Worms - The PERFECT Green Holiday Gift!

I know, I know...worms, really? Yes, worms...and for the kitchen too! With the holidays rapidly approaching, an indoor worm composter really is a great gift for that "green" friend or family member that is so hard to buy something for. Our family got one for my wife for her birthday last year and it has been nothing short of the perfect gift. I guess anyone that reads my Patch posts or knows our family won't be surprised that we willingly invited worms into our home, but they really are easy to take care of and a great conversation topic at our parties. It seems like everybody wants to see our worms when they come over.

The worms used in indoor worm composting or vermicomposting (www.vermicompost.net/) as it is offically called, aren't your typical garden variety earthworms or nightcrawlers. They are a different species known as Red Wigglers (Eisenia foetida). They are perfectly suited to the job of converting kitchen scraps (vegetables, egg shells, newspaper and even junk mail - no meat or dairy products) into beautiful, rich, brown compost. And they do it quickly too. You simply feed the worms the kitchen scraps, layered between shredded newspaper andor junk mail and they quietly do the rest. All those kitchen scraps and junk mail and newspapers that would be sent to the landfill or recycled, can be converted right in your home into a useful green product.

The worms live in a small plastic compost unit that is made up of a series of stacking trays and is completely odorless. We keep ours in a small pantry next to the kitchen and unless you know what it is, you wouldn't even notice it. The worm composter also produces a small amount of worm "tea" that can be siphoned off through a little spigot on the unit and used in diluted form as a great fertilizer for house plants. And, although I haven't used them yet, the mature worms are perfect for fishing.

There are plenty of places on the web to buy a worm composter and many sites with information about it. Our composter is called the Worm Factory 360 and it came with six stacking trays (www.wormfactory.us/worm-factory-worm-farm-worm-bin.html/worm-factory-3-trays.html). It ran about $100 for the unit and another $35 for the worms. The worms are shipped through the mail in a small box ready to go upon arrival. I can honestly say that the day they arrived was very exciting and we couldn't wait to put them into the unit and start composting. A worm "starter set" is between 1,000 and 2,500 worms depending on the size of the unit you get. They multiply pretty quickly and a well-functioning worm composter can easily house 10,000 worms! But don't be freaked out by the thought of 10,000 worms in the kitchen. They are harmless and quiet, and unless you lift off the top of the composter and dig through the layers, you won't even know how many are in there. Of course, once you get to "know" them, looking for babies or just checking on them is fun. They are much less care then the dogs, cat, chinchillas, fish, turtles, rabbits, rats, etc. that we've had in the house at one time or another. 

Last year the Friends of the East Brunswick Environmental Commission (www.friendsebec.com) partnered with the Middlesex County Division of Solid Waste to bring indoor worm composters into each of the schools in town (http://mebs.gmnews.com/news/2011-04-07/Schools/E_Brunswick_students_get_lesson_from__worms.html). If you have children in the school system they may already know how easy and cool worm composting is. 

We often joke about having worms in the house, but I really can't think of another green gift or product we have that comes even close to the benefits or fun of our indoor worm composter (okay, maybe my wife's hybrid car is more of an environmental benefit, but it certainly isn't nearly as much of a conversation starter!). I am certain if you get a worm composter your experience will be the same as ours.