Monday, April 25, 2016

Indoor Worm Composting

Recently at our Earth Day Celebrations, one of our practitioners (Chandra), brought in this article on Indoor Worm Composting which I thought I'd share with you ...


Setting up a Worm Bin... This set up uses a 3 bin system, 
1 to collect water in the bottom, 
to hold the worms and 1 used to harvest the castings later on.

Materials:
3 medium shallow bins (approximately 60 x 40 x 20 cm) with 1 lid
Large and small sized drill bits
2 pieces of wood
Newspaper
Red Wriggler Worms

1.  Drill large holes in the bottom of 2 bins
\2.  Drill smallair holes in the lid and along the sides at the top if needed.
3.  Tear up strips of newspaper to be used as worm bedding in one of the bins.
4.  Place compost that contains worms into bin and put the lid on top
5.  Put 2 pieces of wood on the bottom of empty bin(no holes).  This will raise the worm container off the ground and collect compost tea in the bottom to be used for plant nutrients.
** note:  The third bin (with holes) may be placed on top of the other 2 but is not needed until castings sare ready to be harvested.

Adding compost:  Add you compost in 1 corner of the bin.  Some people like to burry their waste underneath the castings.  You may add most types of uncooked fruits or vegetables to your worm bin like you would in a regular composter.  Such as:  Skins, Rinds, over ripened fruits, crushed eggshells, etc.

At first don't feed too much to your worms, only as much as they can eat to keep your bin from having bad smells.  Usually about 2 - 3 pounds of waste a week for this size of bin in the beginning is the maximum.  
Collect worm tea every couple of weeks in a jar.  Add a small amount of this tea mixture with water to your plants.

Harvesting:
Start harvesting when most of your compost has become worm castings.  You will need to use your empty bin to harvest the worms.
1.  Take a few handfuls of castings with worms and put into your bin
2.  Add some new compost to the bin
3.  Place this bin over top of the existing worm bin so that worms will crawl up through the holes in the bottom to reach new food.
\4.  This process will take about 2 months, during this time, decrease the amount of compost you add, and leave the lower compost bin alone.  Not all, but most of the worms will make it to the top bin.

You can use worm castings on your house plants, flowers or vegetable gardens!!!

Courtesy by Harmony Hearth Healing & Massage by Chandra


Start your morning off right ...

Such an easy thing to do to start your whole day off to the right start!!!



Drink a glass of SOLE (so-LAY) each morning.  What is Sole?  Sole is Himalayan Salt

The ideal way to use Himalayan Crystal Salt is in the form of a sole (so-LAY). Drinking the sole when you awake each morning is like getting up on the right side of the bed. It provides the energizing minerals you need daily to recharge your body, and it helps set the stage for a day of vitality.

Essentially, a sole is water saturated with Himalayan Crystal Salt. The sole contains about approximately 26 parts of salt to 100 parts of water. Prepare the water and salt combination in advance. Each morning place a teaspoon of the sole mixture in a glass and fill with 8 ounces of pure spring water. Drink it immediately or sip it while getting dressed, checking emails or preparing breakfast. The water helps transport the electrolytes throughout the body to all the many places they are needed.

How to Prepare Sole

Sole is a mixture of water and salt. The object is to saturate the water with dissolved salt so it can’t hold anymore. You’ll know that you’ve created sole when there are undissolved salt crystals in the water. You can’t oversaturate the water with salt. The crystals will simply drop to the bottom of the container.

Place several Himalayan Crystal Salt stones or Himalayan Crystal Salt granules about an inch deep in a glass container. (A canning jar works well.)

Cover the salt with two to three inches of pure, spring water. Let the salt dissolve for 24 hours.

If all the salt dissolves in 24 hours, add more salt to the container. The sole is finished when the water can no longer dissolve the salt and the salt crystals drop to the bottom of the container. There will always be salt crystals in the jar. It doesn’t matter if you have only a few crystals or many. The water is saturated and is now sole.

Cover the container to prevent the water from evaporating. Since salt is a natural preservative, the sole will keep forever. It can’t spoil or go “bad.”

The vibrational energy of the Himalayan Crystal Salt remains in your body for 24 hours.

A teaspoon of sole contains 480 mg of sodium, or 20% of the Daily Reference Value of 2400 mg based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet.



About Salts:
We all know what regular white salt looks like—and we mistakenly think it is real salt when it is not. The fact is that refined white salt, such as commercial table salt is bad, very bad stuff. Unrefined natural salt on the other hand is good, very good stuff providing many health benefits.

Unrefined sea salt is healthy. The blood-pressure-raising effect of table salt can be due to its high content of sodium with not enough magnesium to balance it. This has a magnesium-lowering effect that can constrict the arteries and raise blood pressure. Real salt (of various kinds) contains plenty of magnesium and other important minerals, which is why it usually does not affect blood pressure in a negative way.

Sodium is an essential nutrient required by the body for maintaining levels of fluids and for providing channels for nerve signaling. Some sodium is needed in your body to regulate fluids and blood pressure, and to keep muscles and nerves running smoothly.  I cringe everytime one of my clients tells me they are on a sodium reduced or No Salt Diet.  I personally know of 2 people who have ended up in the psch ward in the hospital because of their “no salt” diets!  We DO NEED SALT people, the right kind of salt!

“Nobody makes a distinction between unrefined and refined salt. They ‘lump’ all salt together as a bad substance. This is a terrible mistake. There are two forms of salt available in the market place: refined and unrefined. Refined salt has had its minerals removed and has been bleached to give it the white appearance that we are accustomed to seeing with salt. It is the fine, white salt that is available at almost any restaurant or grocery store. Refined salt has been bleached and exposed to many toxic chemicals in order to get it to its final product. It has aluminum, ferrocyanide, and bleach in it. I believe this refining process has made it a toxic, devitalized substance that needs to be avoided.” – Dr. David Brownstein


Without appropriate amounts of sodium, your body may have a difficult time cooling down after intense exercise or activity. When the body is hot, you sweat. If you do not have enough sodium, your body may not sweat as much and you may then become overheated. This could result in a stroke or exhaustion as well as dehydration.

Sodium is an energy carrier. It is also responsible for sending messages from the brain to muscles through the nervous system so that muscles move on command. When you want to move your arm or contract any muscle in your body, your brain sends a message to a sodium molecule that passes it to a potassium molecule and then back to a sodium molecule etc., etc., until it gets to its final destination and the muscle contracts. This is known as the sodium-potassium ion exchange. Therefore, without sodium, you would never be able to move any part of your body.

Excess sodium (such as that obtained from dietary sources) is excreted in the urine. Most of the sodium in the body (about 85%) is found in blood and lymph fluid. Sodium levels in the body are partly controlled by a hormone called aldosterone, which is made by the adrenal glands. Aldosterone levels determine whether the kidneys hold sodium in the body or pass it into the urine.

Unrefined salt, has not been put through a harsh chemical process. It still contains the natural minerals that were originally part of it. Its mineral content gives it a distinct color. The colors of unrefined salt can vary depending on where it is taken from. This is due to the changing mineral content of the various brands of salt. It is the minerals in unrefined salt that provide all the benefits of this product. The minerals supply the body with over 80 trace elements needed to maintain and sustain health. Furthermore, the minerals elevate the pH (correct acidity) and lower blood pressure. Our maker gave us salt to use in our diet—unrefined salt—with its full complement of minerals, that needs to be part of everyone’s diet.

Refined salt causes negative reactions on internal tissues, your body retains water to protect itself, and your cells release water to help dilute, neutralize, and break down the salt. This loss of water dehydrates and weakens your cells and can even cause them to die prematurely. Natural sea salt is far superior to chemically-treated iodized table salts as it contains all 92 trace minerals, and it’s only 84% sodium chloride while table salt is almost 98%".

All this adds up to one thing. Table salt, whether marine or not, is toxic—it’s poisonous to the body and is responsible, in great part, to the onset of many terrible diseases including thyroid and metabolic dysfunction.


I don’t care which type of Salt you choose, whether it be Celtic Sea Salt, Himalayan Salt as long as you ditch the “Refined Salts”.  Unrefined salt will help to balance the digestive organs, stomach acid, support the production of digestive fluids in the liver and pancreas, regulate your metabolism and harmonize the acid/alkaline balance.  Why wouldn’t you rather choose that than the all to popular refined white table salt.  Blah!