For the City Slickers – Vermicomposting
So, we’ve been searching around the internet for more information on vermicomposting, and have discovered some great resources. This video is a charming and entertaining 101 from “Sustainable Dave” using a purchased vermicomposting system called the Worm Factory. For those of us who want to make our own worm bin, there are some good design tips here, too.
The second is one chapter in the ongoing saga of DIY vermicomposting from RyanIsHungry.com and Freshtopia.net – two really cool sites from HOMEGROWN-living folks. Barb Finnin is, evidently, a composting goddess and we totally love her style.
Some other tips we’ve picked up:
- it is VERY important to keep your bin out of the sun
- blending your food scraps, as well as adding fine sand to the bin, helps the worms digest more efficiently
- alternatively, packing your foodscraps in newspaper, then freezing for a bit also helps break down the food scraps before feeding them to your wriggly friends.
- A great 101 from the heartland
June 20th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Thanks for the shoutout and I’m glad you liked the video. There’s another on harvesting that may be helpful as well and if folks go to 365daysoftrash.com and click on the link on the right hand side, they can get a bin for a discount (I make no money from these, just want to get more folks composting).
Dave
June 22nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Yay…thanks for posting the video…i love homegrown.org and ryanishungry.com! you can check out more worm composting videos at freshtopia.net: freshtopia.net/vlog/?p=45 and freshtopia.net/vlog/?p=51. I think it’s great that the title is “for the city slickers” because i know work at City Slicker Farms in West Oakland. . very cool! Thanks HomeGrown!!
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:07 pm
Barb is great. She now runs http://www.cityslickerfarms.org/ Check her out if you live in Oakland.
June 30th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
[...] the 12 worms I dug up in New Hampshire this weekend were not enough to sustain my newly crafted vermicompost bin. I am so eager to get the packets of food scraps out of my freezer and into the process of [...]
July 1st, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Barb is a composting goddess indeed, those little vermicomposting critters are also excellent bait for trout or any pan fish. We took a good 150 pounds of good compost to our garden this spring, nothing you can buy is better, miracle grow my ass, if you have room try in the dirt, the worms will go deep and survive the winter, and its outdoors, you’ll get some fat happy squirrels in your neighborhood….
February 4th, 2009 at 10:04 am
[...] Mikey are selling Red Wigglers out of their Holy Scrap Hot Springs homestead. If you’ve got a pile, you can, [...]
April 25th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Love the message of “why is any food going into a landfill when you can use a worm composter and just put them to work.”
December 3rd, 2009 at 7:55 am
Making worm compost has proven to be so much fun. We started out with a stackable operation and I am now composting several pounds of food waste every other week. I believe we