She Gave Me Worms

Last week, DD2 went on a field trip with her Natural Resources class.  First, they toured the greenhouse of a university about an hour away, where they learned how roughly 40% of the food served by the campus cafeterias is grown.  They also got to see how the food waste from those cafeterias is disposed of on-site through composting, and the compost is then used in the greenhouse to grow more food.

After that, they went sailing.  Literally.  They went aboard the Appledore IV and spent the afternoon with fun hands-on science education focused on water ecology/marine biology.  DD2 came home and talked non-stop for over two hours about all the interesting things she had seen and done shipboard.  Being as she will be attending college to study wildlife ecology and management (which studies will include marine biology), she ranked this field trip as absolutely the best and most interesting one she has been on in her high school career.  Apparently so interesting that she was the only 16-18 year old female there who failed to notice that the 22 year old crew member of the ship is very good looking.  Or so she told me a few days later after talking with some of her fellow field trip goers and realizing she hadn't paid the young 'hot' crew member hardly any attention compared to how much of her focus had been spent on microscopic sea creatures.  I guess the other girls kept talking about him, and she kept saying "Who?".  LOL

But anyway, this post isn't about the ship.  It isn't about the handsome sailor.  It's about worms!

Because while the class was at the university having the greenhouse tour, those students who wanted to were given a hanging flower basket full of soil, herb seeds, and worms to take home.  Not just any worms, but red wigglers, which are the standard for vermiculture.  Vermiculture being the technical name for composting using worms to break down the organic matter (ie plants, food scraps, etc) into soil.

And guess what DD2 did!  She said "ooh, I'll take one of those!" and she brought it home to me. She brought me worms!  Woo hoo!

Vermiculture is something I've tossed around in my head for a while, but it has not ever gotten to the front of the Try This list.  Now, apparently, it has been moved up to first position on that list.  Because now I have worms to care for.  (And yes, I do realize it's a bit odd for a woman to get excited about worms.  But hey, I'm not your average woman. And I'll admit to being a bit odd.)

Unassuming basket of dirt 

(with a few lettuce scraps thrown in)

Worms!