From Waste to Nourishment: Building the Soil of our Lives (w/ Steven Wynbrandt)

Woven Wings Live

The first half of today’s episode covers the story of the exuberant and passionate Steven Wynbrandt, and how we went from backyard garden to finding purpose, passion, and profitability as the King of Compost (as deemed by the L.A. Times).
In the 2nd half, we go deeper with Steven into a core tenet of the Woven Wings message: that engaging in a conscious process to do good - both individually and collectively - is how change happens, and even though it might be uncomfortable, inconvenient, or sometimes unclear, what we do, and what we put out in the world, matters.
Steven’s energy and vitality inspires us and creates an imperative and call to action to nourish ourselves and the world.
About Steven Wynbrandt:
Steven Wynbrandt is the founder of Wynbrandt Farms, a micro-farm that has become a one-of-a-kind gem of urban agriculture in Los Angeles, CA. Celebrated locally by many of L.A.’s most esteemed garden professionals and connoisseurs as “the highest expectation of health, vitality and intensity,” Wynbrandt Farms is known for the remarkable results of its compost, signature growing techniques, the quality and the quantity of its vegetable production, and the wildly passionate “King Of Compost” (L.A. Times) behind it all - Steven!
Steven consults nationally and internationally, teaching best composting practices to and creating custom soil fertility programs for farms, communities and organizations of all kinds. His agricultural career includes growing specialty produce for chefs and restaurants, creating a hyper-local farm direct CSA, and teaching in-class lecture and hands on workshops for academic institutions and organizations including UCLA, the UCCE Dept. of Ag. and Natural Resources, Santa Monica College, L.A. Unified School District, Demeter USA, The National Heirloom Expo, The L.A. Green Festival, Hazon, L.A. Community Garden Council, and a plethora or public and private community organizations.
Get started with composting:
- Small scale composting: http://www.carryoncomposting.com/
- Check your county office! LA County as reference: https://dpw.lacounty.gov/epd/sg/webinars.cfm
Some notes from Steven:
- Lay a piece of 1/4th inch hardware cloth underneath square or circular compost containers that extends past all sides so pests cannot crawl in from underneath.
- Have a stockpile of “browns” - high carbon ingredients - such as wood chips and leaves - next to your container so you always have browns to layer with your “greens” - high nitrogen ingredients, such as food waste.
- No matter what other browns I am including (such as leaves) I like to use wood chips because they make it easy for the pile to maintain an aerobic environment - an environment where oxygen flows.

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