Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Compost and Castings

When starting seeds, use 1 part finished compost or worm castings to 3 parts potting mix to give your little plants a healthy head start without synthetic fertilizers.

More Facts About Compost and Castings
  1. It's easy to make your own compost or worm castings from kitchen scraps.
  2. When micro-organisms decompose organic matter, the result is called "compost". Finished compost is dark brown or black, crumbly, and has a mild organic aroma like mushrooms.
  3. When worms process organic matter, the result is called "castings". Castings look like wet coffee grounds and smell like healthy soil.
  4. Both compost and castings provide essential nutrients for growing plants.
  5. Most families can produce enough compost or castings to provide a rich mix for starting their seeds.
  6. You'll need to add some dry materials like shredded paper, leaves, or clean sawdust to your kitchen scraps. Adding these materials helps the decomposing process go faster without nasty odors.
  7. A plug-in kitchen composter like the NatureMill reliably produces compost in two weeks by maintaining the perfect conditions for hot composting by microbial cultures. The compost it produces is ready to use right away, or can be stored for later use.
  8. Worm bins generally take a little longer to produce results--about six weeks start to finish--depending on temperature, the type of food scraps, and the appetite of your worms. Worm castings can be used as is, but if you plan to store them for later use, you'll probably want to dry them first.
  9. Worms like the same temperatures as we do, but will tolerate cool temperatures down to the mid-50s and high temperatures into the mid-80s. They work best in the low-70s.
  10. If you put a worm bin in your basement, use a portable thermometer to determine the temperature range. Near the boiler is often a convenient and relatively warm location.
  11. Keeping your kitchen scraps out of your garbage benefits you and your community; neither landfills nor incinerators need wet organic waste.
  12. Whether you make compost or castings, most of your kitchen waste will literally vanish into thin air as the process creates water vapor and carbon dioxide.
  13. Compost and castings improve the texture and health of soil, helping it retain moisture while allowing roots to penetrate.
  14. Recycling organic nutrients back into the soil completes the cycle of life and allows new plant growth to occur without requiring exogenous synthetic chemical inputs.
  15. Building healthy soil with compost and castings is an essential part of successful organic gardening.
  16. Besides mixing compost or castings in your seed-starting medium, you can also use them as a top dressing periodically in your garden, around trees, or on your lawn.
  17. A kitchen compost pail makes it easy to collect scraps. A tight-fitting lid with a charcoal filter controls odors and keeps everything contained until you're ready to add it to your composter or worm bin.
  18. It's fine to toss your kitchen scraps in an outdoor compost pile all winter. They won't start composting outdoors until warmer temperature arrives, but there's no harm in letting your food waste freeze and thaw before it turns into compost.
  19. Some people even store their kitchen waste in their freezer until spring. This isn't as crazy as it sounds. It actually helps your freezer's efficiency to be full rather than empty, and if you ever lose power, hunks of frozen garbage can keep your food cool. Just make sure you label everything carefully!
  20. Composting equipment, information and supplies, including worms and worm bins, are available year round at F.W. Horch in Brunswick and online at www.FWHorch.com.

Featured Products for March 2009

Organic Seeds from Fedco
Grow your own organic garden with MOFGA certified organic seeds from Fedco Seeds. We have 56 varieties of their most popular vegetables, herbs and flowers, all heirloom and certified organic. Seed-starting season is here!
Organic Seeds Packet $1.95

Ordering on your own from Fedco? Put your order in with ours and save on shipping and handling. We'll be placing our next order TOMORROW (Thursday, March 5) to beat their March 6 backorder deadline. After March 6, Fedco seed orders are filled from stock on hand.

Worm Castings
Have you tried adding worm castings to your seed starting mix? If you have, you know what an incredible head start these give your little plants! For ensuring plant health and vigor naturally, nothing beats worm castings.
One pound $1.29
Kitchen Compost Pail
Do you compost? Our stainless steel compost pail is a stylish way to collect your food scraps for the compost pile or bin. Beautiful enough to leave on the kitchen counter. Easy to carry and clean. Carbon filters in lid contain odors. Replacement filters available. Holds about a gallon.
Pail and filters $34.95
Home Composting Made Easy
Easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for composting in your own backyard. Instead of overburdening your local landfill, learn how to turn kitchen scraps, yard trimmings and paper scraps into "black gold" for your lawn and garden.
Booklet $2.95
Can O Worms
Conveniently compost your kitchen scraps all year round with the help of hundreds of hungry red wigglers. Having trouble finding the compost pile under the snow drifts? Why not bring the action inside with your very own worm colony? Start now and by summer you'll have a nice supply of worm castings, the very best fertilizer you can make.
Can O Worms bin $125 (worms sold separately)
Composting Worms
Need to start a worm bin? Get a Chinese take out box of red wigglers (Eisenia foetida), including a healthy dose of food for the worms to work on while your worm bin is getting started plus the mini-ecosystem of creatures that help the worms break down food into castings. When you get your starter package, add the worms and the active compost they are living in to your worm bin. Feed them small amounts several times a week. Within a few weeks you'll have hundreds of worms!
Starter pack of worms $6

Wiggle Room Worm Bin
Let worms eat your garbage with the Wiggle Room worm bin. Stocked with Maine-grown red worms in leaves or shredded paper bedding, this is your basic vermiculture system. Push aside the bedding to feed your worms, and add more shredded paper when necessary. Pop the cork to collect worm tea, a great liquid fertilizer. Everything you need to get started right away (including worms).
NOTE: Available for pick up in store only.
Wiggle Room bin $39.95 (including worms)

Environmental Happenings

What's Happening in the Local Environmental Scene and Beyond

New store hours at F.W. Horch in Brunswick: we're now open on Mondays!
Store hours: Mon 9:30-4, T-F 9:30-7, Sat: 9:30-6, Sun Closed.

Events in Maine


Thursday, March 5 - Meet Your Local Farmers, 6:30-8:00 pm, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick. Seth Kroeck of Crystal Spring Farm, Russell Libby of Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, and Sue Segeant of Patchwork Organic Gardens discuss their commitment to a local economy that honors and preserves Maine's farming traditions. Moderated by Tom Settlemire of the Brunswick / Topsham Land Trust.

Saturday, March 7 - Hands On Fermentation Workshop, 1:00-3:00 pm, Freeport Community Library, Freeport. Local organic farmers Chris Colson and JoD Saffeir will share their experiences while working at Tenuta di Spannocchia in Sienna, Italy. Hands-on sauerkraut making / lactofermentation workshop to follow. For more information, visit www.FreeportLibrary.com.

Tuesday, March 10 - Cooking with Locally Grown Food, Noon-1:30 pm, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick. Ken Cardone of Bowdoin College Kitchens, Kris Lindsey of Hannaford Bros. Market, Aaron Park of Henry & Marty's Restaurant, and Amy Winston of Focus on Agriculture in Rural Maine Schools discuss the benefits and challenges of cooking with locally produced food. Moderated by Tyson Weems of The Health League, Inc.

Wednesday, March 11 - Book Discussion: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, 6:30-8:00 pm, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick. Facilitated by Gary Lawless of Gulf of Maine Books and Eloise Humphrey of El Camino Restaurant.

Thursday, March 12 - Starting an Organic Vegetable Garden, 7 pm, F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies, Brunswick. Master gardener volunteer Brett Thompson explains how to start your own organic vegetable garden. Are raised beds a good idea? Will mulch save you time on weeding and watering? How can you improve your soil? Join us to find out. Seating is limited, so please reserve a space by calling us at 729-4050.

Sunday, March 15 - Caring for Rhododendrons and Azaleas, 1:00 pm, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick. Brunswick Park and Gardens is hosting a garden talk by Tom York of York's Rhododendrons to discuss the proper care, feeding and pruning of rhododendrons and azaleas. For more information, call 833-5125.

Sunday, March 15 - Energy Forum, 3:00 - 5:00 pm, Bath Middle School, Bath. Bath Democratic Committee and Cool Bath invite you to an Energy Forum in support of the Maine Renewable Energy Sources Act (Feed-in Tariff Bill). Did you know that there is a bill under consideration by the state legislature that offers the people of Maine a chance to sell "green" electricity at a premium, making the purchase of solar photovoltaic and wind electric turbine systems more affordable? Panelists are Peter Drum and Paul Kando of the Midcoast Green Collaborative, the organization that drafted the legislation; Senator Seth Goodall (D) District 19; Rep. Les Fossel (R) District 53; and Mike White, designer and builder of Eco Village One, Island Carpentry. For more information, email Polly Shaw - polly_shaw@myfairpoint.net.

Monday, March 23 - Off the Grid: Tours of a Working Farm, 10 am-Noon, Milkweed Farm on Gott Lane, Brunswick. Owners Lucretia and Michael Woodruff, with Eloise Humphrey of El Camino Restaurant, will show visitors how a small family farm works. The family raises their own vegetables, turkeys, pigs, chickens, eggs and dairy products.

Tuesday, March 31 - The World According to Monsanto, 6:00 - 8:30 pm, Curtis Memorial Library, Brunswick. "The World According to Monsanto" is a provocative documentary by French filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin that unveils the motives and work of the Missouri-based biotechnology giant Monsanto. The film leads the viewer to explore the history of food and the seed upon which we rely for sustenance. Questions and Answers to follow the film.

News and Views

MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change finds that it is more likely that global warming by the end of the century will be greater than previous studies have projected. The MIT researchers used an in-house computer model known as the MIT Integrated Global System Model that incorporates new insight into how the climate system functions. MIT's "Greenhouse Gamble" conveys the "range of probability of potential global warming" via roulette wheel graphics. The output unveiled in February 2009 shows that the odds have shifted in favor of larger temperature increases. "The take home message from the new greenhouse gamble wheels is that [...] the dangers are much greater than we thought three or four years ago," said Ronald G. Prinn, professor of atmospheric chemistry at MIT.

Tainted peanut products in North America have made 604 people sick, sent 187 to the hospital and killed eight so far in 2009. The salmonella outbreak in processed peanuts also has led to more than 2,000 product recalls in the U.S., more than any other food epidemic, according to Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, a food distribution and safety specialist and associate dean at the Levene Graduate School of Business, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Regina. "Globalization has had a significant impact on how we eat and has kept food prices at reasonable levels. But an unfortunate side affect is that our capacity to manage risks has been severely compromised," writes Dr. Charlebois. "The 'cheap calorie' factor is also putting a lot of pressure on food industry stakeholders. [...] Today, Canadian and American consumers spend only about 10-12% of their disposable income on food purchased from a store. That number was at around 25% less than a generation ago."

Clearance Corner

We've got some great deals for you in our "Buy One, Get One Free" Clearance Corner. Need to prime or paint a room? Get two gallons of Safecoat wallboard primer for just $31.90! Stop by or give a call to see what we've got in stock. At the moment, we're still clearing out American Pride and Safecoat paint, Durostain wood stain, and a variety of AFM sealers. Let us help you save your lungs and your money!

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Organic Gardening Workshop

On Thursday, March 12, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm, our store will host a gardening workshop, "Starting an Organic Vegetable Garden," by Master Gardener Volunteer Brett Thompson. The workshop is free and open to the public.

"We'll help you get started growing your own organic vegetables," says Brett Thompson, a Master Gardener Volunteer and F.W. Horch manager. "Our workshop will emphasize organic and sustainable methods of gardening because that's just the way we are."

Topics will include the pros and cons of raised beds, how to reduce weeding and watering by using mulches, and methods of improving your soil. No prior gardening knowledge is assumed or required. Time will be provided for questions and answers.

Space for the workshop is limited, so those interested in attending are encouraged to call the store at 729-4050 to reserve a seat.

This workshop is part of the F.W. Horch series on sustainable living. Each monthly talk is held at the F.W. Horch Sustainable Goods & Supplies store, 56 Maine Street, Brunswick on the second Thursday of the month.