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    Black Soldier Fly as a Feed Alternative for Aquaculture

    Black Soldier Fly as a Feed Alternative for Aquaculture

    Main Street Farms received a SARE Farmer grant for on-farm research of Black Soldier Flies larvae (BSFL) as an alternative food-source for aquaculture and livestock. We plan to raise and breed BSFL in a heated green house year-round to find the ratio of pounds of larvae to pounds of food waste can be produced in a given month. The larvae will be fed cafeteria food waste, coffee grounds, and compost from other areas of the farm.

    Flow-Through Vermicomposter

    Flow-Through Vermicomposter

    The purpose of this tool is to provide a space to vermicompost a variety of waste ( animal manure, food scraps, or other organic waste) with worms and produce safe worm castings, a valuable resource. The worm castings can be utilized in a variety of ways on the farm or sold to other farms and gardeners.

    Compost Sensor

    Compost Sensor

    Compost Sensor is an open source sensor system for monitoring and recording the temperature and moisture of active compost. It is for small scale commercial composting operations to help with quality control and the certification processes. http://www.instructables.com/id/Compost-Sensor/

    Truck Bed Liner Compost Tea Collector

    Truck Bed Liner Compost Tea Collector

    This concept recycles a Truck Bed Liner. The tool produces a mid sized compost facility, and unlimited amounts of compost tea.

    Slug Trap & Composter

    Slug Trap & Composter

    PROBLEM: Slugs are damaging crops and farmers are trying to kill the slugs. We found a way to efficiently trap slugs without hurting them, so that farmers don’t have to worry about crop damage. SOLUTION: Our solution is eco-friendly, and harmless to all slugs used.The trap is created by recycled materials found in most households. For our slug trap we use a plastic water bottle. Slugs are attracted to the yeast at the bottom of the bottle, and they go into the trap. We have a barrier so they can’t fall and drown in the yeast. We recommend having a trap every twenty yards. You must dig a small hole and insert the bottle for use. We also recommend having the top of the trap at ground level. The slugs are then put into your compost. Slug can be used for composting because they are organic decomposers. Vermicomposting is using worms to aerate and help decompose compost, so in place of worms our slugs will digest raw or organic materials. When taking the composted material into the fields, we recommend checking the composted material to make sure there are no slugs inside of it. ***This prototype and solution were created in response to the research component of a robotics competition. Thirteen seventh graders in South Louisiana were challenged with finding an innovative solution to a problem with a way that humans and animals interact. The students initially found that slug slime had healing properties and wanted to find a way to capture slugs in farm plots and bottle the slug slime to sell at farmer's markets.

    Community Compost Exchange

    Community Compost Exchange

    Incentivized Community Compost System

    Guide to Creating a Community- Scale Urine Diversion Program

    Guide to Creating a Community- Scale Urine Diversion Program

    This document describes the work of the Rich Earth Institute (Rich Earth) in detail, primarily to support those seeking to move this work forward in their own regions. We cover the process of starting up a community-scale urine diversion program (UD program) and key elements of its operation. Throughout the document we also reference the UD program Toolkit, where we have publicly made available a host of open source documents, presentations, and other materials to support those starting a UD program. Please do let us know if you start a UD program! We’d love to hear what happens, and assist if we can.

    Urine Use as Fertilizer on the Home Scale

    Urine Use as Fertilizer on the Home Scale

    There is a long history of recycling of human urine as fertilizer. This document answers many of the questions that we are often asked about the use of urine as a fertilizer on the home-garden scale.