My grandson Kyler and I were going fishing almost every weekend. Fishing bait was hard to find and getting very expensive..

Kyler and I were fishing one day when I decided I'd grow some worms for us after finding no good bait.

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!

I started thinking about how I could make some money and start a company for my grandson. He was 10 at the time. When he got into high school, he could have a job, and then when he graduated, he would own the company.

I started researching the composting and soil improvement industry and saw an opportunity, so I started Meme's Worms from my laundry room.

Before I knew it, I had outgrown my laundry room and had to move to the back porch. The following spring, I built our first 'hoop' house.

I was still working my corporate job so I could only spend a few hours a day with my farm. I would come home around 8pm, work till midnight on the farm and then get back up at 5am.

I did this for a long time.

As a fisherwoman, I knew there was a need for quality natural bait, so I started with environmentally friendly composting species and it was a hit!

Before I knew it, I had orders coming in. I needed to be able to grow the worms larger enough to get them to bait size but I wasn't sure how to do that so I joined L.J. Shier's “worm breeding” program.

Then I needed another building, so I built the second hoop house. Now I could start scaling production and improving composting quality. It was temperature-controlled so I didn’t have to worry about them getting too hot or too cold.

I just kept growing and supplying composting materials and soil products to customers.

One question I would get frequently was whether I had specific composting species but at the time, all I wanted to do was grow worms to fish with.

Then the pandemic hit and my whole approach with worm farming changed. I knew red wigglers were the ticket.
I started my composting material supply from a nearby farm where I could purchase in bulk and ship to my customers.

...but I wanted to produce my own supply 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 I have added windrows, barrels, 4x4 plastic bins, crates, super bags, and feed troughs. Basically, anything you can use for composting and soil enrichment, we have tried or still use.

As you can imagine, I continually needed more space. In 2021, the opportunity presented itself to purchase a 22,000 sq ft warehouse and I leapt at it.

Today, my family and I run Meme's Composting Supply Company. To think I came from my laundry room, I can only imagine what the future holds.