I am still feeding my bins on the blended slurry, however, now I pasteurize it by boiling before adding to the bins. I do this for a couple of reasons. Since the herd is increasing past the scrap output of our kitchen, I am using garden leftovers, some that are still planted as foodstuff. After blending, the boiling kills any seeds or parasites on these old plants. Once added to the bins, the vermiculture will breed the benificial microbes back. This way , when I add the castings to the garden, I don't have to contend with a stray pepper plant coming up in the broccolli or such and I'm not returning extra parasites back to our organic gardens. I don't even bring the slurry to the kitchen to boil it, instead set the pot on a hotplate outside, then let it cool for a couple hours binside before feeding.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), April 10, 2001