Stubborn Peppers and Mystery Plants

This pepper is still growing on the left side of the garden and is supposed to be red:

If anyone has the answer as to why it STILL isn't red, please leave me a comment.

I'm tempted to cut it up and dip it in ranch dressing right now, but I'm holding out for the redness promised on the package.

Also, I have a rogue mystery fruit/vegetable/plant growing, which started sprouting on the side of another plant after a vermicompost application. I replanted it on the edge of the garden, and I initially thought it was a watermelon. Now I'm pretty sure it's a pumpkin:

My history with pumpkins goes way back and they are one of the worms' favorite foods, so I'm pumped to have my very own organic home grown stash this Halloween season!

With only ten days left until the Connellsville Sustainability Fair, I finished up the poster for my display by adding a little earth in the middle and the website at the bottom:  

Next week, I'll share the labels I'm creating for the compost samples, along with some "light" green tips for around the house to get you in the mood!

Truly Green Beer- The Outer Banks Brewing Station

This summer, we headed to the Outer Banks for a quick beach vacation. While summer vacations were on hiatus for quite a few years as I worked at the World's Finest Traditional Amusement Park, they are back in full swing for us now!

Even our furry friend doesn't miss a trip to the beach:

 

Since this was our first trip to OBX, I read up on all of the attractions to make sure we maximized our time. We took a kayak tour of the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, where unfortunately, we saw neither alligators or wildlife!

Another stop we made was to the Outer Banks Brewing Station, which has a unique green feature you won't find at other pubs.

The Brewing Station, aside from making delicious dishes and brewing tasty beers, has a wind turbine that saves them between $150-250 per month on electricity.  All of the power generated is put to use. It initially cost them about $50,000 and came with a 10 year warranty, but it's designed to last for 30 years. Browsing their blog, I also noticed they do other green deeds, like helping to sponsor a beach clean up.

Now that's truly green beer!

Learn more about vacationing in the Outer Banks by visiting the links above,
or with these resources:
Insider's Guide to North Carolina's Outer Banks
Explorer's Guide to North Carolina's Outer Banks & Crystal Coast

Planning the Worm Display

My brother came through with a snazzy plexiglass container I can use for my worm display during the Sustainability Fair.  I'm going to add a center solid section to keep the worms near the viewable sides, and then add labels for the different layers (finished vermicompost, waste scraps, top covering).

Connellsville Sustainability Fair

I am so excited to be a part of the Connellsville Sustainability Fair coming up September 8-9!  This will be my first event as an official exhibitor (I warmed up with a little display a few years back), and it will be the worms official debut as demonstrators.

Red Pepper Update and Pesticides in Produce

With the fence recently removed, it's easy to see the big difference between the red peppers that got the compost applications and those that didn't:

Cheers to Vineyards and Compost Piles

This weekend, I took a trip to North East, PA, and Chautauqua, NY- and all the spaces in between.

We tasted wines, heard interesting music, saw original crafts, and braved the rain for a *free* vineyard tour at Johnson Estate Winery.

Famous Worms- The Light Green Edition

Being green can get so serious.

Statistics, politics, lawsuits, plant-based diets, alternative energy.....so much to think about!

Let's just go light green today and share memories of some famous worms.

One Week Newspaper vs. Cardboard and This Week's Tips

And we have a winner!

After one week, the worms clearly prefer the cardboard over the newspaper:

As further proof, some of the corrugation of the cardboard had worms squiggling inside. Time to change up my paper routine to include more cardboard.

In the Bin: Newspaper vs. Cardboard- 3 Day Update

Not much movement on the newspaper vs. cardboard experiment over the past three days-
unless you count the cardboard this sprout moved:

Lettuce continue with the experiment for another few days...