Comments on: Restaurant Food Waste Vermicomposting

By: Craig Cochran

Craig Cochran — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:12:02 +0000

I like the idea of worm composting on a large scale. But since we typically compost to make fertile soil for organic gardening, are we simply recycling the pesticides, herbicides, and other contaminants found in food from restaurants? Unless the restaurant food was organically grown, are we poisoning ourselves through the worm castings? I really would appreciate discussion on this subject since I have a garden spot with crummy soil, and I want to build it up.

By: L.Bo Marie

L.Bo Marie — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:30:20 +0000

Thanks for answering! I was picturing a wave style system I think… sort of like when you move worms around a bin with directional feeding… your system makes much more sense!
Thanks for visiting the blog… it’s just gone under some rennovations, so it’s still missing most of it’s content… *sigh* I’ll get there eventually.

By: Bentley

Bentley — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:13:51 +0000

Hi L. Bo Marie,
Nice to hear from someone in the region. Your blog looks great.
I have several trenches and they are all somewhat different in terms of depth. I made my first (and primary) one about 3 feet deep or so, but they don’t really need to be this deep - the deeper you make it, the slower the stuff at the bottom is going to decompose.

I have worms throughout the trench, and simply add layers at the top - this way it will be more uniform through the length in terms of moisture and fertilizing potential.

Anyway, hoping to write my post about trench composting this week!

By: L.Bo Marie

L.Bo Marie — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:45:20 +0000

such a great idea! (mmm, some pretty good people food there too! I was there once for work.)
I was just talking to a local coffee shop about getting some grounds… they have way more than I’d be able to take on, but they said they were more than welcome to the idea of me giving them the sized bin that I could handle daily.. lol, I could likely only take about 2 ltrs a day. But I was super excited that they were open to the idea.
how deep is the trench that you’re using? are the worms just following the yellow brick (straw) road of food? will you have to move them back to the start of the trench? I’m looking forward to hearing more!

By: Bentley

Bentley — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 14:26:47 +0000

Thanks Kami!
It definitely should be interesting once the cooler weather hits. I think it will actually work very well with cooler (fall) weather, simply because the temperatures in the composting materials will be closer to optimal (I suspect that the combination of microbial heating and summer heat makes temps a little on the high side) - plus, my worm herd should be much larger by then as well.

By: Kami

Kami — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:12:16 +0000

Your success is fantastic. I hope this type of relationship between restaurant owners, (eventually) grocery stores, and wormers (is there another term? Worm caretakers…nah) can be developed in more communities.

You may find that this winter you will be composting so much organic material that snow won’t stick to your yard! You won’t have to heat your house.