Worms: Not just for fishing anymore

I'm beginning a new garden experiment today in the great wide world of vermicomposting. Never heard of it? Neither had I until my friend Ellen at Beagle Ridge Herb Farm offered to set me up with a stock of composting worms for free. I refused at first but after doing a bit of reading, I enthusiastically accepted her kind offer. Worms work to break down kitchen waste and can be easily kept in a Rubbermaid-type bin with some moist newspaper strips. Feed them the table scraps every couple of days and their excrement (called castings) will form a magnificent organic fertilizer for the garden. I like the idea of recycling what we're eating from the garden anyway, not paying for fertilizer, and the worms give me something interesting and new to watch during the cold winter months when nothing much is growing outside.