‫ – אדם ואדמה‬Adam ve’Adamah – People and Earth
Enlivening the Dead with Soil & Compost
Overview
Participants explore soil and compost hands-on, feeling different soil types and learning how soil is
made and how it affects what we grow. We plant in Gan Adam—the Person Garden—and
experience the connection between adam (humanity) and adamah (earth). Finally, participants learn
to compost, taking part in the cyclical relationship between plants and soil.
Definitions
 Bracha – Hebrew blessing (pl. brachot)
 Soil
 Compost
 Loam
 M’Chayey Ha’Meytim – (Hebrew – lit.“who brings life to the dead.”) Closing of the bracha said
traditionally during the Amidah – here used as blessing over compost.
Goals
 Touch and feel several different types of soil and compost
 Learn how to compost on the farm or at home, and meet the worms who make it possible
 See connection between adam and adamah—people and earth.
Logistics
Audience: K-6
Setting: Garden or farm
Number of Participants: 10-20
Timing: Preparation – 50 minutes, Implementation – 40-60 minutes, Clean-up – 20 minutes
Materials:
 Bracha Poster/card - m’chayei ha’meytim
 Seven Bins of as many soils as possible: sand, clay, silt, leafgro (leaf-grass compost),
composted manure, vermicompost, and one extra empty bin. Removable labels for each bin
 Food scraps & carbon for compost (straw or leaves are ideal)
 Compost piles at different stages of decomposition (if possible)
 Shovels and hand-trowels
 Plants ready for transplanting
 Finished compost
 Water
 Worm bin (if possible)
Core Competencies - Participants will be able to:
 Identify sand, clay, silt, leafgro, composted manure, and vermicompost
 Start their own compost pile
 Transplant seedlings and augment with compost soil
 Describe the decomposition process
Core Concepts - Participants will know:
 Basic soil types and their textures, ingredients, moisture retention, nutrient levels
 Steps in the decomposition process, and how to manage that process
 The fundamental connection between adam and adamah—people and earth
 The influence of soil on plants and crops that grow in it
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Trigger
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Lesson Outline
Welcome to the garden! Who wants to play in the dirt? Dirt is just another name
for soil—adamah in Hebrew. What is soil? Where is it? What role does soil play in
the forest or on our farm? It’s where everything grows! Without soil, we could
not have forests or farms—it is essential to life! We love soil!
Would you like to meet our soil? I just happen to have some dirt over here …
Introduction – Soil Types (10 minutes)
Walk to several soil bins: sand, clay, forest topsoil, leafgro, composted manure, vermicompost, etc
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Meet our family of dirt! These 6 bins contain a variety of different kinds of soil. They’re
excited to meet you, so everyone pick a bin and get to know the component in it—notice
color, texture, particle size, clumpiness, and what else is there besides soil—twigs, roots,
rocks, leaves, etc.
Go through each bin and examine all the soil types. How well does each type hold water?
Drain water? Hold onto nutrients? Support a plant? Feed a plant? [Pitchers of water]
Can you guess what’s in the bins? These first three are clay, sand, and silt—the three main
components of soil. The rest contain different kinds of compost. [put on labels for each bin]
Transition – Soil and Plants (5 minutes)
Now let’s meet these soils in a new way, as if we were plants. What kind of plant would you
be? Spread your fingers through the soil like roots, holding your plant in the ground and
drawing up water and nutrients from the soil. Try each bin. Which bin would you want to
grow in? Why? Different plants might like different soils—can you guess what kind of soil
your plant wants?
What about mixing the bins—what mix would you want? Almost all soils on farms and in
forests are mixes of these ingredients, and most fruits & vegetables like a mix too. It’s all
about balance.
What’s our soil like around here? [look it up]. This bin (#5 for example) is our native soil.
Let’s start with this native soil and create our own garden compost mix in this empty bin
What goes in the mix? Organic matter! Organic matter breaks up clay, improves water
drainage, and makes a more nutritious soil for crops! If only we could somehow make our
own organic matter that we could just add to the garden…
Compost Exploration (15 minutes)
Compost! What’s compost? Compost is a mixture of decaying organic matter, such as dead leaves,
manure, or food scraps used for fertilizing soil. Would you like to meet our compost?
Walk to the compost piles, ideally including three kinds: kitchen scrap compost, leafgro, and
composted manure, worm compost, etc
These are our fragrant mounds of herbs and spices! Feel free to stick your hands in and feel.
[A live compost pile can be warm, and gives a neat sensation to participants]
Explore compost at different stages—fresh, in process, and finished. What happens at each
stage in terms of color, temperature, smell and appearance?
Who makes this compost? How does food turn into soil? The FBI, that’s how. Fungus,
bacteria and invertebrates – they do the work together with heat, moisture and plenty of
oxygen. All we have to do is add greens and browns to the pile and mix it up every once in a
while to let oxygen get in.
What’s an invertebrate? Like … worms? Let’s look for worms in our compost piles [5
minutes]. Now let’s look for worms in our worm compost bin. Worms are awesome! Explore
the worm-bin.
What usually happens to these resources—foods scraps, leaves, grass, manure, newspaper,
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straw? Thrown away, to the landfill. Compost recycles food into soil, and then we can grow
more food in that soil, compost that food, and around we go—that’s a healthy cycle! What are
some differences between composting and recycling plastic, glass, or paper?
Who likes composting? Who thinks they might do it at home?
I love composting so much, I like to say a bracha-blessing each time I add to the pile. Can we
come up with a blessing for compost? How about this one:
‫ ְמחַ יֵּה הַ מֵּ ִתים‬,'‫בָּ רּוְך אַ תָּ ה ה‬
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Baruch ata adonai, mechayey hameytim.
Blessed are you, Hashem our God, who brings life to the dead.
How is compost like bringing life to the dead?
See appendix for additional resources, information and worm song!
Closing—Transplanting and Adding to the Pile (10 minutes)
Who wants to add some compost to the garden and plant?
[Optional—Create Gan Adam, a garden in the shape of a human body. This is especially coollooking when you create raised beds in mounds and mark off the perimeter of the body with logs,
lumber, or some other material to make the shape visually striking.]
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Before planting, mix compost deeper into the soil (2-8 inches) around the plant and also
provide a top-dressing of compost around the plant on the surface of the soil—these are two
ways to use compost in the garden. Try planting one plant with compost and another
without—watch what happens over time. Say a bracha-blessing as you augment the soil
with compost, either mechayeh hameitim or another blessing the group made up.
Pull a few weeds, dead crops, and/or other compostables and walk over to the compost pile.
People have been composting for thousands of years, as long as we’ve been farming and
interacting with soil. The Hebrew word for human is adam and the word for earth is adamah.
If English were the same as Hebrew, our word for person would be earthling—in Hebrew
it’s clear that we come from the earth. The Torah says that G!d made adam out of adamah.
We are of the earth, and we can connect the cycle every day, just like this. [Add the
compostables to the pile]
Post-Learning / Take Home Piece
Start a compost pile at your house—add greens and browns and turn it once a month
Encourage your school to start composting—there are several companies that haul compost
and bring back soil for a school garden! (see appendix)
Explore your native soil at home and in your neighborhood. Meet your local worms
Appendices/Additional Resources:
Soil Types
In terms of soil texture, soil type usually refers to the different sizes of mineral particles in a particular sample. Soil is
made up in part of finely ground rock particles, grouped according to size as sand, silt and clay. Each size plays a
significantly different role. For example, the largest particles, sand, determine aeration and drainage characteristics, while
the tiniest, sub-microscopic clay particles, are chemically active, binding with water and plant nutrients. The ratio of
these sizes determines soil type: clay, loam, clay-loam, silt-loam, and so on. In addition to the mineral composition of soil,
humus (organic material) also plays a crucial role in soil characteristics and fertility for plant life. Soil may be mixed with
larger aggregate, such as pebbles or gravel. Not all types of soil are permeable, such as pure clay.
From Wikipedia – Soil Type. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_type for full article.
Fungus, Bacteria and Invertebrates (The FBI)
The FBI are responsible for decomposing all organic matter. Fungus helps break down matter physically by spreading its
mycelium (the fungus equivalent of roots, though actually the main body of the organism) through decaying matter.
Invertebrates physically and biologically break down matter by burrowing through, consuming and digesting organic
matter. Bacteria biologically break down matter, also through consumption and digestion.
This document offers lesson plans and activities on decomposers:
http://www.niu.edu/taft/outdoored/teacher_resources/DecomposerTB.pdf
COMPOST
Greens and Browns
Greens (also called “wet” materials) are the food scraps, manure, and other heavy, wet organic materials that are high in
nitrogen.
Browns (“dry” materials) are high in carbon such as straw, newspaper, and leaves. Browns should make up the majority
of a balanced compost pile. If the pile smells bad, turn it and add browns.
Ratios change depending on location and material inputs, but generally browns make up 60-80% of compost materials,
and greens 20-40% (by volume, not weight). Many garden scraps already contain a good ratio of green to brown
(nitrogen to carbon).
Keva and Kavanah (Shamu Sadeh, Director, ADAMAH: The Jewish Environmental Fellowship)
Greens and browns can be thought of as the keva (structure) and kavanah (intention) of compost. Greens are high in
nitrogen, more nutrient-dense. Nitrogen is a major nutrient needed by all plants, and because nutrient-rich soil is our
intention for compost, greens can be thought of as kavanah.
As important as kavanah is, it cannot succeed without the proper keva-structure to complement it. Without enough
browns, the greens will not receive enough oxygen and will smell awful (anaerobic). Browns are the keva-structure that
support our kavana-intention for fertile, nutrient-rich compost soil. As with compost, so with life—we must balance of
keva and kavanah in all that we do.
Basic Composting Instructions
Starting a compost pile can be simple, easy and educational! Look for a partly shaded, partly sunny, convenient and
accessible outdoor space. A compost pile can be just that – a pile – or can use a compost bin, which are available for
purchase or can also be built by hand re-using many resources cheaply and effectively. Used shipping pallets can be tied
together to create an easy-to-open box (make sure its untreated wood). You want approximately one square meter of
volume to ensure enough mass to build up heat. You may want to line the bin with sticks or chicken wire to keep out
scavengers! Try to find a spot with hose access – you’ll use it!
Keep a 5-gallon bucket with lid in the kitchen to collect scraps from cooking and eating to save trips to the compost pile.
When this gets full you can bring it out to your pile, dump it and rinse it. These are available for a couple dollars at Home
Depot or check with your friendly industrial kitchen (synagogue, camp, etc) – bulk food items often come in 5 gallon
buckets.
Avoid adding diseased plants, meat and dairy products to your pile – while they can certainly be composted in a wellmaintained, hot system, they do not decay easily on their own. Disease will remain in low-heat compost, and meat and
dairy attracts rodents and other scavengers – way too much bother when you’re first starting out! Otherwise, you can add
anything that rots.
Make sure to also have a ready supply of browns. Every time you dump a bucket-full of greens from the kitchen, you’ll
want to cover it with a layer of browns to maintain the proper ratios and avoid smells.
Turn the pile every so often to make sure it’s getting enough oxygen. If it starts to smell it has probably gone anaerobic,
meaning it lacks enough oxygen. Add browns, turn the pile, and add another layer of browns on top – this will help
balance the carbon-nitrogen ratio, add oxygen, and the layer of browns on top helps contain any leftover smells.
Sufficient moisture is also necessary for decomposition – add water to your pile if/when your area doesn’t get enough
rainfall. That said, too much water without proper drainage will cause your pile to go anaerobic – i.e. stinky. Consider a
layer of rocks or branches on the bottom of the pile to elevate and get some air flow underneath the pile, which will help
excess water drain out.
Decomposition is an exothermic process – it releases heat. Your compost will therefore get quite warm and even steam as
the weather gets colder. This is a great sign! When the pile looks, feels and smells like soil – it’s done! Once a compost
pile has reached critical mass (one square meter or larger) it can take anywhere from 1-2 months (turning 1-2 times a
week) to a year if you let it sit and let nature do the work, also depending on size of the pile and what has been put in it.
Building a wire-mesh bin using chicken wire and wooden stakes (including video!):
http://www.wikihow.com/Build-a-Wire-Mesh-Compost-Bin
Outsourcing your compost
While it’s most efficient and educational to have your own compost pile, it may not be practical for some institutions to
compost at full scale given lack of space, time and resources. Here are some resources to help you get the process started
of outsourcing your compost to a commercial composting company:
Get Started with Commercial Composting:
http://www.portlandonline.com/bps/index.cfm?c=41785&
Database of Commercial Composting Companies in the US:
http://www.manta.com/mb_35_E836B7N1_000/compost
Waste Neutral (Maryland-based commercial company)
Waste Neutral (WN) provides sustainable waste management solutions for commercial and institutional applications by evaluating your business
processes and waste streams to determine if there are cost effective alternatives to divert needless waste from going to the landfill.
http://wasteneutralgroup.com/
Worm compost resources
How to make your own worm compost system:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Own-Worm-Compost-System
Appelhof, Mary. Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up & Maintain a Worm Composting System. Flower Press; Revised
edition (November 1, 1997)
Little Worms (to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)
Little worms in the bin so neat.
How we wonder what you eat.
Apples, eggshells, veggies too,
All these things are good for you.
Little worms in the bin so neat.
Now we all know what you eat!
Little worms in the bin so neat.
How we wonder what you eat.
Don’t give ‘em eggs, don’t give ‘em cheese.
No matter what, no meat please.
Little worms in the bin so neat.
Now we all know what you eat!