Compost is like a puzzle and we need all the right pieces to make it whole. A good compost pile is 70 percent carbon and 30 percent nitrogen. This ratio promotes more rapid decomposition of organic matter – the sooner our compost breaks down, the sooner we can use it. Carbon comes from the branches we prune, fruit waste, cuttings, and more. Where does the nitrogen come from? Blue Bottle coffee grounds!

One stop shop

Blue Bottle Coffee has a manufacturing facility in Berkeley and they’re a wonderful partner to us. We’ve known them for years – we used to serve their coffee at our Ferry Building coffee shop in San Francisco. 

Each week, Blue Bottle loads five tons of coffee grounds into bins and sets them aside. That’s thousands of pounds of coffee grounds. We stop by and pick them up – done! It’s very convenient for us to make one trip to Blue Bottle, rather than driving around, picking up a bag here and there from neighborhood coffee houses. And, while most compost ingredients are bulky and messy (and stinky), coffee grounds are clean and easy to transport in bins. 

What’s waste to you is compost to me

Our arrangement with Blue Bottle Coffee helps them, too – coffee grounds are a waste product, and the company is required to get rid of them. But to us, coffee grounds are a valuable piece of our composting puzzle. Wouldn’t it be amazing if every person and every company had similar arrangements in their community? Imagine the change we’d see in the world if we all found a way to reuse and repurpose what we didn’t need anymore.

We know that our mission to reuse and regenerate organic waste into compost contributes to the health and wellness of our planet. We see it every day when we work in the orchard and dig in the rich soil. The result of our mission and commitment is incredible fruit, nuts and olive oil that people love to eat and share. 

We couldn’t do it alone. Let’s raise a cup to Blue Bottle Coffee for their contribution to the compost that feeds our trees. Cheers!