Discover the history
About Us
Since 1993, Engel & Gray Regional Compost Facility has been transforming locally collected organic material into premium STA Certified compost products, available to the public through a network of authorized landscape supply centers on the Central Coast. E&G also markets bulk material directly to large volume users such as agriculture, DOT highway projects and construction projects, as well as city parks departments and institutions. Our goal is to build healthy soil with compost, naturally!
How it all began –
In 1946, on the Central Coast of California, Carl W. Engel and Joe W. Gray, coworkers at Union Oil Co. of California, joined forces after Union Oil discontinued their trucking operation. Carl and Joe bought a truck, a crane and added construction crews; forming Engel & Gray, Inc., expanding their company to meet the growing needs of the Central Coast oil and agriculture industry.
Fast forward 40 years to 1986: Carl’s sons, Carl W. Engel, Jr. and Robert Engel, who had both grown up in the business, purchased the company. E&G ventured into the environmental construction industry, evolving into an industry leader, developing relationships with local regulators and performing cost-effective remediation projects along the Central Coast. These remediation projects led to the interest in composting and the biological process.
In 1991, extensive research led to the establishment of a Regional Composting Facility. With the vision to keep 400,000 yards of a valuable natural resource out of the landfills, the Regional Facility began to take shape. Forming a public/private partnership with the City of Santa Maria, Engel & Gray leased 40 acres of land at the City’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. Carl and Bob, along with their compost team, tackled the rigorous permitting process just as regulations were being established in California.
In 1995 Engel & Gray Regional Compost Facility became one of the first permitted composting sites in California, and by 1999 a full solid waste facility permit for composting had been acquired. Membership in the US Composting Council has been instrumental; creating a platform to meet with peers in the industry, exchanging ideas and methods, has been an essential tool for composting success.
Harvest Blend Compost is proud to carry the US Composting Council’s Seal of Testing Assurance (STA) label; certification awarded to compost products that have passed rigorous testing to ensure the customer is buying only the best compost on the market.
*Test results available upon request
