Vermicomposting - A great cold climate composting strategy!

I'm not sure about you but for me, composting in the winter time is a bit of a challenge. Though it's possible to insulate an outdoor pile and add high nitrogen materials to keep the pile cooking, in my opinion, it's not really worth the time and energy.

After I've thrown the kitchen scraps that I can to my chickens, I do two things with the remaining material:

1. I throw it in my outside compost bin and add a layer of leaves (which I've collected in the fall). This material then freezes and will be available for me to build a pile once it thaws in the spring.
2. I have a vermicomposting bin indoors where worms break down my scraps into nutrient-rich soil. 

What's vermicomposting you may ask? If you're unfamiliar with the term, you'll want to watch my video today. In it, I give you the ins and outs of vermicomposting a.k.a. composting with worms. So check it out here or below. Vermicomposting gives you the option of continuing the composting process in spite of subzero temperatures outside. 

This video is actually from the Building Healthy Soil Module of my Online Edible Backyards Series (which is available at a 25% discount here).

In having a few options for composting, I am following the permaculture principle of 'each function is supported by multiple elements'. In other words, I want to compost and cut down on my waste. How do I do that? I have three different ways: feeding scraps to my chickens, an outdoor compost pile, and an indoor worm bin. Make sense? So when one option, like the outdoor pile, is unavailable, then I have a few other options to fulfill this function of zero waste. Building redundancy in your system increases your resilience. 

If worms kind of make you squirm and/or you don't want to don your parka and trudge through the snow to your compost pile, then I also want to let you know about the business, Happy Trash Can. Happy Trash Can offers a residential curbside composting service. Even if you don't need this service yourself, I'd love it if you passed along this information to your neighbors and friends. Learn more about them here. 

Whether you have an outdoor compost pile, an indoor worm bin, or have someone picking up your kitchen scraps, let's all work together to divert as much food waste from our landfill as possible!

Enjoy the video,
Kareen