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One day in France, some cowsgrazed lazily, swatting flies with theirtails, lowing softly and chewing cud, asbovines are wont to do. Little did theyknow they would one day be responsi-ble for diverting tons and tons of theMiddleton area’s waste away fromlandfills.

But when asked to explain PurpleCow Organics, a local company thatspecializes in high quality compostproducts, Ryan Hartberg, the com-pany’s director of operations, says it allgoes back to those cows. They inspiredwriter Seth Godin to create the “purplecow” principle.

While driving through France,Godin, who was probably not fromWisconsin, said he was “enchanted bythe hundreds of storybook cows graz-ing in lovely pastures right next to theroad.”

“For dozens of kilometers, we allgazed out the window, marveling at thebeauty,” he wrote. “Then, within a fewminutes, we started ignoring the cows.The new cows were just like the oldcows, and what was once amazing wasnow common. Worse than common: Itwas boring.”

Goden reasoned that no matter howgood the cows were at their jobs, theyjust didn’t stand out.

“A Purple Cow, though: Now, thatwould really stand out,” he continued.“The essence of the Purple Cow - thereason it would shine among a crowdof perfectly competent, even undeni-ably excellent cows - is that it would beremarkable. Something remarkable isworth talking about, worth paying at-tention to.”

The ownership group behind PurpleCow Organics embraced that philoso-phy. The team includes some namesfamiliar to those who follow commerceand economic development in theGood Neighbor City: Jeanne Whitish,James (Sandy) Syburg, Leland (Lee)Bruce, Steve Stumbras and Lisa Sher-rard. They made the idea of “remark-ableness” the cornerstone on whichtheir compost venture was built.

Hartberg estimates the young com-pany diverted approximately 15,775

tons of yard residuals from the landfillin 2012. Roughly 7,500 tons of woodwere also diverted, along with 7,115tons of shingles alone.

(Somewhat ironically, while thecompany’s logo is a purple cow, itsproducts don’t contain cow manure.)

Purple Cow hopes to double sales in2013. Part of that goal includes newbagged products: Purple Cow TomatoGro and Purple Cow Potting Mix.

Hartberg said Purple Cow, whichwas initially a product made by Bruce’sSecond Season Recycling, has beenmarketed primarily by those who useit.

“Marketing has changed,” he said.“Nowadays it’s about having a productpeople like. If people like it, they havethe ability to market it for you in a veryreal, very rapid way.”

Making compost doesn’t have to berocket science – after all, many home-owners do it in their backyards - butHartberg said the team at Purple Cowhas come up with an unusually precisemethod.

“In the traditional sense [makingcompost] is simply taking materials –grass, leaves, small woody things,maybe some paper or cardboard, whichused to be wood after all – and leavingthem in a pile for 18 months,” he said.“While it sits there, microorganismsliving within it are breaking downthose ingredients.”

Those piles need to be turned inorder to provide air and water for themicrobes, whose activity is what heatsthe piles.

But at Purple Cow Organics they be-lieve, as Hartberg puts it, “not all com-

post is created equal.”“You can ask what you want your

compost to do,” he explained. “Youranswer will change how it’s made. Isits purpose aesthetic, like mulch? Is itto improve the soil? Is it specifically toimprove your plants’ food, which inturn improves your food?”

“We feel strongly that there is agreater cause at work here,” he contin-ued. “That’s what makes coming towork every day enjoyable. I’m not say-ing composting this way is the onlyway, but it’s a way, and it’s our way.”

Hartberg said at Purple Cow, spe-cific mixture ratios are closely moni-tored, the product is meticulouslygrinded and screened, and rows areturned “like clockwork.”

Different products do differentthings. The original Purple Cow is thefirst version, a finer line is just that –almost the consistency of coffeegrounds, and an “activated” compost isbiologically busier.

“The part of compost that you see isjust a vehicle,” Hartberg said. “It’s amethod of delivering all that biologyinto the soil. It’s the microorganismsthat allow the plants to eat.”

Purple Cow Organics obtains mostof its raw materials through municipalcontracts. While much of that wastewould otherwise end up in landfills, it’snot exclusively out of a sense of eco-logical altruism that cities and villagesbring their waste to Purple Cow. It’s ac-tually cheaper than paying landfill tip-ping fees.

“We’re the financially preferredmethod,” Hartberg explained.

Buyers range from relatively large-scale organic farmers to urban garden-ers who pick up their bags of PurpleCow at co-operatives and garden cen-ters. The large-scale producers tend touse Purple Cow on higher value crops:Increasing a yield of tomatoes or gin-seng by a few pounds can mean signif-icantly more revenue for a farmer.

“We don’t currently sell anythingthrough big boxes,” Hartberg added.“We like the local stores and the peo-ple, and we’re not trying to competewith cheap compost.”

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2012 MIDDLETON TIMES-TRIBUNE PAGE 3

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Purple Cow Organics strives to stand out

Times-Tribune photo by Matt Geiger

Ryan Hartberg displays Purple Cow’s new Tomato Gro product.

by MATT GEIGERTimes-Tribune

Ryan HartbergPurple Cow Organics

The part of the compost you see is just a vehicle...”

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