Invasion of the Red Wigglers!

Worm Advisory!!!!
..........So, we brought home our to-go mini worm farm from Nowana's and I couldn't wait to get my very own VermiHut Worm Bin. I went right to the Internet and ordered a 3-tier unit to get things going. The VermiHut units are made from completely re-cycled plastic. The coolest thing is now we can make our own 100% organic soil/fertilizer and reduce our household kitchen waste up to 30% and the worms do all of the work! Worm composting is known as vermicomposting and it works much faster than traditional thermal composting in the garden.

I came home from work a couple of weeks ago, and to my delight, this was waiting for me at the front door. There's no turning back now.

 I got right to setting up the new worm condo. The bottom container is designed to catch the worm juice and has a spigot at one end. I know, it sounds disgusting, but this stuff is extremely good for your plants. As the worms eat your fruit & vegetable waste, they produce compost or worm castings, some of which is liquid. This liquid finds its way to the bottom bin. This very concentrated liquid should be diluted 1 part juice to 10 parts water. Who needs to buy liquid fertilizer ever again? And, it's organic! The piece of white cloth is there to keep the worms from falling in the liquid and drowning. What a way to go :o) Then the first composting tray is added.

 Dampened shredded newspaper goes down first. Worms love damp newspaper.

 This unit came with some shredded coconut fiber bricks to use as a soil starter. You can use any kind of good quality compost dirt to start with (not potting soil).

 I broke apart one brick and added water to make a moist bedding.

 This is mixed up with the shredded newspaper and the worm starter farm from our friend Nowana.

 Another piece of barrier cloth is put on top before the lid goes on. This will keep the worms from crawling out of the condo through the air holes in the lid and finding their way around Rowan's office and onto her laptop and into her slippers! Ewe!

As soon as I got the unit all set up, I ordered a large quantity of red wigglers (500) from a worm farm in Pennsylvania. They arrived in 3 days and once they got to work, this is what the first tray of the condo looks like after only 2 weeks. The more worms you have in a bin the faster they work (they can double in number every 90 days). Each of these trays is designed to hold about 1000 worms with bedding, dirt, etc., so as the worms reproduce, more trays will be added.

This is a REALLY awesome way to do composting. As the weather gets warmer, the bin will be moved outside and as the worms keep producing they will be added to the garden with the soil. Can't wait to see what kind of vegetables will come out of our garden this year. I never imagined I would know this much about worms in my lifetime. We just never get too old to learn something new every day. Thanks, Nowana!

Stay tuned for landscaping and chicken adventures coming soon..............

Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday

Some catching up from February................

February is my favorite month of the year. Besides being my birthday month, it is also the time we have the opportunity to repent and give up our evil ways, all after doing everything bad to excess during Mardi Gras/Fat Tuesday! The celebrations happen throughout the world (Carnival) but here in the US, we associate Mardi Gras with New Orleans, where it first started in 1699. Go to these links for more history on the event: http://www.eastjeffersonparish.com/culture/MARDIGRA/HISTORY/history.htm
 and http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/history.html

Our friend Nowana, who has a history with New Orleans, threw us a whoopdie-do of a Mardi Gras party out at her place in the woods. Every detail was perfect, right down to the strings of beads, funny hats, traditional New Orleans dishes, music and decorations. Our friends Kris, Bob and Sally were all on hand to celebrate the end of their evil ways too :o)

Of course, the evening was started with bubbly...........

Oh, and traditional New Orleans Sazerac's too! Go here for recipe: http://cocktails.about.com/od/s/r/szrc_cktl.htm
Looks like Rowan is going to have a lot to repent about tomorrow :o)

The food fest started with Oysters Rockefeller, fresh off the grill. YUM!

Sally making something green because it is good for us. We need to have at least one thing that is good for us this evening........teehee.

Jambalaya, red beans, sausage and rice. Authentic fare from New Orleans.

The table.....

......including the crystal king.

Lets hear it for repenting (tomorrow) Cheers! :o)

Oh dear.......now it's on to dessert. Bananas Foster. Here is the actual recipe Nowana used: http://www.brennansneworleans.com/r_bananasfoster.html

A movie of the flambé. This part is always so exciting!

Extremely delicious!.........

....and something that goes right here (guess who?)! But we don't care because we will give it up tomorrow for lent :o)

So, while at Nowana's fabulous country home, she showed us her latest hobby: worm composting.

Yes, she has this fabulous worm condo complex for housing her worm family while they produce the most wonderful composting dirt for her garden. Who knew one could have a farm like this in the comfort of their own home?!  The worm bins can be ordered on-line, and they come with everything one needs to start the farm, even the worms!

 

Just a little shredded newspaper and some good quality vegetable garden dirt (not potting soil), kitchen vegetable trimmings, egg shells, etc. (anything you would normally put in the compost pile), and some red wigglers worms will get you going (don't use night crawlers). Go here for info on the worm bins:     http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Outdoor/Worm-Composting and here for info on how to do it: http://deq.louisiana.gov/portal/default.aspx?tabid=2101 - a hilarious read. You can get the red wiggler worms here: http://www.unclejimswormfarm.com/ - this is where I got mine (500), or you can go to a bait shop and get them in smaller quantities. The more worms you have, the faster you get good composting dirt.

Nowana gave each of us a little to-go worm farm as party gifts before we left. The most unusual gift I have ever received and the most sustainable. This gift will just keep on giving and help make our garden produce better everything. We will also be able to feed our chickens worms once in a while. Yes, we are getting some chickens later this spring..........that will be posted in a later blog, so stay tuned :o) Now, have to get that chicken-coop built!