Good Turn Earth Company plans to rescue green waste from landfills and turn it into high quality compost conditioner in Fredericksburg, VA. The company will run a crowdfunding campaign from March 9, 2015 to April 22, 2015 to raise US$11,500 for essential tools and equipment, business and legal fees, packaging, compost buckets, and seasonal farmers’ market fees. The final product, made of city leaves, coffee grounds, rotting produce, mushroom compost, and worm castings, will be marketed as a living, breathing soil conditioner that produces strong and healthy plants. The conditioner will be sold in downtown Fredericksburg at the Farmers Market and Roxbury Farm and Garden Center, and in Spotsylvania at Harvest Market and Courtland Ace Hardware.
Good Turn Earth Company, formerly Living Soil, was founded in September 2014 after finalizing in the Start-Up Weekend Competition in Fredericksburg. The team also took honors at the Made in FredVa competition sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce in November 2014.
The company will act as a fundraising arm for Downtown Greens, a nonprofit organization that maintains a beautiful, public greenspace and several acres of organic garden. Downtown Greens was created in the 1990s as a community space to develop land stewardship and cultivation of natural spaces; the current board emphasizes community building through music, art, science, math, natural history, sustainable healthy living, and creativity. The nonprofit’s innovative projects include water retention, green building techniques, water monitoring, composting, and a weekly garden club for children.
Good Turn Earth Company is inviting the community to collaborate in creating a system that closes the resource cycle and nurtures life from waste. The project operates a food scrap drop-off site for community members who can’t compost at home, and partners with local businesses such as 25/30 Espresso, Earth Mother Mushrooms, Wegmans, and The Table at St. George’s to recycle their green waste. “We want to create a larger awareness of what we’re doing,” said Sarah Perry, President of Good Turn Earth Company. “We are creating a space where people can do a good turn for their garden, for their community and for the Earth.”
A launch party for the crowdfunding campaign will be held Tuesday, March 10, 2015 at the Sunken Well Tavern at 720 Littlepage St. in Fredericksburg from 7-9 PM. The event will feature food, giveaways, a product demonstration, and a cash bar.
