Brooklyn Worm Girl

It's About That Time...

2004-09-22T20:05:00.000-04:00

I am making final preparations for harvesting the compost. I really need to come up with a plan. I have heard of several different methods, and am trying to decide which one will work the best for me. One way would be to separate, by hand, the Worms from the compost. This can be accomplished, supposedly, by making little cone shaped piles on a plastic sheet. The Worms will hide from the light, and you can scoop the compost away until all that is left is a pile of Worms. That seems messy. Also, I read about another way using a window screen. I think you remove the contents in the bin into another bucket, then place the screen over the bin. Then, spread thin layers of the compost on the screen. The Worms will wiggle their way through the screen and leave compost behind. I think I may try both ways, just so I can report back and let everyone know which works better. Maybe I will develop my own method.

Celebration!!

2004-09-10T07:39:00.000-04:00

Yesterday my Worm Bin celebrated it's 3-month birthday! You know what that means - party time!! Just kidding. It means that it's almost time to harvest the usable compost. I will quit adding scraps for a while, and give the worms a chance to eat all the stuff in there. I do need to make sure there is still bedding for the worms to crawl around in. They like to move away from the "castings". Since it's their bodily waste, it's not quite appealing to them. Then comes the fun task of separating thousands of Worms from all the lovely compost they have created.
I am very excited to see how well my plants do from the amazing nutritive powers of the compost. I have a few plants that need a booster, they look quite hungry. The soil looks sad and crusty, even after I water them, and they have been asking me "When is it time to eat?". I sadly tell them "Please wait just a little longer!"
A fun thing happened in my kitchen. I had a giant piece of ginger sitting out for a while and it started to sprout. It seemed like a fun experiment so I planted in the dirt, and it's really thriving. Ginger is a root like a potato, and it seemed very much like when an old potato that never got cooked starts to sprout those interesting alien-like formations, excepted it was really pretty not really funny. I looked a pictures of full-grown ginger plants and they are beautiful.
One more thing: I am really bad at computer stuff and I don't know why my pictures don't work, so I stopped putting them up. Also, figuring out how to change the way the page looked seemed like a chore. Looking at code makes me want to poke my eyes out. So all the fancy stuff is on hold for a while. I am super busy right now, but will get to that when I can! Thanks for understanding!!

Zippy Zip: Summer Zips Away

2004-08-30T15:39:00.000-04:00

Wow! Time flies! Well, I didn't get a chance to put up a post before going on vacation, and then somehow another week or 2 zipped by and now I see it's been a month since my last post. Sorry Worm Readers!! Honestly, you didn't miss much. The Worms are doing great though. I seemed to have balanced the sun/shade factor, and found a nice comfortable feeding level, and haven't had any insect problems to speak of. Except for a recent moth infestion, but I don't think it's related to the worms. Why am I always dealing with some sort of creature explosion in my apartment? And is this why no one wants to hang out with me? Oh well.
I have several inches of delicious looking compost in my bin now. There are still lots of chunks of eggshells and things mixed in, but I can see now that my Wigglers have been very productive. It won't be long now before I have some nice compost in there. How exciting!!
I read a great book recently - "Cradle to Cradle" by William McDonough & Michael Braungart. It has some great theories on sustainable design and ecology. Did you know that ants have a greater biomass than humans on this planet? Yet they manage to live without polluting and destroying and even cause good for the earth by aerating and enriching soil. If we humans could find ways to live and consume and help the planet at the same time, that would be fabulous. I think it can be done.

Heat, Dilemmas and Such

2004-07-30T14:41:00.000-04:00

I think I jinxed myself. Or maybe I am just psychic. In a bad way. Today I got home, and the loft had an oddly stinky aroma. I looked around, and there was no obvious dead mouse or rotten bag of vegetables I forgot about. I took a look in the bin and the poor little Worms were sad and limp. It's like a million degrees today, and they must have been too hot. I moved them into the bedroom, which has our one AC unit, and I'm trying to cool them off a bit.

Now I have a little dilemma. I have been trying not to use the AC really, unless it's a heat wave and I can't sleep. My tolerance has greatly increased, it's neat. I do use a fan if it's a really hot night, and that is normally sufficient. I like open windows and fresh air (ahhhhh....that fresh Brooklyn air!!) If I am required to keep these Worms cool, it's going to take lots of electricity. Does composting justify the increased usage of power? I really don't know. If I had a bigger refrigerator, I could put them in there maybe, because that's already on anyway. But, for some reason, my landlord, let's call him "Buttman", installed the tiniest refrigerators ever. So, it's not an option. Where would the beer go? Hee hee.

Speaking of dilemmas, and this is off topic slightly, but related to beer (and sustainable living): I am living in an illegal loft. This means it's not zoned for residential use. It's supposed to be a factory or something. New York City only provides trash/recycling pickup for residential buildings. Buttman (the landlord) pays a private company to pick up the garbage. They are supposed to do a separate pick up for recycling, but since Buttman is shady he picks shady companies to deal with and they cut corners. I asked the city if I could take my recycling to a drop off point, but there is none. I am in the middle of a fun email correspondence with Robert Lange, the Director of the NYC Bureau of Waste Prevention, Reuse & Recycling. He is being resistant but has never encountered such a formidable and persistant force as Brooklyn Worm Girl. If you see him, tell him to watch out! He should just give in now, really. I'd hate to have to embarrass him in front of his friends!

Gaga for Google

2004-07-29T19:58:00.000-04:00

This is kind of exciting: now if you google "Brooklyn Worm Girl" or "brooklynwormgirl", guess what pops up? Me! Yay! I have arrived.
Now I just need to figure out how to make my page look good. Not that it doesn't, but I am still using a free template design, lame. I want to personalize it just a bit, and I am working on a Brooklyn Worm Girl logo.
Oh yeah, and the Worms are doing fine. They are munching along. It's eerie, really, just how peaceful it is in there. Almost like the calm before a storm...

Summertime Worm Fun!

2004-07-26T21:24:00.000-04:00

My Worm bin looks great! The Worms are evenly distributed in the bedding, which is now beginning to resemble something slightly close to dirt. It's still a long way away from rich chunky soil, but the coffee grounds really do help the appearance. I think there is some real reason they are supposed to be in there, but I like the way it mixes with the stuff and looks dirty. I have been feeding them lightly but regularly. They eat it up and seem so happy! I have been developing this rotation schedule. After chopping veggies, I put the scraps in the freezer. Then I take out a pre-frozen batch and defrost it for a day or so. I let it thaw and get nice and juicy for them, and then feed them when they are ready. This seems to be working well. Today I added cabbages and sweet potato peelings to the freezer, and defrosted an enormous but sadly wasted bunch of basil. Luckily, it won't REALLY go to waste because the Worms can eat it. Hurray!

The Gods Must Be Weird

2004-07-20T23:35:00.000-04:00

Um, yeah. In a fit of madness, or for the sake of scientific knowledge, I decided to make an incubator for them and see what hatched. I added a wet paper towel for bedding and put the jug in the window. The eggs are hard to see in this picture but there are 3 in there, I promise.

After a day or so, they hatched. Those little "seeds" were, in fact, fly pupae. Pupae are the form maggots manifest before turning into flies. It would all be quite fascinating, if it wasn't so ewwww. I guess I was hoping they would be Worms. Having no interest in keeping flies as pets, I decided to grant their freedom. That night, I opened the window and shook the jug so the flies would come out. But, I accidently dropped it. It fell on the the patio of the girl who lives downstairs. I imagine that she was pretty surprised to find a fly incubator, complete with airholes, sitting there in the middle of her fenced-in little courtyard. I was going to go down there to apologize for littering up her patio, but then I realized it all sounded a bit odd. How would I explain it? (If the Girl Downstairs is reading, I'm sorry I dropped my plastic jug on your patio and then left it there for you to clean up.)

Over the next few days, the remaining fly babies all hatched. It sucked. A typical mommy fly has around 100 babies at a time. I had to take certain measures I am not proud of to fix this. But, everything is back to normal now,pretty much. The Worms are doing fine. I also screened in my bin, so this will never happen again.

It's been a tough week.

Housefly: Get Out Of My House!

2004-07-14T20:57:00.001-04:00

Oh no... I afraid my little brown seeds are the pupae of the common Housefly. Ex-maggots. Gross. Look at this picture here and see what you think. I have really been grossed out by all these maggots, and I am in the middle of a WAR with 4 or 4 million crafty Houseflies. I have been trying to (please forgive me) suck them up with the Shopvac. But, they have really strong muscles and resist the power of the Shopvac. It's been quite a battle. The last think I want to do is raise the babies of those jerks.

Wed Rigglers

2004-07-13T19:10:00.000-04:00

What the heck are these?

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but in the handle area of the bin are a couple of weird egg or seed things. They are smooth and shiny and reddish colored. I don't know if those are from the Worms or not. The Worms were somehow crawling up there when they were trying to get out, but none have been near there recently. Now I understand it's not normal to spend an hour a day redirecting wayward Worms who have crawled all over the sides, lid and handle of the bin. Poor things. I can't imagine how horrible it must have been in there for them to panic like that. Anyway, what are these weird things? I am kind of scared of them. I almost want to dissect one and see what's inside. But it might creep me out.

On the upside, I fed the Worms today. They seem really happy in there, and slightly hungry, so I added some cucumber parts. I am slightly concerned that the paper is getting too compacted in there. I had to add quite a bit when I was having the moisture problems. Now, it's once again at half-level and the worms seem to be kind of stuck in there. I will hope for the best!

Why? Why Not?

2004-07-12T18:45:00.000-04:00

I am so happy. Somehow, the conditions inside my Worm bin have returned to normal. The Worms are happily wiggling around. Nobody is desperately clawing at the sides trying to escape, and the moisture balance seems right. It doesn't smell bad, and all the maggots have "disappeared". (There are several large black houseflies pestering me today... could it be?) I will let that be my one close call and be glad I learned a lesson. I almost threw in the towel there for a little while (or threw the bin in the dumpster), but my in my little heart, I knew I couldn't quit so easily. Also, murdering the OTHER one thousand Worms that survived the initial catastrophe would have weighed heavily on my conscience. They deserved a fighting chance!!
I added some coffee grounds to the bin. The nice people at The Archive, my local video store/coffee shop were happy to donate some of their used grounds. That was nice of them. It looks like dirt already. I am not adding any more vegetable matter in there for a little while. There is still a little bit they need to clear out, and they eat their bedding also if they want to. I don't want to overload it again. I will be much more careful from now on!

Sometimes people ask me why I am doing this. The reason is so very simple. Despite my initial problems, it's really quite easy. Setting aside scraps takes like no time at all. I shred the paper for the bedding once a week for like 15 minutes. In the end, it is very little effort, and I can know that I am reducing the amount of compostable material going in our landfill. Ideally, one also eliminates waste as much as possible in other areas. Each person can at the very least be responsible for themselves, and their impact on this Earth. Maybe my pile of trash doesn't make a difference when you think about the billions of pounds of trash deposited everyday. But I look at it a different way. I imagine all the waste that I personally throw away in a year. I picture in my head all of my junk in one huge pile heaped up somewhere on our beautiful earth. I did that! I made all that trash and polluted the Earth with it! Of course, most ends up in a landfill somewhere. But landfills are ugly smelly disgusting places. We are ruining our nice natural beautiful spots with all the landfills we need to create. I like nature, it's really cool. I think trees are really pretty, and I love to take nature walks and see moss on rocks, frogs, and I am learning to identify mushrooms. So, I don't want to wreck everything out of carelessness. It's just one small thing one can do. Is it enough? No. There are millions of ways to help once you start trying. This blog, though, is about Worms!

Red Maggots

2004-07-08T21:38:00.000-04:00

The Worms seem to have migrated upwards, away from the bottom sludge. There is definitely a healthy population that has survived and I am crossing my fingers. There are still some maggots (including the new and mysterious Red Maggot), but I am hoping they will hatch and fly away and then the maggots will be gone forever. I hate maggots, I really do. Why are they so gross? Any sort of white Worm is always bad. My kitties had Worms once, it was scary. I found a long white Worm on the kitchen floor one day. It looked like a piece of long pasta, and I was going to pick it up. Then I remembered I hadn't eaten pasta recently. My howls could be heard from here to Canarsie, wherever that is. For a long time after that, I had an aversion to fettucini.
Those of you out there who are interested in a Worm bin, I really don't want to give you a bad impression. It's really very easy and once these few problems clear up, it won't be disgusting anymore. Hopefully that will be soon.

Invasion From Jupiter

2004-07-07T16:58:00.000-04:00

I just opened up the lid of the box to check on the Worms. I put a rubber glove on and was kind of poking around in there, to see if anything was better. I did see lots of still alive worms, which was good. I was careful to avoid the area that had the maggots last night. But THEN, this huge weird winged insect flew out of there and almost hit me in the head. I think that is what the maggots turn into. I now remember seeing such a strange bug in there last week. It was just sitting on top hanging out, and we chased him away. I also recall some large insects in the window that we thought were wasps, which we got rid of with the Wet/Dry vac. I love that vaccuum, it's awesome. It's so powerful, I am constantly accidently sucking up socks and keys and loose change with it. It works great on bugs too. That is not very vegetarian of me, really. I normally try to catch the bugs and throw them out the window (okay I lied. I scream and run all around and then Matt catches them and sets them free). But since my whole loft has become infested with Fruit Flies, Regular Flies, possibly Wasps, and the Strange Flies, AND all their babies, I have become less compassionate. The Fruit Flies are attacking my Mushroom Log also, which really was the last straw. Nobody messes with my mushroom log - NOB0DY!

Here is a picture of it.

I Am The Devil

2004-07-06T20:48:00.000-04:00

I am the worst most horrible person that ever lived. All of my worms are dying, and it's my fault. Only I don't know what is going wrong. Everything was going fine, and then this weekend I had some exodus problems. I added a bunch more water, thinking it was too dry, and it seemed to solve the problem because they weren't trying to crawl out anymore. Well, that's because they were dying. Wahhhh!!! Do you have any idea how much it hurts to have thousands of pets dying all at the same time? IT HURTS!!! I am so sad. I don't know what to do or how to fix it. I tried to drain it but it wasn't liquidy enough, it's mainly just sludgy down there. Oh yeah, and it stinks REALLY bad, and the worst part is, is it's crawling with little white maggots. This is seriously the worst day ever. All my little worms are melting and it really reeks and it's crawling with yucky maggots. I tried to take a picture of the maggots, but they crawled away too fast. I will try to add one in later. This sucks. I am trying to salvage it. Matt is being VERY kind. He offered to pick all the maggots out. I love him. When you meet a guy who will pick all the maggots out of your worm box, you know he is a keeper!

A Day In The Life Of A Worm

2004-06-29T18:28:00.000-04:00

Wow, I have been slacking off. Here in Worm World, time passes quickly. The other day, I added some shredded corn husks because I had some fresh delicious organic corn. They say you can use that as bedding, so I added it in. The worms seem to like it. It's getting pretty intense in there. I feel like the Worms have gotten comfortable in there. It's one whole huge wormy mass. Pretty cool.
Today on Craigslist I saw someone was giving away their Worm bin for free. If no one else wants it, I will take it. I hate to think of all those Worms without a home. Besides, my Worms aren't really pulling their weight quite yet. I was thinking already about the future, when I have many more Worms than I have now. I think I will make a cubby system where I can have the Worms stacked on shelves. I think maybe 3 or 4 bins would be the max though, after that I would have to start giving them away.
This brings me to another interesting subject: Worm Love. When two Worms fall in love, they decide to have a little Worm baby. This is neat because Worms are hermaphrodites. So any two Worms are able to fall in love, and nobody cares what catagory they fall into or what label they have. It's really quite nice. The Worms "do it" by rolling around together, and then stuff happens. A little while later, a baby is born. This can happen every two weeks or so. I am not good at math, but it seems like before long I will be overrun. That's good because I am still throwing away scraps. I would rather compost them.

Worms Fabulous Worms

2004-06-24T17:49:00.000-04:00

I have to admit, I am getting quite attached to the Worms. I feel like we are really connecting. They are doing great today. There is quite a substantial amount of compost down there now; I am so proud of them! I did see some additional material that was un-compostable that I had to fish out. A little while back, I shredded the paper that my morning bagel (Everything toasted with plain cream cheese, onion and tomato, yum) came wrapped in. Well, I think that perhaps there was some plastic coating on that food paper the worms can't eat. So keep that in mind. I was trying to put as much household trash in there as possible, but I think I just can't do that at this point.
I still haven't gotten up the nerve to touch them. They are so slimy and squiggley. I think they would prefer not being handled. It may mess up their...digestive cardionervous system, you know? They are quite delicate and can become easily injured by clumsy human hands.

Situation Improving

2004-06-22T18:13:00.000-04:00

Most of the flies have gone away, and the smell is very faint. I don't want anyone out there to worry. It wasn't really so bad. I think if you are more careful, it wouldn't happen at all. I did have to dig out some avocado peelings. They just got really hard and leathery in there (and there were a bunch too because I eat them all the time) and the worms didn't find that appetizing. I am learning they like mainly vegetables (like me!). I think the reason that previous batch had problems was because there was a bunch of rice in there and that's why it got weird. From now on, I will feed them only produce. Fruit seems okay but it gets funny and moldy really fast. I don't know if that is a problem or not.
I found an online kit to grow your own mushrooms at home. I ordered the Shittake kit. They send you a thing that has the spores already on there, and then the mushrooms will grow out of that. If you have an outdoor compost pit, they suggest throwing that thing in there when the mushrooms are done growing and then mushrooms will grow out of your compost. Cool! I can't do that, because I am doing the indoor worm bin, but maybe you can! They have these other cool things that you can stick in logs that will make mushrooms grow out of it. I might do that. It's hard to find a log in Brooklyn though.

Worm Sounds

2004-06-21T17:27:00.000-04:00

I don't really know if the worms ever ate that last weird batch of food. It turned black, so Saturday I gave them some more. In interest of eliminating potential fruit flies, I froze all the scraps as suggested. Before serving, I defrosted it. It had lots of cucumber peelings and seeds in there, and looked yummy. But then, dumb me, I decided to add all this extra stuff that was generated during meal preparation for a family dinner party, and ALSO a few plums and nectarines (pits removed) that were looking squishy and fuzzy on my counter. By that point, I had over 3 cups of scraps. I don't know what I was thinking. Last night, I detected a faint "aroma" coming from the bin. Today, it is swarming with fruit flies. I am dumb. On the other hand, the worms are loving it. I even heard them eating. It makes a sound like "fshrshh blppp pshrbrp". It's very quiet, but I heard it! They sounded happy, so I didn't care that it was smelly and infested with flies. I put some more paper on top to fix it. I think today they will read the Village Voice. There are lots of good articles in there for worms.

Technical Difficulities and Hurray for "Dirt"

2004-06-16T17:46:00.000-04:00

The Worms did this!

I am trying to get this post up as soon as possible, before my dumb computer crashes. After taking a day off yesterday due to personal reasons, and the lack of Worm news (despite what some think, a Worm bin is NOT non-stop craziness and wild partying), I am back today.
The Worms are doing great. They have completely consumed their first meal, or else it melted away. In any case, where there was nothing but disgusting molten vegetables before, now there is now just "dirt". I put that in quotes, just to be polite.
The latest meal, however, seems to be untouched. Probably because it has morphed into this weird solid moldy mass that seems oddly furry. I do not understand what causes some garbage to turn liquid, and other garbage to turn solid. Any scientists out there? I poked around at it some with an extra long chopstick to break it up a little, and then sprayed it down with some water to give it that tasty "glistening dew", like the greens in the produce section of the market. I don't think I fooled them.

This is the newest food, they don't like it.

No Disasters Today

2004-06-14T18:23:00.000-04:00

This morning when I checked on the Worms, only one had crawled to the top. I took this as a good sign, and redirected him to the others. Maybe he is just a Slow Learner!
I just gave the little guys a bit more food. I had this bag of scraps since last week that I wanted to put in there. It was kind of juicy and gross, but I figured they probably like it better that way. I recognized it as salad from like, Thursday. Gag. I can't really tell if the bin stinks or not though. It doesn't seem really stinky until I really put my head up in there, maybe I am just getting used to it. I probably smell like garbage now. Oh, another thing that is weird is that there are these little tiny mites all over the place already. I didn't put a picture up because they are too tiny to capture without an electron microscope, I can barely see them with my naked eye. But if they don't get out of control, it's supposed to be okay.
I have been getting lots of hits to the site, so that's exciting. Thanks for visiting and please keep coming back.

Uh-oh!

2004-06-13T14:02:00.000-04:00

Yikes! The Worms are trying to escape!!

I expected a fairly uneventful day today, really. Before I even have my coffee, I stopped by to check on the Worms and found about a dozen trying to make a break for it. I was saddened to find my guests unhappy with their quarters. I tried so hard to make everything comfortable for them.

I did get a good closeup shot though, and you can see in their faces that they are not so sad. What is it then?

I did some research, and found several reasons Worms may try to break out. Often, the bedding is too moist or too dry. I tested the moisture by feeling around in there, the paper seemed sufficiently, but not overly, damp. If there isn't enough food, they may be hungry. But there is plenty of food in there. Poor ventilation could be a cause, but I think I have enough air holes in there. Sometimes, before a storm or other change in barometric pressure, they worms crawl up. Wow! Maybe they know to go up for air before a storm so they don't drown? I have no idea. But I decided the most likely reason is the most obvious: the Worms are confused in their new environment. They are just getting used to their new surroundings. I helped them get back down to the rest of the Worms, and hoped for the best.

The Big Day

2004-06-12T12:40:00.008-04:00

Welcome home, Worms!

Just as expected, I awoke bright and early. I dragged Matt out of bed (I had to bribe him with pancakes - works every time!) and we headed to pick up our 1000 new Worm roommates. It was a glorious day and there were many delicious and beautiful vegetables at the farmers market that caught my eye, but I was a Worm Girl with a mission. Unfortunately, the LES Worm People were the very last booth at the market, and I was unable to resist a couple happy bunches of radishes. I fell victim to their pretty pink charm. Radishes and worms in hand (okay, I had to buy some tomatoes and cilantro too. What can I say?), we returned home to introduce our Worms to their new residence. They traveled in an empty OJ carton, and I couldn't see too many when they were in there. But we dumped them out, and sure enough there was a huge, tangled, writhing mass of Red Wigglers in there. They seemed happy enough, so we layered some more bedding on top, buried some tasty bits of food inside for them to snack on, and covered them back up.

A Home for the Worms

2004-06-12T00:30:00.000-04:00

I now know how to add images to my site. Doesn't it look fantastic?

This is the worm house.

Whew!! Today was pretty intense. I couldn't find a proper bin at any of the discount stores in Bushwick, so after a brief panic, I decided to used one I already had. I think it's perfect. I drilled several holes in the top and sides, and filled the inside with shredded paper (I have a very nice tiny office shredder I bought on the street for ten bucks. It's good to shred your old mail and credit card receipts and things, so you don't become a victim of identity theft!) I thought they might like some reading material, so I used the NY Times.
The air holes are important for ventilation - Worms breathe air just like us! I think they breath through their skin, but maybe I made that up. Before I put the worms in the bin, its important to moisten the newspaper "bedding". It should be damp like a squeezed out sponge. I think the worms like it sort of cave-like in there.
Tomorrow is a big day - the Worms are coming! I think I won't be able to sleep tonight. I am very excited.

Reuse!

2004-06-10T21:22:00.000-04:00

Matt is in the bin.

Scot's bins were way huge. They are large enough to fit a couple of bodies in. I need some much smaller. I think I need them to be about a foot tall, a foot wide, and maybe two feet long. Not a problem though, I took Scot's coffins anyway, I need storage. Plus we got a bonus tarp he was getting rid of - yay!
I have a nice sack of kitchen scraps for the Wormies now too. We made pseudo-Mexican for dinner with the veggies (spinach and zucchini tostadas with chick peas and guacamole, yum!) The Worms will have lots of delicious scraps for their arrival dinner. I grew up in the South, so hospitality is very important to me.

Preparing for the New Arrivals!

2004-06-10T17:33:00.000-04:00

I may have located some free bins to use for homes for my new friends (the Worms). My friend Scot has a couple he is trying to get rid of. That would be ideal, because it's even MORE sustainable to reuse things. That way, no extra plastic ends up in the landfill, and I don't have to add to the muck! Hopefully, they will be the right size. I will go investigate later tonight. If not, I am sure I can find a use for them. You can never have too many bins (unless you are Scot, who has 2 too many!)
Also arriving tonight is my delivery from Urban Organic. Urban Organic is this nice organic fruit and vegetable delivery service we use for buying our produce. Therefore, Thursday is the best day of the week to me because I LOVE vegetables. It's quite exciting to get a box of delicious Earth Gems (as I like to call them) delivered to your doorstep - ESPECIALLY if your passion in life is veggies, like mine is! These vegetables will be providing the yummy scraps for my upcoming guests (the Worms). Hopefully I will leave them some good stuff. I have been known to devour some fresh delicious spring vegetables...

The Beginning

2004-06-09T18:04:00.000-04:00

I have decided to be a responsible human and start composting. You should too. It seems to be easy, but we'll see. Since I live in Brooklyn, and have no yard, I'm supposed to use one of these indoor compost bins that uses Worms to break down all your veggie scraps and apple cores and things. Some call it vermicomposting. Raising Worms is called vermiculture. I have been doing my research! Luckily, my boyfriend Matt is nice and says he will touch the yucky Worms. I will wear gloves at first, but I hope to get tough enough to handle them on my own! Apparently, you can use a small sized Rubbermaid storage bin and poke some air holes in there. Some places sell pre-made bins also. I think that is nice.

Making Progress

2004-06-09T17:50:00.000-04:00

I ordered one pound of worms from the nice people at Organic Renewal Enterprises, a division of the Lower East Side Ecology Center. I will pick them up at the Union Square Greenmarket on Saturday. Christine, the woman I spoke with, says they have bins for sale as well. You can get a whole kit for $45, it includes a bin and the worms. I am using Red Wigglers, known to worm nerds as "Eisenia foetida". "Lumbricus rubellus" may be used also but I read it's not recommended because of some reasons I don't fully understand. Something to do with them getting out in the environment. Red Wigglers are perfectly suited to indoor composting. They don't mind small spaces and one pound of them can put away 3lbs of scraps per week! I still haven't decided whether to make my own bin or buy a pre-made one. I think I will take a trip to Fat Albert's and look at their selection of bins.