Urban Farmer- (Saving Up for a Pet Store)

I recently learned that my oldest brother has been farming worms for the last year or so.  That is so cool.  Equally cool, but even more surprising, is that when I suggested we keep worms in our basement my wife didn’t immediately recoil but actually inquired more about the logistics of the venture. 

Before describing the theory and methods behind urban worm farming you may be wondering why farm worms in the first place.  There are actually a few good reasons to keep worms.  Worms are decomposers, meaning that they break down dead organisms and therefore are the last stop on the food chain.  Really it could be better said that worms are the first step in reintroducing useable molecules to primary producers and therefore squirm round at a pivot point where the food chain begins and ends. It is this molecular hinge function that motivates a worm farmer. 

As with anyone, urban worm farmers produce waste in the form of uneaten and discarded food.  Apple cores, egg shells, coffee grounds, etc. These are all forms of food that we are unable to, or in some cases are unwilling to eat, but for a worm they represent nutrient rich food sources. It may seem like an odd form of worm heavy altruism to keep worms on hand only to provide a food source for them but they give more thank they take. 

Of particular interest is nitrogen.  Nitrogen is a key nutrient for plants to grow but it is also a limited resource.  The atmosphere is 78% nitrogen but all of that is inaccessible to plants.  Worms are handy because as they consume the discarded organics around them they process the complex molecules and break them down into more simple parts.  In this way the nitrogen locked in a banana peel or a fallen oak leaf becomes accessible to the plants in the form of delicious and earthy worm poop.

I haven’t been over to check out my brothers operation but as he describes it, it sounds like a pretty simple and elegant set up.  The farm consists of two large Rubbermaid tubs with holes cut out of the bottoms. The tubs are filled with dirt and stacked on top of each other.  Plant based foods are buried in the bottom of the top container along with a few dozen red worms. The worms eat and process the food waste until it is gone.  At that point the worm filled bin is moved to the bottom and food is buried in the new top bin.  The worms make their way through the holes toward the food in the top bin leaving the nutrient rich worm castings (poop) in the bottom bin.

Simple, awesome, worms.