Experiment for Yourselves

Compost Experiments, The Quick Return Method and Unsung Hero Maye Bruce

Our first deep-dive examines the work of Maye E. Bruce, and the impact her 1946 book, “Common Sense Composting: The Quick-Return Method”, continues to have on small-scale biodynamic gardeners today.

The Quick-Return method is a simplified version of Rudolf Steiner's biodynamic method of compost-making. In his forward for Maye’s book, L.F. Easterbrook wrote, “When Dr. Rudolf Steiner was pressed to lecture publicly on agriculture, he eventually agreed, but with reluctance. 'All right,' he said, 'this is what I think. But for Heaven's sake experiment for yourselves.”'¹

This spirit of experimentation defines Maye’s work.

A decade before developing the Quick-Return Method, Maye was an active member of her local biodynamic association, deeply concerned by the degradation of soil quality worldwide and growing vegetables and flowers in her Cotswold garden. She traveled to Holland with a group to tour Pfeiffer’s farm. Here, she was uniquely inspired by the quality of Pfeiffer’s compost and the effect it had on the land; however, she perceived the need for compost as worldwide and urgent² and recognized that most smallholders, allotment holders, and gardeners who needed it most were unable to obtain the farmyard manure required.

Maye felt intuitively called to experiment and, after some years of standstill, decided to part ways with the Anthroposophical Agricultural Foundation in order to experiment more freely. She writes, “I was convinced that there must be some simple way of reaching the same end, and making good compost, moreover a way which could and should be given to all. I told them of this belief, and that I should do my best to find some other method, and, when found, developed and proved, would publish it, and bring it to as many people as I could reach; and further, that as there was, and never had been, any secret about the identity of the wild flowers used in the Steiner method, I felt free to use the same herbs in my experiments.”³

Maye describes “a slight demur” by the association at her determination to use the same wild flowers in her own experiments, but when she boldly pointed out “it was not Dr. Steiner who had given either dandelions or nettles to the world, they could only laugh, acquiesce [...], and part as the best of friends, mutually wishing each other 'good luck.’”⁴

The Divinity of the Flower is Sufficient of Itself

Starting out on her own, Maye writes, “I felt very lost, completely blank, only believing intensely that an idea would come to my help -- and come it did. I woke up one morning with the key to the problem in my mind and the words ringing in my head: 'The Divinity within the flower is sufficient of Itself'. With the words came the understanding of what they meant: the life, the vitality within the herbs, in the sap. [...] I started experiments that very day, extracted the juices from the living plants - dandelion, nettle, chamomile, yarrow, valerian, and made an infusion of oak bark.”⁵

Maye Bruce with her Quick-Return Compost.

Maye committed herself to her experiments, eventually developing a dried powder ‘activator’ using the seven ingredients, with the addition of honey. The powder was added to water, then shaken and allowed to stand for twenty-four hours, before being injected into the compost heap, providing a simple agent for turning vegetable waste into living compost in six to eight weeks.⁶ No animal manure or complicated processes required.

Fast forward eighty years, and Maye’s work is as relevant as ever. It is still a relatively small percentage of urban gardeners who have vegetable compost piles in their backyards. Urbanites diligently wheel their green compost bins out to the curb at the end of each week, but do not recognize they are tossing away the opportunity to grow living soil from their very own kitchen scraps.

For the small biodynamic gardener who wants high-quality compost but doesn’t have access to high-quality animal manure, the Quick-Return Method is a common sense approach.

“The idea that in farming we are really exploiting the land is quite correct. Indeed, we cannot help doing so. With all that we send out into the world from our farms, we are taking forces away from the earth – nay, even from the air. These forces must somehow be restored.” Rudolf Steiner, Lecture 5, The Agriculture Course

Early on in my biodynamic and permaculture studies, I recognized the need to improve my compost systems – and I wanted to make real biodynamic compost. I visited the Josephine Porter Institute’s website and found a wonderfully long list of informative directives and preparations available for purchase that would inevitably improve my soil and compost heap.

I ordered the complete set of compost preparations, as well as Pfeiffer’s Compost Starter and Pfeiffer’s Field and Garden Spray, plus BD 500, BD 501 and BD 508. I recognize now that I didn’t really need to buy quite so many preparations, but I was excited. I followed the instructions and stirred and sprayed diligently, and witnessed a drastic improvement in soil structure and plant resilience. I was hooked.

In the back of my mind, I knew the next step for both my budget and my own self-sufficiency was to begin making my own biodynamic preps, but it would prove a challenge – especially sourcing high-quality animal manure.

An online search for a simplified biodynamic compost approach led me to discover New Zealand-based biodynamic gardener Katrina Wolff.

Katrina’s relationship to compost is sacred.

Photo: Katrina Wollf

Similar to me, Katrina lives in small spaces, tending urban backyards, schools and businesses. She gathers compost materials as she goes. She delights in showcasing biodiverse compost piles and excels at playing with their natural construction.

Katrina crafts all-natural compost vessels that complement an organic and biodynamic garden with their simplicity, utility, and beauty.

It was Katrina who opened the world of Maye Bruce for me. You see, Katrina is experimenting with the Quick-Return Method while she is in the process of moving house. “I'm not doing the Maye Bruce experiment to improve on the biodynamic compost preparations,” she admits. “It's definitely a compromise while I can't make the preps.” Nine batches into her “compromise”, Katrina is exploring the relationship between the floral ingredients and honey, while definitely noticing an improvement in the smell and texture of the piles that have been treated with floral activators versus those that have not been.

Katrina is intuitively adding a wider variety of “high vitality” flowers and herbs from her garden and documenting the varying results on her website here. She is inviting others interested in experimenting with the Quick-Return method to join an online research group.

I was immediately in, but I wanted to learn more. I invited Katrina to sit down and speak with me from her sunny home in New Zealand; I asked her how she first heard about Maye’s work, about her incredible biodynamic garden and compost business “Blue Borage”, and about the experiments she is conducting now.

You can watch our full conversation here:

Join Katrina as she documents her Q. R. experiments on her Instagram @blueborage.

Speaking with Katrina felt like receiving a visit from summer, herself. At this point in the northern hemisphere, it can feel like spring will never return; the deepest piles of snow are persistent, yet at midday I can sense their slow melt and the temperatures, which have been relentlessly frigid, are finally starting to rise. I can feel Maye’s hand on my shoulder, whispering, “use what you have”, and “the divinity of the flower is sufficient of Itself”, as I work on building compost stores and preparing soil for seeds.

Photo: Kal Panchal

Written by Kate Heming Panchal

1. Maye E. Bruce. Compost Making by the Quick Return Method, p. 4. [Foreword]. L.F. Easterbrook.

2. Maye E. Bruce. Compost Making by the Quick Return Method, p. 8.

3. Maye E. Bruce. Compost Making by the Quick Return Method, p. 8.

4. Maye E. Bruce. Compost Making by the Quick Return Method, p. 8.

5. Maye E. Bruce. Compost Making by the Quick Return Method, p. 9.

6. Maye E. Bruce. Compost Making by the Quick Return Method, p. 15.