We started this project with the intention of building a worm farm large enough to recycle coffee grounds from our accounts located between Mendocino and Fort Bragg, CA. The worms would process coffee grounds into ideal fertilizer, and we would use some of it ourselves for gardening purposes, marketing and selling the rest. We hoped to create a system where the worms were processing coffee grounds and other organic matter fast enough so fertilizer could be removed and new food added to keep up with incoming grounds from local accounts.

Modified Goals:

After our visit to the Taylor Made worm farm we modified our original goal. We were given a five pound starter kit from the farm, and we decided that given limited tome, it would be best to have a small, working model for a larger worm farm capable of large-scale recycling.

What We Learned:

After researching on the Internet, it became apparent that creating a large-scale worm farm would take at least six months. Worms can consume about half of their body weight daily, under ideal conditions. Worms operate best in a moist, warm environment with plenty of food. This does not mean that one can put two and a half pounds of moist coffee grounds into a box with five pounds of worms and expect the next day to have usable fertilizer. Worms require great care, and simply putting them in a box with coffee grounds will not produce desired results. A better worm box would include coffee grounds, chaff, and straw mixed together between a top and bottom later of organic fertilizer. The fertilizer protects the worms and keeps them in a specific area. The box also must be gently aerated every day (best is by hand) and kept pH balanced with lime. Adding horse, sheep, or cow manure would produce richer fertilizer. If the worm box is protected against scavengers (raccoons, etc.), compost can also be added. Usually, worms do not produce fertilizer at a rate of half their body weight per day for a number of reasons. First, when worms process organic matter and produce worm castings (the usable fertilizer), the fertilizer is more compacted and drier. Second, worms can process their own castings several times. Depending on how processed one wants the castings, this can extend the conversion process a long time. Third, when there are more grounds than worms can process in a day, it is difficult to separate usable fertilizer from unprocessed waste. Fourth, worms will die without food. If worms are left alone for too long with the same grounds, they will decrease in numbers when food becomes scarce. Even the best maintained worm box will lose some worms this way. Finally, starting a small-scale vermiculture (worm-composting) project and expanding it gradually is much easier than trying to start big. We did not know what we were doing when we started, and if we tried to create anything bigger than our model worm farm, we would probably have failed. Through our reading and the visit to Taylor Made Farms we realized that building a large-scale worm farm would take too long, and that our internship would only allow us to work with a small-scale model.

Recommendations and Final Thoughts:

We were successful in our attempt to create a small-scale worm farm. Currently, we have about eight pounds of worms in one multi-tiered bin. There is space to expand this small-scale operation into the other three bins as well as some additional room in the current bin. The future of the worm farm is undecided, but if the worm farm is going to expand, more worms must be purchased. Although worms reproduce fairly rapidly, we only have about eight pounds of worms. Our local accounts use about 800 pounds of coffee a week. We would need somewhere around 400-500 pounds of worms if we were to recycle all of these grounds each week. This is an enormous task, and would require someone working twenty hours a week at a bare minimum to keep up with the work. If this something that Thanksgiving Coffee wants to do, it is possible, but it requires planning. Buying 400 pounds of worms would cost somewhere around $500. The purchase is easy, but once the worms arrive it becomes much more complicated. TCC would be responsible for 50 times the number of worms in our small-scale model. There are four possible ways TCC could make this project happen. TCC could continue to work on developing a partnership with Jughandle Farms, or work with Fred Rubin and the Fort Bragg High School to develop a program for students interested in agriculture, or work with Deena Zarlin and the Rural Challenge Network to develop a student after school program, or we could hire or train a staff member to be in charge of developing the worm farm with the eventual goal of recycling all the coffee grounds from local accounts, and marketing or donating the worm castings. All of these steps require a lot of planning and expense. Our small worm bin is operational, but expanding it 50 times will require time, continual care and attention, and planning. Thanksgiving Coffee Company must decide how committed it is to a coffee recycling program, and take appropriate action.

Update

July, 2001