About Us

Hi! Welcome to Elm Dirt!

Back in January 2020, I watched as my 6 month old daughter would grab fistfuls of dirt and eat it. We would be in our backyard or at playgrounds and she would be eating dirt somewhere. And I would cringe just wondering what chemicals she was eating. Was that weed killer, was that fertilizer, was there pesticides on there? And I knew there had to be a better way.

I had heard about worm composting through my husband’s family who had someone who did worm farming back in the 1980’s and I knew I at least wanted to do worm composting on a personal level. But I felt the need to share natural and organic methods with more people and Elm Dirt was born!

Since family is at the heart of Elm Dirt, we decided to make it part of the name too. Elm stands for Emma, Logan and Mama. Emma and Logan were 6 months and 2.5 years old at the beginning of Elm Dirt and helped take care of the worms by feeding them food waste and helped package up orders for our customers. At the beginning, we raised worms in our own house originally to sell at farmer’s markets until the pandemic hit. Then we started selling our worms online and shipping our worms across the nation.

However, we knew not everyone would want to raise worms but everyone would want the benefits that worms bring to soil, including natural, high quality soil but also the beneficial microbes that thrive in worm castings (worm poop!). And so I began to use my background as a chemical engineer to develop the formulas for Elm Dirt’s fertilizers and soil blends.

I researched Korean Natural Farming, permaculture, and emerging science articles and took all that information and developed test batches. All of our products were first tried on a wide variety of plants in our facility and then 3rd party tested as well so that you can be confident in Elm Dirt’s products. 

Now there is an effective natural and organic fertilizer option for homes, greenhouses and farms that is made right here in Kansas City. Each purchase of our products helps rebuild soil health for not just our benefit but for future generations as well!

Come grow with me!

Lauren 

Founder