We are so grateful to Leslie and Wes of Prairie Fruits Farm in Champaign and Phil and Debra at Country Cottage Farm in Fisher for their generous donations of manure this year. Our compost-sharing relationship is just another prime example of sustainable agriculture right here in the Midwest.

In industrial-sized agriculture, animal waste has become a frightening source of pollution. Large populations of animals living in confinement generate more waste than most large cities– which then ends up polluting our air and water, as well as contributing significant amounts of methane gas to the atmosphere, a serious instigator in the climate crisis. However, the hard, dedicated and loving work of small farmers like Leslie, Wes, Phil and Debra produces a sustainable source of meat, poultry and dairy products without pollution. The amount of animal refuse produced by the sum of small farming operations such as Prairie Fruits and Country Cottage generates just enough “waste” to not be wasted and just enough food to feed our region. Eight truck-loads of nutrient-rich manure were tilled into our garden beds this November to replenish the soil for the next year’s crop. Their animals have helped our garden grow!

This weekend as I enjoyed a tender quiche of Country Cottage eggs with Prairie Fruits fresh chev and hearty greens from under our own cold frames, I was again reminded of the ways in which we are all connected. Tiny Greens is proud to be a part of sustainable agriculture in the Midwest with such generous neighbors. Check out Prairie Fruits Farm and Country Cottage Farm for more information on delicious eats in Central Illinois!

At Tiny Greens we are constantly looking for ways to make our business more environmentally friendly. One recent accomplishment in this area was to replace nearly all of the disposable items we use at the farm and the farmers’ markets with recycled and/or biodegradable products. These products include:

• Recycled toilet paper, paper towels, and deli paper
• Spudware Bioforks made from potato starch and packaged in cellulose
• Bagasse plates, trays, to-go boxes, and toothpicks made from expelled sugarcane
• Cups, lids, and shopping bags made from corn starch

Our forks, plates, trays, to-go boxes, toothpicks, cups, lids, and bags are all compostable, so instead of generating waste we are converting these products into nutrient-rich compost to use on the farm. We want to be sure that these products will actually biodegrade in a reasonable amount of time so we designated a corner of one of our compost heaps as a test section and will be digging around in a few months to make sure they’re gone!

We source these products from a company called Treecycle, which offers eco-friendly alternatives for conventional disposable products. Visit them at www.treecycle.org.

Hey Champaign-Urbana! In case you missed it, check out this great write-up from this Sunday’s News Gazette, front page of the Arts & Entertainment section.