Find out more

Natural Handmade Soaps

Hi, I'm Liz, welcome to Eight Acres. I live on a small farm in Kumbia, Australia, with my husband, Pete, and our dogs Taz and Gus. This website started off as a blog for sharing all the things we make and grow on our small farm. We keep a small herd of beef cattle and a few dairy cows. We also have lots of chickens, bees and a vege garden.

Now as well as sharing what I'm learning, I can share what we make through our virtual farmgate (online shop), where I sell natural handmade tallow soap and raw chemical-free honey and beeswax.

If you want to find out more about what we do on the farm and where these products come from, you can read more in my blog, follow any of my social links or send me an email, I'd love to hear from you. Please join my mailing list, then you'll never miss an update from Eight Acres.

I'm a worm farmer!

May 16 2012 0 Comments Tags: compost, garden, worm farm

When we first talked about getting an aquaponics kit one of my main concerns was how we would feed the fish. I didn't want to be constantly buying fish food. One of the options is to feed worms to the fish, so I've been planning to get a worm farm established. We had planned to make one from an old wheelie bin, but that project has ended up low on the list since we got the new property. Recently a friend at work told me that worm farms were on sale at Aldi, only $50, and I thought that might be a good way to get started. Farmer Pete's dad has 3 worm farms, so I'm sure you can never have too many! We will make the wheelie bin worm farm later, for now we have a small one to get us started.

I only started with a handfull of worms

Before we decided to try aquaponics, I thought I didn't need a worm farm because with the compost and the chickens I didn't think I'd have anything to feed them, but my compost is full, so there should be plenty for the worms to eat. Before getting the farm, I did quickly read a post on The Greening of Gavin on how to set up a worm farm and other wormy things, so I was prepared to what I found inside my kit. Emma from Craving Fresh has also written about worm farms, so I'm not going to go on about how great they are. I can't wait to have the worm tea for the garden, compost for the garden and eventually worms to feed the fish! I will report back in a few weeks and let you know how the worms are going.

I've had the kit for a few weeks and I've been waiting for worms, but fortunately the same friend cleaned out his worm farm and was able to give me a handful of worms, so the other day we Farmer Pete and Cheryl built the worm farm, and we put the worms in their new home, with a little lettuce from the garden to get them started, and put the farm next to the compost bin.

the dogs check out the box

inside the box

soaking the coconut fibre worm bedding

The coconut fibre ready for the worms

Cheryl and Farmer Pete building the worm farm

The worms in their new home

And tucked up under their blanket

The worm farm in place - yes the grass needs a mow!

My compost is FULL so there will be plenty for the worms to eat!

Do you keep worms? Any tips?

Worm farm updates

Worm farm kits are available from Biome, click on the banner below:

I thought you might enjoy these posts

Removal house advice - where to start?
A removal house is a great way to quickly put a house up on a bare block of land. For us it bypassed all the decision ma
Plastic Free July
The idea of Plastic Free July is to try for a month to actively avoid single-use plastic. You can sign up for the whole
Prickly Pear - weed or useful plant?
The Prickly Pear cactus (Opuntia genus) was introduced to Australia in the 19th century and is now considered a weed. Bu