Wednesdays: Vermiculture
Worm composting!
Yes, you read that right. I am a worm wrangler. A worm jockey. A lombriz lassoer.
But what’s the point of worms? They, unfortunately, are a necessity if you wish to capture their manure compost.
Panorama of the coffee beneficio
This is our coffee beneficio, or where the coffee is taken to directly from the campo. Here, it is depulped, fermented, and left to dry. Across the street is where it is later roasted and toasted to be sold by Mundo Verde, an organization of Loma Linda women.
Before this ecological beneficio was built the pulp was discarded into the river. If you have never smelled decomposing coffee pulp you can thank your lucky stars. It is putrid. So needless to say the pulp, that was discarded in the river, fouled up the water for those who depended on it downstream. There was a need to do something else with the pulp. Enter vermiculture, or lombricultura Spanish.
Coffee pulp
Here is a mound of coffee pulp. Slowly decomposing coffee pulp. Slowly wafting its noxious fumes to whomever has a ready nose.
Okay, it’s not so much putrid or noxious as it is unpleasant. It’s certainly strong but not overpowering. And you cannot smell it until you are in it. Which is a necessary part of feeding the worms.
Where 720 000 worms live!
Here are pilas 1, 2, and 3. Each pila holds an average of 65 sacks of compost and 240 000 worms. It is here that the worms work their masticatory might and convert slightly decomposed coffee pulp into pure, organic compost. Every 14 days we add a new layer of pulp, around 10cm. Every 5 days or so we turn the top layer over so that the worms can completely digest the new layer of pulp. You see, worms are scared of the sun. Well, to be honest, they are scared of the birds that fly in that then see the worms in the light of the — you guessed it — sun. Therefore they rarely make it to the surface. They instead like to dwell underneath where it is warm and moist.
Pilas 4 & 5, where the remaining 480 000 worms reside
These pilas were the first pilas that were built. You can’t see it, but the door is to the left and there is a wall directly behind me. Instead of carting the pulp in wheelbarrows to the pila on the right, you have to enter the building as far as you can (where the photo was taken from), transfer the pulp to baskets, schlep the baskets to the far pila and dump. Lather rinse repeat with 15 wheelbarrow loads. Exhausting? Bad design of the pilas? Yes on both accounts.
Exhudado, a liquid foliage fertilizer
In addition to the solid manure compost the worms also produce a liquid manure compost. Unlike the solid, which is applied directly to the ground, the liquid is sprayed on the leaves of the plant. The nutrients are readily absorbed and in addition the spray acts as a (weak) insect repellent.
Above you can see where the PVC pipe, which runs the length of the pila and is perforated on the top, drains into a 3-liter Big Cola bottle.
Exhudado, the liquid foliage fertilizer end product
Above you see the end result. Pure exhudado.
All in all, lombricultura brings a smile to my face. To see a community take what was originally trash and convert it into a rich, organic fertilizer makes me all warm and fuzzy. And to further see that they sell it at half the market price so that the local cafecultores can afford it and return the composted coffee pulp back to whence it came makes me sleep well at night.
Personally, there isn’t much that is new here other than I found a house that I will hopefully be moving into within the month. Due to the community rule that everyone receives one (and only one) equal-sized parcel of land to build their house on means that there aren’t many vacant houses. The house that I hope to move into is the only one in all of Loma Linda. It’s kind of on the pricy side but it’s also really nice. Best of all it has a great view of the coast and Santiaguito!
