Organic Revolution

I so appreciate the Feb. 4 letter from Rafael J. Torras of Sebring regarding the Organic Revolution. This hits a very important issue that we face here in Highlands County regarding our land fill, recycling and each person doing their part to help.

Just think what a great benefit it would be if each home had a small compost pile or compost bin to recycle their vegetable, fruit, grass, plant trimmings, leaves, etc., back into natural fertilizer for most of our landscape plants and gardens.

This is something I have been doing for more than 39 years. All of my vegetation is recycled and composted so that I never have to leave any to be picked up at the curb.

There are many different ways to build a small area away from the main house for composting and it is very rewarding to watch the process go from throw away vegetables and fruit to a rich dark "black gold" natural fertilizer that feeds and converts the sand we have here in most of the county into a rich dark living organic soil that feeds the plants like nothing you have ever seen.

The Highlands County Extension Service has plans that also show you how to build a bin out of a 35 or 55-gallon drum. The location of their office is at the west end of the Bert J. Harris Jr. Agricultural Center on U.S. 27 South. The bins can be seen just outside of their office door.

The natural organic movement was pioneered in Great Britain in the 1920s and 1930s by Sir Albert Howard who wrote a wonderful book in 1940. The name of the book is "An Agricultural Testament" and can be purchased from Rodale Books.

In his almost 40 years of experiments with natural manures and composting in India and the West Indies he was able to show that working with nature in establishing fertile living topsoil produced healthier people and animals. His research into history also showed that societies which most closely approximated nature's methods had the longest histories. We would do well to do the same.

Gary V. Freeman
Lake Placid