Some of you might remember we got into vermicomposting when we lived in Naperville and realized that decomposable stuff wouldn't just decompose in landfills if we threw it out in the regular trash. As apartment dwellers, we couldn't make a compost pile in the backyard, so with a lot of help from Bentley's Red Worm Composting site and an order of red worms we found on Craigslist, we began the sometimes disgusting, sometimes challenging, but ultimately fulfilling experience of vermicomposting.
If you followed our old blog, you know that we had a lot of trouble when we first started because the worms lived in a big plastic rubbermaid tub. We were constantly battling mold, strong smells, and little bugs that would lay eggs in the compost and then multiply like crazy. We finally solved all of our problems by investing in a Worm Inn.
And then we moved to China. Sadly, the worms could not go through customs with us, so we left them behind in the US.
Being newbies in China, we had no idea how to do some of the "green" stuff we had become used to (vermicomposting, recycling, buying organic, etc.), but now that we've been in China for a little over two years, we are learning to incorporate some of these things back into our lives.
Now, after learning how to use online banking and ordering red worms on Taobao, and after ordering a new Worm Inn from the US (there's no WAY we're going back to the nasty plastic bins), we are happy to report that our Chinese red worms are up and running! (Well, they don't really run. More like "up and wriggling around in their own waste, absorbing nutrients from our vegetable and fruit scraps, and making more waste." But you know, they're worms. It's what they do.)
Anyway, they are happily munching their way through many of our scraps, and we are glad to be back in the world of vermicomposting again!
If you followed our old blog, you know that we had a lot of trouble when we first started because the worms lived in a big plastic rubbermaid tub. We were constantly battling mold, strong smells, and little bugs that would lay eggs in the compost and then multiply like crazy. We finally solved all of our problems by investing in a Worm Inn.
And then we moved to China. Sadly, the worms could not go through customs with us, so we left them behind in the US.
Being newbies in China, we had no idea how to do some of the "green" stuff we had become used to (vermicomposting, recycling, buying organic, etc.), but now that we've been in China for a little over two years, we are learning to incorporate some of these things back into our lives.
Now, after learning how to use online banking and ordering red worms on Taobao, and after ordering a new Worm Inn from the US (there's no WAY we're going back to the nasty plastic bins), we are happy to report that our Chinese red worms are up and running! (Well, they don't really run. More like "up and wriggling around in their own waste, absorbing nutrients from our vegetable and fruit scraps, and making more waste." But you know, they're worms. It's what they do.)
Anyway, they are happily munching their way through many of our scraps, and we are glad to be back in the world of vermicomposting again!
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