Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Friday 1 June 2012

Master Composter visit to Bakefield Worms

Earlier this week I went to visit a lot of worms!

As regular readers will know I am a Master Composter, a volunteer community compost advisor with my local council ( Herefordshire) and we do all sorts of interesting stuff to promote home composting of waste rather than dumping it in a hole in the ground to create Methane ( which is what happens to putrecible waste if you throw it "away" into your landfill bin.)

And as well as going to shows and doing assemblies in schools and talks at gardening clubs and practical workshops on compost making and, oh, all sorts  - we occasionally get to go on visits to interesting, compost related places as a treat - well it is a treat if you like composting lol.

Today, we went to a worm grower and vermicomposter, Bakefield Worms. Now I am always keen to go and see anything compost or recycling related so immediately wanted to visit this business, which is in the village where my daughter goes to school.

This also meant that the site we were visiting was only 6 miles away from my house, which is really quite close compared to some of the events I have attended as a Master Composter - Herefordshire is a very large and very rural county and I have to travel around a lot to get anywhere!

Anyway we arrived and were welcomed and  our choice of refreshment ( tea/coffee/cold drink) was asked about, for later on during the break. Names were taken and name stickers handed out ( for those of us who forgot our official name badges and yes I did forget! Bad Compostwoman!)

And then we were shown into the barn which is one of the two main "nerve centres" of the operation. Bakefield Worms produce quality, live, Herefordshire worms and vermicomposting products. All worms and products are hand selected from their own established, healthy production beds.

One of the two Bakefield directors, Kate, showed us how they produce the worms. She described the process from start to finish very clearly - and demonstrated just how wonderful the worms they produce are, by showing us to them...





There are various bags of worms and cocoons for sale, direct and by mail order, and I must say they all looked really good value


Bakefield Worms supply:
  • Worms
  • Soil Enricher
  • Compost Booster Kits
  • Compost & Wormery Rejuvenator
  • Chicken Scratchlings
  • Solid Compost Worm Units


This is a load of composted horse manure with a load of worms wriggling around in it, waiting to be packed up and sent off out to purchasers.


It is a very hands on process , harvesting worms!



A worm and a couple of worm cocoons


 
 

Kate was an excellent imparter of information, with an obvious and infectious passion for vermicomposting. We left with an (unexpected)  sample of worms to take home and memories of a very enjoyable, informative couple of hours talking about composting and wormeries and the power of vermiculture.

Thank you to Bakefield Worms for having us to visit and thank you to Herefordshire and Worcestershire County Council Waste Management departments for arranging the visit for us.

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