Do You Remember the Worm Woman from Kalamazoo?
Why was the Worm Woman known worldwide?
Mary Appelhof was known as the Worm Woman from Kalamazoo due to her extensive work with worms. Appelhof dug deep to create systems for using worms to recycle food waste into fertilizer. In fact, the Worm Woman traveled the world as an international spokesperson and emissary of worm workers according to Vermico.com,
She traveled to Belarus, a small nation formerly of the Soviet Union, at the invitation of Dr. Svetlana Maksimova of the Institute of Zoology in the Belarusian Academy of Science. There she observed a private vermicomposting facility and planned to return to visit another worm project in St. Petersburg Russia in May 1999. She made an extensive visit to Australia in October 1995 which was chronicled in Worm Digest’s Summer 1996 issue No. 13.
This former Kalamazoo Central biology teacher also self-published her book, "Worms Eat My Garbage" in 1982. Then there's the 1995 "Wormania" video. Everything about this video is gold! Is that what we looked like back in 1995? Holy smokes. Enjoy a short clip from that video below.
Appelhof is an important person in history because she is responsible for developing “vermicomposting,” a system using worms to recycle food waste into fertilizer according to Chalkboardchampions.com.
Mary Appelhof has impacted the world with her studies and development of vermicomposting, sold 200,000 copies of her book, was honored as a National Women's History Project Honoree received a National Science Foundation grant, and was named the National Recycling Coalition’s Recycler of the Year.
Click here to get more information on this groundbreaking woman from Kalamazoo.
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