My Mother had Worms: Niagara Red Wigglers

Most of my life my mother had worms.

Often when my parents were entertaining, my father would call me over to whisper in  my ear, "Do you think the guests know your mother has worms?". I took this opportunity to announce that indeed my mother had worms. An awkward moment followed, until my mother explained the worms were part of her quest to improve the soil for her organic gardening. This was in the late 1940's.

Some guests would inevitably, stumble down the cellar stairs, to have a look. What they saw was a screen lined wooden box filled with dark rich soil. In the soil was a spaghetti mass of Niagara Red Wigglers. My mother faithfully saw to it that the box was supplied with finely crushed eggshells, coffee grounds and bits left from preparing her organic vegetables. The process was odourless.  My mother took great pride in her worms and referred to her garden soil as Black gold. The arrival of The Organic Gardener, where she avidly learned about such things, was a highlight of each month.

When we moved from the small village of Markham, into the city, the worms came with us. For a short time, they stayed in my grandma's basement, as there wasn't a space in a rented duplex. The day we bought our new house with a big garden the worms were on the move. They were to move a few times again.

When I flew down to live permanently in Nova Scotia, I was accompanied by my elderly mother, my two dogs and a paper cup, with a lid, full of the descendants of the the original Niagara Red Wriggling worms.

Each spring the worms are liberated into the garden. Each fall a select few are brought to be housed in style in a wooden box and instructed to go forth and multiply. The circle keeps turning, here in my home on the coast. I once laughed with my  grown daughters  about what would happen to the worms when I leave this earthy toil. To my surprise, the answer was that they would remain in the family. My daughters like their mother and grandmother will have worms.