Cottage Farming

This page collects information and links we’ve found to be useful. This is by no means an exhaustive set of options, but rather a short list of what we’ve used ourselves or otherwise researched enough to find of value. Feel free to contact us if your opinions differ from ours or otherwise you’d like to contribute additional intel.

Worm Tower: Early on in our composting career, we wanted a way to quickly convert kitchen scraps to nutrient-rich soil. After many hours of research, vermiculture (ie. composting with worms) seemed the right solution. We ordered a Worm Tower from Composters.com and it turned out to work very well. Even though it didn’t work exactly as described (a bit more maintenance was required than they suggested), the output was fantastic. The worms easily kept pace with our scrap production, and we saw two or three harvests of rich soil a year.

Yard Composter: There are a zillion and one variations of outdoor composters available. After reading a lot about many different types, it seemed there were enough variations in all the options that we were only going to learn what worked for us by trying something. We selected the Bio-Stack Bin from Composters.com and it seemed to work relatively well. Like all of them I’ve read about, they seem to work well enough when left totally alone (topping them off with new material over time), but it worked best when we’d “turn” the compost every couple weeks and keep it watered.

Scrap Pails: We needed a way to easily collect kitchen scraps and periodically take them to the composter or worm tower. We used a plastic pail from Composters.com for a while, but found it was annoying to clean. We’ve since hit on a ceramic pail from Gardeners.com that is easier to clean, and looks relatively reasonable when out on the counter.