Okay, these are totally unrelated topics as far as I know. I haven’t posted for a while because I don’t want to bore people by blogging about my personal life. Yesterday, however, was a big day. The culmination of months of saving the best tidbits of my garbage to put in the worm bin. (The rest goes to the regular compost). I have a three tiered “Can O Worms”. As one tier fills up you add the next. When the top tier is full, the bottom is ready to harvest, and yesterday was the day!
Jacob, my daughter’s partner, made a screen in a frame that I can set over the wheel barrow. It worked great to screen the compost and remove a few avocado rinds and tomato skins that hadn’t fully composted. The rest was a full bucket of rich, black, clean-smelling worm castings that I can feed my plants. The only problem was that the worms hadn’t read the manual and had not all migrated to the upper tiers as they were supposed to, so I had to relocate some of them as I ran across them.
Composting with worms is an easy way to deal with most kitchen scraps and yields a wonderful soil amendment. You can make your own bin if you don’t want to buy a Can O Worms or other commercial bin. I received mine free after attending a county sponsored workshop, but that program just came to an end. If anyone reading the blog has questions about composting, with worms or otherwise, please post them. Also, having completed the Master Composter program, I’d be happy to present at a workshop you organize for a group from your work or neighborhood.
Yesterday was also the dark or new moon. I participated in ritual with a group of women who gather at that time each month. The new moon is a time to reflect, to plant seeds of intention for the next month, and to gather our energies. We sat in circle together and shared our thoughts and intentions, a bit of massage, and food. I was reminded of the importance of taking time to slow down, reflect, and honor the earth cycles and the passage of time.
Sylvia Patience, Author 