My Close Encounter with Some Worm Composts
May 17th 2009 21:00
Photo by Mathijs Romans. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Years ago I used to work at the Environmental Protection Authority. What impressed me about them was their habit of practicing what they preached. The printers were set up to print out double-sided documents, paper recycling was encouraged and in their kitchen was a worm compost. Above the compost was a sign encouraging people to put their food scraps inside it instead of throwing them into the bin.
I used to look at that compost a lot. Being worm phobic, I didn’t want to look inside to see the worms, although I managed to have a quick look inside it. All I could see were food scraps. There were no worms.
Whenever I saw the compost I would wonder what was going on inside it. Would there be dozens of worms churning about, eating away?
Just recently, I noticed a parcel sitting outside my building one day. It was addressed to one of my neighbours.
This neighbour was a nice elderly lady who liked to volunteer for museums so she was always telling me about upcoming exhibitions.
I decided to take the parcel inside and leave it outside her front door, just in case someone pinched it. Like many parcels, it was a small white box. There were no labels as to what it contained and just as well as a few days later I found out it contained a box of worms.
When I saw my neighbour a few days ago, I asked her if she had received her parcel.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “It was a box of worms.”
I must have screwed up my face unintentionally as she went on to explain they were harmless and they were for a worm compost she had built in the backyard. Like the EPA, she planned to put her food scraps in their instead of just throwing them away.
“It was just as well I didn’t look inside the box,” I joked as we parted company.
| 30 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
