Posted on 23rd Apr
Residents got involved with the first harvest of soil from Middlebeck’s own ‘worm palace’ in Newark.
Families joined in a free workshop at Gannets Cafe, where a worm farm was set up by Urban&Civic — the master developer behind the community —alongside local community interest company The Urban Worm CIC.
The farm is used to process the majority of the cafe’s daily food waste and it is hoped will engage the local community in sustainable living.
Families were invited to join the first harvest of its soil at a free community workshop. During the event adults and children learned about the benefits of worm farms, sowing their own seeds in the fresh soil from the ‘worm palace’, and building their own mini versions.
Simon Murphy, Urban&Civic’s community development lead for Middlebeck, said: “At Middlebeck we see sustainability as a shared responsibility, which is why we set up the partnership with The Urban Worm to create the ‘worm palace’ at Gannets Cafe.
“Since August, the worm farm has been processing the majority of the café’s daily food waste, while engaging the local community in sustainable living, so we were excited to get everyone involved in the first harvest of soil from it.
“The free session was a great activity, but even if people missed out they can get involved in the worm farm any time. The site features information boards, equipped with QR codes to help people learn about worm farming and the process.
“It’s already inspired some to create their own worm farms and become ‘worm caretakers’ — the kind of impact we always wanted it to have.”
The double-barrel worm farm system, with a combined 400-litre capacity and seeded with 4kg of tiger worms, efficiently handles 2kg to 3kg of food waste daily. This translates to approximately 1 tonne of food waste per year, producing up to 100kg of compost.
The Urban Worm CIC is a Nottingham-based social enterprise that aims to support and inspire households, businesses, institutions, and communities to embrace worm farming as a low cost and low tech solution for transforming kitchen and organic waste into fertiliser.
Since 2013 it has shipped thousands of worm farms throughout the UK and delivered practical workshops and talks to more than 3,000 people.
Founder Anna de la Vega said: “It’s been great to see the ongoing interest in the worm farm at Middlebeck, not just when it was set up but now six months on when local families can see first-hand the benefit of worm farms, and see how easy it is to set up their own.
“It’s initiatives like this with organisations like Urban&Civic that help us spread the word and really make sure simple steps towards sustainability are at the heart of communities all over the UK.”
