instead. So says CFAES scientist Fred Michel, who is co-organizer of a course next month on doing just that — big time. Read the story. Course details and registration form here (PDF). (Photo: iStock.)