Castaway Compost Blog

I started off Earth Week on Earth Day in the Herron Morton neighborhood talking about worms.  Then to Angie’s List on Tuesday for a Lunch & Learn and a tour of their raised beds.  Tomorrow is Eli Lilly for their Earth Day event.  Sunday finishes it off nicely as I get to present at Orchard & Bloom  in Holliday Park.

If that wasn’t enough worm talk (and Keith saturation) for one week.  Mike Allee wrote a great (I’m biased) article about me that just came out in NUVO this week as well.   Wow.  I’m a little overwhelmed.

My wife and I just got back from the Orchard & Bloom preview party and I would highly recommend going to it this weekend.

http://orchardinbloom.org/

http://www.nuvo.net/indianapolis/vermicompost-takes-root/Content?oid=2441834

Wow.  March went fast.  So did April.  It went so fast I forgot to post this.

With the warm weather my worm activities got busy quick.

I’ve already sprayed several yards with aerated worm compost tea and getting worms to others kept me too busy to post.

April looks to be busy as well.  Below is my schedule that I know of.

I’ll be presenting at Herron Morton Place on Earth Day – April 22nd @ 1:00 — oops!!

I’ll be at Eli Lilly on the 27th for their Earth Day event.

And finally I’ll be presenting at 1:30 on the 29th at the Orchard in Bloom Symposium at Holliday Park.

Hope to see you at one of these.  Holler if you need worms or worm compost.

The workshop Thursday was a lot of fun and we had a good turnout — about 20. A few people got started that night, a few more sound like they are thinking about it. The rest you just don’t ever know about. They all were engaged and questions came from a majority of the attendees. That makes it a lot more fun. Thanks KIB.

I will be doing a worm composting workshop on Thursday, January 23rd at Keep Indianapolis Beautiful’s headquarters. It is from 6PM to 8 PM and is in the Fountain Square area near downtown Indy.

I actually did appear on INdy Style TV show this morning. My first time on TV and it was cool to see how they do things. The video should be attached.

http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/indy_style/in_indy_now/cast-away-compost

Yep.  Ashlee Wilson Fujawa from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful called today (Monday) and said that INdy Style wanted to have us on the show tomorrow.  Gulp.  INdy Style is a live TV program.  I am not nervous by nature but I guarantee that I will be tomorrow.  So if this isn’t a snipe hunt, I will be talking about worms tomorrow on WISH-TV 8 sometime between nine and ten in the morning.  If it is a prank, somebody’s in trouble.

I will presenting a Composting 101 workshop/discussion at the Earth House Collective on Saturday 1/28 at 12:30. It is free and will cover hot, cold and worm composting. It is only a half-hour so should be fast moving. Check out more at Indy Food Swappers.

This is an e-mail I received a couple of months ago:
Keith,
My girlfriend and I picked up some worms from you at the market this spring. I am happy to report they seem to be thriving and multiplying like crazy. I am amazed every time I open that bin on how many there are and how fast they consume things I place in there.
I am writing you today for a couple of reasons; I may be in the Indy area in the next week and might pick up some more worms if that is possible. 2nd I have a few questions about my bin that I was hoping you could guide me on. My girlfriend and I laugh all the time when we talk about you and how cool you were, we are your “people” that’s for sure. We had so much success this summer with the worm tea in our garden and look forward to using it much more next summer. All the gardeners at our community garden were always checking out what we were doing. Some may have thought we were crazy, but after they saw how much our plot produced they may have thought differently. I am not sure when we are heading there from Michigan but I was just wondering what your availability was like this next week.
Thanks, John

John and his girlfriend came over one afternoon and my wife and I spent the afternoon talking about worms, natural gardening, art, solving world hunger, etc.
Typical stuff. I had a great time and I told them they didn’t need more worms.
But if you’re not doing this — you do! Then you’ll have one more cool thing to talk about.

Talk with you soon.

Saturday is opening day for the Indy Winter Farmers Market. It is in the City Market from 9 to 12:30. I will be there doing a worm composting workshop from 11 to 12. Come out and get some good stuff, support the vendors and learn about worms.

I got to share worm composting to a kindergarten class on Friday and then at a workshop set up by Fall Creek Gardens yesterday.  Both were successful and big thanks to Mrs. Henson @ Mary Castle and Maggie Goeglein with Fall Creek Gardens.   For those of you that like mushrooms, Fall Creek Gardens is having two different workshops on mushroom DIY on November 12th.  Check it out and register on http://fallcreekgardens.shuttlepod.org/Events

I will be doing a workshop at the Indianapolis Winter Farmers Market that day.  I will be unable to go but I think my wife is planning on going.  Hopefully we can add mushrooms to the list of stuff we are growing in the basement.  Um, that sounds bad.  Right now we only have worms but will hopefully be adding an aquaponic set-up for winter veggies.