I've Got [Composting] Worms!
No, I'm not on antibiotics. No, it's not from eating old sushi.
For some time now, I've been trying to find the best way for Emily and I to make the best use of our kitchen scraps. Back in the spring, I created this monstrosity of a compost bin to handle this waste. I based its design on some information I found that said an ideal size for a compost pile was one that would fill a cube four feet on a side. According to the books I was reading (can't remember the titles ATM), this would kick off a sort of "cooking" process in the compost heap that would destroy pathogens and reduce the scraps to usable compost in around two weeks. Sweet. One thing about this compost pile, it would need aeration through the center to keep things from switching to anaerobic decomposition in the center (which stinks, and also is counter-productive). No prob, I added some PVC pipes that had holes drilled in them.
In the end, there was really only one problem with my compost bin: no way could two people keep a compost bin four feet on a side full. All year, I've been nursing the composting process in this pathetic little mound on the floor of the bin. Sure, it has rendered a little bit of compost - very slowly - but mainly my compost bin has become a wildlife preserve for spiders. Not that these aren't interesting (they vibrate their whole web as a fuck-off vibe when you get too close), but it's not really what I would call an optimal way to reuse our kitchen scraps. I'd really like to have access to the nutrients in this waste stream, for use in my garden.
Around the same time I was reading all about optimal compost heap design, I was also reading about vermiculture. This is the practice of keeping a bin - usually a tower with multiple levels - full of composting earthworms that will eat your kitchen scraps and produce, well, basically the same thing that we all produce sometime after having a big meal. In this case, it's called worm castings, and apparently this is among the best soil additives out there. At the time, it seemed pretty easy to mess up, especially compared to a relatively inert compost heap. Also, I never considered myself much of a worm-herder. Needless to say, I felt like vermiculture was the deep end of the composting pool, as it were, and I was only just learning to swim.
All that changed when I went to a vermiculture class sponsored by Indigo here in Gainesville. There, I learned that it really was as simple as feeding them, keeping them dry, and a few other commonsense chores. Using a layered tower design, you could fill up the worm bin in stages, and harvest lower layers as the worms migrated to the fresher upper layers. I saw a product called a Can O' Worms in action, and it really did seem very simple.
So, here I am. I've created a five-foot worm high rise out of five-gallon paint buckets and PVC pipe lengths. I've got plenty of shredded paper, newspaper, and cardboard to kickstart things. And as of today, I've got a one-pound box of composting worms raring to go. We'll have to see how it goes.