2010 Diary Week 8
Gardening
This has been the week of the worms. Some years ago, I attended a worm conference organized by Mary Aplehof, the Queen of Worms, bought a couple of pounds of worms and started a worm project at the American Farm School. In America worms are big business as fish bait and disposal of organic municipal waste. Worms eat their own weight of food daily. It is the only investment I know of where your capital increases 16 times each year. Start with 1 pound of worms on January 1 and 3 months later you have 2 pounds; by the end of June you have 4 pounds; by the end of September 8 pounds; and by the end of December 16 pounds. Worms work 24/7, never go on strike, never ask for a salary increase, and their castings is black gold. So the poorest of the poor can start their own business with zero capital investment and sell their worms for municipal waste projects. A report from an Australian spoke of the 25% increase in grape production by adding worm compost so there is plenty of demand from enlightened farmers and gardeners. Worms have become the cornerstone of building fertility in our garden. I followed the instructions for creating a worm-operated compost heap provided in The Rodale Book of Composting. We give kitchen scraps to our chickens and periodically feed the leftovers to the worms. Most people buy a starter stock of worms but I don’t have money. I found plenty of worms in my compost heap as I was moving the compost to the garden. On our morning walk after heavy rain we also found plenty of worms on the road. The photo shows the view of Mount Olympus we enjoyed.
Book Reviews
From 50 Secrets of the World’s Longest Living People, I learned that I could undo much of the damage that I had done to my body in the years leading up to my cancer and found the guidance I needed to prevent my cancer returning.
Christine’s pottery
Christine had her first session with her students from the American College of Thessaloniki mentioned in last week’s diary. The rest of the time she has been in her studio preparing work for her exhibition in early March. It is wonderful to feel her excitement about what she is doing. It’s infectious.