The Curative Power of Compost

Fresh out of Harvard, Helen Zuman was lucky enough to receive a grant that gave her the opportunity to explore the world of community homesteading.

She ended up in a seductive cult based in the foothills of rural North Carolina, where she experienced a distorted version of dating and romance as a young adult under the supervision of charismatic and overbearing leaders.

Now Zuman hopes to put that experience to good use through crowd-funding her memoir, Mating in Captivity.

How did she get to this point? The answer lies in the transformative nature of compost. Just as a well-tended heap can turn household scraps and waste into beautifully rich soil, Zuman utilized a “stinky, ugly load of long-dammed emotions” in crafting a compelling story of youth struggling to thrive under adverse psychological conditions.

“At first, I wrote to release the pain I’d suffered, the rage I felt, the humiliations I’d endured,” Zuman states. But in order to develop the final result, Zuman discovered that “each complete draft of a manuscript, set aside and then listened to, will tell you what to do next. Like the unseen microbes who turn food waste into humus, the spirit of a story, given the proper conditions, will guide its human partner to fully realize the story’s final form.”

Not only did this powerful method help Zuman to process those five long years, it also resulted in a narrative that will resonate with all of us in the composting, gardening and homesteading world.

Support Mating in Captivity on Kickstarter today and take an alluring first look at Chapter 1.