Napa Valley Register

Sunday, January 12, 2003

By JEANNE LIGHTLY
Register Business Editor

Vineyards in the heart of California's wine country, including Napa and neighboring counties Sonoma, Mendocino and El Dorado, now use compost made with food scraps from San Francisco's finest restaurants to improve soil quality and grow better grapes for the production of fine wines.

Giving back is the primary goal of the unusual program that diverts kitchen trimmings, plate scrapings and other compostable materials from fine restaurants, hotels, markets, delis and coffee shops. Over 1,400 food-related businesses and thousands of San Francisco residents provide food scraps and other compostable material as part of the program, according to Robert Reed of Norcal Waste Systems, Inc. in San Francisco. He said source materials create a very diverse feedstock that includes everything from crab shells and cantaloupe skins to steak bones and half-eaten sandwiches. The result is especially rich compost, perfect for reconditioning soils after harvest.

The compost program is made possible through the efforts of three companies. Golden Gate Disposal & Recycling Company and Sunset Scavenger Company collect the food scraps and other compostable materials. Jepson Prairie Organics, a modern compost operation located outside of Vacaville, receives the materials and produces the finished compost. All three companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Norcal Waste Systems, Inc., a 100 percent employee-owned company headquartered in San Francisco.

Jepson Prairie Organics began making compost from the food scraps of San Francisco restaurants five years ago, according to company officials. Soil blenders, nurseries, orchards, professional landscapers and farms prefer the unique compost because it offers so many benefits, the official explained. For vineyards that wish to add lime and gypsum to their soils, Jepson Prairie can blend those materials into the finished compost at the company's modern composting facility outside Vacaville.

Compost made from the food scraps of San Francisco restaurants is a beautiful sight in the eyes of vineyard managers.

Remi Cohen, winegrower at Bouchaine Vineyards in Napa, said, "The compost supplies our vineyards with organic matter, and macro and micro nutrients such as potassium, nitrogen and other humic and folic acids. (These are) organic acids that the grape vine needs."

Vineyard Supervisor for Madrone Vineyard at Domenichi Ranch in Sonoma County agrees: "We are trying to enhance the soil microbial growth and by adding compost we can achieve that. We do this by adding this very rich compost. The Organic Material Review Institute, a non-profit organization that publishes and disseminates lists of materials allowed and prohibited for use in the production, processing, and handling of organic food and fiber, analyzed the finished compost and determined it appropriate for use on organic farms.

Everett Ridge Vineyards & Winery, an organic vineyard in Healdsburg, applied the compost to its soils in October. "It is some of the best stuff I've ever seen," said Darek Trowbridge, vineyard manager at Everett Ridge. Trowbridge noted that he appreciates the "very diverse feedstock used to produce the compost."

Others share this appreciation. "The Norcal compost is a very good product and is very cost-effective. You can't shortchange the soil," said Clarence Jenkins, owner of Madrone Vineyard Management in Sonoma County. "We get better soil structure and eventually because of that structure, we will get better plants."

Composting is better than inorganic fertilizers, according to Cohen. "We by far prefer compost because it is not toxic to the soil," he concluded. "Fertilizer often contains inorganic salts, which can create toxicity in the soil and sometimes render plant nutrients unavailable. Also, organic material can help aerate and help retain water in the soil. These are all things that are very valuable to a grape farmer."