Definitely boil the beans. Don't know if freezing would work or not, but it would be easier than boiling. I once put a bunch of old birdseed in my bin, and it created quite a mess as it sprouted day after day after day. If you are putting the jam in, do it a little at a time to see how it goes. Or, easier would be to dig a hole in the garden and bury it all at once, mixing with the soil. You must have a ton of beans, and you might want to bury some of them too in addition to the worm bins. Just my 2 cents. Let us know how it goes.

If you have the space- building a conventional compost pile and running a hot-cycle will take care of a lot of weed seed and digestability issues with components. The down-side is that many local (notice that I avoided the word "native" :) worms will be introduced as well. I process a lot of material- so it happens in open piles outdoors. Turns out that in my garden I have so many worms that I need to re-mulch with shredded leaves several times in the summer! My vermicomposting, however, is greatly simplified by this approach. I simply pile materials between rows and cover with cardboard to prevent leaching nutrients, and let 'em at it.

Ok, Patti, pour yourself a nice, tall glass of iced tea, take a deep breath and relax! Your questions are certainly not stupid, you have done nothing wrong with your bin, and it sounds as though you have some excellent resources for use in the system. All is well! First, you need to know that while straw may not be the first most favorite bedding of many vermicomposters, it is by no means a poor bedding choice. That you used straw mixed with paper means that, regardless of what any of us think of straw, it is most likely that the environment you've created in the bin will be wonderful from the worm perspective, and it is their opinion that matters most. It was not a mistake to use the straw, regardless of whether or not it was chopped. Some folks prefer materials other than straw simply because straw takes longer to break down than many of the other bedding options, thus, you may find bits of it in your "finished" material. This is the biggest challenge associated with the stuff, however, and if this is the worst thing you ever have to deal with you are cerainly in very good shape! ::grin:: On the upside, the fact that straw will tend to hang around longer than most other bedding options means that it will remain in the system after all other materials have been fragmented into very small pieces, aiding in keeping channels open for good oxygen penetration. The take home message in this is that straw, as with all bedding materials, comes with some drawbacks and some advantages, but it is generally considered a good bedding option and is used successfully in many home vermicomposting systems. You're in good shape! As to feeding your worms, begin small and work up based on worm activity. Consider burying about a cup of food scraps (be sure to include some moist, succulent veggie and fruit peals) in the bedding, making sure the scraps of completely buried, and check this pocket of scraps daily to see when the worms move in to begin feeding. Once they've become active in the first addition of food scraps, bury another cup or so of scraps in the bedding, adjacent to the first addition. Check this new addition of scraps daily to see when the worms move in. When they move in to the second addition of food scraps, add another adjacent to it, and keep checking. The previous addition of food does not need to be completely finished before adding more, there simply needs to be several worms active in and/or around it. Feeding in this way means you are feeding based on worm activity, and ensures you are adding sufficient material to keep them well fed and comfortable with breeding, but not so much that the bin envionment can become overly wet (due to the high moisture content of food scraps) and unpleasant. As to ants, it is only fire ants about which we need to be concerned in North America, and we do not have fire ants here in the PNW (I live in southwestern WA state). Few ant species anywhere in the world are predators of earthworms and none of our Northwest species are problematic in the bin at all. The presence of ants in the soaked leaves should NOT discourage you from using those leaves, which tend to have many advantages in a worm bin. Add the leaves! You'll be glad you did! It sounds as though you're doing just fine with your bin. Mix some of those lovely wetted leaves in as a part of the bedding, add some food, and don't be afraid to check on the progress of the worms, despite the cautions agains "disturbing the worms" that you might read on other web sites. These worm species are incredibly tolerant of disruption to their environment, and a system functions far more effectively when the humans involved are comforatable with observing and interacting with the bin environment. This is really is a simple system to manage, Patti, and it sounds as though you've started things off very well. You and your daughter are going to love it; trust me! Kelly S

"At least it shows that "nwnighthawk" has done a research trying to find an answer to the problem and not just asked away." Super Agree. I guess my issue is the internet has speeded up information exchange and learning so much that years old posts are an archeological dig into how things used to be. Digging up years long dead and fully discussed at the time posts and tossing them on the top of the pile messes up the time line for those reading through what could be fancy called the historical documents of vermicomposting history. Not really a biggie in the scheme of things in the world I guess. By reading through all of the old posts one can see where "worming" was a few years ago, or even months ago, and where it is now. I think by everybody sharing information the hobby or process and information available has grown tons. A new vermicomposter now has information available commonly unknown to even experienced worm raisers a few years ago.