Just starting

I want to clarify something. We DON'T have a backyard. No balcony. We have a fire escape that's not that accessible, but worms can't live below 42 degrees, and I don't feel like hauling my rotting food scraps in and out of my window every day. So we need a clean, contained indoor system that doesn't smell and can fit in our kitchen or right outside our door.

So we ordered our Can - O - Worms composter from Amazon.com for $99.95 (go through alonovo.com to support progressive economics) and our worms from umm... some other online thing for $30/pound (including shipping).

Here is the Can-O-Worms just out of the box and the baggie of worms. They come in a little breathable sack full of bedding. They're shy about being in the light, so inside it just looks like dirt.

Luckily, I just got a new camera

So for your composting edification, we can chronicle the whole process as we transform into vermiculturalists (that means worm culturalists. or something along those lines).

Here is Courtney, your composting guide.

We want to be sustainable but...

So, Courtney (my roommate) and I are living in New York City (Brooklyn, to be exact). We're NYU grad students, commuters, a little hippie, a little preppy, a little hipster, and we're sick of sending our food scraps out to the curb, to support the rat population and the Fresh Kills landfill, or wherever it ends up.

What do we want to do? Compost!

We did a lot of online research, and asked around a lot, and apparently the best way to compost (when you're living in an apartment with absolutely no yard or green space to be had) is with worms. We didn't want to plunge right into it. We were hoping other hip young New Yorkers would go first. But we can't see that they did. So here we go...