New Worm Factory 360

I've been selling the Original Worm Factory Composter for a little over a year with fantastic success and now the Washington-based company has come out with a new and improved model - the WORM FACTORY 360... This product launch is only is only available to my blog readers through November 1st!! So act now and save $10.00 of the MSRP!

Why would you want a Worm Factory 360?
Composting with worms allows you to turn kitchen scraps, paper waste and cardboard into nutrient‐rich soil for your plants. The Worm Factory 360 composting system takes the effort out of composting. With a thermo siphon air flow design, the Worm Factory 360 increases the composting speed.
Air enters on all four sides of the base exposing the bottom to a free flow of fresh air. Compost creates heat and gases that rise through the system and exit out the 4 sides of the lid. By using worms and this thermo siphon design you can now produce compost much faster than traditional composting methods. Master Gardeners agree, worm castings are one of the richest forms of fertilizers available.
The Worm Factory 360 can be used indoors or outdoors allowing year round production. Now composting is no longer limited to backyards. The Worm Factory 360 is odorless making it great for apartments, kitchens, garages, porches and more. The Worm Factory 360 is the largest home worm composter on the market with it being expandable up to 8 trays. This allows more
compost capacity while still maintaining the smallest foot print. Use worms to recycle your waste, create quality compost and create a more sustainable lifestyle. Made in the USA with high quality food grade recycled plastics. 20 Year manufacturers repair or replace warranty.
How It Works:
Simply add a handful of worms and your organic waste to the bottom tray. The worms will start processing the food. Once the bottom tray is filled with waste add another tray. The worms migrate upward to the newest food source leaving the bottom tray full of nutrient rich compost.
As waste is broken down, moisture filters through the system, taking nutrient‐rich particles with it. You can drain organic liquid fertilizer right from the spigot.

Finding Worms
Check out http://www.findworms.com/ for the largest online directory of worm farmers in the US. Find a worm grower near you!

Package Includes:

• 16 Page Illustrated Instruction Manual
• 250g Coconut Coir
• Hand Rake
• Thermometer
• Scraper
• Worm Bedding

Each tray is 16x16x5 and is made from recycled #2 plastics. The Worm Factory 360 comes with four trays and can be expanded up to eight trays. Four trays normally provides enough room for the kitchen waste of a family of 4. Each tray averages to be about 12 pounds when full of compost.
Collection Base
The collection base holds the stacking trays and is strong enough to hold up to 200lb. Air is brought into the system from all 4 sides of the base. It travels upwards with the heat and gasses produced by the compost. Moisture that travels down with gravity is held in the collection tray and can be drained out as liquid fertilizer.
16 Page Instruction Book
Detailed instructions are provided on the setup and management of the Worm Factory 360. Illustrated to show you best techniques to use when vermicomposting. This manual is made from recycled paper and uses soy based inks.

BUY IT NOW FROM EasyLivingOrganics.com

SPRING IS UPON US!!!!

With the first day of SPRING coming up tomorrow, I’ve decided that now would be a great time to rejuvenate my blog… I’ve just finished putting in my order to Johnny’s Select Seed and I’ve got the plans in the works for my new raised beds. I can’t wait to share my garden with all of you!
I’m planning on having 3 raised beds built soon (hubby is in the process of getting all the materials for me now). Here is a list of my order from Johnny’s…
· Provider Bean
· Rocdor Yellow Wax Bean
· Sylvesta Green Butterhead Lettuce
· Cortland Yellow Onion
· Gourmet Orange Sweet Bell Pepper
· Orion Green to Red Sweet Bell Pepper
· Emu Spinach
· Costata Romanesco Italian Zucchini
· Sun Gold Cherry Tomato
· Celebrity Tomato
· Plato Spineless Green Zucchini
Over the next couple weeks while these little guys sprout and get ready for transplant, I’ll be discussing companion planting, organic ways to fight disease and pests, as well as my favorite topic COMPOSTING!! If you haven’t had a chance – check out my on line store EasyLivingOrganics.com . I am adding products constantly and am having a HUGE sale on Worm Factory Composters.

4.5 years and counting...

My husband and I purchased our dream land in 2004. At the time we didn't have the money to build our dream home on that land but one step at a time I guess... so we build a 1400 square foot home on the front 3 acres and left the back 14 acres to be leased out to the neighbor for field corn production.

The other week my mom who lives in PA called and told me about her plans to retire in 4.5 years. We'd like her to move back to NY - my sister and I have been trying for years to get her back up here with no avail... anyway - she called and told me about her plans and I convinced her to move back up to NY with one stipulation... she (and her dog Sandy) will be moving in with my husband, 2 daughters, 2 dogs and our cat. The taxes in NY are ridiculous for a middle income family - and this move would be impossible for my mother if we didn't offer this since NY is one of those lovely states that decided to tax retirement income... don't get me going on taxes in NY though - we'd be here all day...

So basically my mom has offered to either build an additional MIL suite to our existing house OR help up build another house with a finished apartment style suite for her. The 3rd possibility is to help purchase an existing house with a MIL suite already built in. All this talk about the possibilities of a new house has got me thinking that hubby and I should try to get all our finances in order to try to build the "dream house"... so what is our dream house...

well.. that would be a dream now wouldn't it... although the following is more realistic...

We plan (hope) on building a 1500 square foot log home with a finished basement for mom. This gives us the opportunity to really think about ways to build environmentally both in structure and in the landscape... on the back acreage we have picked a great spot that will be perfect for a wall of south-facing windows.

Thanks LogHomeLiving.com for the pictures - a magazine that I have faithfully subscribed for almost 10 years now!

I've been a bad bad blogger...

So sorry to those of you who have been following my blog - I know I don't have tons of readers but those I have, I need to offer y'all some content! I've been so super busy with work (Tomato Characterization time of year) and with Easy Living Organics that my blog has been the one to suffer... I promise to update more diligently...

So it's a harvest time of year here in the Northeast and as it figures for us Northerners - we've already had a frost... so the tomatoes that are still waiting to be harvested are well.... not doing so hot (to put it mildly) and after this weekend (with temps expected to reach into the 70s) I would expect most of them to be mush by Monday. Although I'm harvesting for seed so it's not as critical as if I was harvesting for market (long time done here in the north) but still, I'm not planning on using a shovel to harvest my tomato seeds - so that's that.

We've also been harvesting our onion bulbs for storage (remember - I'm a seed saver and onions are a biennial crop IE: take 2 years to produce seed). I'll need to start my characterization photos for those soon after the tomatoes are done.

So you all might be asking - what are you talking about with all this "characterization" talk... well - basically every season, as part of my work here as a environmental biologist I document lots of different properties of the different accessions (varieties) that we grow on the farm (particularly the tomatoes, onions and winter squash). I record things like average weight, shape, color, brix

(Brix value: Is a measure of soluble solids and sugar content in produce or plant juices. Can be measured using a refractometer. Dr. Arden Andersen suggests that using a refractometer to test food gives valuable information about quality. This is how it works: when the brix is low, the taste is poor, and the insects come. When the brix is high, the taste is superb and the insects seem to busy themselves elsewhere. The farmer's job is simply to re-mineralize and fertilize in such a way that the plants, properly fed, can develop higher brix.) from Nature's Path Foods - Organic Glossary

as well as several other characteristics. In addition to those records, I also take a picture of different views of the fruit, foliage, leaves, you get the idea... "a picture tells a thousand words" isn't that what they say..

Anyways - I do this all so that researchers or farmers can choose the appropriate crops for their farming environment... all this information is loaded onto a system called GRIN (Germplasm Resources Information Network) and is available to anyone with web access. The network definitely has a kink or two (or 20 LOL) but it's there and available and the best part is... you can request the seeds to grow out!!! FOR FREE!!! Yes you heard me right.. FREE! you only get say 50 seeds or so (and you need to be legitimate - this ain't UNICEF people! but if you are interested in breeding crops or just simply live in a whacked out micro-climate and can't find anything to grow well in your soil type - this is perfect for you!) Who is it NOT for - What was the term Gov. Palin used... ah yes "Joe Six-Pack" who is looking for free seeds because he is too cheap to buy some that are available at the local wholefoods store.

So - check out GRIN and see if you find anything interesting - if anyone has specific questions, leave them in my comments and I'll try to answer the best I can..

Cheers!

Cleaning Vegetable Seeds: Tomato

As I've mentioned before, my "expertise" lies in seed cleaning. I've been cleaning various seed (mostly vegetable and flower seed) for the past 6 years. As the weather starts to turn (yes I know it's still August - but I'm in NY and it's already been dipping into the 50s at night) this is my time to really start getting busy (hence the slackness in my posting frequency).

"How do I clean tomato seed?" is usually the most frequent question that I'm asked about at seminars or workshops... so here is the answer....

1 First thing you need to do is determine if the tomato you are growing is an OP (open pollinated) variety or a hybrid... if it's an OP - you are good to go and the seeds you get will be "true to type (ie: they will look like what you are expecting)... if you are dealing with a hybrid... uhhh pick another variety to start with... dehybridization takes more time (like years)

2 Select a few tomatoes from each plant and either squash the whole tomato (if you don't want to eat the flesh) or if you are like me... scoop the seeds out and place them in a mason jar and munch down on the yummy tomato that held your precious seeds :)

3 Once you get the seeds out, you'll notice that they are covered with a "jelly coat" - you can't store the seeds with that coat on because your seeds will mold and usually, molding seed is well, a bad thing - it's going to decrease your germination as well as increase the likelihood of introducing seed borne disease.

4 FERMENTATION: Place your seeds (with jelly coat) into a mason jar or bowl or some kind of container... add water (water to seed ratio should be about 3:1) if you are using the whole tomato smashed into a bucket your water to mashed pulp ratio should be about 2:1.

5 Stir and wait....

6 You should stir your mixture about 2 times a day for 3 days. Oh and I suggest you do this outside - the fruit flies LOVE fermenting tomatoes!!!

7 On the 3rd or 4th day, you'll notice a nasty moldy mess of slop on top of your mixture - you want to decant that slop. Basically, the viable seeds will sink while the moldy flesh and non-viable seed will float - so you want to get that floating stuff away from your good seed.

8 Once you have your "clean" seed nicely settled on the bottom of the container, you'll use a strainer (HINT: make sure the wholes of the strainer are SMALLER than your seed or everything you've none will go down the drain) to collect your seed.

9. If you have a small amount of seed, you can simply lay them out on a paper plate to dry OR if you have a lot of seed, you may want to try depositing the seed in a grape press bag or mesh bag and allow to air dry (ambient temp air).

10. Once the seeds are dried thoroughly - you need to get the little tiny hairs off them before you store them (the hairs suck moisture into the seed - something you don't want!). Rubbing the seeds in your hands, should be enough friction to remove the hairs. If you have them in a secure mesh bag, rub them together , then toss the whole bag into a clothes dryer ON NO HEAT! for a bit and you'll end up with all those tiny little hairs collected nicely in your lint filter :)

11. After you remove the seeds - you are all done but the storing... Place them in a coin envelope inside a mason jar and store them in a cool, dry place until next year!

This is a great way to get your whole family involved in a very eco-friendly tradition that is economical as well.

I'm posted onthe Dirty Fingers Blog Carival!!!

Hey Everyone Check out my post on the Dirty Fingers Blog Carnival!! WOO!! You can see the link back to me and read a bunch of great posts by other bloggers dedicated to organic and sustainable practices.

WV Workshop and the Organic Growers I Admire

Well, the last hurrah for the Organic Seed Partnership - at least for my part - was this past week in West Virginia - Specifically at West Virginia State University. There wasn't the best showing as far as numbers of organic farmers but there were 3 very eager to learn farmers there. 2 of the farmers, Doug (NC) and Julie (WV) brought tons (exaggerated) of seed to clean - lots of lettuce varieties, brassicas, collards (yes I know it's a brassica too) onions, some flowers, herbs.. my cohorts (Bill and John) had more than enough to keep them busy while I gave presentations in the air conditioned class room (Thanks Guys! I owe you!).

WV is really ideal for organic farmers (with the exception of the excessive sloping lots!). Small valleys in between the hills make isolation easy - most of the farming is cattle so there are plenty of opportunities to turn small farming plots into lucrative business opportunities... Julie has already become USDA certified organic and is sure to do wonderfully in her business. She is a trained geologist who gave up "a paying job to do this" LOL... I wish her the best of luck.

I suggested using the sloping lots to the advantage of the farmer by creating raised planting beds for their organic vegetable production. Frank Morton (Wild Garden Seed and Shoulder to Shoulder Farm) told me about his successes with raised beds a couple years ago in a seminar in Unity Maine - sponsored by the Restoring Our Seed project - currently running with the Wheat Conservancy) Oh and for any organic farmers - please - if you ever get the chance to listen to any of the following discuss their organic farming philosophies - listen closely - their knowledge is awesome!!!

• Will Bonsall of the Scatterseed Project - seriously, the most amazing curator of so many varieties of crops!! His wealth of knowledge is invaluable.

• Frank Morton of Shoulder to Shoulder Farm and Wild Garden Seed (see link above) - he
  
  
  
  tells his philosophy on organics like no other - it's like listening to your dad tell a story from a book!

• CR Lawn - Owner of Fedco Seed Company... incredibly wonderful gentleman with worlds of organic ag knowledge...

• John Gorzynski - amazing man from Cochecton Center NY who serves the NYC Green Market - probably one of the most incredible men I have ever met - Integrity, Perseverance, Knowledge - truly amazing man!