The people behind the soil

Meet the Team

Family-run since 2001. Two owners, a small crew, and the long-form work of putting Northern California ground back together one yard at a time.

Owners

Who runs the yard

Joel White

Founder & Co-owner

Founded Earthworm Soil Factory in 2001 — what began as a one-yard worm bin behind the house grew into the drive-on scale facility at 2552 Clark Road that supplies Northern California growers today.

Joel tunes the recipes to Butte County's ground: the valley clay, the foothill decomposed granite, and the post-fire ash up on the ridge — three soil profiles, three different jobs to do.

He also runs the forest-to-farm protocol — thinning Northstate timber stands for wildfire fuel reduction and routing the biomass into high-fungal compost and biochar instead of burn piles.

John Thompson

Co-owner

Co-owner of Earthworm Soil Factory, working alongside founder Joel White to keep Northern California growers supplied with real soil and to grow the yard into a regional soil hub.

The crew

The people who make it work

Sarah

Executive Assistant

Keeps the day-to-day running on Joel's side of the business — scheduling, contracts, contractor program admin, and the dozen things every week that would otherwise fall through the cracks.

Aidan

Tech & Web Operations

Builds and maintains the website, the order automations, and the data plumbing behind the scenes. If something ordered online ends up on a truck the next morning, the path between those two points is mostly Aidan's work.

Angie

Gardener

Runs the gardens at the yard — the demonstration beds, the trial plantings, and the seasonal cuttings that customers see when they walk in. The visible answer to "does your soil actually work?" is whatever's growing in Angie's plots.

Terry

Soil Production

Runs the soil-mixing side of the yard. Every blend that goes out — Garden, Premium, NorCal Growers, worm castings — passes through Terry's hands. He's the one who decides when a batch is ready and when it needs another turn.

Greg

Mechanic

Keeps the trucks, the scale, the loaders, and every piece of yard equipment running. Same-week deliveries don't happen without Greg making sure the fleet shows up.

Want to talk to us?

Call the yard at (530) 895-9676 during business hours, or drop a line through the contact form. We're here Monday through Saturday, 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM.

Get in touch