The Worm Bin

Fear not, you're not the first to raise an eyebrow and ask, "The WHAT??" Read on and see.

Worm composting has been a subject getting a lot of attention around our house, in part because my husband hates the regular compost heap. Lack of yard space is another reason we decided to explore this type of composting. Basically, the worms live in a box and eat your food scraps and trimmings. They are ideal companions for vegans because pretty much everything you consume, they can too. The worms have been living in a temporary bin in our basement and as far as my sons are concerned, they are our new pets. The boys love to feed the worms with me.

The worms need to be red wigglers and they cost about $25 for 500. I had a coupon and got them for $12. There was no way I was paying about $100 for a plastic tower for them to live in, so our weekend project was to build a worm bin. We scavenged wood from some pallets and an old train table my sons no longer play with.

Our bin is 30" x 34" and 12" high(a slight variation from the 1-2-3 box described in the best known handbook Worms Eat My Garbage but we wanted use wood that we had on hand.) The bin looks like a coffee table or bench. It will spend warm months outdoors, in the shade and winters indoors out of direct sunlight.

Naturally, I got asked if keeping a worm bin was vegan. I'm not growing the worms to eat or so my brother can fish with them. I'm not starving the worms or leaving them in conditions that they aren't suited to, so I think I'm okay.