At Incredible Farm we'd negotiated with Hywel (above) of Blackbark/Firebox for some of their biochar. This biochar is quality charcoal which is produced as a residue from the charcoal burning process. It was free to IF.
Blackbark's wood yard is on the Widdop Rd to Burnley. They're a group of guys who have the concession from CMBC to sustainably manage its forest estate. Otherwise this forestry would not be managed at all - there's no budget for it. So Blackbark are coppicing, pollarding and just thinning out Calderdale's woodland. Blackbark then sell these products to the public: charcoal and firewood in the main.
I took three half-full bags back to Incredible Farm where our manager Beth looked over the biochar. It will be layered within a huge compost heap made from the horse muck IF collect from a stable at Summit.
What we think will happen in the compost heap is that the biochar will absorb a lot of moisture and, with that, NPK plant nutrients plus trace elements from the rotting material. After about a year we can use this compost and slowly the nutrients will be released in the soil. In a normal heap using dung, it is likely that much of the valuable nutrients will be both leeched-out and released too quickly.
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