This week I created a worm farm to break down our food scraps and generate fertilizer for our growing plant collection.

Tools I used:

• A medium sized plastic bin

• Drill - to make holes in the bin

• Shredded paper and cardboard - the base layer of bedding

• Scissors - to shred

• Soil

• Red wriggler worms - the stars of the show

Context

Lately we’ve had a colony of ants discover our compost bin, and it’s been fascinating watching their population explode as they feast on our scraps. It reminds me a bit of our life in the jungle during the pandemic (although there were 100x more bugs there), and it has rekindled my appreciation of ants.

While we were in Oaxaca a few weeks ago we took a short printmaking course. We carved a design on a thin piece of wood, painted it in ink, then ran it through a press to print it onto paper. I chose to carve an ant, and I was stoked with how it turned out:

_Eisenia fetida_ aka ‘ lombriz roja californiana’ aka ‘red wriggler worms’, a kind of earthworm adapted for eating decomposing food. For this size bin, the guides I read suggested 500 or 1000 worms, but I only got a bit more than 100. Ideally, if they are happy, they’ll reproduce and thrive.

Apparently for the first week or so it’s better not to give them food scraps, but rather let them acclimatize to their new home, so I covered them with a bit more soil and a piece of wet cardboard.

• Harvest the castings to fertilize our plants

• Add extra levels to the worm bin to increase the volume of scraps they eat

• Make an ant farm