Today’s guest is Jeff Gage, Director of Consulting at Green Mountain Technologies and a Certified Composting Professional. One of the major themes of Season 4 is listening closely to deeply experienced composters, and Jeff fits that mold perfectly.

I’m finally learning that when it comes to these revered, long-time practitioners, the best thing to do is ditch my question script and let the stories unfold. That’s exactly what happened in this conversation.

We talk about Jeff’s background and dig into a wide range of real-world case studies — from turned aerated systems to managing water and oxygen, controlling odors, pile heights, adding air when you don’t have power, composting grape pomace, why is compost black and so much more.

Jeff was awarded the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award by the US Composting Council in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the composting industry over the past 40 years. I feel incredibly lucky to get to learn from a lifetime of experience in this episode, I hope you do too.

Check out Green Mountain Technology (👊) http://www.compostingtechnology.com

Jeff’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-gage-962b8730/

More links links from Jeff:

https://certificationsuscc.org/

https://tilthalliance.org/our-work/environmental-stewardship/

https://www.zoo.org/zoodoo

https://www.compostwashington.org/

Read your research (mentioned by Jeff): https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/ucsu20

Thank you to our Show sponsors:

Agrilab Technologies at www.agrilabtech.com/podcast

Viably at https://thinkviably.com/

Green Mountain Technology: visit Compostingtechnology.com and mention The Composter podcast for a free consultation

Merch:

https://www.earthcarefarm.com/store/c3/Clothing.html

Contact:

Host Jayne Merner can be reached at [email protected] or through instagram @composterpodcast