Vermiculture is a really nifty way to compost food scraps using worms. In return, the worms produce castings, a much sought after soil amendment.

In 2010 Piedmont sold its vermiculture project to Ben over at Carolina Worm Castings.

Piedmont Biofuel’s Amanda Sand got involved in Vermiculture in 2007 and really enjoyed the project. She took charge of fifty pounds of a special kind of worm called red wigglers. The red wigglers or “Eisenia foetida” can eat twice their weight in food scraps every day, and are therefore capable of diverting 700 pounds a week of food scraps from the local landfill.

When Amanda fed her worms, she first ground the food scraps in a wood chipper.  Lyle called it a “worm smoothie” machine.  This “predigested” slurry is a lot easier for the worms to break down. She then weighed the food and logged it into her worm book. She then spread the food over the top of the worm bin and since worms don’t like light, she covered them up with a tarp.

The rest is up to the worms. They eat, poop “castings” and have worm sex until time for their next feeding. Because worms each have both male and female reproductive organs, they make sure to line up male against female when they mate. A worm egg pod, about the size and color of a mung bean is produced which will eventually yield about seven baby worms.

Vermiculture composting is a great way to turn your kitchen scraps into fantastic fertilizer. Your trash will smell better and weigh less while your garden, houseplants, landscaping and/or lawn reap the benefits.

If you would like to learn more about vermiculture and take home your very own worm starter kit, keep an eye out for the next Workshop through The Abundance Foundation.

Another place that really understands vermiculture is Bountiful Backyards over in Durham.  They have workshops too.  And they inspire us.  One of their notions is that we must push beyond sustainability and work on rejuvenation of this garden planet.  We’re in.

And don’t forget about Carolina Worm Castings .  Ben has forgotten more about worms than most will ever know.