Page 27 - Hillview_book

The rich worm castings are harvested, packaged as Vermi- Gold and sold at local retailers, including Ace of La Crosse and the People’s Food Co-op. Sales of VermiGold help support Hillview programs. The vermicompost is also donated to local school gardens, the Boys & Girls Club Mathy Center garden, the Kane Street Community Garden and Washburn Commu- nity Garden.
The vermicompost project serves as the cornerstone for ver- miculture education and community outreach programs, includ- ing tours of the vermicompost facility for local schools and Boys & Girls Club participants; Make & Take vermicompost-making classes held at Western Technical College; and participation in library programs and local events such as the Washburn Garden Expo and Earth Fair, teaching adults and children the impor- tance of enriching the soil with vermicompost.
The vermicompost project has received support for the past four years from the City of La Crosse and HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program.
MODERN VERMICOMPOSTING began in the 1970s. Mary Appelhof, a Michigan biology teacher, pioneered the concept of home ver- micomposting in her 1973 flier “Basement Worm Bins Produce Potting Soil and Reduce Garbage.” She promoted this form of com- posting in later self-publications. Clive Ed- wards, an ecologist from England who moved to Ohio State University, promoted the use of vermicomposting on a larger scale through “continuous flow systems” in the 1970s.
Over
the past four years,
the vermicompost project has diverted over seven tons of pre-consumer food waste materials from the waste stream.
Seven year-old Riley Mathison (left) attended a Make & Take vermicompost class with her mom and dad at Western Technical College, taught by Zack Gaugush, vermicompost consultant, and assisted by former Hillview board member Jenny Nustad.
VERMIGOLD Vermicomposting is the process of breaking down food waste using red wiggler worms. As worms eat through waste, they produce a well-balanced, nutritious fertilizer called worm castings, a.k.a. worm poop.
Food waste is added to the top of the vermicompost unit about three times a week. (Coffee grounds are pre- composted with sawdust before they are added to the vermicompost.)
A layer of bedding material (sawdust and pre-composted coffee grounds) is placed over the food waste. If bed- ding is dry, we moisten it and wait for the worms to migrate upward into the newer layers.
The final compost product is harvested by using a winch and cutter bar system to remove the bottom layer or finished compost.
This finished compost product is dried for about a month depending on the moisture content. The dried compost is then sifted, packaged, labeled and sold or donated.
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PHOTO: Vicki Miller