Top ten composts this year
Joining in on the year end fun with my own particular style of round-up
It’s the end of the year, and what a supremely long year it has been. Both good and less good, and with elements of profound and transformative change. Two days from now, I’ll turn 40. I plan to spend my birthday at the Very Large Array in a stretch of northern New Mexico. Time is unbelievable.
I’m not usually a holiday post-er, or “timely” with content in any significant sense of the word, but this year feels different. As the New Year’s countdown kicks in and end-of-year round-ups begin flooding inboxes everywhere, I thought I’d do something slightly out-of-character and … add to the noise, yes, …but also reflect on and appreciate some of the great projects I’ve encountered this year. My community grows bigger every day, and the types of people and ideas that filter into my orbit more-and-more inspired and interesting. I am compelled to share. Consider it a bit of a spell I’m casting, a wish for 2026 to be filled with even more and the same. Please don’t unsubscribe to me for this, lol.
PS.: Substack warns me this post is too large—probably the fault of the photos—and will get clipped near the end for size constraints. But if you have some time please click through to see my #1 because it’s one that means a lot to me. :)
PS.2: If you feel up to it, please reply and send me your own favorite.
The Rot’s Top Ten Favorite Composts, 2025
10. FREE COMPOST at Probably Gallery, by Cassandra Marketos
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Is it cheating to put my own compost pile? Yes, it is. But this year I had my first-ever real-deal gallery show at Probably Gallery in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, and it was incredibly fun and exciting. FREE COMPOST was a simple conceptual sculpture, wherein I filled a corner of the gallery with compost and invited viewers to take handfuls of it home in paper bags that I provided. By the time the show was done, the entire pile was gone, and for months after I received photographs from attendees regarding what they’d grown with it. Delightful beyond belief.
Relevant Links:
The show also featured images from my friend Nina Weithorn and her work to revitalize the soil in an old farming community. This is my write up of that project.
9. Celebrity Compost by Isabella Rossellini
Bellport, New York
This compost was not made in 2025, but it was new to me as of 2025. I had no idea Isabella Rossellini owned a farm or that she loved compost, or that she loved compost enough to stick her whole hand into a pile while being photographed for a newspaper. Bless her.
Relevant Links:
The piece from whence it came: “Down on the Farm” in the New York Times.
8. Art Compost, by David Horvitz
Location: Los Angeles, California
In many ways the original compost pile of my career, this tumultuous and ever-expanding pile located in the artist David Horvitz’s famous little garden is full of surprises. Sometimes it catches on fire, sometimes it grows broccoli out of one side, sometimes it etc., —but every piece of it has some kind of story, and turning it always reveals at least one treasure. 10/10. One of my favorites of all time.
Relevant Links:
7. Island Compost, by the Thorson Family
Location Undisclosed
Nothing better than an island compost, except a secret island compost, because the whereabouts of this particular place I am not permitted to reveal. What I can say is this: my friend Siri is a third generation farmer born-and-raised on an island in the [redacted] Ocean, and there are big shaggy piles of plant debris scattered all across the place because the island has no trash service, landfills, or disposal services of any kind. The compost heaps therefore represent the islanders total autonomy from waste, which I deeply admire. They are also massive, constantly sprouting new plant life, and reside on the earth like patient geologic formations, seeming both ancient and wise.
Relevant Links:
6. Livestock Compost, by Farmer Unknown
Location: Unknown
This year, I received a certificate from the EPA designating me as trained in livestock composting. It was a fascinating piece of education that has, kind of surprisingly, come in handy a few times already.
Relevant Links:
None really, just enjoy this one.
5. Johnson Su Improv Compost, by Solomon Bothwell
Location: Tujunga, Los Angeles
Nothing I love more than a good, ol’-fashioned Johnson Su. This eponymous compost method—named after the husband-and-wife duo who invented it—involves building a very carbon-heavy heap encircled in open wire and leaving it completely alone for over a year, producing an extremely fungal end product. The compost pictured above isn’t precisely the Johnson Su build, but definitely at least inspired by the concept. As long-time readers know, I love a little composting freestyle.
Relevant Links
4. Compost On The News, by The Rot Squad
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Ahh, okay. Cheating again! But local Los Angeles news station KCAL stopped by the Edendale Community Compost Hub and interviewed volunteers about what the hell we are doing. The answer: having fun! The finished piece primarily featured a volunteer’s dog sniffing the mic, which is completely justified and also ideal, but we also DID get to talk about the importance of community composting to a nightly news audience for at least a little bit, and I even got my own spotlight and banner (“Community Volunteer”!!) Look at me now, ma and pa.
Relevant Links:
You can donate to Seeds of Hope, the food justice non-profit that stewards the land where the compost hub resides, right here.
3. Farm Compost, by Sam Vincent
Location: Canberra, Australia !!!
Oh gosh, this one’s a really all-time favorite. Sam is a second-generation farmer and accomplished author who lives in Australia, whom I’ve never met in real life, but who has been a regular pen pal about all things soil, farming, and writing since at least 2020 (!) when we connected over …. Twitter, I want to say? And struck up a friendship. He has since written a truly great memoir about taking on the family farm, which you should absolutely read. His farm compost is top-notch, loose and shaggy just like I like ‘em, and composed of things like family dinner scraps, foraged seaweed from his Dad, and pruned branches from the farm’s fig trees.
Relevant Links
HONORARY MENTION: Ritual Compost, by Cassandra Marketos
Location: Los Angeles, California
CHEATING. AGAIN. But I couldn’t let this whole list get written without mentioning one of my other favorite-ever compost experiences of the year, which was being invited to participate in a summer solstice picnic/art show put on by Active Cultures. I made a gigantic compost pile under some oak trees and invited participants to bring me something they wanted to release. I then composted each of the items on-site. It was a beautiful day and, as ever, people amazed me with the thoughtful grace they displayed in the items they chose, and their attentive presence at the pile.
Relevant Links:
This piece was a re-staging of a compost pile I once did in David Horvitz’s garden. You can read about that here.
2. Fibershed Compost, by the Fibershed Community
Location: Point Reyes Station, California
This year, I picked up a gig working with Fibershed, a nonprofit organization devoted to rebuilding our textile system from the soil up. The team there works on-the-ground with farmers, shepherds, domestic mills, clothing brands, etc., etc., to totally reimagine a textile system in this country that is both plentiful and truly sustainable. It is awe-inspiring to witness the women at work who fuel this effort—and it’s all women—in addition to getting to contribute. Over the summer, I got to visit their Learning Center, which happens to be just twenty minutes from where I grew up, and took a tour through their absolute abundance of compost piles. They are big and there are a lot of them. Praise.
Relevant Links:
Support the Fibers Fund at Fibershed, which directly benefits farmers that choose to transition to a framework of sustainable practices supporting soil health.
1. All My Friends Are Compost, by My Friends
Location: Los Angeles / Global
Genuinely nothing has meant more to me this year than falling into lockstep with a small, but mighty community of other women who are deeply immersed in community compost work. These women showed their power this year after the crushing devastation of the Los Angeles fires, coming together in impacted communities to teach classes, provide resources and education, actively bioremediate damaged soils, and do everything else they could to unite people in a grassroots effort to overcome unimaginable loss. I’m in awe every day. To Maggie, Lynn, Nina, Genesis, Daisy, Katya, and more and more, who are doing the hard-but-important work every single day, and who inspire me immeasurably every moment, and to whom I owe so much for their absolutely unconditional support over the year, I just love the shit out of you.
Relevant Links:
Fundraiser for Dena Soil Coalition, a conglomerate of community groups who are supporting fire recovery efforts in Altadena.
Maggie’s project, Club Gay Gardens, featured in the LA Times.
Nina’s project, Altadena Seed Library, featured in the New York Times.
Katya is running for mayor.
Genesis’s equally as inspiring STEM journey for Latinas in STEM.
Happy New Year, everyone.
Love,
Cass
One of the few countdown lists I've read through this month 👏 So awesome to see so many people coming together over composting.
You know I loved this countdown list. It was fun to see all the highlights of your compost career. Getting the word out in important and inspiring ways. I was trying to pick a favorite. Why, I don’t know. I couldn’t settle on just one. I found them all to be my favorites. I liked the idea of giving away compost as an art installation. We have our version of compost give away at our local farm. Not art but still appreciated. It is a huge pile, bring your own shovel and bucket kind of thing. I was thrilled at feeling the heat of the compost pile asI stood in it shoveling away. At home my plants and trees loved it. I know how those people felt taking a bag home from your art installation. The other idea that you shared that I liked was building the compost pile and inviting people to bring something they wanted to release to add to it and you there to accept it. Truth be told, I am very proud of the work you, my daughter, is doing in the compost world. It gives me grains of hope and to know that you are behind it all makes me want to burst some buttons. I loved seeing the list and I appreciate all the hard work behind it. ❤️