Howdy!  It’s been a fun summer trying to take our home vermicomposting to the level of a hobby business, especially selling worms at the new South End Farmers Market.  Unfortunately, other time committments mean that we’ll no longer be at the Farmers Market on Wednesdays.  Still feel free to contact us with your comments and questions on vermicomposting, and happy worm farming!

Wow, June was a busy month!  Steph and I were getting settled into our new house in Bolton, Vermont, planting gardens, and trying to  get a bit of worm care in at the same time.  We’re still in the process of building our permanent worm bins, but the worms have been taking it in stride and continuing to turn all the food waste from Outer Space Cafe into rich, fertile vermicompost.

Since we’re still ramping up our vermicomposting, we had to buy four trailer loads of Intervale compost for our gardens (not sure we’ll ever get big enough to sell compost by the cubic yard).  There’s an amazing difference in how fine and completely-decomposed vermicompost is when compared to traditional compost.  I’ll post some photos soon, or come check us out at the Burlington South End Farmers Market Wednesday afternoons!

Even though I knew better, we had a worm escape this weekend.  Red wiggler compost worms generally stay in the bedding as long as things are going well.  You don’t even need a lid on the bin.  But… when compost worms are first put into new bedding — and especially if it’s nice and humid (like after a rain) — they’ll sometimes go on the prowl in a serious way.  Here some are making their way out of the bin:

I visited my outdoor bins to find the redworms wandering every which way.  I even caught a couple about 2 feet up a tree!  They were on their way down by the time I snapped a photo, but still…  Worms in trees?

Like I said, compost worms generally only wander off when they’re first placed in new bedding, or if conditions in the bin get bad (overfeeding, etc.)  A partial solution to make them stay put while they’re first adjusting is to keep a light over the bins.  Like most worms, Eisenia fetida avoid light when they can.  I rigged up a makeshift dusk-to-dawn light over the bin, and the problem was mostly solved.

So… serious lesson (re-)learned here.  When you first set up a bin, it’s a very good idea to keep a light over it for a few days.  Once the compost worms have settled into to their work of vermicomposting, they generally stay put.  But if the bedding is new and the night is moist, they might go for a wander…

Just wanted to post this quick picture I snapped this morning. I added two 4-gallon buckets of food waste in the past couple days, and the red wiggler compost worms are really making quick work of it!  Awesome to see how fast they’re converting it to nutrient-rich worm castings (vermicompost)!

The compost worms still aren’t in their permanent home (we close on our house in Bolton on the 30th), but they’re settling nicely into their temporary digs. I gave them their first 5-gallon bucket of food scraps from Outer Space Cafe yesterday, and they’re already hard at work turning them into nutrient-rich worm castings! Eat up, little worms…

As I mentioned last week, the initial shipment wasn’t exactly smooth. The worm farmer I bought them from is kindly sending me an extra 15lbs of worms this week to make up for it. They’ll be joining their red wiggler friends Wednesday or so. Hopefully that’ll give me enough worms to keep up with the 50+ pounds of food waste Outer Space generates each week. It takes a little bit for compost worms to settle in and get down to the business of vermicomposting, but I think I’ll have enough to keep up once these reinforcements arrive.

Less than two weeks until the brand new Burlington South End Farmers Market starts up at 3:30pm on Wednesday, June 4th: http://southendfarmersmarket.wordpress.com . The worms can’t wait for their grand debut! Check out the growing list of vendors (others still coming) at http://southendfarmersmarket.wordpress.com/market-vendors/.

Cheers, Jase

My blog wasn’t up when this Seven Days article came out, but it was one of the feature articles of their Home and Garden special a couple weeks back. Check it out, a whole article about some other worm nuts in Greensboro Bend (near St. Johnsbury)!

http://www.7dvt.com/2008/wiggle-room
“Wiggle Room: Greensboro Bend’s Wacky Worm Sisters wax on the ins and outs of fertilizer”
Seven Days, Burlington, Vermont, 05-07-08

Shine on, you crazy worm sisters!

Forty (yes, 40!) pounds of red wiggler compost worms arrived yesterday. It wasn’t exactly a smooth voyage for them, as the boxes they were shipped in partially disentegrated during transit. I got a call from the Post Office indicating that there had been an “incident” with my worms, and that I needed to go collect them from the distribution center. Two hours later I had all the worms safe and sound at their new home, but it certainly wasn’t how I had planned my lunch hour to go!

Over the next couple days I’ll get them set up for real, and start feeding them all the yummy food scraps from Outer Space Cafe here in South Burlington. For now, they’re hanging in a large kiddie pool, getting used to this drizzly Vermont weather!