Russell Vinegar

Hey there,

I live in a northern Ontario town with a pulp and paper mill. The mill churns out a pile of sludge as part of their process, and for the most part this material is burned - it is quite wet and it takes a lot of energy to dry so not much of an energy gain for the mill, I don't think. I can only assume it is most softwoods (and aspen?) going in.

I heard tell there was a fellow some time back who was taking this material and vermi-composting it (with red wigglers?) and that the worms took well to it. I'm not sure if he was trying to produce compost, or sell worms or what. I am trying to assess if there is a way to generate edible insect protein here, for human or livestock consumption. Human being the most ideal.

A pile of questions:
1. will worms eat such a thing? would crickets or meal worms? sounds like BSFL would not
2. do you (human) want to eat red wigglers? can they be dehydrated and powdered into a protein powder kinda thing? how might they taste eating all that wood?
3. do you think there is any way that would be safe if they are eating pulp mill sludge? this might be a sticking point... other waste may be available
4. en mass, do worms generate enough heat to maintain their own temp in winter (-30 deg C entirely likely, -40 C possible)? I heard they previously were actually getting too hot (perhaps also some element of decomposition occuring?) and air had to pipe in to cool them (wouldn't that also speed aerobic decomp?)
5. sources for industrial quantities of worms?

Thanks for your wisdom!

Calling all ecological forest garden/silviculture/agroforestry practioners and collaborators!

I write on behalf of the International Analog Forestry Network as we work to pioneer an international 'beyond organic' certification standard for forest garden products. We are currently refining our Forest Garden Products standard to join the IFOAM Family of Standards.
Don't love 3rd-party certification and international commodities? Us neither! This work will create the core of our emerging Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) program to support local marketing opportunities and strengthen inter-farmer collaboration.

We'd love to hear your views on:
What constitutes ecologically-sensitive forest gardening?
What distinguishes it from organic agriculture or other agroforestry approaches, in spirit and, more importantly, in practice?
How might we better include people using approaches besides Analog Forestry?

Replies here are appreciated, but for more information and to facilitate discussion, please join our forum at http://www.analogforestrynetwork.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8873

Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you!
Russell

Places south of Dominical please?
I am located an hour up from the coast at Quepos.
Also, for anyone else reading - Luminescence on Isla Bastimentos (Bocas del Toro, Panama) is pretty unreal in terms of the site.