Our big adventure for August has been setting up a worm farm! I’m sure the majority of you are wondering what in the world is a worm farm. Vermicomposting is a form of composting that lets worms digest organic matter and turns them into worm tea and castings. I’m sure you can guess what those are! The tea and the castings can be used to help fertilize your plants.

This all got started because back in April, Ian mentioned his class had a worm farm. A friend had briefly mentioned a worm farm to me a month before that, but I had forgotten about it. I started doing some research and saw the benefits of recycling our organic waste. Some of the things you feed them are banana peels, apple cores, broccoli stalks, egg shells, coffee grounds, and human and pet hair (gross, I know).

The worms had a rough start. I ordered 2 pounds (approximately 2000 worms) two weeks ago. They should have arrived within a few days but they didn’t show up so I assumed I didn’t submit my order before the shipping cutoff date. The following Monday I got a call from my Dad in North Carolina saying he had my worms. Apparently I shipped them to their house in Scottsdale which were forwarded to their house in North Carolina. I was sure they were dead, but he checked and they were still alive so he shipped them up to us!

We got our worms this past Wednesday and it’s been kind of fun so far. We had a rotting bag of disgusting scraps and they seem to be doing a good job devouring it. The kids think it is pretty cool too. It isn’t a mess at all and there is no odor. I recommend it!

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 7:25 am and is filed under Family life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.