Arizona Worm Farm

06/26/2025

People taste our tomatoes and call them unusually delicious Turns out , they are what all tomatoes are supposed to taste like - the ones you have been buying are (because of our silly food systems) mostly awful. This New York Times article explains why.

Grow your own in your backyard. We can show you how. Monsoon planting starts in August. We will have starts then, but if you’re going to seed them yourself swing by the worm farm for our seed starter mix and plan to start them inside by mid-July.

The last thing American consumers need is a revitalization of Florida’s withering tomato industry.

06/14/2025

Had a friend call to ask why his tomatoes aren't ripening. Tomatoes (and lots of vegetables) won't set or ripen fruit when the temperatures are over 100 degrees. I shot these temps this morning to show just how beneficial shade and mulch can be in your yard.

The ambient temperature is about 94 degrees here at the farm on Saturday June 14th at 9:30 AM. Exposed dirt in direct sun has already reached 146 degrees. In our gardens (50% shade cloth, mulch in walkways, lots of worms in the soil), the soil temperature is around 90. In our food forest, we have soil temperatures in the low 80s. That let's us extend our growing seasons and just plain makes it nicer to be outside.

Skeptical? come visit. Even in this heat, our Food Forest is a nice place to walk around.

06/14/2025

I have been a long time follower of Farmer Frank from Crooked Sky Farms. He farms sustainably here in downtown Phoenix (and some other places).

Did you know Farmer Frank plants his cantaloupe on July 15th? That has them ready for harvest in mid-October for delicious Fall snacks. The timing is actually really smart: you take advantage of the warm soils in late summer to speed foliage growth, get flowers when the evening temperatures start to cool in September and grow fruit out of the extreme heat of our summers.

Planning your next garden move? We will have starts ready for you in mid-July.

06/12/2025

For those of you potential worm farmers that follow us from someplace else, we host a worm conference every year to teach worm farmers how to breed worms. This year's conference is now available for booking. These have sold out every year with worm farmers from all over the world - if you are thinking about being a worm farmer - this is a good place to learn!

06/07/2025

That's my granddaughter feeding BSFL to our hens. I have to tell you: I am pretty attached to her (and my chickens!) and I don't want anything to happen to either.

We had a hen die unexpectedly a couple of weeks ago and with all the news about Bird Flu, we had it tested immediately. The good news is it was NOT Bird Flu - it had a genetic kidney issue (not contagious or harmful to any other person or bird).

That false alarm sent me on a research journey that intensified after Hickman's Eggs here in town had to euthanize about 6 million hens. I decided to post this for those of you that have backyard chickens and for those of you that are wondering if you are getting the straight story on vaccines.

Bird Flu has moved from "episodic" (occasional infection of flocks - where we fought it by killing all the chickens in the flock and hoped to contain the virus before it spread anyplace else) to "endemic" (the Flu is now in so many wild birds that it will spread no matter how many chickens we kill). The USDA granted a conditional license to Zoetis for their Avian Influenza Vaccine for chickens, but it is not fully effective and is not recommended for backyard chicken owners. It is expensive and needs to be repeated often and only gives partial immunity. It is not clear what Elon Musk and his DOGE team did to funding for this research, much of which was appropriated by Congress during the Biden administration.

If you ever get asked, this is money we SHOULD be spending because a fully effective vaccine is the best, least expensive option to fight Bird Flu. Unless you want eggs to be $10 each from hens raised indoors.

Here at the worm farm, we are focusing on three things based on advice from several Vets and lots of research:

1. Physical Isolation and Separation:

We are putting up netting and covers to keep wild birds out of our coop. Wild birds eat leftover food, so we are covering that too.

Limit visitor access. Unfortunately, that means we won't let you (our guests) inside our chicken run.

If you walk through your yard to get to your chickens, you should probably have a disinfectant food bath or a change of shoes you only wear inside your coop. You really don't want to pick up wild bird p**p on your shoes and bring it into your coop.

2. Hygiene and Cleaning:

We now clean and disinfect at least weekly:

We thoroughly clean and disinfect our coops, feeders, waterers, and equipment to minimize the presence of the virus.

Mandatory handwashing, especially after handling birds or their droppings.

Remove spilled feed and other debris promptly to prevent wild bird contamination.

3. Monitoring for Illness

If you are still with me: one more thing. This week DHS and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. canceled a $766 million government contract to develop a new bird flu vaccine (for people, for you and me and our children and grandchildren). This vaccine is designed to protect us if this strain mutates, jumps species, and ends up in people, who then start transmitting it to each other. It’s happened before, in mostly isolated outbreaks, with death rates that reached 50 percent.

Not to be too morbid, but, tonight at your dinner table, count off "1", "2", "1", "2" - then imagine your life if all the "2"s died. It probably won't be that bad in a full blown outbreak, but the actual, isolated outbreaks suggest it could happen.

Our US government accidently dropped two planes off aircraft carriers this month that will cost a quarter of that contract to replace. So, maybe if we were more careful with our planes we could afford to fund the research that could save half our population from dying. We have seen this before - being ready just makes sense.

We buy extended warrantees on our $40 blenders. Why wouldn't we invest the same in our health?

I know there is miss-information about mRNA vaccines. A reporter I found named Jonathan Cohn, reported "An HHS spokesperson told reporters that the Moderna decision was “about safety, integrity, and trust” and described mRNA technology as “under-tested”—even though the mRNA COVID shots went through extensive, randomized clinical trials before approval, and have been closely monitored for adverse effects ever since.

That last part is no small thing. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said he estimates as many as 1 billion people have gotten at least one dose of an mRNA vaccine, with only rare reports of serious side effects."

It sounds callous, but if a couple of hundred people get serious side effects when we protect a billion others - that is a good medical call.

06/06/2025

Worm Castings Tea adds tons of microbes to your trees' leaves and soil. The extra coating will help trees protect themselves against our supper strong sun.

You can do this yourself with a hose-end sprayer and our tea - which we brew for Fridays and Saturdays at the farm.

It is not too late to protect trees for this summer.

One gallon of tea is $9 ($1.00 off if you bring your own container).

Please remember: it needs to be used within fours hours of purchase.

05/23/2025

Tree care for $800, please Ken.

"Memorial Day, Valentine's Day, Labor Day."

Correct Jeopardy answer:

What are the three times of year you should fertilize your trees?

Time to fertilize your trees. This is how we do it at the worm farm.