Recycling at our house

Good morning!  How are you doing this lovely Spring day?

Thought I would take a quick minute and talk about recycling.  Over the past couple of years we have started eating more and more whole foods and less and less prepared foods.  I can honestly say that most of the food in our cupboards now is organic.  It has been a huge transition, but I think that we all feel better for it!

SO...what I found was that there is so much more organic waste when we eat this way.  We started a worm bin (yes red wigglers and the whole thing) many years back.  I have to say that I am the example of "It just isn't that hard to keep these guys alive!"  And why I say that is that we went whole winters without feeding them anything.  But they came back in the Spring.  I wouldnt' suggest doing it that way, but it is true.

In any case, we started a worm bin like this one: http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/Easywormbin.htm

I think they went a little crazy with the holes, but whatever.  In our town, we are no longer able to recycle our shredded paper in our recycling bin, so we use shredded paper in our worm bin for the bedding.  We have a container in our kitchen where we store the veggie left overs, the coffee filters and the tea bags and egg shells.  Then when it fills up, I take it, the shredded paper and a pitcher of water out to feed the worms.  I dump the organic waste container and then spread it out, cover it with a thin layer of shredded paper and dampen it with water from the pitcher. 

So many of the worm farmers try to tell you that it is very difficult and you need to do do this or that, but really it is that simple.  Just make sure not to pour too much water in at once because the worms can drown. 

By the way, we have our bin(s) outside.  And we feed the worms with anything organic that has started to go off.  We feed everything else to the chickens.  We have chosen not to feed the chickens meat though.  So...my dog is the recycle bin for meat.  She thinks that's neat! 

Then...we use the worm castings in our planting beds.  We use the chicken manure and the hay in our compost pile and will eventually use that in our planting beds too.  I am thinking we are going to need more planting beds!!