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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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Our newsletter content is 100% human-generated, and always will be!
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Worm School
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We've been working away on our education programmes since the earliest days of The Urban Worm over a decade ago, and in that time we've amounted quite a library of resources - knowledge, activities, tips and tricks, and fun facts (see below). Recently we developed a plan to put all of that into a resource that we can provide to educators, free of charge, and we're really proud to announce in this issue of the New Worm Order News that our primary school education pack, Worm School, will be available to download from our website, here >>>, on the first day of term (Monday 5 January).
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Ideal for formal educators, home educators and those in informal settings, the pack can take students on a journey from starting their own worm farm, through managing it, harvesting the black gold and thinking about how it benefits the environment, to even considering how worm farming might create broader opportunities in life, for the school and for the individuals. Not only is the pack offered for free but we are adding a discount voucher for institutions, valid across our shop, our education visits and even for setting up larger-scale worm-powered waste management systems at school sites.
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Coming soon for secondary teachers - we're busy working on our KS-3 and KS-4 resource pack and should have that ready for your summer term, 2026 - updates will be provided here in the New Worm Order News, and on the website.
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Did you know?
Ten things we knew about worms or just found out whilst building our learning pack:
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Cleopatra was the first worshipper of the worms, declaring them sacred.
Worms can create one inch of top soil in 5 years. It takes nature 500-1000 years to do the same.
Worm manure contains 50% more humus than top soil.
One teaspoon of worm manure contains more microorganisms than people on the planet.
Worms are hermaphrodites, and can double their population every 60 days.
Worms have survived at least two mass extinctions.
A group of worms are called a squirm of worms.
Worms have five hearts, that s why they love you so much.
The biggest worm in the world is a Gippsland Worm, from Australia, growing up to 3m long.
Worms can live between 2-10 years.
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Learn With The Worm
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Empowering a culture of worm farming across all industries and sectors is and always has been the underlying philosophy of The Urban Worm. Whilst we love to travel to you, and will continue to deliver workshops throughout the UK and beyond, we are now offering the opportunity for one-to-one and group workshops at Worm HQ in Nottinghamshire. We are proud of what we do and the knowledge we have accumulated over the past 13 years. It has been a wonderful journey, sometimes painful, and not always a smooth ride, with moments of deep learning (aka failures!) and aha! moments. We want to share this with you.
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Transparency in the production of our Magic Manure is central to our ethos - why not come and see how we do what we do, and how you can do it too - with our Vermicomposting, Hot Composting and Dual Composting workshops.
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So, if you are looking for a unique gift this Christmas what could be better than a visit to a worm farm?!
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Extra Manure
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What else is in store for 2026? We have some very exciting plans for the year, some of which we aren't quite ready to share with you yet, so you'll have to trust us when we say things like 'this is a game-changer' and 'the internet is going to blow up'. Perhaps we're getting a little over-excited here on the farm, but we definitely have big things in store for the year.
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One thing we haven't been quiet about is our Detroit-designed Continuous Flow-Through system which we set up in the spring of last year, to produce high quality worm manure at volume. Nine months later, the fabulous worm population of our CFT are ready to deliver. We've learned a lot from the process, the worms seem to be very happy and are breeding wildly, Martin has pre-composted several tons of organic farm waste to keep them fed, and we will soon be harvesting in earnest. As the growing season comes around we will be ready with a large quantity of the world's finest all-natural fertiliser - and that's surely reason to be excited.
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Meet The Team
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Behind every great enterprise are great people (and worms) (and a couple of dogs too); we have featured Martin, Joanna, Joseph, Martyn and Chief Morale Officer Poppy in recent issues. Our second company dog, Halo, will appear here soon. But today we meet two brand new members of the team. These two budding worm farmers are the face of our new education pack, and we're embarrassed to say we haven't even got names for them yet. They are currently thought of as 'b' and 'f', after being selected from a range of drawing schemes to appear as helpers in the schools' activity pack. Suggestions are welcome...
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Worm Farmers Alliance
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We have regularly celebrated our friends and heroes both here and abroad in the worm business through the reach of New Worm Order News, and will continue to do so in the coming year. It is a small and friendly community, with lots of mutual support and help, and we are always proud to be part of the unofficial worm farmers alliance. But of course it is not just business or commercial vermicomposters - each of you out there keeping your wormeries on the go, replenishing the soil and reducing food waste one potato peel at a time are all as much part of the alliance as anyone, and at The Urban Worm we love to hear your success stories, the challenges overcome, and the discoveries you have made. All power to every good worm farmer - we salute you and celebrate you! Keep the stories coming and we will feature you in the newsletter whenever we can.
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Worm Voices: Quote of the Month
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'I feel like I'm small and mighty and pack a powerful punch' - we like to think American athlete Simone Biles was talking about the humble yet mighty worm, who can move fifty times their bodyweight and is stronger, pound for pound (or gram for gram) than any human being.
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And that is a wrap for the first issue of 2026. Thanks for being a worm supporter, and for staying in touch with The Urban Worm. There are exciting times ahead - did we say that already?!
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Anna & The Urban Worm team
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