Rising food costs due to inflationary pressures have increased the interest in home gardening in America.  Many people see their efforts as an “inflation-fighting” measure that also provides the additional health benefits of increased exercise and fresher produce options.  Americans turning to gardening as a way to reduce household expenses have found savings to be hundreds or even thousands of dollars, depending on the size of their garden and varieties of produce.  Accordin

Q: So how do we get that next generation that's coming up to understand the benefits of using compost, using the extracts, things of that nature, versus continuing what we're doing as current farming habits.   Robin:  Well, I think that's also a part of what EVE is all about is the educational impact. We are in a rural area, we're in a farming area, and our company is not only making a product, but just in the past couple weeks, I was up in northern Indiana, and they've alrea

Q:   So how do you go about impacting that next generation, whether it be the next generation of farmers or others?   Doug:  That is a very good question.  Robin and I went to a composting meeting in Veedersburg, Indiana.  The Indiana Composting Council sponsored a field day.   We visited a farm where they have been doing regenerative farming techniques for 17 years.  The owner has been to Washington DC to testify before various committees.  He said, “to make our humus compos

Q: So, you said obtaining inputs is one of your bigger issues right now. If you had your druthers, what inputs would you like to see people bring you so that they can be recycled into usable compost?   Matt:  So obviously we have plenty of trees, and plenty of wood chips. This helps to keep the tree scrap out of the landfills.  We still produce that through the tree division, and we were looking to make sure that stays going indefinitely. We've even got the next generation ta

Q:   Is there anything else you wish people knew about composts?   Doug:  Yeah, where we're located.  We need to make Evanston, Indiana the center of the universe for soil. You can start here and build any soil that you want for any particular plant that you want.  So, the first name that comes to mind when my garden's not doing well, or my field is dying out there; I want that name to be Evanston Valley Enterprises.  When a customer says, “Our field is all white with clay ra

Q:   How would you say the process of producing compost is different now than it was when you first started EVE?   Matt:  Well, as far as laying out the windrow of material with organic Matter, that's the exact same. We're still doing windrow compost. The difference is in the equipment that we utilize.  We went from just using a backhoe with a front loader where we would make a windrow and then when we'd go to turn it by picking it up and fluffing it. That's how I oxygenated

Q:   When did you start investing in training on compost production?   Matt:  That would have been 2016.  We'd been... for lack of a better term, farting around with it for a couple of years. We had some issues with the tree service, and in 2016, we actually sold all the equipment for the tree division. We sold the bucket truck, the chipper, the chip truck, we sold everything off. I retained my chainsaw and my climbing gear, and that was it. I didn't cut one tree that year be

Q:   Why start Evanston Valley Enterprises from your perspective?   Robin:  I think as the four or five people in the family who started this company, it's almost like we've got an entrepreneurial spirit where we're always thinking ‘what could we do with this and what we could do with that’.  So, when we saw the wood chips steaming when we were loading them up, and they looked so dark, that's why we started EVE. We saw an opportunity, now what can we do with it?  We can make

Q:  Give me the history of Evanston Valley Enterprises?   Matt Knepper:  Evanston Valley Enterprises started when we had an ice storm here in Southern Indiana. When we got our start with K&K Tree Division, what really put us on the map and got us busy was the ice storm in the winter of 2008-09.  We had a small chipper, and we produced mountains of wood chips.   We had two different properties across the road from each other where we piled the wood chips.  One wood chip pile w

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