A Conversation with the 'Compost King'
Mark Sturges has mastered an agricultural art as old as agriculture itself: cultivating live compost.
Dear Friends,
From compost and soil health science to sustainable design, the month of May will be all about the craft of creating healthy, regenerative gardens. Today, we’re featuring a new episode of The Secrets of Mastery with Mark Sturges, a pioneer in the world of live composting.
Longtime subscribers might remember Sturges from “The Bug Whisperer,” one of the feature stories in our 2015 inaugural issue, Cultivating Craftsmanship, which was all about innovators in what we called Organic Farming 2.0, a school of thought that eventually became known as the regenerative agriculture movement. “The Bug Whisperer” was reported and written a very gifted journalist, Kristin Ohlson, and is still available in our free archives.
In this new episode, Mark shares his tips for creating top-notch compost, emphasizing the importance of preserving what he affectionately refers to as "the good people"—the healthy microorganisms essential for soil vitality.
I hope you’ll enjoy listening to: “A Conversation with the Compost King.” It’s available only for paid subscribers here on Substack. If you haven’t already upgraded your subscription, just $6/month or $60/year gets you access to the entire Secrets of Mastery series, along with other premium features we have in the works.
Throughout the month, we’ll be adding to our collection of stories and podcasts on sustainable gardening—and we’ll have some new pieces on other topics that we think you’ll find fascinating. So please, stay tuned.
We welcome your thoughts and suggestions, which you can offer in a comment, by tagging us in Substack Notes, or via email. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Thank you for reading and sharing our stories, for supporting our work with a paid subscription if you can, and for being such a loyal part of the Craftsmanship community.
Sincerely,
Todd Oppenheimer
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief, Craftsmanship Magazine
“The Secrets of Mastery” is a series of brief, intimate conversations with artisans, innovators, and other pioneers about what it takes to master their craft, and why handmade matters. It’s only for paid subscribers here on Substack.
Previous episodes include:
How Does Greece Keep Producing the World's Best Honey? with Dr. Paschalis Harizanis
What is 'Mastery'—and Can You Innovate from It? with Dr. Trevor Marchand