May I suggest you visit Mickey Jergin, a wacky eastern European gentleman who is the head of Bay Worms, a non-profit organization whose aim is the breeding and distribution of worms and worm castings.
Worms are gross and all that, but the real attraction here is the charater, Mickey. He's a nut. Always looks like he just finished a sword fight. Crazy hair and beard, driving around in a beat up white van with "bayworms.org" spray stenciled on the side and buckets of live worms in the back.
His accent is fantastic and he's got energy to the stars. I visited him at his "headquarters" recently (to pick up a bucket of starter worms) and he responded to my interest in worms by springing around his domain - an empty lot with dozens of ramshackle compost bins of his own construction - showing me these worms and those worms and describing experiments he's done on the worms. All the time chain smoking menthol cigarettes. In the rain. Super great character. Here's a photo of him:
You can case this guy by hitting one of the Berkeley farmer's markets where he has a regular stall. You can give him a call to make sure he's going to be there. Do not miss out on this guy.
