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Dear Friends
Welcome to The Urban Worm newsletter, and thank you so much for joining us, for believing in the humble but mighty worm!
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The sun eventually made an appearance - granted intermittently - but it feels like a British summer, and the worms are happy making babies. We were genuinely concerned it would never arrive.
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Eight Years of Worms
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This month was The Urban Worm CIC’s 8th birthday, and although we began our wormiful journey over 10 years ago we made it all official with registration at Companies House on the 11th June 2016. Looking back over the years we are so eternally grateful to those who volunteered their time, unwavering words of support, and opportunities to collaborate and grow. Despite the moments of anxiety, tears and doubt, of which there have been many, we wouldn’t change this path for the world and we have learnt there is no success without hard graft and faith in what you are doing. The worms have taken us on a journey around the world, up and down the country, and into the gardens and sheds of the nation: and it all started with one wheelie bin and some worms.
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First ever workshop at The Post Office Garden, Mapperly, Nottingham 2017
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Nick, our very first Worm Technician, at The Mushroom Farm, Orston, Notts. 2017
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Home Is Where The Worms Are
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From urban garden, to allotment, to warehouse, to mushroom farm, to horse rescue, to polytunnel in a field to our current HQ at FarmEco it is fair to say we have been on a journey, and fortunately our worm farms have wheels. Gratitude is humbly given to all of those who helped and collaborated along the way. We would particularly like to thank Linda and Richard Hughes of Moo Haven Horse Rescue. Our little solar powered cabin next to the horse poo pile felt like our first proper home, the worms never went hungry, and our hands never got cold (thanks to a steaming hot pile of poo). As any worm farmer will know worms go wild for horse poo, and a little scoop can soon revive a failing worm farm. We continue to work with Moo Haven who keep us in good supply of poo bricks for our worm farm kits: know that by supporting The Urban Worm you are not only saving the soil, you are also saving the majestic horses, it’s a win win.
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Volunteers Fergal & Maryam, Moo Haven 2018
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Linda & Richard Hughes, Moo Haven
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Our sunny days at Moo Haven Horse Rescue
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Granted & Grateful
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Over the years we have been fortunate to receive small pots of grant funding from local and national bodies to deliver community workshops and projects, giving us the opportunity to spread the worm word when it was still a relatively niche and novel concept for the UK. We would like to say a very special thank you to Nottingham Community Foundation, and namely director Nina Dauban who always offered unwavering support, and granted us our first start up from the Acorn Fund.
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Volunteer Katerina at Footprint Studios, Nottingham 2016
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AMC Gardens, The Meadows Nottingham 2017
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Bentley Urban Farm, Doncaster 2018
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Arts Council-funded worm farm artwork by SmallKid, Ladybay, 2018
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Birmingham City Hospital, Birmingham 2017
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The Urban Worm CIC was established to raise awareness of the power of worms to provide true ecological solutions for organic waste management and organic growing practices that are both low cost and low tech. In 2021 we were granted support from The National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund to deliver our ‘1000 Worm Farmers’ project where we gifted 1000 packs of worms to anyone who made a DIY worm farm. Participants throughout the country included 110 schools, 61 community and voluntary groups and 829 households, 72% of which were new to worm farming. This project catapulted the worms into the mainstream and we have been witnessing the flourishing of a new worm culture ever since. A huge thank you to all the worm farmers of the world, near and far, your contribution to ecological harmony is immeasurable, we salute you!
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Some of our 1,000+ worm farmers
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This month’s New Worm Order News has been a little reflection on our journey, we don’t know what the future holds, but we do know there will be worms, and that’s plenty good enough for us. Thank you so being there with us. To celebrate our 8th birthday we are offering a 10 % discount on all worm wares with the code 8YEARS for one month.
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We wish you a wonderful July full of sunny days and joy, and remember to keep those worms out of direct sunlight, we don’t want the precious creatures struggling in the heat unduly.
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Anna & The Urban Worm team
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