Compost is for the worms

As most of you know we are avid gardeners.  However, we move locations every two or three years.  It seems to be every time we get a garden almost to where we like it, it is time to move on.  However, one thing we are sure of, we leave our properties with much more fertile soil than when we moved onto them. 

Notice the layers.  The dirt at the bottom is nearly top grade compost, while the raw material on top is all of ourrecent additions.

About 1/2 emptied out.

After a little over a year of composting we have a nice little pile of grade-A dirt to show for it.  Most of the compost gurus state that you need to turn and aerate your compost every 4-6 weeks and carefully monitor it to have a precise ratio of green and brown inputs.  This precision would be great if I had ambition and patience to do such things.  However, I do not have that kind of patience.  What I have done is collect the best composting components I can find.  I have been collecting coffee grounds from the cafeteria and 3 different coffee stations at my office for over a year.  I have also been collecting egg shells,banana peels and apple cores from coworkers who probably think I am off my rocker.  Last fall we collected enough fallen leaves to fill up our rather large bin twice.  This combined with our kitchen scraps and some biochar (more on this later) have led to quite a haul of quality compost.  Despite lack of aeration, our compost pile seems to do its thing quite quickly.  If we fill up our bin to overfull status until it heaped over the top with dried leaves, weeds and coffee grounds; within a week it will down nearly a foot.  This indicates that the raw inputs are composting quite quickly.  Though admittedly, some of it may simply be packing down as well.  On 29 SEP I emptied out the finished component (and mostly finished component) from the bin.  To my amazement we had an extremely large population of earthworms helping out the process.  If you read our previous post "We have worms" you know that we also maintain a small worm bin for vermicomposting.  This past spring I seeded the compost bin with a handful of red wigglers.  From the looks of it, the initial population has increased by 10 fold or more since their introduction into the compost bin.  Earthworms are amazing at converting raw vegetable matter into dirt and are probably a large part of the reason we don't have to work too hard at getting our compost perfect....the worms are doing it for us.  So there you have it a complete post about dirt.  I hope you enjoy.

The final result with the finished and nearly finished compost in the pile.  Inside the bin the compost was quite compacted.  After removing it and putting it into a pile it is quite light and "airy" which gives the impression that more came out than was ever in.

An Important Lesson About all Those Shrooms

     On my way home from bagpipe lessons (yes I am taking bagpipe lessons) I noticed several large mushrooms along the side of the road growing in a thick layer of pine needles under a row of those conifers.  I recognized them from my recent readings, but couldn't identify them exactly.  I pulled over and put on the 4-ways.  I grabbed the Gerber and a bag and went to take some sample(s).  They were large and beautiful with mottled yellow caps and buff white stalks.  I would guess that the larger ones weighed close to a pound.  While collecting these I also found another beauty which I knew right away as the coral mushroom (edible).  Nothing else looks quite like a coral mushroom, except actual coral of course.  Unfortunately it was past its prime, but I collected it anyway to bring home if for no other reason than to show the family.  I filled my bag full of shrooms and returned to the parked Jeep Liberty, leaving many other of these very attractive fungi growing in the pine needles.  I drove maybe 50 yards and noticed another stand of large brown mushrooms in the same stand of pine.  Since I hadn't even really sat down long enough to get comfortable, might as well stop and pick a few more if for no other reason than for educational opportunity to identify another species.  It turns out I found two more species one tan/brown with bluish green  tinges and another bright red smaller mushroom.  By this time I am thinking pine needles plus hurricane equals excellent mushroom growth.  I once again returned to the jeep with these new specimens and came home.
     Once home Sara and I identified all four mushrooms at least to the genus level and all to edibility status.  It turns out that the first mushroom that caught my eye was the toxic (hallucinogenic) yellow fly agaric or Amanita muscaria.  I am sure I could have unloaded this at a head shop, but instead it wound up in the compost bin.

   The second mushroom was the crown tipped coral mushroom or Clavicorona pyxidata, a choice edible.  However, since it was very old and also since I had it in the same bag as the Fly Agaric it also went in the compost.

   The third smaller red capped mushroom was of the genus Russula and I think called the Emetic Russula.  Technically the mushroom is not suppose to be highly toxic and would cause no permanent damage to a body.  However, it does cause a strong vomiting (emetic) reaction in many people who try to eat it.  For this reason, it too went to the compost.

  The last mushroom was tan / brown with a bluish or greenish hue with the cap about 4 inches in diameter.  It also turned blusih green when cut into.  For a more accurate analogy think blue cheese.  This last one was difficult to identify but eventually we narrowed down the taxonomy to one of three species all of which are edible "Milky" varieties.  Lactarius indigo or Indigo Milky is the most likely candidate with L. paradoxus and L. subpurpureus also possible.  Though I would be confident eating this mushroom, it also is ending up in the compost bin because it is past its prime.  The age of the mushroom caused its deterioration into a dry, flaky near mess when it was cut in to.  The age also made exact species identification difficult.  However I did learn that if the mushroom is blue it is likely edible.
   The lesson learned from all of this is one of caution.  Just because a body can be tempted by the prospect of gathering a bounty of mushrooms positive ID is a must.  Whenever you gather any wild food you must be 100% sure of what you have.  This is especially true with mushrooms.  Though a 60's style psychadelic trip may be cool, its not exactly what I had in mind when I initially saw the mushrooms growing under the pine trees.  I did learn a lot, and now feel better prepared for surviving the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse.

We have Worms

Well I figured after about a month it was time to share with the world my vermiculture experience.  About a month ago the Eggers' attended the Mother Earth News Fair in Western PA.  One of the lectures that Mackenson and I went to was about Vermiculture or the culture of worms.  Composting through vermiculture seems like a good idea considering the end result of the compost being absolutely incredible with vermicompost being much higher in soil nutrient than regular compost.  Mackenson and I were both stoked about this prospect.  Mackenson was more excited that mom and sister are both vermiphobes and he is not and myself being excited that our food waste can be turned into something very useful in a fraction of a time of regular the composting process.  Macky continually uses talk of worms to gross out the girls in the house and I use it as a teaching point for the kids illustrating how food waste is turned into worm poop dirt.

TECHNICAL DETAILS:

I started out building a bin out of a rubber-maid tote based roughly on a design I had seen at the Mother Earth News Fair in mid-August.  I drilled some holes in the lower sides large enough for some 3/4" PVC pipe to fit through each about 1/3 of the way in from the sides.  Two pieces of pipe were cut slightly longer than the width of the bin.  In these two pieces I drilled many (and I do mean many) very small holes through the pipes.  The pipes were then placed width-wise though holes in the bin.  Caps were placed on the end of each pipe with similar holes drilled through the caps.  All of this was done to increase airflow though the system.  About 12  3/8" holes were drilled in the center of the container lid in a circular pattern.
I stacked the bin with enough dry shredded paper to fill the bin completely then added about 2 cups of water to wet down the paper.  I then added a few vegetable scraps in one corner and bought some "red wigglers" from the local pet-smart.  The next day I joined a worm forum.
Luckily a fellow vermiculturist (thanks Brenda) I was able to get additional worms, some starter vermicompost and some good advice.
PROGRESS:

Its been about a month now, and my population seems to already be exploding as there seems to be a plethora (love that word) of worms now.  I was feeding once or twice a week, now it seems like I can not keep enough food in front of these critters.  Additionally I have noticed more worms congregating along the sides of the bin near the lid.  Luckily escape is difficult from my system due to design, but this is still a concern.  I have noticed that there is more condensation on the lid than in the past and I think this may be the reason for the current worm protests as perhaps moisture levels are becoming too great.  I will add more dry shredded material in the next day or two to see if this remedies the problem.  I am also considering starting a second bin in the next week or so.
That is all for now in the adventure.