Adult Workshop on Indoor Anaerobic Composting 5/27 @ 8:30am

May 20, 2014May 21, 2014 / Lehcim Nosredna / 2 Comments

Bokashi Composting is a method that allows you to compost indoors, at a rapid pace, with only a small amount of outdoor space. Come to the Waldorf School of Baltimore on Tuesday 5/27 @ 8:30am for a 1 hour workshop that will give you the confidence to tackle this great feat on your own! Your WSB student knows how to do it — now so can you!

One lucky participant will win a WSB Composting System; and twelve participants will be able to purchase a WSB Composting System for $30. Bring a drill if you have one! If interested, please bring a check payable to Waldorf School of Baltimore. All proceeds will benefit WSB’s Green Projects.

Click on the flyer below for more details….

Sustainability Wish List

January 17, 2013January 17, 2013 / Lehcim Nosredna / Leave a comment

Greetings! We are the hunt for a couple items to help out with our school’s composting project. In order for the students to see the composting process we are looking for large, clear, air-tight containers (like the ones that pretzels and snack foods come in). We need eight of them — one for each classroom. So if you have one please send it in with your child. The other item we hope is collecting dust in your basement a working aquarium air pump. This will be used by the students to make bokashi compost tea — a powerful and natural fertilizer. In the interested of keeping our carbon footprint low, we’re hoping these items are floating around the community so we can avoid buy new ones. Thank you for your support!

Welcome to a Greener New Year!

January 7, 2013January 7, 2013 / Lehcim Nosredna / 3 Comments

Happy New Year!

Let’s start with local news…. WSB has started 2013 on good note. Our indoor bokashi composting program has been launch. We now have composting stations at the end of the 1st and 2nd floor hallways. Over the course of the week the students collect their food waste into a clear, airtight container kept in their respective classrooms. Once it’s full the designated students bring it to the bokashi composters for fermentation. The 5th & 6th graders will be servicing the composters once every 2 weeks. Bokashi composting is a rapid process that utilizes microorganisms to breakdown the material. In just under 1 month we are able to use it in the garden! The best part is that it’s easy to do and keep indoors. The fermentation process is anaerobic — so no smell and no fruit flies. The students and I will be making the bokashi mixture from scratch; and I will be experimenting with actually making bokashi composters with the students in the near future. All this means that parents will be able to commission their student’s class to make them one! And they will even be able to buy the microbial mixture from WSB’s store. All the proceeds will help us grow our garden in the spring! (Back on the topic of clear, airtight containers…. We need more! If you have any you’re not using please donate them to us. Big, clear pretzel containers work great!)

In international news, our KIVA initiative has been growing steadily. In just 3 weeks time our Waldorf International Community sprouted 7 members and has $275 out in loans to people in need. Just today, WSB was able to lend another $25; this time to Haydar, a 30 year old blacksmith in Iraq — thank you, Sarah, for joining our team and making this additional loan possible! WSB has now lent $100 to people all over the world. Please consider joining us in our efforts to help eradicate poverty. KIVA is an online micro-lending organization — you can read more about WSB’s involvement (and how you can join) in the blog post previous to this one.

More fun stuff…. Over the holiday break, the garlic cloves the 3rd grade planted in our garden has sent shoots up to greet the winter sun! By next summer we should have about 20 yummy bulbs! Wanna come by for a salad or perhaps some pizza?

Ok… I’m going to cut this post off now. I got to get outside to turn some compost. I’ll be writing more later this week. I got some information about getting your house running on wind-turbine energy that you may find interesting.

Good Luck to You and Yours in 2013!
Michel

Classroom Composting

November 29, 2012November 29, 2012 / Lehcim Nosredna / 3 Comments

As of this week we’ve made a few changes to our ongoing composting initiative at WSB. . . .
We are now composting in the classroom. Each room has a perforated clear jar to keep their food waste and two students will be responsible for keeping an eye on it. Throughout the year the two students will shift as their teacher deems appropriate. All (age-appropriate) students will cut their food scraps into small pieces with kitchen sheers before placing it into the jar. A little water and a small handful of wood chips will be added daily to balance the nitrogen of the food with carbon. When the jar fills the two students will bring it outside and place it in our tumbler or into one of our compost bins. This winter we will start bokashi composting as well. More information about that, and how you can start to do the same in your home, will be posted when the project gets underway.