No. 145 - Vermiculture

Some days get busy and before I know it the day slips away and I realize that I haven't learned anything new. I start to get a little panicky. I desperately begin my search to learn something new, and hopefully interesting.

Today I turned to my Facebook friends in hopes that someone posted something worthwhile. There are a few friends that I trust can deliver for me in a pinch. I was not disappointed when I read the following post: My vermiculture worms arrived today! 2000 red wigglers.

I learned that vermiculure is basically worm farming that places emphasis on three aspects of the process: 1) getting rid of waste products in an environmentally friendly way, 2) generating useful plant compost, and 3) breeding the worms themselves.

The way it works is that people take worms - usually red wigglers - and place them in plastic tubs or specially constructed worm bins. They then throw their table scraps, newspaper and cardboard into the bin to feed the worms. Red wiggler worms can eat about half of their weight in food every day. This means if you put one pound (16 ounces) of worms (about 1,000 worms) into your bin, you will be able to feed them one-half pound (8 ounces) of food every day.

I told the kids about vermiculture at dinner tonight.

Do you know what their question was? Dad, can we get some worms?

I told them that we would certainly think about it.