New Addition to my Family

I am happy to announce a new addition to my family: I am now the proud parent of a dozen earthworms!

I must admit I hadn’t intended to get earthworms. I went with my mother and sister to a lecture out at the Eagle River Nature Center to learn about composting and came home with them.

Its all Noel’s fault: she talked me in to it.

But it’s kind of cool, actually. They will live in a Rubbermaid tote in my kitchen, and will eat all the scraps from my organic veggies. The soil they produce will go to my sister – which is why she convinced me to get the worms in the first place All I have to do is get them set up and keep them happy.

The first thing I need to do is go get the Rubbermaid tubs; two of them that nest inside each other. The outside one is to contain the “tea” or liquids that they produce. The inside one will have holes drilled in the bottom, for drainage, and along the sides, for air. The lid will keep them contained to prevent any mass escape attempts (trust me, the last thing I want is hundreds of earthworms making the trek across my kitchen counters in search of a better homeland).

Inside the tub, I’m to put shredded newspaper, straw, coffee grounds, and a little bit of dirt. The earthworms will mix all that together, along with their poop, to create good, rich, organic soil for my sister’s garden!

A big thanks goes out to Terra Bella’s Café, who gave me a huge bag of organic coffee grounds! They didn’t even bat an eye when I explained that it was for my worms.

I plan to feed them the scraps from my CSA box. I had been giving them to the zoo for some of the animals there. I can still give them some, though – I don’t think my worms will need it all.

The types of foods an earthworm likes are just what I eat: lots of leafy vegetables, root vegetables, “soup” vegetables (the exception would be onions – they don’t like onions) etc… And since I’m not a meat eater, they won’t have to worry about accidentally getting any animal products.

Currently, there are about a dozen earthworms. They’re tiny red ones – not the big fat juicy ones you have out in your garden; for some reason that type doesn’t do well in an indoor composting system. Once they get themselves established in the totes I will set up for them, they will start to reproduce till I have hundreds of them. At that point, I will separate some out to create composting systems for anybody who might want to try it out. Let me know if you’re interested, and I’ll keep you in mind!

The lady giving the lecture at the nature center even gave some advice on some common problems encountered with the indoor earthworm composting systems:

If they stink = drill more air holes in your tubs; put more bedding in the tubs; slow down on the feeding for a while to let the worms catch up

If the worms try to escape = their environment might be too dry or too wet; they might need more food; there might be too many worms for the tub; they might need more bedding

If you get fruit flies = burry the food a little bit deeper in the soil; don’t feed any fruits or citrus to the worms

So – my task for today is to get the tubs. We’ll see how well I do at raising Earthworms.