Bedford County farm turns everyday trash into compost

Royal Oak Farm doesn’t do any of the usual Bedford County kinds of farming, and that’s why it’s the focus of the county’s annual farm tour next Saturday.The tour is a one-stop experience. It’s free, family-oriented and located nine miles south of New London. Even the lunch is free.

Royal Oak Farm is Virginia’s largest solid-waste composting operation, and it is the ideal example of Bedford County’s environmental emphasis this year, said Scott Baker, Bedford County’s agricultural extension agent.

“They’re taking products that were considered waste and taking up valuable landfill space, and recycling them into useful soil amendments, or products that are sold to farmers for livestock feed,” Baker said.

Royal Oak is licensed to turn several kinds of waste — vegetables, wood, paper fibers, animal parts, peanut hulls and food and bakery products — into compost that yields nutrients to help grass, strawberries and many other crops grow year after year.

Where most farms depend on livestock for their livelihood, Royal Oak Farms depends on microbes. Those unseen organisms work so hard the temperature inside a row of compost can top 150 degrees as they transform trash into food for plants and animals, said Ken Newman, Royal Oak’s chief executive.

The farm’s customers range from landscaping companies to cities and colleges that are trying to grow healthier turf on athletic fields and parks.

In an experiment last April, Southern Landscape Group in Evington used Royal Oak compost when it planted grass on bare subsoil at the Summit retirement community in Wyndhurst.

One plot of ground received just fertilizer, while three other plots received compost in varied amounts.

“The plants that are healthiest and greenest are the ones that had the most compost applied,” said Mark Maslow, president of Southern Landscaping. On that plot, the compost was incorporated 2 inches deep into the subsoil, he said.

People who visit Royal Oak Farm, near Evington, on Saturday can see a small industrial-type operation that employs 12 people full-time. It grossed about $2 million last year from April through December.

Royal Oak Farm has machines that turn active rows of compost inside-out, and one that screens a fully decomposed row into piles of soil-like material. It also operates several large front-loaders and trucks.

Altogether, the operation is big enough to justify its own shop for maintenance and repair, and that’s where the barbecue tables will be set up Saturday.

Vendors from other local farms will sell honey, vegetables, fruit and meat products, “and maybe even some eggs,” Baker said.

The free lunch is barbecue, dished up on compostable plates courtesy of Royal Oak Farm, Newman said. Serving starts at 11 a.m. and continues until 2 p.m. or as long as the food lasts, he said.

The farm tour raises awareness among nonfarming residents about agriculture’s contribution to Bedford County, Baker said. It also seeks to educate the public about modern agriculture, farming technology and ways farmers protect the environment.

The uninitiated visitors may wonder how things as unpalatable as sludges, manures, waste products from slaughterhouses, or road kill, can become usable.

Newman, a native of Great Britain who learned English gardening techniques before immigrating to the U.S., brought with him a European knowledge and attitude toward recycling that much of America still hasn’t grasped.

He started the farm near Evington by raising hogs. The pig venture didn’t go well, but his methods of composting hog waste paid off.

That led to a state Department of Environmental Quality permit for composting multiple kinds of waste, distributed in biologically balanced piles on 16 acres of asphalt behind a small office off Orrix Creek Road near the Campbell County line.

The farm’s infrastructure includes a mile of 6-inch water lines that feed half a dozen fire hydrant-type outlets to keep moisture levels right in the compost piles.

Actually, Newman’s been having too much moisture and not as much heat as he’d like to see this summer. July temperatures were about 2.5 degrees below normal. Hot weather lets the microbes work faster.

Although seemingly frequent storms have brought rain to central Virginia, they have been inconsistent, and that’s inconvenient for Royal Oak Farm because balanced moisture is important, Newman said.

For a couple of days last week, a 1.5-inch rainfall at Royal Oak had left the compost piles too wet and threatened to drown some microbes. The excess moisture led to an odor of decay that was not typical for the operation.

The science of composting, when it’s functioning with the right amount of moisture, produces little odor, Newman said.

Excess rainwater from the compost piles is collected in a storm-water retention pond that’s lined with clay and a synthetic black membrane to prevent bacteria from contaminating groundwater.

The pond’s surface is covered with lime-green duckweed, a plant that naturally removes nutrients that could pollute nearby waterways.