I've got me some worms!!!

I finally have some worms to eat our kitchen scraps! I read about worm farms years ago and have always wanted one but, having never settled anywhere, it's taken until now to get them. This really was quite an easy item to cross off my 37 Things because I knew I was getting them - you see they were my birthday present! Everyone I've told that too thinks I'm somewhat crazy but when you've wanted something for as long as I have then I was delighted to have them for my birthday!

We went for a Worm-A-Round worm farm in the end, mainly because they were designed and are manufcatured locally and I'd also heard good things about them. When I first got back to NZ I picked up a leaflet at the local tip shop which states that Palmerston North City Council have placed a Worm-A-Round unit in every school in the city - pretty progressive eh? We picked our up from their agent in Palmerston North but I believe that they are available at Mitre10 and Bunnings.

Basically there are two trays that sit on top of each other. They each have a tray with holes in that sits on a ledge, this is so that the worm wee, aka as vermijuice and leachate, can trickle down to the bottom tray and be taken out by the tap. The photo shows the first tray in place.

The worms like newspaper!! Shredded newspaper is used as their initial bedding, which was soaked in water in a bucket, wrung out and then placed in the tray. The girls loved this bit. In fact whilst it was soaking Cassia sat outside and played happily in the bucket for about an hour - she wasn't a pretty sight afterwards but at least there was no arguing for a while! Then for the fun bit - opening the worm parcel!

I got tiger worms from Wormz Away in Christchurch. They were by far the cheapest supplier and I ordered 500g which is about 2000 worms and they arrived by courier last week! They were safely parcelled up in their little package and surrounded by the shredded paper which you use for the bedding. The girls were enthralled:

Maia had first dibs, followed by Cassia:

The worms were then very pleased to be settling into their new home, with no chubby little fingers poking at them!

They eat upto their own weight in food scraps every day so once they have settled in, reproduced and reached their optimum population (around 8000) they should be able to handle nearly all of our food waste. Apparently they will also eat tissues and hair - does anyone else put these in? So one week on it now looks like this!

I'm still can't quite believe that they are going to turn this lot into something that's really good for the garden! Each day we have fed the worms and the girls are taking this very seriously! In fact I have to have two bowls with equal amounts of food in for them each to give to the worms. I have to say the other night it almost looked like a ancient offering ritual with both girls holding their bowls before them and walking quietly and solemnly to the great and mighty worms! Long may this interest continue. Maia's already invited everyone at Kindy to 'come and see my worms'!