Worm Farm
Tour
We have many
requests for a full Worm Farm tour. Jack is in the process of filming a
complete tour of the Worm Farm. It will include our aerated pre-composting
process, feeding the worms in our VermiComposters, harvesting VermiCompost,
cleaning and sorting the worms, shipping worms, a tour of the garden and
vineyard.
We
should have the tour available this fall on DVD.
Here is a
link to an episode of Growing a Greener World that offers an overview of the
operations.
http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/episode112/
Here is a
special farm tour featured on Eye on the Bay
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/video/6495169-eye-on-the-bay-farm-tours-pt2/
You can
take a visual tour of the gardens and vineyard below.
The Gardens
There are two gardens on the worm farm. A smaller
garden formed in a circular shaped is planted with herbs; basil, sage, oregano
& thyme.
There are also
many tomatoes plants including cherry and heirloom varietals.
The larger
garden area, once, former worm beds is now planted with a colorful mingling of
dahlias, gladiolas, zinnias, sunflowers, poppies, amaranth, and other favorites
along with veggies which include peppers, garlic, onions, shallots, squash,
cucumbers, chard, kale, asparagus, eggplant, broccoli, cabbage, pumpkins,
cauliflower and rhubarb, as well as our year round tasty Yukon gold
potatoes.
The
Vineyard
The Vineyard
was planted in 2002 with two clones of Syrah. Their rootstock was grown in Napa
using vermicompost from Sonoma Valley Worm Farm. Once the vines were ready for
planting we used one cup of vermicompost for every vine. We placed the
vermicompost directly into the hole at planting.
At the time
we planted our vines, other vineyards were losing about 20% of their vines the
first year. We lost less than ½ of one percent of our vines; 2 vines out of 400
to be exact.
Vineyards
are able to graft their rootstock more quickly, and the vines come out of the
ground with greater vigor and health. We had one grower tell us the following
story. ‘I walked the owner through the vineyard and he asked why the last two
rows looked so small in relation to the rest of the vineyard. I told him
that we ran out of vermicompost for the last two rows.'
You can see
the difference vermicompost makes.
