Compost!

Compost? Is this the handbuilt stoneware blog? Yes and yes. Compost!

Santa (in her infinite wisdom) brought my husband Bill a tee shirt that says “Compost—can you dig it?” And indeed he does. How is this pertinent to Kahoka pottery? Those pumpkin pots, that’s how. Slabs of clay are smoothed down over pumpkins to share their wonderful organic shape. To a handbuilder, those ridges and curves are more interesting than the perfect round accomplished on a wheel. Than anything can be added (upside down as previously described) to that pumpkin pot—leaves, figures, letters, or nothing at all.

Once a year I carefully select a pumpkin at the farmers’ market to use as my new model. I seek out an unprecedented size or shape and favor the pumpkins with deep ridges that remind me of Cinderella’s coach. At some point in the season, I use my clay to make a mold of that pumpkin since I know my organic globe is

time limited. After valiant service (often of nearly a year), the pumpkin succumbs to old age and lands in the compost. Our compost is in a square made of railroad ties, one on each side and a couple ties high; that’s plenty of space for digging in the new offerings (which are all veggie in nature) so they don’t attract critters.

Spring comes and the compost erupts into a motley patch of fledgling avocado trees, lots of squash of all kinds, some tomato plants, and more of those glorious pumpkins. Bill fusses that vines are crawling out of the compost square and he can’t mow out there. I tell him not to bother them and to gently curl them back in closer to the bin if they are encroaching on his turf. Those vines are on a mission, and it’s all good!