Down & Dirty Comanche Compost By James Bridges
I was reminded of the Legendary Comanche Chief, Quahna Parker. The Comanche Chief is forever anchored to the rugged land in both family name and in legend in Parker County, Texas. and found a prop Parker County, TX is the very ground where the Comanche Compost Company is headquartered. I had the special opportunity to sit down with the multifaceted creative mind of owner, David Mayer, and the very innovative Director of Education and Product Research, Sage Howell with the Comanche Compost Co. David started Meyer Materials in 2006. “It’s evolved from my passion with soil and agriculture.” David explained. “We were at the time purchasing farmland and developing it into wetland restoration habitats. We found a property in Fort Worth that we really thought had potential. We eventually started to realize that there were many opportunities to recycle commercial generated food waste such as daily yogurt.” The team developed a system that would extrude the yogurt out of the fully palletized products deemed to be off just a bit off because of quality assurance. The process allowed them to grab that bulk yogurt, recycle the plastic containers, meanwhile saving the yogurt for repurposing. The yogurt then goes into their composting process. Now that process is used for repurposing. This gave them the ability to add it to manure or alfalfa bedding which is used for example in various rodeos and stock shows. Their Fort Worth, TX property had a great deposit of sand, salt and clay. “We started to combine that with the various organic inputs to create something really awesome.” David was smiling ear to ear. “Our select product got into the major landscaping side of the business. We got into garden centers. We stepped up our game, in terms of what we were developing, in the way of potting soils and garden soils. We got into high-end compost product backed products for the retail sector.” David took a breath. The company slowly made their way into the cannabis sector. “It started with the Humboldt Seed Company”, David admitted. “Those guys approached us to develop soils around the seeds that they were trying to pop here in Oklahoma. They were breeding here. They came to me asking about different amendments that they could use for their outdoor grow facility. They were obviously interested in the compost, but they are also interested in our soil manufacturing capacity. The Comanche Compost Co. has many capabilities, including taking in peat moss, perlite, core, and things of that nature. By combining these high-end performance propagation tables they are able to achieve the highest performing soils in the region. “David and I both have a mutual passion for agriculture”. Sage Howell is the Director of Education and Product Research for Comanche Compost Co. “I was growing in a 30000 square foot GreenHouse in Toledo for Fresh Point, Cisco, and Hellofresh. I was developing these vertically integrated propagation systems and hydroponic systems for food. Once I had mastered that, all my focus went to one thing. How can remediate this 19 acres by the Clear Fork River estuary to be an organic farm? So I started to figure out that my cost of inputs was going to exceed what the returns were in terms of food. So I started calling around. I even went to Dublin Texas to work with dairy farms and learn how to make my own compost. I started to get alfalfa from other farms just to make my own compost. Then I met David. He was
