Worm Composting Article

Liz Pevytoe has her hands full . . . of worms. When Pevytoe isn’t working as a registered nurse lactation consultant at North Hills Hospital, she’s busy home schooling her two daughters, Emma, 9, and Abby, 5. In her spare time, she’s a hobby worm farmer.

In 2003, Pevytoe said she and her husband moved from a two-acre homestead to a city lot in Keller (with a Roanoke mailing address). She said, “I craved a connection with farming, so started looking on-line and discovered worm composting, or vermiculture.” She shared that her early days had a lot of trial and error but over the years she’s learned a lot, giving her a good foundation to teach classes about red wigglers.

Hearing about her worm composting, Pevytoe reports, a fellow organic co-operative member suggested teaching classes. She said, “I tried teaching some classes at home, but I didn’t like the feel of teaching at the house.”

A year ago, Pevytoe discovered Homestead Farms in Keller. “It reminded me of the small town where I grew up in Texas. I love having the farm exposure for my girls. It’s wholesome,” she said. She started teaching classes and reported her first class was very successful, with forty participants.

Classes are beneficial for the hands on experience, according to Pevytoe. “When the students see and feel an active bin, it’s totally different from what they’ve been reading in a book or seeing on-line.” She adds, “I want to help them succeed with the worms.” She helps the novice farmers avoid the pitfalls she’s learned from. Classes aren’t scheduled at Homestead Farms until spring, but private classes are available. (www.bigtexworms.webs.com)

Pevytoe reported that her family feels she’s a little “off”. “Even now, they don’t totally understand my interest in worms,” Pevytoe said. “I like them because it’s fun. You can do worm composting from anywhere; an apartment, a backyard, or a garage.” She adds, “It fits into the mantra of the green movement: reduce, reuse, recycle. We reduce waste by recycling all our fruit and vegetable scraps, along with cardboard. We’re reusing by building the bins from construction projects, we’re not buying new lumber to construct them. And recycling; well, that’s the worms working.”

The benefits are the worm castings, Pevytoe said, the by-product of the composting. “The castings are a nutrient rich fertilizer that is beneficial for plants. They’re a slow release fertilizer with live fungus and live protozoa. The nematodes in the castings act as a natural pesticide.” She added, “The castings are a good root stimulator for new plants.” She reported that the castings are also good to make a compost tea, where a small amount of castings will make a large amount of tea.

I hope you enjoyed this worm composting article written about BigTex Worms.

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