Our discussion abut 'Black Gold' a few years ago brought up the same issues. Once the black gold was out of the water and decomp continued or changed gears, whatever the stuff was 'earthy' smelling and like I stated, was fertile enough to grow 2 crops w/out extra fert...
So whatever explanations there are, they must meet with reality... and remember, compost isn't very good fertilizer as far as NPK are concerned, but it is very valuable in soil fertility...
