Have you wanted to start a composting system on your property but don’t know what ingredients you need to make it successful? Or maybe you’ve already given it a go but your compost is too wet and unusable? Join us at Badger Creek Ranch – high above the Arkansas River Valley near Salida, Colorado – to learn both how to produce compost and apply organic amendments for rangeland soil health.

At this workshop, participants will learn how to create a windrow composting system, a useful method for agriculture producers or rural residents who want to dispose of organic waste without taking it to the landfill. This is the system recommended for those who have some space and readily available feedstocks (ingredients) for the compost like manure, old hay, wood chips, yard waste, brush, and food scraps to transform into a beneficial soil amendment. The process uses the naturally occurring microbes in the feedstocks, and a process of mixing for aeration and moisture management to mature and age the organic waste into a valuable soil amendment. In addition, participants will learn about compost as a soil amendment and how to apply compost. 

This event is free to attend, and lunch will be provided! Badger Creek Ranch offers accommodation options that you can arrange if you need to stay overnight:Glamping and Camping or Bunkhouse Rooms.

The workshop will be led by Rebecca Baldwin-Kordick of Quivira, with contributions from William Vogl of Vogl Homestead, Chrissy McFarren of Badger Creek Ranch, and Shumaisa Khan of Quivira.

Funding for this workshop was cancelled by the termination of a USDA grant that we received. Many of our community members have come together to financially support the Soil to Supper program, helping us to continue this important work. If you would like to support the livestock producers enrolled, please consider donating when you register.

Questions? Please contact Rebecca at rebecca@quiviracoalition.org.

Rebecca Baldwin-Kordick

Rebecca is a soil scientist and educator who has loved helping passionate farmers and ranchers improve and monitor their soil health and crop/pasture quality since 2016. Rebecca helps producers write grants for their soil health projects, and provides guidance and practical and customized recommendations to address agricultural production challenges and reach their soil health goals. She earned her B.S. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder and her M.S. in Soil Science from Iowa State University, where she researched soil health in conventional and alternative cropping systems. She works as a Project Manager for the Carbon Ranch Initiative at Quivira Coalition, and her soil health coaching and consulting business, Red Dog Soils, is based in Denver, CO. Rebecca has completed rigorous agro-ecology training through the Integrity Soils CREATE Program to improve her capacity to guide producers in addressing production challenges. When she is not talking about soil health, she is fly fishing, gardening, and hiking on the weekends.

Shumaisa Khan

Shumaisa has been immersed in urban agriculture, eco-social design, and ecology initiatives for over 15 years. Her interest in environmental justice led her to the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, where she did her dissertation research on food sovereignty praxis among community food initiatives in London. Shumaisa taught about environmental inequality at the University of Michigan, urban agriculture at the University of Brighton, and has taught permaculture to Global Majority communities in the UK. In 2019, she co-founded Compost Mentis, a soil care and alternative sanitation cooperative in England. Earlier in her career, Shumaisa worked for three years on the USAID Maternal and Neonatal Health program to reduce maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in Indonesia.At Quivira Coalition, Shumaisa is part of the Carbon Ranch Initiative, where she manages soil care-related technical support and training initiatives and engages in outreach to make these opportunities more accessible.

Chrissy McFarren

Badger Creek Ranch Owner, Director & Ranch Mentor – wife of Dave: I am passionate about ranching and farming and deeply humbled to be a steward of the land. I love creating healthy environments for all the animals (domestic and wild) that call the ranch their home, and I love being witness to the joy people have when they are at the ranch. Riding, moving cattle, caring for livestock, community, working outside, creating art, family and grandchildren are where I find joy.

William Vogl

I am a full-time firefighter and the owner operator off the Vogl Homestead Farm, a regenerative farm and ranch that raises hair sheep for direct-to-consumer meat sales and as a property management/prescribed grazing service for weed mitigation, mowing, and fire mitigation. We also use them as a land improvement crew to help restore overgrown Ponderosa Forests in our area. We also have a small market garden that uses permaculture practices to grow multiple perennial crops such as rhubarb, irises, native berry bushes, and some ling season annuals.