Lorraine Dick let Foods and Resources Society president Leda Fair play in the dirt recently during a two-hour workshop on vermaculture and vermacomposting (worm composting) at the Midway Senior’s Centre.
Change at the grassroots level is always helped along when a champion is involved and when it comes to vermaculture Lorraine is the best!
She explained that there are three kinds of earthworms: surface worms, which are the composting kind and then there are two deep growing earthworms.
“The ones that you want for composting and making vermaculture are the ones that are on the surface, just under the leaf layer,” she told those at last Friday’s workshop. “These are the worms that produce vermacast which are the absolute best soil amendment that you can imagine.
“What does vermacast do for you? Much like if you’ve been on a bout of antibiotics you have got no bacteria left in your bowel and you eat yogurt to put the bacteria back in, vermacast puts the bacteria back in the soil.”
“Regular composting puts the ‘bran’ and the bulk back into the soil. Vermacast puts the bacteria back in. Bacteria is not all bad.”
FAR coordinator Erika Tafel said the group is planning a Permaculture 101 workshop, bringing in Allisa Bennett from Kelowna. The course is scheduled for Saturday, July 26 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Rock Creek Health Centre.