Hey, good going SH [super hero]!! Because my worms are in an in-ground pit, I'm not really that sure of my ability to set up a bin for give away. But want to try. The two batches that I've given away were for in-ground pits [our mild climate makes that possible] and in both cases the worms are prospering. Anyway .... I, too, either compost or vermicompost nearly every bit of trash and all garbage from my household.

Marauder

Good work. I took a couple of years off and started up again about the middle of Dec. '09. I started with approximately 1000 (1 pound) of E.F. I'm about at the point of giving enough away to get someone else started. I just need to find that someone. I'm thinking of a nearby school but would probably have to wait til the start of the new school year next fall.

If there happens to be someone interested in the near vicinity of Racine feel free to contact me via e-mail.

Dave Nelson
dnelson26@wi.rr.com

"The next super hero, me!" I so agree. Super Worm Man!

I have been planning meals around what will generate the most worm food :-) So a potluck got watermellon and the worms got tons of rind. The store was out of cantalope.

If you run out of food you can goto the grocery store ask for the produce manager and see if you can get the roting fruit that can't be sold

I'm hoping to get my worm population up a decent amount for this fall. I'll have a ton of waste where I make can a lot of homemade apple/pear sauce, jellies and hoping to start canning some veggies. Hoping to have a couple bins going. I would be happy if my worms could eat 5-10 lbs of waste a week though and I can always throw the rest in my garden compost.

The worms do have some competition for the watermelon rinds though. The chickens really like them too. Good thing my kids love it so I have an excuse to buy a bunch.

wow, how generous to give away worms like that !

I got my wigglers in early May so I cannot give them all my food wastes just yet. I wish I could though.

If I had access to more worms I would get a second bin going now so I have more worms to process the foods.

I think all of you that give away worms are wonderful!

Karen

I just want to say, hopefully without seeming too sappy, that I am so proud that my new-found hobby has put me in a place where I can be with people who care so much about being responsible with our wastes. I did want to ask all of you more experienced heroes out there, what do you do with your dairy, meat, and bread/pasta wastes??

Awww, thanks guys.

As for the meat leftovers (contradiction in terms I think), but my dog get an occaisional treat. Same for the dairy, but I can't think of the last time I had any leftover. Ditto for pasta.

Bread I leave to dry out and crumble it into my feed bucket and mix in just before feeding to the bins. I find it helps manage the moisture in my non ventilated plastic bins. Basically, anything I can dry out before going into the bins help manage moisture (seems to be the only achilles heel to the tote arrangement).

Karendee, hang in there. It does take a while. Try this (worked for me as above in 9 months). Take a 10 gallon tote, fill with ripped up corrugated cardboard, egg cartons etc. Wet down and leave to soak for a couple of days. Squeeze out excess water and fluff up. Add a small handfull of dirt / compost and 2 cups of blended up food scraps. Leave for a week to develop, then add 100 worms (count them, it's fun lol). Check back in 3 weeks, and add about a cup of food (blended)and more newspaper shredded and cardboard. Keep this regime until you notice that all the food is going in 3 weeks, then change to 2 week feeding, then 1 week. This will take approx. 6 months. THEN start to up the feeding amount. Manage moisture by using dried bread and adding dry cardboard / paper shredded. My totes end up VERY wet, so after 6 months, tilt up one end of tote, and scoop the vermi to one end (high end of course), and wait a day or two. Scoop out the puddle and level out the material again.

I had approx 1.5 kgs of worms in 9 months, from 100 starters.

Give it a try. What have you got to lose.

Goodluck!

wendrew .... so ahead and be sappy ... you only say those things BECAUSE THEY ARE TRUE [said she humbly]

Re: what to do with meat leftovers ... Larger stuff goes to dogs. Smaller stuff goes in my kitchen scrap bucket ... which is separate from the worm food bucket ... and when sufficiently yucky, it goes on the compost pile, covered quickly with garden waste. So far no critters attracted ... maybe they don't like rotten food. That whole no dairy thing puzzles me ... works fine in both buckets. I even threw a perfectly horrid [tooo sweet] grocery store banana cream pie into my worm bucket ... mixed with cardboard, newspaper, kitchen scraps, sawdust pellets, and turned into 'homemade manure' ala Bently. And the worms just loved it.

"what do you do with your dairy, meat, and bread/pasta wastes??" Lust after BSFL. But really there should be a pecking order. Day old bread? It's whats for supper. First the family and neighbors (and their dog) get their choice. Then the rabbits, then the chickens, (This is all if I HAD rabbits and chickens.) Then BSFL, and lastly the Vermi. Maybe a new definition of community?

Along with EE's heirarchy, the first step is to produce less waste.

Meat - there's not much of it in my house. I used to be a hard core carnivore but somewhere along the line I lost my taste for it. Any meat scraps and bones go into a bag in the freezer for eventual use for making stock. After that, it goes in the trash. It may be going in the landfill but it's quite biodegradable. If you keep a hot compost pile you could compost it.

Dairy - I can't recall the last time I had a dairy leftover unless it was the rind off brie, and that's edible (I just don't like it).

Bread - Again, not a whole lot of waste here. Stale bread is good for making croutons or breading or soaking in gravy. Crumbs go in the bin. Moldy bread can go in the bin, too, just not too much of it. If your bread is getting moldy you've got a supply problem, not a waste problem.

I have put small amounts of meat into my COW and the worms seemed to like it okay. I think if you keep it small and well covered it will not cause a problem.

I also seem to be losing my taste for meat.I think it's age(83).

Dave Nelson

I think it's the quality of meat, Dave. It just tastes nasty anymore, especially chicken -- store bought chicken tastes metallic to me. And that's actual cuts of meat, let alone "mechanically separated" meat.

But when I buy pastured-raised meat from the farmer down the road that doesn't have a feed lot, stressed and sick animals or ones pumped full of drugs and steroids, it tastes great.

marauder01 that is a nice idea!

I have totes I can try too. Maybe I can take out a few worms when mine multiply and try what you described.

Karen

Alabam

I think your right. When I read about how these chickens and other animals are raised(manufactured) it turns my stomach. I'm going to see about getting some locally raised small producer meat. We did that years ago and had some really good stuff.

Dave Nelson

just when I think this forum coulden't get any better you start talking buying local meat.I work at a local abattoir/meat shop, it is better tasting meat.I offer a challange to you meat eaters buy 10lbs hamberger from local raised meat and compare to grocery store.
I could talk hours about buying local but I'm a slow typer.
any questions please ask

Dave, every time I see a tractor trailer go by on the way to the chicken plant with their beaks sliced off and in cages too small to stand up it turns my stomach. Yeah, I eat them, but I don't torture them first.

One good source for *some* local meat: http://www.localharvest.org

But it's really about getting to know the farmer. Just because it isn't USDA certified organic doesn't mean the farmer doesn't use pretty much the same methods. Also, if you have communities of Amish or Mennonites locally, they tend to have good meat. Less dogmatic about methods, but very practical. More like what I'd get when I went to my grandpa's house as a kid and the steak had a name.

I don't have a big freezer right now, so finding good meat is tough. I have nowhere to put a quarter of a cow and a half a pig and so forth. But I'm working on it.

most meat shops have a $50.00 or $100.00 box.
I live in Canada and there are three different inspectors that come to the shop regularly.