Get dirty, start a blog!

With the winter (hopefully) winding down in the next few weeks it is time to start thinking about spring!  The big catch phrase each spring is to think green, or spring into action by greening up your life.   Now, I fully believe that this should be the year round motto but I will certainly take advantage of all of the green converts coming over this spring!

With that said – I will be offering up a whole host of classes at various Whole Foods Markets in the Chicago area, visiting classrooms and making a few stops in Indiana, my home state.  Please check my events calendar for more info!

Hi folks, I am very excited because today I start a three day Worm Composting tour in Indiana.  I will be heading to Bloomington, IN tonight.  I will be at Boxcar Books at 6pm.  After that, on Wednesday, I will be in Indianapolist at the Earth House Collective at 6:30pm.  I will be finishing out the tour with a house party in Muncie, IN at 7pm.  If you would like to attend this event, please contact me for more information!

I have brought down supplies for 30 worm started bins which means I bought over 3,000 red worms!

I really hope to see all of you at one of these stops!  Happy Composting!

I will be headed back home to Indiana for a three class tour in Bloomington, Indianapolis and Muncie.  I am very excited to have been able to schedule these classes and I definitely need any and all support to make them a success!  Please check my events page for the specifics on each class.  They will all be set up in a similar style.  I will chat for about 3o minutes about the general set up of a worm composting bin.  After that, I will take questions and also offer a time for anyone who wants to make their own worm bin to do so.  I am excited to share my knowledge and hopefully get some new worm owners out there.

SEE YOU SOON

The USDA and the Farmers Almanac can give us a better look in what to expect for frost dates.  You can have a look at it below.  I love maps!

Here is a look at the Illinois specific frost start and end dates:

On a lovely note, there are Columbine and Golden Alexanders blooming in our front bed.  They are native wild flowers!

Life’s a garden folks, now that the frost scares are hopefully over, let’s dig it

Media coverage of the first Earth Day included a One-Hour Prime-time CBS News Special Report called “Earth Day: A Question of Survival,” with correspondents reporting from a dozen major cities across the country, and narrated by Walter Cronkite.  The largest segment of the special report (20 minutes of the 60-minute program) focused on Earth Day in Philadelphia, whose flag is pictured below.

Let’s not forget to do something tomorrow in honor of Earth Day.  Share your Earth Day adventure with me as comments and I will share my adventures with you!  HAPPY EARTH DAY TO ALL!

First off, I will be giving a Composting 101 FREE talk at the Naperville Whole Foods Market at 10:30am and directly after that I will head to the Wheaton Whole Foods Market to lead a Make and Take Composter class at 2pm!  On Sunday I will be teaching another Make and Take Composter class at the River Forest Whole Foods Market at 3pm.  River Forest is just outside of the city, so I hope to see some Chicago city faces!

Now, if you cannot make any of those classes this weekend, no worries!  Check my events for future dates or shoot me an e-mail and I will personally  come set up a worm bin with you!

Check out some of the great photos taken by Miss Manda Rains while prepping the bins to sell!  Thanks to my helpers Brian Swoveland and Matthew McManus for helping the process go quickly and effortlessly.

Bloom represents projects that educate the community, they have several local, national and international outreach workshops annually, as well as youth programs and volunteering opportunities.  In addition they give tours of the Milwaukee demonstration greenhouse, have family workshops and a variety of other ways to learn and get involved.

Thrive represents projects that support food production and distribution, they support local restaurants and offer weekly market baskets to the residents of Chicago and Milwaukee, which are extremely affordable.  Food production happens in the demonstration greenhouse in Milwaukee as well as at a rural farm in Merton, Wisconsin, in conjunction with Rainbow Farmers Cooperative and the urban farms found in Chicago and Milwaukee.

Grow represents projects that support the methods they teach the local community.  They pride themselves on these techniques being easy to replicate and adaptable to different situations.  They offer on-site workshops at all of their farms and greenhouses and additionally, they have satellite training sites in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Mississippi.

These restaurants in the Chicago-land area support Growing Power and Rainbow Farmers Cooperative by using produce and local, grass fed meats in their restaurants:

A Mano

Bin 36

Bin Wine Cafe

Blackbird

Bleeding Heart Bakery

Delightful Pastries

First Slice

Floriole Bakery

Fraiche Kitchen

Fresh Picks

Great Lakes

The Green Grocer

Greg Christian Catering

Green City Market

Hot Chocolate

May Street Market

Pasta Puttana

Prairie Grass Cafe

The Publican

Signature Room

Sunday Dinner

Terragusto

Uncommon Ground

Vie

Growing food together.

Today, my worms are feasting on apples that are reaching the prime of their ripeness.  I don’t usually feed my worms entire apples, or much of anything in its entirety.  I usually give them the scraps of what is left over, like an apple core or banana peel.  They are getting these lovely apples due to the fact that I have too many and I won’t possibly be able to eat them all.  Sad story, but at least I won’t have to throw them away.

I cut up my apples in smaller pieces, the smaller you cut up your food scraps the easier it is for the worms to decompose.  You are actually expediting the decomposition process by breaking down the food as much as possible prior to feeding them to your worms.  This means you get results faster, and everyone likes that.

Here is a snap shot of the feeding:

It is interesting that all living things have to consume something.  Some consume sunlight and some consume Burger King.  Consider what you consume and what all the living things around you consume.