If you have been reading this blog you will know the reason why we at the Nomad farm collect up all the fruit and vegetables (organic) waste from the Hotel and Restaurant.. It is so that we can be producing our own Organic fertiliser in the form of compost.
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| The Nomad farm today- All organic |
However, this post is about another good reason to keep compost piles.. and this reason is fast becoming more and more popular around the world.. Larvae farming.
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| Larvae from the Compost piles |
Larvae are the little grubs that are the young of other insects. Larvae (like maggots, and black fly larvae) tend to eat a huge about in a very short time meaning they grow very fast and they are very high in protein.
Earth Worms from this Jaccuzi wormary are also nutritious diet supplements for chickens and fish.
In some places around the world people actually eat larvae and grubs, to us it may seem strange for now but as the human population continues to outgrow food production grubs as a diet supplement will only become more common.
Currently, here in Kenya not many people know that one can literally farm larvae in compost piles, and not many people would A, want to go near the larvae and B, know why someone would WANT to farm larvae.
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| Compost piles = Larvae breeding
Well, Larvae, due to their veracious appetites can speed up the decomposition process inside the compost heaps, they take the ‘waste’ and break it down into compost.
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Larvae grow very fast and are found in masses around fruit peels and rotting organic matter, for this reason they are quite a fast turn over ‘harvest’. Some Larvae farms can produce over 2 tons of larvae a day!
Larvae are very much sought after for use making animal feed, both chickens and fish love the Larvae which adds to their free range diets. Even some of the feed given to herbivores such as cows in feedlots contains the high protein, dried-out and ground Larvae.
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| Mulch keeps moisture in the soil |
Imagine how much organic waste is generated along Diani Beach in one day. Enough to make ALOT of compost for Organic farming and enough also to produce huge amounts of larvae… which .. if one looks sustainability wise.. could save quite a bit of money in the long run if one was BUYING animal feed.
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| Nomad farm chickens eating larvae collected for them from the Compost piles |
