Grab a snack, make some tea, and cut some chamomile with Compostable's founder, Monique, as we discuss what Compostable Farm Day is all about.
Transcript Below
Introduction: Hiiii, so Courtney and I want to do blogs. We’re super into the information sharing that they give but by the end of the day we don’t really want to write anymore cause we’ve emailed all day so we’re going to do a vlog! And I’m going to cut chamomile in my little community garden plot and answer some questions that Courtney has. May you’ll like this new format, maybe I stab myself in the face with shears. That’s the point of a vlog – it’s wild and crazy. So Courtney, what are today’s questions?
Question: Why do you host Compostable Farm Day?
Monique: It would be totally easy for me to cancel Compostable Farm Day forever because we’re broke and it costs money. But it’s my favorite thing that we do, on so many levels. One, I grew up in the city so I grew up not at all connected to agriculture. I didn’t know what a farm animal looked like, smelled like, felt like, and I certainly didn’t know how to produce my own food. My mom is a gardener and loves flowers but, you know, I really wanted to get more into food production. I think as someone who grew up in a city, it’s really important for people to connect with this ancestral practice – like this is what we’ve been made to do. We’re meant to smell chamomile, and pick it, and cultivate things and I think it really helps close up this hole in our hearts that we all kind of feel, this sweetness, this charm. So I wanted to create an experience that helps city-dwellers connect with urban agriculture.
Question: How do you incorporate the values of Compostable into Compostable Farm Day?
Monique: There’s the part of it about connecting people with systems that have been historically disconnected from them. We used to manage all our own compost in the backyard – I’m sure you had grandparents that did that, that had this big compost pile in the backyard. And we used to grow our own food. Now, food and waste systems are these systems that we’re more disconnected from and I want to foster that connection again. So there’s that transparency piece, there’s the community piece. All of these are urban farms that are doing something really amazing for their community. The next one’s at Moonwater Farm and there’s no shortage of dope stuff that Kathleen is doing for her community so there’s this community resilience piece. And then there’s this kind of anti-capitalistic flare there where there’s not any gatekeeping. You know, Compostable Farm Day is free for the vendors, it is free for the attendees, so really the hosts are bearing the burden of the costs of this and I love that there’s no financial barrier to participation. There are still vendors there, so there are still capitalistic values there but it’s more small business vendors. There’s always this fine line of walking between ‘how do i support small businesses’ while living an anti capitalistic life and that’s a really fine line to walk. But by supporting small vendors and community-based projects, you are doing that because there’s a lot of reciprocal exchanges happening there too – maybe you’re promoting them on Instagram, maybe you become a repeat customer, maybe you volunteer with one of the people who are showing up. So transparency, community-based, localism, alternative economics are all built in to Compostable Farm Day.
Question: How do you choose the vendors for Compostable Farm Day?
Monique: All the vendors and farm locations are either recommended by our community (so if somebody reaches out on Instagram and was like “I know this dope soap maker” and I’m like “yessss”) or we have individual partnerships with them. With Moonwater Farm, I had met Kathleen a couple of times and I was like vibing values, there’s a lot of alignment there. We’re also going to choose vendors that need a platform. A lot of the vendors that are coming to Compostable Farm Day, like some of them this is their first time vending, which I love because it’s free so it’s really for them, you know, there’s no tabling fee so it’s really low risk. If you walk away and you didn’t sell a lot, what you probably spent is in labor but maybe you got the experience of what it’s like vending, meeting new people, answering questions about your products. I really want to uncover hidden gems that don’t have a lot of platform that I think are dope and want people to know. And the cool thing about urban farms is that a lot of people don’t even know these farms exist. You open a gate to Cottonwood Urban Farm and you’re like “whaaaaat”, you know, there’s like a freaking orchard full of trees and there’s ducks and – dude – and it’s just behind a gate in the Valley. I love the magic that instills – what can we discover in our neighborhoods that we don’t know is there? What are these small businesses in our neighborhoods that we don’t know are there that are doing such dope work that we can get inspired by? So typically, we choose vendors that are looking for a platform, have value alignment, and that I’m genuinely pumped by.
Question: Anything else you want the people to know about Compostable Farm Day?
Monique: It’s twice a year, every April and every November – ish unless there’s rain which happened this recent time. It’s free to all Angelinos, anyone can come. Compostable members can get free compost at this event. Composting is not just about diversion, it’s also about creating carbon sinks around the city, creating soil around the city so it’s really important to ensure that our compost gets out to our members and spreads across the city of Los Angeles so that’s why members can come pick up compost. Every Compostable Farm Day has a different little flavor to it, like in the fall we always to pumpkin smashes and in the spring we may be focused more on plant plugs, stuff that you can plant in the spring growing season. Definitely come check it out! Come to multiple – we have one member who’s been to almost every one of them (shoutout to Michael!) and I hope he would say every one is a little bit different. I hope to see you at one! Also shoutout to Opus Events Co who took these Farm Days to the next level because before Belinda came on I was running around like a crazy person who did not know how to put on events and then she was like “Babe, babe – disaster zone. Let’s clean this up”. Now it’s flowing and it’s super great so come see them. They’re my favorite day!
Compostable is a full-spectrum community compost service operating in Los Angeles. Learn more about our company.
