In the beginning, I just wanted to grow some fishing worms.
My grandson Kyler and I were going fishing almost every weekend. Bait was sketchy and getting very expensive. I told Kyler one day after going fishing and having a hard time finding any good bait that I thought I could grow us some worms. So I took one of the cups of worms and threw them into a bin I had made.
That was the start of Meme’s Worms!
The bin above was my first bin. It just kept growing. Anything I could find that I thought I could use, I used it.
Then I built this one!!
I started thinking about how I could make some money and start a company for my grandson who was 10 so by the time he got into high school he could have a ready job.
Then, when he graduated he would already own a company.
I started researching about the worm world and found there was a lot of room to grow in this business. So I started the company and started expanding.
While still in my laundry room I built a bigger bin.
Before I knew it I had outgrown my laundry room and had to move to the back porch.
It would not be long before winter so we closed in the back porch with plastic. This kept the worms until spring and then we built our first hoop house.
I was still working in the corporate world so I could only spend a few hours a day with my farm. I would come home around 8 pm and work till 12 or 1 am and get back up at 5 or 6 am.
I did this for a long time.
I knew I wanted to eventually do this full time but I started this with no money so I knew it would take a few years to get off the ground.
By spring I had enough worms I could start selling some so I posted ads on Facebook and gave out business cards. I joined various Facebook worm groups and fishing groups any group that I thought could use worms.
I first started with European Nightcrawlers because I was a fisherwoman myself and I could relate to fishing. It was a hit.
Before I knew it, I had orders coming in and started selling. I needed to be able to grow the worms get them to bait size but weren’t sure how to do that.
I then joined L.J. Shier's “worm breeding” program and started breeding and growing out the worms as the pros do. So then I needed another building so we built the hoop house below.
Now I could start my worm breeding and get the worms to bait size. It was temperature-controlled so I didn’t have to worry about them getting too hot or too cold. I just kept growing and selling worms to fishermen. I was having the time of my life.
People would ask if I had red wigglers but at the time all I wanted to do was grow worms to fish with.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and my whole approach with worm farming changed. I knew red wigglers were the ticket.
I started my red wiggler stock from a farm not far away where I could purchase in bulk and ship to my customers.
I wanted to grow my own stock so I decided to build *another* hoop house for them
I added some racks to use for breeding, especially in the wintertime.
This rack holds about 110 mortar trays. It works great for breeder bins and grow-out trays.
From there we have added windrows, barrels, 4x4 plastic bins, crates, super bags, and feed troughs. Basically, anything you can put a worm in we have used or still use. The key for me was using really cheap materials or things that I had laying around.
This brings me to 2021.
I had been talking to Steve Churchill of the Urban Worm Company in the latter part of 2020 about buying a piece of land behind me, but it would have to wait a couple of years until I could afford it.
A couple of weeks later, Steve approached me with an offer to help me go ahead and secure the property so I could expand my red wiggler growing. As luck would have it though the land deal fell through.
I told Steve it was ok as God has a bigger plan and He did!!
Steve and I are now proud owners of a 22000 sq ft warehouse and a separate building we'll use for shipping and office space.
Stay tuned for more news to come!
If you are in need of worms you can find them here.
Need a lot of worms or want to sell and don’t have enough of your own yet?
You can buy Bulk Red Wigglers or Bulk European Nightcrawlers.