We Have Worms!

It's a funny story. Kailani has been describing herself as "earth girl", "ocean girl", or "nature girl." Anything to the effect of saving the earth. So last month, for Kailani's birthday one of my dearest friends, Mari came up with the most unique present for her: WORMS!

I SAY unique but that is NOT what I was thinking when she presented them to her. As a matter of fact I thought I misheard her. WORMS? By no means am I a girlie-girl but I am also not a lover-of-slimy-creatures kind of mom either.

Why worms? Well, I didn't completely understand the process but here's the info taken from the Waikiki Worm Company's website:

Recycle with earthworms!

Waikiki Worm Co. was established to address the issue of recycling of organic waste, which makes up 34% of Oahu's wastestream. Annually, 50,000 tons of food waste alone is generated on Oahu. Processing organic waste with worms - called VERMICOMPOSTING - transforms garbage into a nutrient-rich, odorless, pathogen-free, organic soil amendment that dramatically enhances the health of houseplants, garden plants, fruit trees, landscaping, lawns, and agricultural crops. Worm poop, also called gardeners' gold or VERMICAST, recycles nutrients back to the soil as nature intended. Vermicast is easily produced and harvested from your own kitchen worm bin.

Hmmmmm. Yeah. I'm all for the three R's - "reduce, reuse, recycle" but not if grossness was a factor.

Mari was kind enough to walk us through the process of feeding them and caring for them. I have to admit, it looked easy enough. But while she handled the worms like a pro I was not ready to touch the little creatures with a 10 foot pole.

Guess who else wasn't ready? Miss Earth Girl, Kailani! But lucky for the both of us somebody else was:

Momo. Our hero! She thinks the worms are "SOOOOOOOO CUTE!" Seriously. The way she acts you would think they were puppies!

So it's hasn't been quite a month since we first started caring for the worms and things are actually going well. We've been feeding them, watching them grow, and even making mistakes (overfeeding) but they are STILL ALIVE! (Whew!) 

But I'm still not ready to touch them.

In all sincerity, "THANK YOU, Mari!"