The Circle of Life

Recently, one of our CSA subscribers (thank you, Dr. Huff!) generously gave us a big scoop of his red wriggler worms, and I started a vermicompost, or a worm compost. After our Sunday night Abundant Table service, I tried to convince some of the kids that my worms are just as exciting as Sarah's chickens (the kids always visit the chicks before leaving). When they looked into the bin full of decomposing vegetables crawling with worms, they weren't convinced. Then I suggested we take each chick a little wriggling surprise...
What followed was a fun half hour of "ewww!"s and "okay, let me try one...", and wonderful child questions like, "How do worms chew and swallow?" Thus we learned about the circle of life... an safely unsanitary educational experience that I tried to replicate in the pictures and videos below:

1. We fill our vermicompost bin with fruit and vegetable scraps, egg shells, and shavings from the cleaning the chicks' box

2. Worms eat chicken shavings and scraps

3. Selecting a choice morsel

4. Chickens, meet your food!*

From our "slogan:"
"Meet your planet.
Meet your farmers.
Meet your food."