Monday, April 23, 2007

Feeding your worms



You could do what I did for the longest time and bury your kitchen garbage as is in the bedding. Over time, the worms will gobble it all up and nothing but sweet smelling soil will be left. But given the fact that our wriggly friends do not possess any teeth, a burried banana peel will remain for quite a while in your bin, as the worm depends on a myriad of micro organisms to break down its food for him.

So I decided to aid my recycling workers by turning our kitchen waste into a nice shake for them. For this purpose I use a regular kitchen blender, which I purchased cheaply at a nearby home center. (My wife did not allow me to use our kitchen blender we use for cooking.) I throw in all garbage including apple, banana, vegetable peelings, coffee grounds, tea leaves, egg shells, rice, bread, etc. (no bones, meat, crab shells or fish, though) and add a little water to produce a thick, soupy shake. This I pour onto the surface of the worm bin, making sure I don't cover the whole area. You can never be sure that your cocktail does not contain a substance your worms don't like or might actually be toxic to them! They need a place to escape to. Then I cover all up with wet newsprint or a burlap bag and my pets happily chomp away at their feed. As a matter of fact, it's quite astonishing how much they can devour: since I've started this feeding system, I think through-put capacity has tripled!