Vermicomposting 101

Hey guys, I’m currently making an attempt at beginning an urban garden. I live in a rather conservative Californian suburb– where the population is both extremely wealthy and extremely Asian. Let me explain what that means: first, wealthy means that people are used to just buying and throwing things away and Asian, means we’re both very cheap but also generally don’t care about their environmental impact on society– other things come first.

Anyways, this means people don’t actually know about the impacts of maintaining their huge backyards. I’m not a real expert on soil degradation policy (I’m focusing on agricultural and food policy) but I will explain why I compost.

Vermicomposting is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. 25% of landfills is food waste and the average American Family disposes of 200 lbs of just food scrap a year that is treated with other waste contributing to urban sludge mostly because we throw away food with other non-biodegradable stuff. Likewise, it’s amazing to me that 14 – 15% of edible food is thrown to waste– an amount equaling $43 billion (Univ of Arizona). This scrap goes to land fills but why not right back into your garden?

VERMICOMPOSTING. WHAT? HOW?

Composting requires essentially little money. A little investment is needed to buy the worms (if you’re using worms) but otherwise, it’s pretty darn cheap. I would love to buy a $200 vermicompost bin but that’s just ridiculous.

I use a large plastic box with a lid, and opaque– drilled about 10 small holes on the bottom and like, 4 along the sides and that’s it! It was like $8 from target (probably less).

Dump in some soggy newspaper, some dirt to get it started, and food scrap. I put like 3:1:1 ratio of (soggy, wrung out, shredded) newspaper to food material to soil. Then a ton of wormies.

Worms are usually about $25/lb, if you’re buying online. I think Lowe’s may have some at the same price (not Home Depot) but I just bought like 4 little cups of $5 red wrigglers that are super-cute at Petsmart (and one cup of 12 nightcrawlers which are the hugest worms I have ever seen in my life but are probably more efficient– Liz below says that mixing varieties is a no-no so I think red wrigglers are just as efficient). Just dump them in there and watch them dig themselves back under all that crap because they are pissed at you for exposing them to the light.

You’ll want to turn the pile every few days or so– just mix it up.

I’m pretty sure vermicomposting is so much more easier than just composting. I’m impatient and bother my poor worms nearly everyday, mixing them up, and have them wriggle back inside. It’s really nice to actually be able to see results. I like having had put mango skins in the pile and a week later, it be gone but that’s mostly because I’m as easily amused as a toddler.

Better yet, you can actually keep them inside! Yeah, these babies won’t escape. So if you’re living in a cramped, NY apartment, no worries because it doesn’t smell – that belief is a STINKING lie (get it?). The only issue you might get is those tiny little flies that somehow make their way into the bin and if you’re an outdoor composting like me, a couple pincher bugs/earwigs. I think the flies can be avoided by covering the food with a bit of soil.

After a while, there will be little food-waste– then you’re ready to harvest BLACK GOLD aka worm poop. You should harvest every few months because too much poop is poisonous to your little friends. There are a few methods:
1. dump them on a shower curtain and use your hands to sift out the worms (uh, if it was just red wrigglers, I’m fine but those night crawlers are so freaking scary).
2. dump them on a shower curtain and make little mounds. wait 10 minutes. scoop the tops off the mounds. worms will have wriggled to the bottom all sad because it’s too bright.
3. move everything to one side of the bin. start a new ‘compost’– newspaper, food scraps, etc.– on the other side. wait a day or two. all the worms will be like, “hey food, ok” and leave the useless side.

There are No-Nos to Composting:
- meat
- poop, in general (except, perhaps, cow dung)
- citrus skins
- too much banana
- chemically treated things
- colored newspaper (try to stay away)
- greasy things

GOOD LUCK!

Meat Free Mondays

Don’t even think about making me give this up.
(100% Angus beef, no hormones, no antibiotics, humanely raised and BACON @ the Counter)

As you may or may not know, environmental policy is an important issue for me and I’d like to endorse Meat-Free Mondays not because I think animals have feelings but because of the environmental implications of eating meat. In terms of sustainability, meat is sort of that awkward cousin to the dinner table. What to do with it? Should it be dismissed or banned? Is it sustainable?

In moderation, yes but that hasn’t been the case. Our consumption of meat has gone up dramatically since we first domesticated animals. We have added hormones and selectively bred our livestock to be so fat and meat-ridden that they can’t even stand. We have over-produced and over-exploited the land so that our livestock is standing knee-high in their own waste. We have fed them only GMO corn and soy so that the health of our children is threatened by e. coli infections from the consumption of this meat, our farmlands have been sucked dry of nutrition and fertilizers have contributed to water contamination.

At each stage of the “food-chain” energy is always lost. From the sun to plants to animals. At each stage of the food chain, the original energy that was captured by plants becomes less and less. The energy loss makes it so that the general population of, say, insects is far less than plants and the population of frogs is much less than the insects that they eat. Humans have been able to forgo this rule to an extent (there is still a world hunger problem) through mass production at the cost of our environment and health yet our consumption of meat has increased as has our production of CO2 and environmental degradation.

As mentioned, it takes much more land and energy to raise one cow than it does to raise the same field of corn or veggies. It also takes about 8kg of plant material to raise 1kg of beef and while the world’s use of corn and soy could reduce world hunger, that crop is grown to be fed to livestock. The livestock industry accounts for ~13 – 18% of global green house gas emissions– not only are the animals producing tons of waste but the fertilizers that are needed to produce the plants for the cows to eat are adding to the problem. But I’m not here to preach.

I am by no means a vegetarian. Meat is too tasty to give up (I LIKE MY STEAK BLOODY) and I’m too lazy to even think of how to get enough protein on a vegetarian diet but I have definitely been eating much more white-meat and I rarely have red-meat. Luckily, there are some things that you can do to help that isn’t crazy extreme like doing a 180 on your diet. Meatless Monday can definitely bring awareness to this cause and can reduce your CO2 production. Plus one-day-a-week vegetarian meals are good for you no matter which way you look at it. Whether it be for health, environmentalism, or animal rights, please support this cause!

Our next recipe is vegetarian and it’s not salad. I’m probably never going to put a salad recipe on here (at least not in the near future).

boo salads (unless it’s very, very salty).

supportmfm.org/index.cfm
goop.com/newsletter/68/en/
meatfreemonday.com