Worm wrangling
Cascumpec man turns passion for gardening into worm compost business
SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. – As a layer of cardboard was peeled back to reveal the mass of wriggling red earthworms underneath, a smell wafted up from the container that would bring a smile to any gardener’s face.
Rich, clean, moist soil. It is the stuff hopes and dreams are made of in the planting world.
Pat McNally gently dug his cupped hand into the loamy black earth and turned it over, spilling a dozen more writhing worms from their hideyholes. Before he had withdrawn his digits the critters were already burrowing their way back below the surface and out of the offending light.
“I go for the centre, that’s usually where I put the food in,” said McNally as he combed through the material, looking for a few specimens of his livestock to show off for the camera.
He is a worm farmer. The basement of his Cascumpec, P.E.I. home doubles as his farm.
Racks along the walls cradle a couple dozen Rubbermaid totes, where thousands of red wriggler earthworms go about their business of turning old food scraps into potent fertilizer.
McNally then sells the mixture to green-thumbed Islanders via his small business, New Earth Worm Castings.
He is a regular at the weekly Summerside Farmers Market and has been happily hawking his worm compost, also known as worm castings, for about five years.
WHY WORMS?
Worm farming is an unconventional line of work, but as a new generation of environmentally conscious North Americans continue to fuel a renewed interest in gardening and farming, for both pleasure and food security, it is becoming more common.
The process involves raising worms, usually red wrigglers, which are considered ideally suited for the purpose, in containers. They are fed scrap organic material and the resulting castings (or worm poop if you prefer) is collected for use as an allpurpose fertilizer.
McNally said that, under ideal conditions, one pound of worms can process the same weight in organic material into a quarter pound of castings per day. Each bin takes 120 days before it is ready to harvest, and he gets about 40 pounds of castings per container.
His business helps divert waste by collecting fruits and vegetables that would otherwise be thrown away from a local grocer. He has a deal to regularly pick up produce that failed to sell, which he freezes and feeds to his worms as needed.
The resulting product can be mixed directly with new soil, applied sporadically as a top-fed fertilizer, or brewed into a worm casting tea and watered directly onto plants.
McNally sells bags of both castings and a seed starting mix in many sizes. For example, a two-pound bag of castings normally goes for about $7, while a 25-pound bucket would be about $80. He is looking to start selling worm tea at some point, but that is still being developed.
HOW IT STARTED
McNally became interested in gardening many years ago. He has periodically suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, so he needed a hobby he could enjoy without causing himself too much pain. Once he started growing food, he was hooked.
“After I was at it for a while, I just wanted to find a way to do it better so the food coming out of there was better for me. I started checking into the worms and vermiculture and I was really surprised when I started doing a lot of research on it.”
He received his first bag of red wriggler worms about seven years ago as a birthday gift from his wife, Rose.
“I told her I wanted worms – and she’s been regretting it ever since,” he said with a chuckle in an interview with SaltWire.
Over the years he has grown that single bag of worms into his entire operation.
“At first it was just a hobby. But I saw how fast they grew – if they were treated well, they produce quite a bit (of compost).”
GROWING BUSINESS
Lord Abbey is a horticulturist and associate professor at the Dalhousie University Faculty of Agriculture. One of his areas of research is the relationship between how plants are grown and their resulting nutritional value.
Over the years, Abbey has taken a special interest in worm-related composting because of how potent it has proven to be as a plant fertilizer and its related potential to help cut carbon emissions in the agriculture sector. He is also involved with the business side of this emerging industry and has consulted with a few companies looking to cash in on the product.
“Applying vermicompost will change your plants completely,” said Abbey.
“The plant becomes more resilient; the plant becomes more healthy; the plant is able to produce not only food but also compounds we need in our bodies for good health.”
“(Vermicomposting) is good for food security and also for nutrition security if we could use it at a larger scale, thus reducing our carbon footprint.”
“I wish more people could do it,” he added.
“It’s a potentially lucrative business.”
Farming worms for compost is also relatively easy to do at home, he added. All you need is the right kind of worm, a container that will hold moisture while also having some airflow and the right kind of food for them.
“Small scale in your kitchen, in your back yard – it can be done. It’s easy to do,” he said.
That said, worms do need proper care and attention while they work. Abbey suggested anyone interested in doing it should do their homework before doing it.
“I would say read a lot about it. You have to be dedicated because they need a lot of attention. Worms are like human beings or babies, they need care. They are living. So, if you don’t treat them well, they either escape or they die. So, you have to make sure the worms are healthy.”
FUTURE PLANS
McNally hopes to keep building his business into the future and wants to educate others along the way.
He is hoping to partner with a local farmer at some point. His dream would be for P.E.I.’s agriculture industry to move wholesale towards a more organic growing method – and he believes worms and worm castings can play a big part in that.
“I want to help people get off of chemical fertilizers and for them to realize there is a better way to take and grow things,” said McNally.
“(Worms) are just such a powerful force.”
“We’re walking around on the ground above them and we don’t give them a second thought. But they’re probably what’s going to turn around and save us here in the next little while.”