The last time we visited the local farmer’s market, Jacques and Nancy Garry of Red Hot Tomatoes gave a demonstration of how one would go about keeping a worm farm under your kitchen cabinet. I love to hear Nancy talk, she is very down to earth and inspirational. She showed her rubbermaid container which she keeps under her kitchen sink. The worms don’t smell and they readily eat up her kitchen scraps. Tips from Nancy:

• Use a container that you can put holes into the bottom of for drainage. Set this on top of something to collect the Yummy juices for your garden and plants.

  Don’t Feed them onions. They don’t like them. And you don’t want to give them dairy items such as eggshells. *See below for what I do with egg shells.
  

  If you put the containers in your yard (as she has several), you may want to put a mote around them. Ants will be drawn to them. She lost her first worms this way. The ants won’t cross the water.

  Small worms are best. If the weather is severe, you can bury the container so as to give it a constant temperature.

I bring this up because fast-forward a couple of weeks cruising the net, I run into a knitster’s blog who is talking about building a brick oven in her backyard. As a bread baker, I dream of having a brick oven from which to pull gorgeous artisan loaves from to take to market! The plans she was using came from another wonderful blogger, Rado in Australia. He designs and builds outdoor ovens and gives marvelous detail on how to go about building yourself one! He also was talking about worm farming! Isn’t it strange how things go circular sometimes?

Rado’s site is chock full of great information! I’m sure you’ll find several hours of interesting reading and daydreaming there!

* As for the eggs. I use them powdered to add calcium to Stitches’s dog food. His food we make from scratch is made of Rice, meat (usually chicken), a green vegetable (we had lots of okra and green beans) and a yellow veggie (squash or carrotts will work). When I have a dozen or so eggshells and a bit of time, I boil the shells in a saucepan for about 3-5 minutes. After they have cooled, gently cave the shell in and begin pulling it off away from the membrane. Crush the shells using a mortar and pestle until it’s a powder (the finer the better - but mostly crushed for a pup will do). This is pure calcium powder! You can use it for several things like houseplants. I sprinkle about a tablespoon on each cup of Stitches’s food. I store it in an old jar and just add to it whenever I get more eggshells. It’s a shame to throw away such a great source of calcium!