Farhana, a worm farmer, Ashfield

We visited Farhana and her partner in their apartment and asked her to share how they started a worm farm and  the experience they have had with it so far. Living in an apartment can place some restrictions on sustainable actions but Farhana has found a worm farm fits well on their balcony and has been key to reducing their food waste. 

"We’ve had a worm farm for about a year and a half now. Pretty much everything goes in there, apart from meat and the obvious stuff, and it’s good, it’s a good size for us.

It’s definitely made us more aware of how much waste comes out of just food prep at home. There’s way less organic waste going into the bin. It’s actually incredible how much worms can go through in such a small space and small amount of time and it’s really great to have something at the end that you can put back into your garden.

I’m grossed out by pretty much all things so when we got it, it arrived in the mail and was in this big bag, I was like “oh god I don’t know what to do with this” and Alex was the one to set it up and empty out the bag of worms and it was like “oh god why did I want to do this thing?” I’ve definitely toughened up since then.

They get super gross sometimes. I think at the moment we haven’t done enough covering so there’s a few vinegar flies. The blanket is really good, that’s our second one, they just break down. We add a bit of garden lime as well. Little things like chopping everything up before you put it in, makes a big difference to how well it works.

I haven’t had any disasters as such. The main issue was eggshells. Everything I read was like “just smash them, the worms are going to love” them but we’d just get through trays and everything else would be completely worked through but there’d be whole eggshells in there and we’d be like “come on” but we’ve worked it out now by doing a bit more prep. Some people bake them and then grind them but that’s a lot of effort.

My dad had a garden and a worm farm and a compost bin when I was growing up and I was like my dad is so lame but actually he was on to it. I call him every time I need advice.

We live in an apartment and we are renting. There’s not a lot we can really do like having a compost or water tanks but I guess this is one of the things that we can do. It’s been really nice to know that we are doing something more than what we were before and I think especially for us and our generation, we’ve grown up with all the horrors around this narrative of climate change, I feel like there are so many things that everyone can be doing and this one has a really low barrier of entry, it’s not hard to start. We need individual actions. I feel really good about the fact that we can do something in our home that will help us live more sustainably.

We were buying tons of stuff and then not using it and I know things happen sometimes and stuff will go off and you don’t use it but at least now I’m like that would have gone straight in the bin and now at least it can go to the worms. It’s a beautiful worm farm circle of life."