Employees of Kitsap E-Z Earth packaging vermicompost for sale in local outlets. The company, a joint venture of Holly Ridge Center and Peninsula Services, is marketing the production of millions of red worms as fertilizer.

(Editors Note: Readers may recall that last year we printed a story on a newly emerging local business, started by Holly Ridge Center and Peninsula Services, both dedicated to providing training and employment for people with special needs. This is an update to that story.)

   In the spring of 2000, Holly Ridge Center and Peninsula Services took a bold step in their efforts to develop jobs in the private sector. Local government has been very responsive to hiring people with special needs, but both agencies want to expand, to have their own entrepreneurial businesses..
    Finding meaningful jobs for people with special needs remains an enormous challenge in Kitsap County with unemployment of people with disabilities at 70 percent, or more.
   “Too many people who can work productively are sitting at home watching television when they could be working and interacting with the public,” said Roxanne Bryson-Stevens, executive director of Holly Ridge Center.
    In April 2000, the two agencies began the operation of a 32-foot commercial worm bin in the greenhouse at Bremerton’s West Sound Technical Skills Center, with the idea of producing vermicompost and selling red worms. Local stores, The Red Apple in Bremerton, Central Market and Starbucks in Poulsbo donate pre-consumer foods and coffee grounds. Local farmers have supplied composted manure and after months of work by over one million worms (and growing), the bin is now operational.
   ”We want to grow this into a real brand,” says Jill Robinson, executive director of Peninsula Services. “We intend to market this product, and other related products such as small worm bins through out the county. Every sale we make directly benefits people with special needs, people with development disabilities.”
   The new technology worm bin was guided by Bill Hoke of Hoke Consulting of Poulsbo, working under a County Community Development Block Grant.
   “We set out to create new jobs and we have already put people to work,” Hoke stated proudly. “Now we need to take this business to the next level, to make Kitsap E-Z Earth a household name”.
   Tests on the vermicompost were conducted by Twiss Analytical of Poulsbo in December. They revealed that not only is this a wonderful vermicompost, it also won the coveted rank of a Grade II organic fertilizer. It can be used in organic growing, is a wonderful soil amendment for plants, indoors and out. It can also be blended one part E-Z Earth to nine parts potting soil according to Melinda Earl of Holly Ridge Center, operations manager of the bin.
   Worm tea, a by-product of vermicompost can be used in many applications and can work as a substitute to harsh fertilizers and pesticides.
   But the real beauty of Kitsap E-Z Earth is that as a fertilizer, it is very rich in the microbes and nutriments that enrich soil. It will not burn, is virtually odor free and is safe with children and pets, Earl explained.
   Each week, the work crews from Peninsula Services and Holly Ridge Center feed the worms, maintain careful records and are now harvesting 700 pounds of vermicompost at a ‘cutting.’ The materials is then sold — sifted and unsifted — by the pound. Worms for composting bins will also be sold by the pound.
   Poulsbo’s Thriftway Market Garden Shop is the first retailer to sign, and others are being contacted. Kitsap E-Z Earth has also reserved booth space at the Homebuilders Association of Kitsap County’s huge Home and Garden Show, which will be held at the Kitsap Pavilion on March 16-17-18.
   Because of its recycling efforts, Kitsap E-Z Earth has been named a “Distinguished” Green Works Business by the Kitsap County Green Works program.
   For more information about Kitsap E-Z Earth, or to tour the worm bin, arrange for a speaker, visit the Web site at www kitsapezeath.com or call toll free
(800) 449-1660. Both Holly Ridge Center and Peninsula Services are agencies of the Kitsap United Way.