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LYNDEN TRIBUNE
Lynden, Washington
October 23, 2002

Worms, garbage creating new jobs

Lynden workers are part of a vermiculture composting movement.

For a while, Lynden packaging worker Frances Armintrout was showing Mary Appelhof, the guru of the worm composting movement, how she does her job.

At a desk in the New Hope Center, 215 S. British Columbia Ave., Armintrout filled 60-mililiter foil bags with the darkly rich fertilizer that will be marketed as Dr. Subler's Living Soil.

Mary Appelhof fills bags with worm castings as Frances Armintrout, left, and Naomi LaVine look on.

Armintrout is one of seven persons with mental disabilities arranged through Cascade Vocational Services this year to work in the unique packaging operation.

Looking on and then trying the task herself, Applehof was impressed.

"It's a wonderful symbiotic relationship. I'm a biologist. I believe in mutually beneficial relationships," she said. "I think more businesses need to be this creative with community organizations that are doing the training and providing job opportunities."

It's a rather complicated story how this particular workplace came about and it starts back in the 1970s with the conviction of the lady who wears the "Worms Eat My Garbage" shirt.

Mary Appelhof, a former high school teacher who lives in Kalamazoo, Mich., was visiting the area last week to give a public lecture in Mount Vernon titled "Worm Bins to Compost Tea." The Master Composter/ Recycler programs of northwest Washington were sponsors.

Through Applehof's 1982 book, which has sold 150,000 copies, and the recent marketing efforts of Dr. Scott Subler, a former Ohio State University entymologist, the idea of using earthworms for composting garbage has gained a following in the United States.

Subler has become one of the world's leading authorities on earthworms and soil ecology. And since 1999 Subler has joined with a former Whatcom County potato grower, Curt Hawley, to establish a vermiculture business they call Pacific Garden Company.

For the past three years, most recently on Van Buren Road north of Lynden, Hawley has been steadily feeding manure from neighboring dairies to the millions of earthworms under his care. The worms, in turn, make their own manure, known as "castings."

Subler is introducing American gardeners from coast to coast to the soil produced on Hawley's farm and packaged in attractive gold foil pouches by the Cascade Vocational Services people.

"The castings we produce in Whatcom County are the highest quality you'll find anywhere in the country. That's why home gardeners and commercial growers alike are so excited now that they're finally available nationwide," said Subler, who splits his time between Bellingham and his home in central Pennsylvania, where he continues to develop eastern markets.

For Cascade Vocational Services, this is just one of many tasks at many worksites for many employers that have been lined over the past eight years, said Ed Heutink, administrator of the branch of Cacade Christian Services.

"Every penny they earn goes directly to themselves. They're entirely self-employed with a business licence," Heutink said of the Lynden workers.

Over 70 persons with disabilities work in jobs ranging from laundries to restaurants. Many do janitorial duties, as Cascade has contracts for the cleaning of the Lynden, Sumas and Pacific Highway border crossings, Heutink said.

by Calvin Bratt
Lynden Tribune Editor