Freezing worm food

by Jonathan Schearer
(Wilson, NY, United States)

Hi Liz. My father and I have been produce farming for about 30 years now, selling fresh fruits and veggies directly to the public at a farmer's market. We eat a lot of what we grow and therefore have a lot of veg and fruit waste that usually just gets dumped back into the field as "organic matter". I just started a worm bin about six months ago with a green worm tower where the worms are supposed to climb up. I agree with you, they don't climb up like they are supposed to. So, I am going to try the bin method. I have a lot of food, bagged and in the freezer in my garage. They don't seem to mind the thawed food, as it is easier for them to digest. My problem seems to be: the worm tray always seems to have too much moisture in it. Do I just feed them less food and add more bedding to try to soak up the moisture from the thawed food? Thanks.

Answer from BigTex Worms:

You have several options to solve the moisture problem:
1. When you thaw the scraps, you can thaw in a coliander and allow the runoff to drain out before putting it in your bin.
2. YOu can add a layer of dry bedding under each feeding to soak up the moisture. Peat moss or dry coconut coir fiber will work well, because it is so dry.
3. You could add all your scraps to an outdoor compost pile or tumbler, allow it to decompose a bit then add the PREcomposted scraps to your worm bin (this is a great option if you have lots of scraps) and this is what I do.

Hope this helps,
Liz
BigTex Worms