Apartment Worms

I was meandering my way about the web about a week ago when I came across something I honestly find pretty awesome.

I'm a big believer in composting, it baffles me how we generally are ok as a society with the idea of wasting ridiculous amounts of food... losing the potential wealth of nutrient rich soil in favor of our quick, "clean" and easy garbage receptacles. I've been doing exactly that for years, though my conscience did make me somewhat less than easy with my actions.

Every so often I search online for a simple answer to the question "How does an apartment dwelling New Yorker manage to compost simply?" Simple here is key, there are programs out there for composting, I could bring my leftover veggies to a neighbor with a back yard, I could do these things but being a rather preoccupied single-mother-type person means that more often than not if it's not simple, it simply doesn't get done. It was a happy day the day I found this...

A day or two later I searched out an internet worm farm and ordered myself a meager 500 Red Wrigglers (finding less than that is a bit of a chore) from Uncle Jim's Worm Farm, I figure one or two thousand is a number best left for people with something larger than a plastic bin shoved into a kitchen corner. I spent the next few days following instructions at a leisurely pace and by the time my new little friends arrived today their new home was all set, complete with first meal. I had trouble containing myself when the UPS guy came with his inconspicuous little box, and again when it was made clear to me that it would be appreciated if I waited until AFTER my friend left before opening my box of worms. My son and I opened the box, the dog came over to check things out, we unwrapped the newspaper and opened the worm and dirt filled bag... The lovely thing about two year old boys is that they're super enthusiastic about everything, even if they have no clue what you're talking about. He was the perfect audience for my compost-enthusiasm. Though when presented with the option he decided that, discretion being the better part of valor, he'd play it safe and not actually HOLD the mildly menacing squirmy creatures... whether they made Mommy happy or not.

Ultimately the worms were awesome but nowhere near as exciting as the fact that I now have a self-contained composting system in my kitchen, ready and waiting for the next orange peel or half eaten apple I find squirreled away behind the couch or in a toy bin... 2 year olds!