Photo: Sarah Wolfskehl
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Black Earth Compost

Made in small batches with integrity and commitment to community and nutrient balance.

100% Black Earth Compost

Our mission is to nourish the soil to grow healthy plants in Massachusetts, with an emphasis on food; in your backyard, community garden or farm, to encourage full circle sustainability.  Through our FarmWorks program, more than 10 cents of every bag of compost sold puts our compost to work on small MA vegetable farms. Your flowers and lawn will love us too!

Our compost is made without herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers so you will feel comfortable growing food for your family. 

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QUALITY COMMITMENT

Our compost is rich in humus, nurtures beneficial micro-organisms, is free of any viable weed seeds, and contains an abundance of immediate and slow release nutrients.

  • A Broad Range of Ingredients to support a bio-diverse compost
  • No Grass Clippings that contain herbicides, pesticides, and insecticides
  • Free of Weed Seeds
  • Lab tested for optimal composition (scroll down for details)
  • Screened to 5/8ths inch so the compost works in household and commercial compost spreaders
  • Made in MA! Our compost sites serve as local sources of nutrients, making our state more resilient

Order Online or Stop by A Garden Center

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Winner! Best Vegetable Garden

Charlie Perlo is a five year Black Earth Customer and two time winner of the Friendly Garden Club of Beverly's Best of Beverly Contest for Medium Size Vegetable Garden.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

Lab Analysis - We have our compost tested at University of Maine each year for nutrients, pH, salts and C:N ratio. Additionally we test it for heavy metals (lead, nickel, cadmium, chromium, zinc, copper, and arsenic).

Plant Trials - We believe that plants don’t lie, and we know that analytical reports from laboratories won’t tell the whole story. That’s why we grow vegetables, clover and fava beans in our compost. Clover and fava beans for the presence of persistent herbicides, using published bioassay protocols, and vegetables to show general vigor as they are heavy feeders.

Biology - We test the compost for communities of bacteria, fungus, protoctist and nematodes. We tend to be a bacterial dominated compost, but our long curing times allow fungal populations to establish.  Our compost is great for making compost tea. 

Email Compost@BlackEarthCompost.com or call 978-290-4610 ext. 3 if you have questions.

A note on pH: Compost normally shows pH 7 to 8 if it is rich in nutrients (especially for food scrap composts). This does not mean that it is going to dramatically send your soil’s pH sky high. The high pH of compost is attributed to the initial pool of 'ready to go' soluble nutrients. After that, the pH comes down to between pH 6 to 7. The compost will continue to release nutrients as the organic matter decomposes over the season.

Nutrient Lab Test Herbicide Trials Food Web Test Food Safety
Modernization Act
2021 Compost
2021 Soil		 2021 Soil - 1
2021 Compost - 1
2021 Compost - 2
2021 Compost - 3		 2021 Compost 2021 FMSA Report for Farms
2020 Compost
2020 Soil
 Not documented 2020 Compost
 2020 FSMA Report for Farms
2019 Compost
2019 Soil		 Not documented 2019 Compost -Last year of no FSMA law
for small veg growers-

View this graph that shows how much metal was found in the compost and soil from the last five years compared to the town of Manchester's leaf and yard waste compost and MA soil sample.  

HOW WE MAKE COMPOST

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Building Community Food Projects

In 2020 we proudly supported the following community food initiatives with raised beds or finished compost.

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Supporting Local Farms With FarmWorks

With the support of our customers, we were able to offer compost at a reduced rate to the local farms listed below in 2020. 10 cents of each bag of compost sold goes to our FarmWorks program. Support these farms and complete the full circle sustainability loop.  

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