Bernalillo County Extension Master Composter Program
Welcome!
Welcome to the Bernalillo County Master Composter website. The Master Composter organization provides basic composting classes for the general public and trains volunteers to teach these classes.
- If you would like to attend a free composting class, please see Classes and Other Activities for the Public.
- If you would like to schedule a composting class for your organization, see Contact Information.
- If you would like to become a master composter, see Master Composter Volunteer Training.
- If you have a composting question, please see Ask a Master.
- If you would like to know more about us or find composting resources, see additional links in the left sidebar.
And remember...when in drought, spread the compost out!
News, Announcements, Things to Know
See New Presentations on Homemade Compost Bins
Please check out our new presentations for four types of compost bins you can make at home that are especially suited for our desert climate.
Learn How Best to Compost in the Desert
Composting in New Mexico has its special challenges. Composting in the Desert is our flyer specifically about composting in our part of the world, and newly revised May 2018. Also see Desert Composting Recommendations. For teachers, these materials are available on our composting handouts page.
Learn More About Convective Air Flow in a Compost Bin
Read our new webpage Convective Air Flow which includes a beautiful drawing by Master Composter intern Jenn Myers.
Sign Up for Our Mailing List
If you'd like to receive email about our longer workshops and master composter training you can sign up for our mailing list.
Learn About Bucket Composting
Have you heard about bucket composting with the Bokashi method? It's a method developed in Japan that is inexpensive, easy, takes up little space, has no smells, doesn't attract pests, and requires no turning. The method makes it hard to find an excuse not to compost your kitchen waste! You can compost all the kitchen scraps you normally compost as well as meat, bones, and oily things. Jill Van Nortwick recently gave a talk to BERNCO master composters about Bokashi composting. Check out these PowerPoint slides from the talk. Or, if you prefer, here is a PDF copy of the slides. The slides include a video about Bokashi composting. The video is made by a commercial company but keep in mind that you can do Bokashi composting in ordinary buckets.
You Can Help Support BCEMC via AmazonSmile
Our organization has signed up to benefit from the AmazonSmile program. If you shop at Amazon and specify Bernalillo County Extension Master Composters as your charity, a percentage of what you spend will be donated to BCEMC. It's very easy to set up. Please see our Donations page for the details. Your support of BCEMC is much appreciated.
Master Composters in the News
Our very own John Zarola was interviewed about composting by KRQE News 13. Watch the video.
We Are nmcomposters.org
You can get to our site via the URL nmcomposters.org. Master composters, please share it with your students. The URL, bernalilloextension.nmsu.edu/mastercomposter, works as well. Both will get you to the page you are on now.
