The Soil Factory

The Soil Factory Transforming your food scraps into living soil. Forest Row, UK

đŸŒ± The Soil Factory will be at Mansion Market today! 11am-4pm.We’ll have freshly packed Living Soil, bulk buy offers, and...
09/05/2026

đŸŒ± The Soil Factory will be at Mansion Market today! 11am-4pm.

We’ll have freshly packed Living Soil, bulk buy offers, and Lion’s Mane mushrooms from Flogs Fungi.

We’ll also be chatting to people about Soil Factory memberships.

As a member, you bring your food scraps to our compost station at Forest Row Community Centre. We compost them with care, mature the compost properly, and return Living Soil to members from mid-late June.

So what’s Living Soil?

Basically, it’s compost with more life in it.

This is small-batch, biochar-rich Living Soil, packed with care for pots, seedlings, veg beds and tired garden soil.

It costs more than standard compost because it’s not just compost in a plastic sack. It’s mature, nutrient-holding, moisture-holding, microbe-friendly goodness, and every bag helps support The Soil Factory as we build a local composting system here in the village.

Food scraps in. Garden magic out! ✹

Come and ask us about it today.

📍 Mansion Market, Michael Hall School
🕚 Today, 11am-4pm

Yesterday at the Soil Factory đŸŒ±đŸȘ±Many hands made light work!Big shout out to our legendary station helpers Lucy, Joanna &...
06/05/2026

Yesterday at the Soil Factory đŸŒ±đŸȘ±

Many hands made light work!

Big shout out to our legendary station helpers Lucy, Joanna & Sash! đŸ‘đŸŒ

Thanks to them Bin 5 is now available again, the maturation bins received a major worm boost, and lion’s mane substrate courtesy of has been added across the system to boost fungal life and compost quality.

Bin 4 is now running at a healthy 65°C đŸ”„
Bins 5 & 6 are smelling beautifully earthy â˜ș

The station is alive and moving :)

We’ve reached the point where we need more maturation capacity as increasing amounts of food waste move through into the Jora hot composting stage.

We’re hopeful of positive funding news soon, plus every new member helps us keep investing back into growing the system! ✹

For members, will have an update soon on your first batch of Living Soil compost ! đŸŒ±

And if anyone would like to come say hello, we’ll be back at Mansion Market this Saturday (11am–4pm) again with Flogs Fungi with fresh supplies, compost, mushrooms and, we’ve heard rumours, lion’s mane brownies
 ! đŸ€€

Last weekend’s Spring Social showed us something important đŸŒ±The Soil Factory is becoming not just a place where food scr...
21/03/2026

Last weekend’s Spring Social showed us something important đŸŒ±

The Soil Factory is becoming not just a place where food scraps turn into living soil, but a place where people gather, learn, share ideas and build community around what matters.

That feels especially timely now that spring is here! ☀

Membership helps make that possible.

When you join, you’re helping build a practical local system for compost, soil, learning and connection: and getting living soil and other benefits back in return.

We’ve still got a few early bird membership places left before the end of March.

More here:
https://www.thesoilfactory.earth/join

“I feel we’ve achieved peak Forest Row.” đŸȘ±đŸ˜…That was one of the comments yesterday as about 25 of us gathered round the f...
15/03/2026

“I feel we’ve achieved peak Forest Row.” đŸȘ±đŸ˜…

That was one of the comments yesterday as about 25 of us gathered round the fire at the Soil Factory station for our first Spring Social.

Together we welcomed worms into the first maturation bin of members’ winter scraps. In a slightly spontaneous ceremony, each person received a worm, offered a blessing with a little birch sap from Windyridge, and returned it to the compost to begin its work.

It was simple and beautiful.

There’s also a magnificent birch tree standing right beside the station — “one of the biggest I’ve ever seen,” said Tom from Old Tree — quietly watching over the whole thing like a kind of guardian.

Huge gratitude to everyone who came, brought worms, stories, food, curiosity, and warmth.

And special thanks to Bob Kennedy for the fire and Tom from Old Tree for the fresh birch sap and living compost.

A few are preparing to join now as members, which feels like a lovely sign that this little compost system of ours is becoming something real.

If you’ve been curious about being part of it, it is a great moment to jump in.

đŸŒ± Join the Soil Factory and our WhatsApp community as we plan more gatherings this spring

🔗 in bio

More soon 💚

WORM ARRIVALS đŸȘ±đŸ”„& SPRING SOCIAL!This Saturday, 1pm to 4pm, we’re gathering for The Soil Factory’s first Spring Social.Th...
12/03/2026

WORM ARRIVALS đŸȘ±đŸ”„
& SPRING SOCIAL!

This Saturday, 1pm to 4pm, we’re gathering for The Soil Factory’s first Spring Social.

The firepit is confirmed, the songs & stories are lining up, and the first maturation bin is now full of members’ Jora-composted winter scraps, ready for worms.

And you!

We’ll gather round the fire to welcome our wriggly friends into the next stage of the journey.

And because we do love a good ceremony in Forest Row, we’ll be marking the moment properly.

Bring a story or song about worms or soil, bring something for the shared table, or just bring yourself.

If you’d like to bring worms, compost or manure heap worms are best. Garden soil worms, not so much.

We’ll also have fresh compost from for sale on the day.

Find us at The Soil Factory Station, at the rear of the Forest Row Community Centre car park.

Free to RSVP (link in bio)

If you’re curious about membership and want your scraps to be part of the journey, go ahead and check out our JOIN link (also in bio 🌳)

đŸȘ± WORM ARRIVALS& SPRING SOCIAL ☀On Saturday the 14th of March The Soil Factory in Forest Row is rolling out the welcome...
03/03/2026

đŸȘ± WORM ARRIVALS
& SPRING SOCIAL ☀

On Saturday the 14th of March The Soil Factory in Forest Row is rolling out the welcome mat for a fresh crew of compost worms
 and you’re invited!

Gather round the fire. đŸ”„
Raise a mug &
Come celebrate the arrival of our new underground workforce đŸ„ł

We’re so excited to welcome you to the station and share the quiet magic unfolding there.

As more members gift their food scraps to the tumblers, something magic is happening within.

This week four chambers worth of material, over 500 litres, will be transferred into our next-stage maturation bin, where our hungry worms will begin their work alongside microbes, turning it all into lush Living Soil.

And in a few months’ time, that soil will come back to you ✹

It’s our first proper social as a growing community and we’d love to have you there đŸ„ł

Let’s gather, celebrate, and witness what we’re building together.

Totally free! BYO food & drink and get in touch if you have a song or story or something else you’d like to offer 😍

RSVP via link in bio.

WasteLessGrowMore

This Monday (tomorrow!), we’re hosting a hands-on compost training lunchtime session at The Soil Factory in Forest Row.C...
18/01/2026

This Monday (tomorrow!), we’re hosting a hands-on compost training lunchtime session at The Soil Factory in Forest Row.

Come and see how food waste becomes living soil, what’s happening at a microbial level, and how community composting really works.

Led by Tom from , who brings years of experience in living soils and compost systems, and has been supporting our composting system and learning culture.

Helpers, members and curious locals welcome.

When: Monday 19th, 1pm–2pm
Where: Forest Row Community Centre (rear of the car park)

Interested? DM us or comment below.

This week many in Wealden received the council’s food-waste collection leaflet.From April 2026, councils across the UK w...
07/01/2026

This week many in Wealden received the council’s food-waste collection leaflet.

From April 2026, councils across the UK will be collecting food waste to keep it out of black bins and send it into large-scale processing systems.

You might be wondering: if the council is offering this for free, why would I pay to join a community composting project?

The short answer: quality, locality, and what you get back.

Community composting works at human scale. It keeps nutrients local and turns food waste into Living Compost that actively improves tired soil.

This is the space The Soil Factory sits in.

And it’s not just about “doing the right thing”. It’s also about value and return.

As a member:
‱ £6 a month → ~20 litres of Living Compost
‱ £12 a month → ~40 litres
‱ £18 a month → up to ~80 litres, while supporting the project more deeply

This compost is biologically active and can be mixed into existing soil at roughly 3–4 parts regular soil to 1 part Living Compost, bringing larger volumes of depleted soil back to life.

Quite simply, the more people who join, the more Living Compost we can create locally and return to the village.

This feels like a good moment to prepare the ground.

🔗 thesoilfactory.earth/join (Link in bio)

Today might be loud with preparation and last‑minute tasks. It might also be quiet, or a bit tender.Under all of it, the...
24/12/2025

Today might be loud with preparation and last‑minute tasks. It might also be quiet, or a bit tender.

Under all of it, there’s a lot of unseen work. Hands making food. Farmers and growers. Neighbours carrying private hopes, worries, conversations. The kind of care that might not be noticed or named.

Soil is like that too.
Most of its life is invisible.
A whole web beneath the surface, turning old material into something that can feed what comes next.

That’s the simple ritual we’re practising at The Soil Factory. Members give their scraps. We check the chambers. We add what’s needed. And in time, we return living compost back to members to use in gardens, pots and planters.

If you want to gift someone a small, ongoing way to take part, membership starts from ÂŁ6/month. Link in bio.

Wishing you a gentle Christmas Eve.



Winter solstice. The longest night of the year.This photo was taken inside one of our compost chambers this week.Funny t...
21/12/2025

Winter solstice. The longest night of the year.

This photo was taken inside one of our compost chambers this week.

Funny to think billions of microorganisms are breaking food scraps down and it’s warm and busy in there. Steaming on cold mornings.

Earlier this week, Hans‑GĂŒnther showed us the squeeze test. Take a handful, lean close. If one drop comes out, that’s the sweet spot.

We mix the chamber, break up clumps around the spine, check moisture, and add fresh wood shavings to rebalance. Learn as we’re going. Opening lids, using hands, noticing smell, texture and temperature, adjusting carefully.

We like to think the microbes love the attention. It’s great fun doing it together.

Happy solstice. 🌑

Address

Forest Row

Website

http://www.thesoilfactory.earth/join

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