Vermiculture
Vermiculture, or composting with red wiggler worms, is a way of composting that recycles food scraps into a superior compost. In fact it is so rich that, one of the members of the composting group uses it specifically to treat sick or weak plants or plants that need a particularly rich soil to grow best.
In addition, worm composting can be done indoors or outdoors and takes up little space. It is such an efficient method of converting kitchen scraps to compost that man cities around the world, including Tokyo, Havana, have citywide worm compost systems.
At CEV we currently have two large worm compost bins, which is larger than what one family would need. With a total of 1000 meals a week of food scraps, we can make a lot of worm castings (worm poop). In Spring 2009, we received a grant from the City of Portland’s Office of Planning and Sustainability through their “Portland Recycles! Small Grant Program.” We proposed to operate a large scale vermiculture system for our community. Using the money from the grant, we bought two large commercial worm bins from Green Culture and about 15 lbs of worms to start.
Red wigglers are the preferred worm since they are small and don’t take up space, are insatiable eaters, and reproduce quickly. But they don’t eat everything. Do not feed them milk products, meats, oily foods, citrus, or grains. At each stairwell we have plastic buckets to collect food scraps specifically for the worms.
For more information we recommend the book Worms Eat My Garbage, by Mary Appelhof. Her website is www.wormwoman.
Vermiculture