Vermicompost Harvest – Garbage to Black Gold

  • Post published:07/06/2012
  • Post comments:2 Comments

With the first lettuces cleaned out of the garden it was time for a vermicompost harvest. Vermicompost, compost filled with worm castings, otherwise know as worm manure, is a rich compost that will get my second or third plantings well nourished. I have written about my vermicomposting adventures before here. Once the weather became dependably warmer, over 50 degrees, I moved our worm bin outside. It now lives on the north side of the house where it is…

Norm and his Can-O-Worms

  • Post published:07/30/2011
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Twenty-seven years ago Norm Hirscheld of Greenfield visited a permaculture farm where he met his first red wigglers (Eisenia foetida). “I was awestruck by how you could get rich black compost from vegetable scraps right in your house,” he said. He decided right then to become a worm farmer himself and built a wooden box, providing holes for ventilation, and put in a sufficient amount of wet shredded newspaper for bedding. He sent away for his pound of…

Norm Hirscheld and His Worms

  • Post published:07/23/2011
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Twenty-seven years ago Norm Hirscheld of Greenfield visited a permaculture farm where he met his first red wigglers (Eisenia foetida). “I was awestruck by how you could get rich black compost from vegetable scraps right in your house,” he said. He decided right then to become a worm farmer himself and built a wooden box, providing holes for ventilation, and put in a sufficient amount of wet shredded newspaper for bedding. He sent away for his pound of…

Beehive and Worms

  • Post published:07/19/2011
  • Post comments:1 Comment

If one grandson visits the beehive charcoal kiln in Hawley, others will demand the same opportunity. Anthony documented everything for his vlog. That's V for video. He's way ahead of me. Drew is just astounded. We stopped at Avery's General Store to pick up a couple of things for supper, but we could have bought boots, or plumbing fixtures, or paint, or a slow cooker - or anything! After supper we went out to check the worms. I…

First Monday Report for Spring 2011

  • Post published:04/11/2011
  • Post comments:6 Comments

Temperatures soared above 60 degrees and this was the first weekend we could actually work outside, so let me give you a brief tour to set the scene. The snow is still melting and revealing that the winter has been kind to the rhodies. No breakage. Lots of buds. The "Limelight" hydrangea was not so lucky.  The snow plow dumped a lot of our enormous snowfall at the edge of the lawn and broke more than half this…

Worms in the Kitchen

  • Post published:01/21/2011
  • Post comments:1 Comment

You have to look really close, but the worms are more than surviving in my worm bin, which I said I would never keep in my kitchen. I was afraid of fruit flies. When it was time to bring the worm bin in from outside  in September I put them in the Great Room which is not heated except for lots of solar gain during the day, that kept temperatures above 50 at night. That did not last.…

Vermicompost Harvest – Not!

  • Post published:06/22/2010
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I have been waiting for dependably w arm weather to harvest my worm compost, vermicompost. Composting worms cannot survive when temperatures go below 50 degrees. The weather has been so unsettled this spring, first hot, then cold, and then hot again. Even when it has been very warm temperatures in Heath get cool, and the weatherman kept threatening 40 degree nighttime temperatures.  My basement, where the worms live for at least 8 months of the year is a…

My Award

  • Post published:01/29/2010
  • Post comments:5 Comments

I've never gotten an award before so I was delighted to wake up to this award bestowed by Tinky of Our Grandmother's Kitchens. Thank you Tinky! She did say there were seven things the award givers want to know about me, before I pass the award along to seven other favorite bloggers. She also said if I was too shy I didn't have to tell all - but I can certainly think of seven things to share. Some may…

Worm Manure Harvest

  • Post published:09/28/2009
  • Post comments:6 Comments

It might be more genteel to say a harvest of worm castings, but no one ever knows what I'm talking about when I use that term. Castings or manure, I took advantage of the warm day to bring my worm farm out of the basement and begin the harvest I dumped the whole bin full of worms, bedding and manure out onto a plastic sheet, and let that rest and give the worms time to dive deep into…

Worm Update

  • Post published:07/22/2009
  • Post comments:4 Comments

The worm farm is celebrating its first anniversary. A year ago the grandsons helped set up the worm bin, drilling air and drainage holes, and putting in rotting leaves, compost and a little soil.  All of that was really unnecessary; red wigglers are not the earthworms that live in our gardens. Red wigglers are happy with damp shredded newspaper. We started with one pound or about 1000 baby worms.  The worm bin lived outside into the fall on the…