worms

i'm the kind of girl that shuts off her power strips when she leaves the house to save electricity. i've been bringing my own shopping bags to stores for years (clothing stores included) because our countries over-use of plastic bags seriously sets my teeth on edge. so back when i lived in buffalo and got heavy into gardening, a compost bin was the bees knees item on my dream list of home accessories. i moved before i had a chance to set one up.

sure, a compost bin means less waste in landfills, but the circular nature of the relationship is the most appealing part to me. i eat food. my garden eats compost. i can nourish my beloved garden, all by feeding myself. not to mention, i can do all this for free! (yes. cheap Corrie usually rears her head in matters)

when i moved to Brooklyn, i figured composting was an option that for the time being was lost to me. gone along with having a living space that equalled more than a few hundred square feet. sure, i could walk my compostable items forty blocks to the farmers market. or take a train into Manhattan to compost things there. but while i might turn off my power strips when i leave home, i ain't no green saint.

my friend Jared enrolled in a few composting classes, mind you, WORM composting classes. i won't lie. the idea was disgusting. "that's great, Jared," i said when he told me about it, quietly gagging back my distaste.

worms? like, in your house?! no freakin' way.

which is about the reaction Jared's wonderful fiancee had to the idea. putting a bin in their building's basement was out, because, well, who wants to risk trouble with the neighbors over worms? it was about this time that Jared proposed the idea to me. the only thing in the basement of Corrie's house is Corrie. wouldn't she love to have her very own worm compost bin?

it was a past dream come true... except with worms.

i could feed my tiny container garden with my own, tiny batches of homemade compost. with Jared quoting statistics of just how much perfectly compostable material gets thrown away every day, and how smaller our landfills would be if only etc etc etc....i agreed. 

i agreed TO HOST WORMS IN MY HOME (okay, they're in my hallway, people. i'm not totally insane). as excited as i was to finally compost, i won't lie - the idea freaked me out. i love coming across a worm while digging in dirt, but owning hundreds of them? i kept imagining millipedee crawly things. no me gusta.

right before we were to set up our bin, Jared sliced his wrist open on a broken bowl while doing dishes. he's fine. but at the time, this meant that the trip to pick up our supplies was done solo by me. riding home on the train holding a carton of worms was not helping me feel more alright with this. 

what follows is our instructional how to of setting up a worm bin. more than that, it is an instructional video of getting over your fears. of embracing being green. of realizing that worm composting is only 1% totally creepy and 99% totally fun....

yes. i did just write that. and okay, maybe it's 2% creepy.

apologies to Jared, i'm not sure why youtube froze the video on this still. maybe because it's awesome.