I find that my red worms who live outside do really well, so long as the soil is kept moist and they are fed often with vegetable/fruit trimmings. I often will add some partially composted leaves from my compost bin. Although, I find that they do well without much attention in my raised beds that have lots of organic compost, I like to keep one 4ft square bed that is shaded and kept covered with cardboard to add my veggie/fruit trimmings/composted leaves. I go clockwise around the bed to add food and to remove the vermicompost as needed to use in my containers/other beds. There are so many worms in the bed that is necessary to spread the vermicompost out to let it dry out and get the worms to move back to a moister section. Try to use unchlorinated water to moisten the rest of the bed or some that has sat out for 24hrs so that the chlorine has mostly evaporated. Red worms will eat the bacteria from the decaying foods, and I never have a problem with offensive odors ....actually, the compost in this bed smells really good and the plants seem to really thrive on it. I agree that getting these worms from someone in your area may be better as they will have adapted to your local weather conditions. I live in a desert area that has temps from the 20's to the 110's and they have survived many years outside this way.

The fastest composting method is hot composting. To do that, you want to get about a cubic yard of material. It should be a good mixture of high nitrogen matter (greens) and high carbon matter (browns). The proper ratio is 30:1 carbon to nitrogen, but that's not 30:1 browns to greens. Instead, I think it's about an even amount by volume. If you have too much N, it will stink. Too much C and it won't get hot. It should be turned periodically to get air in it, and it should be moist (but not wet). The expression you'll see here is as damp as a wrung out sponge. You can buy a bin (or build one) if you want to keep the compost enclosed. It's not needed, but some people like it for aesthetics. Some people use compost tumblers to speed the process. I've never used a tumbler, so I don't know much about them.

Just store those products where they will remain dry. Garage or shed would be fine. Allow for some air circulation. They will be good to use in the Spring or next Summer. Bill Hill

Mike, much of the nutritional value comes from the microorganisms growing on the organic material. The tea making process washes away many of those microbes, but not all. If you throw that material back into an active worm bin, I'm sure the microbes will quickly grow and the worms will be attracted to ingest the particles again. Andrew