Soil Social Club

900 liters. That’s how much Terra Preta the Soil Social Club created from kitchen waste on campus last year. For those of us with less of an affinity for gardening, terra preta is a particularly fertile form of soil that is actually found in the Amazon basin, but which you can also make yourself from compost and charcoal. Now, over a year after the first compost was collected, the Terra Preta is being used to grow herbs and vegetables on our campus.

More than just earth

The idea for the Soil Social Club came to Benjamin Rodriguez Kafka, our Vision and Community Director, just over a year ago. He wanted to know whether something could be done with the 120 liters of kitchen waste generated in our campus canteen every week – and immediately thought of Ayumi Matzusaka. The artist and founder of Dycle, which has also been based on campus since the beginning of the year, has around 10 years’ experience in producing Terra Preta.

Matzusaka came up with the idea of a monthly meeting on campus where anyone who wants to can help turn compost into Terra Preta. The aim is to pursue a larger goal: “We want to use our hands and build a greater connection to nature through physical activity,” explains Matzusaka. She also wants to enable everyone to help shape the campus and participate in campus life.

A living campus motto

This monthly get-together has been taking place since January 2021. Several cubic meters of Terra Preta have been created and just last month spinach, tomatoes, pumpkins, kohlrabi and much more were planted in it. All the plants came from a wish list that the participants drew up at the beginning of last year. This is how we live the motto Soil, Soul and Society on campus!

To find out more about Matzusaka, Dycle, and our campus as a whole, you can read more here. And to stay up to date with upcoming events, you can subscribe to our newsletter here.