Worms 2009

Our worms arrived today. Jacob and I could not be happier.

I am looking forward to them making a difference in my garden again! I don't think the vermipods were the best way to go for the lawn last year, so this year I spoke with Jim (THE Jim from Uncle Jim's Worm farm) and he suggested Super-Reds. He said that they are best at earth that isn't turned over, or full of decomposing material (like under a lawn) and the red-wrigglers are better at decomposing areas - like the veggie garden and flower beds that I have mixed compost and peat moss into. So I ordered 500 super reds, and 2,000 red wrigglers. You would be surprised how little an amount that is - I think I'm going to call them back and order the same amount again. Of course they breed - and if I were more patient I could wait for that to happen - but patience has never been one of my virtues, and I want a spectacular garden now - so I'm adding more. I also sprinkled a few into each of the pots I have for flowers and tomatoes.

We had some serious rain today, and when they were delivered I thought we'd have to keep them in the box a day or so - but it cleared up this afternoon, so we headed out to release them.

I mean, Could. Not. Be. Happier.

I admit - there is something pretty great about the feeling of a handful of worms - all that wriggling goodness. I completely credit my Dad & Ann (his sister) for helping me grow up loving worms, and the garden.

I'm making sure Jane feels the same way.

She loved holding them and sprinkling them too.

Emily started off with the same reaction she had last year ...

- then got a little braver (it didn't hurt that her friend was touching them) ...

- and eventually was helping distribute them through the flower beds.

We saved a few for "pets" for Jacob. He filled a little box with dirt and some peat moss and dead leaves, then we added a few worms. Do you think they'll crawl out? I'm hoping that they won't want to leave the nice environment for concrete floor in the garage - but we'll see how long they are around.

Go, go worms - help my garden!

Of course, putting boots on Jacob & Jane is pretty much giving them free reign to seek out puddles and mud - which they did.

And since it was near the end of the day, and they could just strip down for dinner and then baths & bed - I let them have at it.

I love spring!

(More than) One Bean

This is what my windowsill has looked like for the last few weeks, as the last of our summer veggies ripened.

Just before Halloween, I made the call that everything that was going to make it had. We picked the last few things, and I tilled the ground ready for winter.

Remember this post about our beans?
Well, the experiment went pretty well. Even on our massive trip this summer they fared very well by themselves, and even dropped pods on the ground, which then sprouted and grew more!

The kids loved picking them and ate most of them raw. It took a few times picking them too soon for us to realize that even when the pods are plump, they're not ready. We learned to wait until they were brownish & starting to shrivel - then the beans were perfect.

We got black beans.

And pinto and kidney (these kidney's were still a little too soon.)

I left several of the black beans out on a plate to air dry.
I was surprised by how much they shrink as they dry.

I put them in a small zip-lock bag & sucked out the air. I'm going to save them until next spring and plant a whole new garden of beans. We really like black beans and eat them a lot, so I'll probably mostly grow the black beans.
So really, they will all have come from one bean - I love it!

Worms

I really wanted to stop using chemical fertilizers on our gardens. I haven't used any on the vegetable gardens, ever - but also wanted to stop using them on the lawn and flowers. I use the grass clippings in the compost - which I then use to fertilize the vegetable garden, plus I just didn't want to add to the mass chemicals going into the water table.

We REALLY love our garden and work hard to make it lovely, so what to do?
The solution - worms! Worms are the means by which organic farmers fertilize. They lay "eggs" every 30 days, and travel very slowly. They are the very best thing for soil. This info is from the Uncle Jim's worm farm website -

Here's How The Worms Do It

1. They make burrows and tunnels that let water and nutrients reach plants root systems. Red Wrigglers are best at this for lawns and gardens because they work close to the surface. Whereas, night crawlers may go down five feet or more to find a home. This burrowing loosens the soil and aerates it.
2. Worms eat and digest their body weight every day, producing a 100% natural fertilizer know as castings.
3. Worms castings are:
   • 5 Times Richer In Nitrogen
   • 7 Times Richer In Phosphates
   • 11 Times Richer In Potash than the average top soil

So, back in May we ordered 5,000 worms and spread them throughout our flower beds, vegetable garden and lawn. I didn't ever get around to posting these (it was around the time of the computer crash.) We've been working in the garden a lot lately, so I thought I'd post them now.

So here are the little gardeners, they arrived in this box in the mail.
Inside the box they were in a nice mulch mix in a muslin bag.

The kids thought they'd make great pets.

Emily only held them when they were still in the bag.

I took a few at a time, and placed them randomly in the newly turned soil. Right before they arrived we emptied the compost bin and Rick rotor-tilled it into the vegetable garden.

Jacob had the time of his life helping me let them free.

Once they were lightly covered with soil, we left them alone and hoped for the best. I was worried about them dying but every time I work in the garden now, I find lots of worms! The soil quality in our veggie patch is the worst but the sun there is the best - so we don't want to move it. We're constantly working on improving the soil quality, and I think I might order a few hundred more for that area. This is where we let a bunch go in the shade garden in the front.

I'm really pleased with how everything is working out. Here are the chemical free results!

Thanks worms!

To order some for yourself, go here.

Collecting Eggs at Stone Barns

It's really important to me that my kids have a good understanding of where their food comes from. I like them to know how we get it and to distinguish quality from junk / garbage. To that end, I love to take them to Stone Barns whenever we can. I LOVE everything there, and would move in, in a heartbeat if I had the chance. You know you live in a city when you pay money & sign your kids up for a farm chore!

Walking up the hill to the chickens ...

... passing the newly shorn sheep (& lambs) on the way

These look just like the chickens we had when I was growing up. They are a Rhode Island red cross. We lived in England, so I'm not sure if they were exactly the same, but just the fact that they looked like them brought back happy memories.

I caught one & held her for the kids to touch her. (Ignore my hair - it's hot & humid here!)

Collecting eggs.

The basket full.

Running in the fields.

The geese.

We told Jacob a thousand times not to touch the fence (it's electric), but of course, he did. It's not a big charge - but he still seemed surprised (moral of the story - listen to your parents.)

The pigs.

Bunny. They used to raise rabbits for the restaurant, but don't anymore. Not sure why - no demand? This one is just a pet. This rabbit probably eats better than us!

We ended with lunch at the cafe. The restaurant is AMAZING, but pricey. The cafe is really great, delicious, and much much cheaper. A great place for the family to lunch.

Earth Day 2008

Happy Earth Day Everyone!

It's been over a year since I started exclusively using my canvas shopping bags.
I am a convert! If you haven't already made the switch - c'mon what are you waiting for?

I actually bought several canvas shopping bags before, but it didn't work out and
here's why.

* I didn't buy enough, so it seemed more of a hassle to take the 2 or 3 I had with me, and kind of dumb when I got there that I was also still taking paper or plastic.
* I always forgot them.
* I am a little OCD - every time I used them I felt like I had to wash them.
* Washing them made them crinkly - so then I had to iron them.

Last March I decided that I just had to make the commitment and get over it. If you know me and my personality at all, letting go of the washing stuff that was preventing me from full commitment was no small thing. I just knew I had to do it for my children & grand children's futures.

Here's what has helped;

* I bought enough bags that I can pack a CART LOAD of groceries into them. Knowing I had a significant financial investment (about $150 for all the bags I have) made me initially more committed to actually using them, and now it's a habit.

* I have 12 of the regular bags and 5 string bags, which I use for apples, oranges, grapefruits, etc. Then I have 6 of the grain bags, which we use for loose nuts, grains, and smaller things like ginger, limes, garlic, etc. This also makes checking out faster - because I just lift the string bags right from the belt to the cart.

* I keep them in my car.

* AS SOON as I have finished unloading the groceries, I fold them, and put them right back in the car. The exception is, if any are damp (wet veggies) I hang them on the back of the dining room chairs to air dry - then re-pack them.

* I only wash them for visible soiling, and when I do wash them, I air them dry - then fold and re-use. I tell myself the few faded spots and crinkles are evidence of how much I use them, and all the help I'm giving the earth.

Some unexpected & happy benefits;

These suckers are STRONG. I can load several up on my shoulders and arms, and make way fewer trips from the house to the car. Also, they never tear and spill food everywhere.

* Mine have no logo's or advertising on them, just plain organic cotton canvas. I have had many people compliment me on what nice bags they are, and ask where they can get some.

* I get entered into the Trader Joe's BYOB (bring your own bag) drawing on a regular basis (I'm expecting to win, eventually.)

* I get money back from not using a store bag at many places (Whole Foods is the best.)

* I love that my kids are seeing this example when we shop. It gives me such a good feeling when I think of what we have prevented going into land-fills.


I have even started taking them into Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond and other non-grocery places we shop. I use one of them as a library bag for our books too. So many uses. So go get yourself some. I love the one's I got from eco-bags, go here to order your own.



For the remainder of earth day - we played all morning with friends at the park, then ordered our caterpillars to hatch to butterfly's. We have done this every year for the past 13 years, and it never gets old! We wait until spring to order them, so we can release them when they hatch. They have such a short life span, I want them to enjoy it!

I have been wanting to order worms for our compost and garden for ages also, and was hoping the nursery where we buy our ladybugs each year would tell me where I could get some. Yesterday after ordering the butterfly larvae, I searched online and ordered 4,500 worms! I'm so excited. Then Oprah had a segment on composting and worms last night too!

Then we also orders Rick a new Sigg water bottle (like the one's the kids and I have been using for ages) as a late birthday present. He confessed that goes through several bottles of water every day at work, so now he can re-fill his Sigg and save all that plastic.

In the next year, I hope to do more. My next goals for improvement are;

* Keep turning off lights and using less energy (using a programmable thermostat and setting the temp 2 degrees lower than we were used to saved energy - and money - each month of the past winter.)

* Ride bikes or walk whenever we go to the library (it's close.)

* Replace all cleaning products with eco-friendly one's, as the existing supplies are used up (we've already started this and I'm happy with the changes we've already made.)

It's only a start, but if all of us make a few small changes it can have a big difference, and put us all on the track for a better future for those who will come after us.

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle.

More and more lately I've been trying to, not only recycle, but buy products that come in recyclable packaging - specially if it already contains some post consumer content.

I bought new printer cartridges last week, and was delighted to open them up and discover this - a small pre-paid mailing bag to send the old one back for recycling. Way to go HP, that makes me even happier that I bought your printer.

Also, my order from Eco-bags arrived today. I've intermittently used cloth bags from here and there, but in April decided to become committed to re-usable bags and bought a whole ton. I bought a bunch of the organic cotton bags, 3 string bags for big fruit, etc and 6 small cloth bags for small produce and grains. I'm really excited to use them. The hardest part for me will be remembering to take them with me, so I'll be sure to put them right back in the car after each use.

I noticed last week at Trader Joe's that they enter you into a weekly drawing to win a $35 gift card if you use your own bags (they don't even have to be the Trader Joe's ones) AND Whole Foods will give you 5c per bag you reuse .... that kind stuff just makes me happy.