Oak Ridge Vineyard

“We have farmed an organic vineyard in the White Salmon Valley for 26 years. We started with 5 acres of grapes and over the years have increased to 15 acres using cuttings we propagate from our gewurztraminer, pinot noir and chardonnay plants.

Adam contacted us last winter to see if we would be interested in buying his compost. We hesitated at first because of the potential cost compared to other compost sources. But we had been unhappy with the low percentage of grape cuttings that had survived in our propagation efforts over the last several years, so we agreed to drop by Broadfork Farm in Trout Lake and see what Adam was doing. He talked us through his process – sourcing local fresh raw materials from the dairy farms in Trout Lake, building windrows, gently turning the rows and infusing them with water during the process, carefully monitoring the temperature, and explaining the microbial changes that take place. On our way home to Oak Ridge Vineyard, we looked at each other and said simultaneously, “of course we are going to buy our compost from Adam”. Adam Hyde, or as we like to call him, Dr. Compost, knows more about compost than any one we have ever met and puts his heart and soul into making the best compost possible.

Spring 2021 we started our grape cuttings in a mixture of Broadfork Compost Earth and native soil…some in Fertil pots and some in wooden fruit bins. The take was 90% in both the pots and the bins, with some of the cuttings putting on 2 ft of growth. This fall, we planted out several hundred of the plants that had been propagated in pots and are eagerly waiting for spring to see how they wintered over. The cuttings in bins we will plant out this spring. We top coated the fall planting with Compost Earth and put two shovels full of Compost Earth on the young vines in the next block. Adam recently took soil samples to test microbial changes in the soil in these blocks.

We also applied Compost Earth to our vegetable garden and grew the most amazing tomatoes, cantaloupe, beans, cucumber and peppers. We will be back in the spring to get another row of Compost Earth.”