While Kitsap County economic development officials attempt to organize the high-tech telecommunications infrastructure so they can recruit companies providing high-paying, high-tech jobs, Holly Ridge Center and Peninsula Services, two nonprofits, have literally taken the low road and recruited the low-tech Red worm and started a vermiculture company.

According to Bill Hoke of Hoke Consulting in Poulsbo, Kitsap E-Z Earth is a company resulting from the Kitsap JOBS Project, a collaboration of the two nonprofits. The goal is to train and employ workers with disabilities and put them to work in the vermiculture industry.

The company’s startup was motivated by government downsizing, such as I-695. Since government has traditionally been a major source of employment for workers with disabilities, they are particularly vulnerable to government downsizing — especially regarding military contracts, and most recently at Kitsap Transit where I-695 eliminated 19 jobs.

The idea for the firm came when Roxanne Bryson, executive director of Holly Ridge Center, and Jill Robinson, executive director of Peninsula Services, hired Hoke to research entrepreneurial possibilities to put their clients back to work. Hoke’s research suggested the Northwest may be the only place the flo-through worm bin is used commercially. That unique fact positions Kitsap E-Z Earth with the opportunity to be the only vermiculture company in the Northwest to provide stable employment for workers with disabilities.

Hoke is overseeing the startup of Kitsap E-Z Earth which is located in the greenhouse at the West Sound Technical Skills Center on National Avenue, in Bremerton.

As you read this, the Red worms are busy eating and multiplying their way through fruit and vegetable scraps, shredded newspaper, coffee grounds and donkey manure, producing vermicompost, which is non-toxic, odor-free and non-burning compost. The end product is worm excrement, called castings.

“Vermiculture seemed like a worthwhile try,” said Hoke. “It’s profitable, requires minimal startup dollars, and soil conditioning is a concern among gardeners, nurseries and landscapers.”

He added, “There’s a renaissance in worm growing, and new technology has made it commercially practical and feasible. Worm farming is for real. Vermicompost is used full strength as a growing medium or as a soil amendment, mixed one-part to nine-parts soil. Worms work the soil, and microbes on their bodies make the soil active. Worms excrete castings, which are black and pencil-lead sized.”

That may be more information than you really thought you needed, but the fact is, Red worms are the Cadillac of worms. They are highly localized, thriving in pockets of enriched, organic materials. Hoke estimates that 400,000 Red worms were dumped into the company’s first, 32-foot long, flo-through worm bin — the largest of its kind in the Northwest. The bin allows feeding food stock to the Red worms from the top and the harvesting of vermicompost from the bottom.

Workers with disabilities chop leftover fruit and vegetables which they collect from the West Bremerton Red Apple and Central Market in Poulsbo. When in full operation, Kitsap E-Z Earth’s industrious Red worms will require 400 pounds of food stock daily per bin, employing up to six workers. Hoke estimates the company will be ready to go to market by late summer when the operation is producing 150-200 pounds of vermicompost daily.

Kitsap E-Z Earth will also market home-sized worm bins and the worms themselves to home gardeners. Selling earth-friendly products, such as herbs, garden gloves and hats and soil-composting bins (an alternative to burning) are also under consideration. Hoke also envisions the production of worm tea, a mix of worm castings, molasses and oxygen. Worm tea increases soil microbes, producing a healthier soil that’s resistant to pests and weeds. Worm tea is also sprayed on public property and school grounds, where traditional fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides are being banned.

“We’re developing a real expertise in vermiculture,” Hoke said. “We intend to market our business and promotional plans to other nonprofits. Food, by the tons, is dumped into landfills every day, when it could be fed to worms. We want to help others get into this business.”

Kitsap E-Z Earth will host an open house and be conducting tours of its operation on Monday, July 31, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.; Wednesday, August 2, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.; and Saturday, August 5, from 10 a.m. until noon.

For more information, call Hoke at 360) 697-4653 or visit the company on the web at www.kitsapezearth.com.