‘We want to regenerate Bristol’s soils, rebuild community and share knowledge’

Bristol Living Soil is a growing composting collective based at St Werburgh’s City Farm. We collect food waste from households and businesses locally, and transform it into biologically-complete living soil.

This soil has an extremely high number of beneficial microorganisms, fungi and nutrients. It is literally alive!

Our project opened its arms to members in March 2023. It aims to regenerate Bristol’s soils, rebuild community, and share knowledge.

The Bristol Living Soil collective have been producing barrow-loads of rich, fertile soil from food waste – photo: Tom Daniels

We’re currently a team of five – Danny, a creative facilitator and storyteller; Rosie, a Shift practical sustainability student, cob maker and traditional crafter; Sam, a moss expert and environmental consultant; Maddy, co-founder of Bristol’s Blue Finger Alliance and the Urban Agriculture Consortium; and myself, an artist focused on finance and magic.

Personally, I’m keen to learn what I believe will soon become basic survival skills. I do not see how we can keep relying on food imports given the havoc climatic collapse is having on agriculture around the world.

Industrial ploughing and heavy use of pesticides has destroyed a lot of the mycelium and other life in our soils.

Films like Dirt Rich, initiatives like Old Tree Soil and the Mycelium Composting Network, and Dr Elaine Ingham’s Soil Food Web school have inspired me and the team to learn more about how to produce really fertile soil in order to feed ourselves and others.

With Bristol Living Soil we envisage a network of hyper-local compost collectives around the city, saving nutrients and energy from leaving the local food system and replenishing soil for local growers and gardeners.

Rosie learnt how to make living soil at the Old Tree Soil compost collective site in Brighton – photo: Tom Daniels

In Bristol, we’re lucky to have separate waste food collection by the council, meaning the majority of our waste food stays out of landfill sites.

But rather than create living soil, this food waste is processed in an anaerobic bio-digester in Avonmouth to create methane-rich ‘bio-gas’, used to either generate renewable electricity or provide gas to the grid.

Rather than locking the methane back into the soil, the gas created is 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide for climate warming.

The process also produces a solid by-product called ‘cake’ (yum!) which can be sold to farmers as an alternative fertiliser.

But the compost produced is of very poor quality with low levels of beneficial organic life. Bristol growers have complained of contamination including plastics.

The compost we create contains mycelium, nematodes and billions of beneficial microorganisms. These help retain nutrients in the soil food web upon which all earth-based life and 95% of our food depends.

The microorganisms help break down the minerals in the soil, making them available to plants. They also create structure, holding soil together and creating space for water absorption – like a sponge.

Biologically complete, deliciously fertile soil can only be made at a small, local scale with time, care, energy and attention.

Bristol Living Soil provide members with a food waste bucket that they collect and add to other ingredients to make compost – photo: Rosie Fieldhouse

We currently have three different types of memberships available: Households in St. Werburgh’s, Easton, St. Paul’s and St. Jude’s can become ‘Nematode’ members, and get their food waste collected from their doorstep, by bicycle, every three weeks.

Those further afield can become Protozoa members, bringing their food bucket to St Werburghs City Farm any Wednesday evening from 4.30-6.30pm.

Businesses can become Earthworm members.

Members are given an empty food waste bucket with a lid and a tub of magical ‘bokashi’ – a dry mixture of bran and molasses inoculated with beneficial bacteria, yeast and fungi that work together to speed up composting, suppressing pathogens and preventing putrefaction.

The food waste is mixed for six weeks with woodchip and leaves from old forests in insulated tumblers.

Once the food has started to break down it is placed into static composters and mixed with biochar which is activated with comfrey juice. Once the living soil is ready, it is distributed amongst the membership.

We estimate that we will have capacity to transform the food waste of 20-30 households and 5-8 businesses on our current site.

As well as working on finance, Lara is an artist and has created the Bristol Living Soil logo – credit: Lara Luna Bartley

Bristol Living Soil is hosting a biochar making workshop on December 2.

Biochar is an activated form of charcoal made by burning wood at a high temperature, without oxygen.

It’s porous, lightweight and has a large surface area which has huge benefits when added to the soil because its hollow structure is the perfect home for mycelium to thrive. And it helps the soil to retain water.

We will enjoy a day of practical making, learning about the science, and eating together around the fire.

Come along to find out more about biochar and becoming a member of Bristol Living Soil, or just get in touch via www.bristollivingsoil.org or Instagram.com/bristol.living.soil

The Biochar making workshop will take place at Bridge Farm from 10am-2pm on Saturday.

For tickets, visit https://hdfst.uk/e98438

Main photo: Lara Luna Bartley

Read more:

• Meet the revolutionaries behind Bristol’s food movement
• Oldest urban farm grows a new community
• The People Making a Difference for Climate and Kin

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