The day before my trip to Costa Rica was confirmed my Mother called me to invite me to Dallas for Memorial weekend. My brother and his family were coming up and Mom wanted us all together. We could spend the weekend on the boat and at the boat dock. To try to entice me further my Mom said I could be in charge of putting worms on hooks and removing fish for my niece and 2 nephews. I told Mom she needed to work on her pitch.
Little did I know that playing with a couple dozen worms would have been so easy. Donald's boss had called him late yesterday and needed him to drive into San Jose for a meeting. While he was gone Megan and I were to work with the Californian red worms. This sounded easy enough. After breakfast on Tueday we headed out to the worm shelter. Here there were about 10 half barrels of dirt. One of the barrels of dirt was scooped out into an empty trough for Megan and I. We then spent the next three hours shifting through the dirt, hand full by handful, pulling out the red worms. When our little collection dish was full we would dump them into one of the other barrels of dirt. We were sitting on little stools and would occassionally have to switch sides to give our backs a break. We found thousands of worms of all sizes as well as soon eggs. Occassionally we would hit the jackpot and scoop up a handful of dirt with a clump of worms all entwined. We called this a worm orgy only to latter find out they do like to clump together when mating. It was so much easier when they were all twisted together than digging out all the individual worms so we liked the clumps although they felt gross. Megan and I finally finished but I don't think either one of us wants to see another worm for a long time.
Later we would get the lecture on the worms and why they are used on the farm. The worms are placed into the half barrels of horse manure. They eat the manure and then poop it back out. This is sort of like parrot fish eating corral and pooping out sand. The worm dropping have more nitrogen, potassium, and calcium than the materials they injest. After a month of the worms excavating through the soil, eating and pooping, the soil is fertile and is ready for planting.
The California red worms are used instead of common worms for several reasons. First they breed faster and can produce 1,300 worms a year. They also live longer- 4 years as opposed to 2 years. In addition the are much speedier in the entire process. It takes a common worm 45 days to what the California redworm can do in just 30 days. And I had the mistaken impression Californians were lazy. Guess I was wrong.
Now don't you feel smarter?!?
