Vermicompost Update

 

I harvested three yogurt tubs of processed compost from the worm bin recently. Our system has finally found a good rhythm, and I can actually observe them processing food and turning into black gold after a very stop-and-start initial year. I feel a lot freer to dump in food regularly without overwhelming the worms. 

 

Here is the bin when I take the cover off. I've found that a nice thick layer of newspaper is key to preventing fruit flies.

 

 

Here I am pulling up the paper and you can see recently added food scraps.

 

 

 Here is another corner that has been in longer and is mostly turned to compost. This is probably about a month old?

 And a whole bunch of in-process elderberry mush from my medicine making. You can see the little worm going to town in it.

 Ready for the garden!

We've also been saving eggshells for a number of months--just rinsing and letting them dry. After crushing, they are supposed to be great for feeding plants.