For Christmas my husband gave me worms.

An ounce of worms, to be exact, which is about 100 worms, in a little start-up vermicomposting kit.

These worms—a mix of Indian blueworms and redworms—are supposedly going to convert food scraps into the best topsoil ever for the garden. Basically, fertile worm poop that will help the flowers grow.

How romantic.

Sure enough, the worms are eating our food scraps. They've been consuming wilted lettuce and salad greens, along with strawberry stems, banana peels, spoiled grapes, apple cores and carrot ends.

The worms can pretty much consume anything organic, from vegetable trimmings to rotten fruit, even bread, rice and moldy tortillas, according to Mindy Jaffe, the “;Waikiki worm lady”; who sells these starter kits.

She recommends saving worm food in a container in your fridge.

But watch out for papaya seeds, which make the worms infertile. Jaffe also does not recommend coffee grounds, as it might get them too hyper.

The kit, a simple, plastic pot with a perforated lid and a catch pan, sits in the garage.

You can only feed the worms the same amount as their weight per day. With an ounce of worms, that means only an ounce of food waste, and that's not a whole lot.

But over time this worm colony will supposedly grow to consume all food waste created, which is the ideal, according to Jaffe. The first harvest happens in six months.

The worms can be kept under the kitchen sink or out on a lanai but need to be in the shade. There should be a 3- to 4-inch layer of damp, shredded paper (recycled newspapers are perfect) on top to provide a cover and to keep fruit flies out.

IF YOU WANT to go big, she also sells the Can-O-Worms, a stack of trays that can house thousands of worms and take two to three pounds of food waste a day.

There is not supposed to be any stink or odor coming from the worms, although there will be all sorts of little bugs crawling around in the pot. Jaffe says this is all natural—“;a whole consortium of decomposer organisms”;—that work together as an ecosystem.

Smelly worm bins are typically due to overfeeding or lack of proper drainage.

“;If it's smelly, it's your fault, not the worms' fault,”; she said.

Jaffe clearly has a passion for worms.

Some people love kids, some people love dogs—she loves worms, but understands they're not for everyone.

But Jaffe has a mission: “;To me, food waste is a valuable resource that needs to be recycled. Having worms, you're making this beautiful product. It's organic, and it's absolutely marvelous for growing anything.”;

She has helped install worm bins in offices, homes, the women's prison in Kailua, community colleges and at numerous schools (from preschool to fifth grade).

She loves working with kids because they have a natural fascination for worms. The schools feed cafeteria food waste to the worms, use the vermicompost for the school garden or sometimes sell it for fundraisers.

Can't wait to see what the worms produce this summer.

To find out more about the Waikiki Worm Co. (945-9676), visit www.waikikiworm.com or 1917 S. King St.

Nina Wu writes a column about environmental issues on the first Monday of every month. E-mail her at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).