Garden Camp Week 3: Worms

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We all know that Maine is famous for its blueberries and lobster. But did you know that our state is also famous for its worms?


In fact, these wonder worms (red wigglers, a species of worm known for fertilizing soil with their mineral-rich castings!) were raised and sold right around the corner from Brooksville Elementary at what is now David's Folly Farm. This week at garden camp, after preparing a bin with layers of soil and newspaper strips to house our wriggly friends, we walked over to the farm to unearth this history and the wonder worms themselves! 




At David's Folly we learned about Minerva Cutler, who raised these worms, and how people ordered worms from her by the pound for both gardening and fishing. After learning about where red wigglers thrive - not in fresh manure, but in manure that has aged some - we dug through some of the farm's compost and found over 100 worms to take home to our worm bin! 

Back at the school garden and ready for a snack, we turned to our garlic bed to harvest something that curves around like a worm but tastes a lot better - garlic scapes! 



Anna taught us about these would-be garlic flowers; how if we harvest them before they open, the garlic plant can put more energy towards developing the garlic bulb instead. As a spectacular bonus, the scapes make wicked good pesto (... and jewelry!). 



Together we crafted our own pesto recipe using our scape harvest, olive oil, walnuts, salt, pepper, parsley, basil tips from the greenhouse, and some parmesan cheese! The gardeners kept track of our ingredients and recipe steps in their journals, and we finished the day by enjoying our pesto with cucumbers and fresh bread. 

Thank you to David's Folly Farm for having us and for sharing your marvelous worms! Now we have our own mini worm farm in the making. Next week, we're looking forward to our friend and local worm historian, Bec Poole, coming to tell us more about Minerva Cutler and her wonder worms. 






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