On Jane Street in Greenwich Village, New York City, there's a
garden that nursery school children come to visit. They
call it Abby's Grandpa's farm, and it truely is. For here,
Arthur Stoliar (Abby's Grandpa) grows myriad red wiggler worms
in his rotary drum composter, and provides our city garden with
most of its fertilizer. The four year olds, led by our
granddaughter Abby, make a "field trip" from their
school around the corner. They come eagerly, bearing their lunch
leftovers - a gift for the worms - and would bring more if the
teacher didn't insist that they eat some of the food themselves.
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Grandpa greets them
with a short explanation of the things green and brown
that we save for composting. He shows them banana peels,
onion skins, carrot tops, paper towels, leaves and faded
flowers - to which they will add their own supply of
bread, lettuce and tomato. He talks about the amazing
worms that reduce all this to a tiny pile in a matter of
weeks. Then Abby leads the other children out back,
where Grandpa shows them the composter and the dense,
nutritious dressing inside of it.
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Now in his third successful
year of composting and teaching about it, Arthur Stoliar has
earned his pin.
(Grandma) Joan Stoliar
New York, NY
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