Just a bit more about manure and what some people find distasteful or even downright scary; humanure.    So if you’re squeamish look away now.

We’ve been eating veggies grown from soil enriched with lots and lots of chicken and human manure for four years and must say its really improved our crops.  As long as you’re sensible and follow a few hygiene rules it is perfectly safe and most definitely in the spirit of all things eco, green and recyclable.

Well being in the spirit of all things eco, green and recyclable doesn’t mean straightforward.  I like to think we are kind of organic in are approach to growing food.  I mean this is both ways – we use mostly organic methods and we tend to make it up as we go along – learning, reacting and changing things as seems appropriate.

Organic poo though is a serious business.  According to the soil association non-organic manures must be stacked for six months or composted for three, before they may be used on a soil association certified organic farm.  Pig and poultry manures must be kept for double this time and the manure from intensively reared set-ups such as battery egg production are not permitted at all.

Why?  Well for one the animals’ poo may contain residues of some of the nasties they’re fed which is then put into your soil.  One of the big things are medicinal chemicals – antibiotics and so on which may be present in the resulting manure.  Secondly for a body aiming to promote and increase organic, sustainable and animal welfare aware, food production it is appropriate not to rely on non-organic, unsustainable methods or poor animal welfare for your fertilizers.

I would like to be an idealist but I’m a scrimping and saving kind of a gal and have to be realistic.  By taking spare manure from our local poultry farms I am supporting a non-organic industry but heck it would be insane to demand expensive organic manure which is not available locally when there is a waste product locally which can be reused by me.

We don’t use the manure immediately but pile it up for anything from one to three years – depending on the size of the pile it can last a while!  After about six months though we do start adding the odd barrowful to our dormant veg plots and the compost heaps as it really speeds them up.

When we bought our lovely old ruin we inherited a huge pile of chicken manure which we put to good use immediately.  It was only later when a few friends mentioned the danger of chicken manure – ‘Doesn’t it burn your crops?  Isn’t it full of nasty veterinary chemical residues?’ that we started to wonder – and researched, through mild paranoia the use of something we initially, and finally too, thought of as pretty natural if at times a bit wiffy.

Poultry manure is very high in nitrogen and as such could burn crops if used in its fresh state.  Equally much commercial manure including that from poultry will contain chemical residues.  However all these issues are resolved once the manure starts to break down.  If its good enough for the soil association (after a year) then its good enough for me.  We use both manure from our own poultry and from meat production birds kept by farms near our local village.  We do not however use any products from battery egg production.

Some of our home-made manure makers - the hens

If you’re worried about flies cover your pile of manure.  When its hot we find the outer crust of any dung heap dries so quickly it kind of seals the manure and we don’t get any fly interest until we start digging into the pile.  Then we try to use as much as possible (on compost heaps / vegetable beds) before covering the pile with a tarp until it seals itself again.

The main rule, obviously I think, is hygiene.  If I’m going to while away a few hours shovelling sh*t I will wear designated sh*t shovelling clothes that don’t get worn for anything else (especially cooking and talking to small children).  The other biggie is washing after dealing with the manure (or compost for that matter).  I don’t feel the need for antibacterial cleaners but a good wash in hot soapy water is just the thing for stopping any manure bugs straying into your system.

If you can get hold of any animal muck it will improve your soil.  Just be sensible with it.

As mentioned before we have a dry ‘compost’ toilet at the finca.  In the future maybe we’ll have one of those lovely systems where you don’t need to deal with the mess but for now we have a more basic bucket and sawdust arrangement.  I treat the compost toilet waste just as I would any fresh manure, that is carefully.  In many parts of the world fresh night soil is put straight on the land as fertilizer.  The main reason sewage sludge isn’t used widely in the west is through health fears from contamination with the fresh slurry.  Waiting for nature to takes its course for a year or so and then applying on your soil should mean you never come into contact with the muck.  Your veggies will only get the benefits of richer soil without being in contact with any actual muck themselves.

We bury the humanure in the middle of our compost heap every four days or so.  That way we’re not attracting flies and we’re keeping nasty pathogens in the middle of the heap where its hot and they’ll be rendered inactive pretty quickly.  A year later we get fantastic compost and now our veg plots are losing the sandy, fine, stony tilth we found on arrival, and taking on the humus rich, dark, water retaining qualities we strive for.

So does it matter who made the manure?  I don’t think so, though I would struggle to accept it from intensive egg producers, but that’s just a personal thing.

So however you can get some muck on your land!

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