Berry-licious Worm Food

Working at America's Favorite Traditional Amusement Park has its perks, but unless you are a worm farmer you couldn't appreciate what I got today: an entire day worth of strawberry tops- about 7-8 pounds- from the funnel cake stand! A wormy culinary delight!

Strawberry tops are great worm food for two reasons:

1. They smell DELICIOUS and don't send me delirious from a wicked waft when I open the bin to peep.

2. They have a great mix of watery fruit that breaks down quickly and a green part that takes longer.

Did I mention they smell FANTASTIC?

Just to experiment with timing, I didn't food processor-ize this time. I'll let you know how long the worms take to finish the whole strawberry smörgåsbord. I have two worm bowls in waiting, so they better hurry it up.

In other news, I am almost ready to debut my exceptionally cool logo. You'll be so jealous.

While you wait patiently for the grand reveal of the official trademark of Lilliworm, get inspired to break out of your own cubicle nation.

Just How Fertile Are Worm Castings?

I'll tell you.

This is a snapshot of my bin just three days after putting in about six pounds of left-over tomato slices.

You got it- all the tomato seeds sprouted.

Inside the container.

In pitch darkness.

Those puffy dark brown worm castings must be the greatest plant food ever to have sprouted seeds in just three days in the dark, which makes me pretty darn happy.

After work today, we biked on the Youghiogheny River Trail, which is part of The Great Allegheny Passage- a 150 mile network of biking/hiking trails (we only saw 10 today). We turned around at slightly freaky Dravo Cemetery, which the Elizabeth Township Historical Society is supposed to be up-keeping (so says a sign), but I beg to differ. It was WAY overgrown and weedy.

Some headstones have the engraving worn off, but one had the eeriest epitaph: "As you are now so once was I, as I am now you soon shall be, prepare for death and follow me."

Spooky!

Saving Pods? Eggs? Cocoons?

After some research online, the little pellet thingees I've been picking out of the old bins really are cocoons filled with worm eggs.

I'm retrieving as many as I can with the primitive worm egg retriever (PWER) I've devised. I sort through the bin with a gloved hand, scoop up the eggs at the front of the PWER, and then tap them into a glass holding bowl.

Once my eyes start crossing, I dump them into the wigwam to join their friends and families. I would feel bad leaving any worm (or its cocoons/eggs/pods) behind while the rest moved on to bigger and better housing!

I don't think I mentioned this yet, but the biggest, greatest, fastest, free-est food processor ever died on me a few weeks ago. I admit it may have been from overuse/abuse. I LOVED that thing and what it did to giant food scraps, and I loved to hold that button down and watch all that scrap turn to MUSH! So much so, I'm afraid, that I held it down a little too long, and pfftttt.....it died. My brother took it apart with great intentions, but it was fried, fried, fried. So I was back to using my miniature one again.

Tonight, the big bad processor was born again, as I picked a Black and Decker version up at a crazy discount store for less than $20. It is HUGE, and did a bang up job on THREE BOWLS at once! Which, my husband quickly pointed out, was exactly how I broke the last one- putting too much in and running it too long. I guess I'll try to be more gentle this time around.

A Whole World of Wormers!

Finally, an online community I can appreciate!

I joined vermicomposters.com a few days ago, mainly so I could put my very own pinpoint on the cool map documenting the names, locations, and scrap amount recycled by all the worm-lovers who join.

The worm pics on there give me a slight case of the willies, but the forums seem to be full of friendly, low-worm-tech-speak comments. Some of the worm/ recycling/ vermicomposting sites I've read are so verbose and scientific, vermicomposters.com is a refreshing, light-hearted alternative.

Moving into the Worm Wigwam

The worms made the big move from their bins to the Wigwam yesterday. As the directions explain, the Worm Wigwam is different in that you keep feeding the worms and layering bedding, over and over and over again on top, until the whole mountain of worms and bedding and food and poo gets near the top. Then you crank the magic handle, and the poo falls out the bottom. (The hope is all the worms have migrated up with the fresh food each time and don't get cranked out.)

First, with the help of my trusty husband, we mixed up a big bin of peat moss and shredded newspaper for the bedding with lots and lots of water. About a half a bale/bunch of peat moss seems to hold about two watering cans full of water.

Next, we put in four layers of newspaper pages on the grate at the bottom then about six inches of the bedding. We loaded in the worms on top, just basically pulling them out in clumps from their bins. Then a little more bedding, then a little food mush, then some more bedding. Quite a production.

So the finished bin with everything looked something like a giant mulchy mountain in a big green barrel.

The worms crawled right into the new bedding, no problem.

I noticed a rescue mission was needed in the old bins, as not only were a few smaller, faster, friskier, slippier worms still in there, but also tons of little worm cocoons.

Crazy how you find things just when you need them- I used a thick blue straw off a souvenir mug from America's Favorite Traditional Amusement Park, with the top cut off into a little spoons shape, to scoop out the worm cocoons- sigh- one at a time.

I've got through two bins so far, and it is a snoozer of an activity. Plenty of time to think about environmentally friendly endeavors!

Speaking of which- I got logo options from a fantastic graphic designer yesterday. It was exciting to see some visual interpretations of Lilliworm, and it jump started my brain in terms of what else I might be able to accomplish with my environmentally friendly endeavors. Hopefully in the next few posts, I'll be able to pick a logo that gives the perfect look and feel to Lilliworm!

Big Digs

First- the castings I used on my flowers are working GREAT. I planted perennial bulbs in four pots and more around the sides of the house- ALL of them are coming up! If it ever quits raining, I can go out and take some pics to prove it. I may need to retreat to an ark soon.

Second- if you didn't go to the Venture Outdoors Festival, you missed a great time. I bought an environmentally-conscious Keen bag real cheap to lug all my stuff to work, me & the hubby & the poochie got to take a kayak ride, we got a free sycamore tree to plant courtesy of the Allegheny Land Trust, and learned about a sustainable feast and hiking challenge on the Rachel Carson Trail.

Finally- I got my new Worm Wigwam set up today!

A few concerns I have about the worms' new BIG DIGS: the instructions say its best to start with 20 lbs. of worms- about 10 lbs. less than I have right now- so I'm just gonna pray for an active next few weeks in the worm love department.

Next, my current bins are real contained- specifically, they have screened tops so I don't have to worry about unwanted visitors. The Wigwam looks like there might be potential for intruders- nothing big, just a few cracks/gaps that I'll have to cover with the extra screen just to be safe.

On the productive business front, I've been collecting advice and edits on my slowly growing business plan and I'm looking forward to picking a logo and working on some web copy soon soon soon.

Attitude is Everything- Even With Worms

I met with a team of fantastic people last week for 'business counseling' through Pitt. They encouraged me to start small at first (as I was hoping they would) and gave me a short list of tasks to complete before we meet again. I liked that they were reasonable, inquisitive, and open-minded to worms and environmentally friendliness as a business idea. Not one eye roll or sigh in the bunch.

I don't mean to turn this into a personal development entry, but it really helps to keep a positive attitude and take one step each day toward my goal of starting an environmentally friendly worm business. Even if its just a tiny bitty step, at least I am headed in the right direction.

Worms have taught me there's so much I don't know about so many things- but lucky for me, I have every day to learn it and plenty of willing teachers.

Speaking of worms- a fifth bin has now been occupied! Hooray for progress.

I screened the castings I harvested so far, too. I put the nice soft screened stuff in a giant super-tall recycled bucket, and put the left overs in an old coffee container to use on my own flowers. Those wormies are eating so fast now, I'm sure that bucket will be filled in no time. I fed the five bins two full worm bowls of scraps, plus a half head of lettuce and a giant bunch of grapes, all expertly processed into a slushy-looking, interesting-smelling scrap shake. Yum.