Minnesota composter reports elevated sales

Mississippi Topsoils, Cold Spring, Minnesota, said it experienced remarkable growth during the last two years despite the challenges of the Covid pandemic.

Mississippi Topsoils, the makers of Soil Essentials premium soil products, cited reports that 18 million more people started growing gardens throughout the pandemic. That trend continued into the 2021 season, elevating almost all gardening product sales, including Soil Essentials retail and commercial grower soil products.

As a result, the company expanded to the largest number of employees it has ever had in its 24 year history, with five full-time employees and more than 12 part-time employees.

Maija Eickhoff and Logan Payne secured the most recent full-time employee positions by offering complementary skills to the current team. Eickhoff’s degree in environmental studies and experience in entrepreneurship added to the existing dynamic, the company said. Payne’s military experience, attention to customer service and leadership in operations allows daily processes to move smoothly.

Day-to-day business activities include operating heavy machinery to transport materials and add ingredients to create quality compost, bagging materials, creating soil mixes and supporting customer needs. Soils on offer include Soil Essentials premium compost, Soil Essentials potting soil, Soil Essentials planting mix, Soil Essentials composted manure and other custom blends.

The team expansion also allows Mississippi Topsoils to turn its attention to future operational improvements, the company said. New developments include adding more automated components to the bagging process and reducing operational waste through recycling plastics and other single-use packaging.

Soil Essentials premium compost is made through the 12,000-year-old transformative process of composting. A by-product from Pilgrim’s Pride, a local poultry processing facility, transforms into an excellent gardening amendment using a state-of-the-art composting system. Computer controls and massive climate-controlled steel containers house the composting process and retain the heat necessary to promote the conditions needed to start the composting process while minimizing environmental impacts.

The process also reduces waste and offsets massive quantities of greenhouse gasses. For example, every load that Mississippi Topsoils takes from Pilgrim’s results in less organic material deposited in a landfill to emit large amounts of methane.