Much thanks for the article about composting a couple weeks ago (“Anatomy of a compost pile,” July 17)! Black Diamond Vermicompost is awesome stuff. (And I immediately bought both of the books Cristy Christie recommended; I can never have enough books about soil!)

I always enjoy hearing about agriculture- and food-related hacks people can do at home, and composting is insanely cheap, no matter what kind of space one has. If you've ever shown a worm bin to a little kid, you know the inherent delight those squiggly little earthmovers can instill.

It's also cool that the Bites column is using the space to cover more than one or two items every week. There is soooo much food and wine stuff going on that it's impossible to cover everything. This way, I can read about something and look into it more if I'm interested.

-- Laurie Fraser - San Luis Obispo