edible seattle | Spring 2025 9 THE DIRT ONE MAN’S TRASH IS EVERY WORM’S FEAST WORDS AND IMAGES BY BILL THORNESS I’m in the kitchen, chopping veggies. Carrot tips and tops get snipped; winter-rough skin on beets meet the peeler. Halving a delicata squash reveals a string of seeds, which get scooped. The knife swipes right and the veggies hit the sheet pan for roasting. Then my hands sweep the cutting board and the detritus goes … where? To feed someone else! I’m tossing all those rejected bits into a copper pail to carry them to the backyard. My worm bin awaits. When friends ask if we have a dog, I answer, “No, just worms.” Our only pets. Besides being low maintenance, they are a wriggling little mass of helpers for my garden. Turns out the “red wigglers” that live in a soft bedding of fallen leaves are great composters, consuming scraps and pooping fertilizer. To be more sciency, Eisenia fetida converts vegetative waste into vermicompost. A handful of healthy vermicompost includes some hardworking worms! Finished compost will be very dark in color and have an earthy, clean smell.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==