We’re off to meet Bill, a gentleman farmer (farming Servers in the tech industry by day) who posted an ad on Craigslist offering up ‘Black Gold’ for free!
Bill’s composted horse manure will add the final touch to our soil amendments this year. A cubic yard of composted vegetation and a 3 cubic foot bale of sphagnum peat in each 16 foot raised beds has gone a long way toward making the native red clay more hospitable to plants.
Though it is common practice to fill raised beds with totally new soil, this somehow feels like it leads to a destruction of any sense of terroir.  We have carefully amended the existing clay which provides its own unique blend of minerals to flavor our produce.  Adding liberal amounts of sphagnum peat and both vegetable and manure composts have improved the fertility, drainage and water retentive qualities of our gardens.

~The Suburban Hayseed.

UPDATE:

The ‘Black Gold’ wasn’t quite as black as we needed to be.  It was a bit blonde with fresh sawdust not long from the barn.  Instead of forking it directly into the beds as planned, we piled it on top of our existing twig heap/compost pile so as to accelerate the action of both.  We wet it down well with the hose and covered it with a loosed bale of straw to keep in the heat.  A few weeks and a few turns of the pile and it will be rich and ready compost in perfect time to set our first outdoor seedlings in early April!