Jack Chambers held up a handful of rich, black compost.

It squirmed.

Hundreds of aptly named red wriggler worms were writhing within it.

"These worms are made for composting," he said proudly, giving their Latin name - Eisenia fetida. "This was pure cow manure just weeks ago - notice that there is no smell and no flies."

Chambers, a pilot for Delta Air Lines, has done double duty as a worm farmer for the past 18 years. He and his wife, Lois Chambers, own the Sonoma Valley Worm Farm ( www.sonomavalleyworms.com), which produces "vermicompost" (worm waste and other organic material) for vineyards and farms, and sells worms by mail order throughout the Bay Area.

The Sonoma farm's motto: "Join the underground movement."

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Now the Chambers family is launching a new worm endeavor: a worm composting system for places producing large quantities of organic waste such as farms, horse stables, restaurants, wineries, universities and business campuses.

"Instead of paying money to have their waste hauled away, they can compost it and put it back on their property," said Amy Grimes, Lois' daughter, who is involved with the project as its marketing manager.

The family will introduce the patent-pending VermiComposter CF and Aerated Composting System in January at the U.S. Composting Council annual conference in San Jose.

It's a far cry from a home worm bin. At $20,000 or so, it can handle about 1 1/2 cubic yards of waste a week - the amount of manure produced by four to seven horses in a week.

Continuous flow

The system consists of three bins with a timed forced-air blower for an initial two-week aerated composting period to kill pathogens and weed seeds, and then either a 20-foot or 40-foot "continuous flow" bed where 150,000 or 300,000 worms can get to work munching, digesting and excreting the material. The continuous-flow feature means compost can be harvested weekly; the 20-footer produces half a cubic yard a week; the 40-footer, a cubic yard.

Grimes, 34, went back to school in part to help with the new worm project and also because she was disheartened by the waste she saw working as an event planner. This month she received a Green MBA from Dominican University in San Rafael and focused on a business plan for the worm farm as her capstone project.

She said her research showed an opening in the market for a mid-range system; most other worm composters are either bins for single-family use or mega enterprises that handle municipal waste.

Jack Chambers became a worm aficionado after buying a 5-gallon bucket of the wrigglers and setting them loose on his compost bin. When he returned from a five-day trip, "I was amazed at what the worms had done. The compost was rich and deep."

Eventually he and Lois bought the worm farm from its previous owner, who was ready to retire. He had focused on worms for bait.

Boost for crops

Now the Sonoma farm feeds cow manure from the Strauss Family Creamery, an organic dairy farm in Tomales Bay, to its 4 million worms, housed in four raised beds, each about 90 feet long and 5 feet wide. The worms turn the material into "vermicompost" within about two months. Wineries and farmers buy it to give their crops a boost.

Jeff Dawson, an agricultural consultant in Napa Valley, said he has had great success with the Sonoma farm's vermicompost.

For instance, he said, he used it extensively in planting the garden for Napa's Copia center for food, wine and the arts, putting some in the hole with every tree, shrub and vegetable.

"It seemed to help the plants get established really quickly and do really well in terms of health and vigor," he said. "The garden is spectacular. We did all kinds of other things too, but I certainly attribute part of that to the worm castings."

The Sonoma farm also sells about 3,000 pounds of worms a year by mail order throughout the Bay Area - they need to be shipped quickly to arrive alive, so sending them farther wouldn't be a good idea. They sell to schools all over the region when teachers want to start a classroom bin, and to residents who want to worm compost at home. The minimum order is 2 pounds for about $50.

Vermicompost goes for about $400 per cubic yard - many times more than regular compost, which is about $30 to $100 per cubic yard.

'Pretty amazing stuff'

"Vermicompost is pretty amazing stuff; that's why it commands a much higher price than regular compost," said Rhonda Sherman, a professor of biological and agricultural engineering at North Carolina State University and an expert on worms. "It's different from regular compost because it has a huge number and diversity of micro-organisms," whose nutrients are more easily absorbed by plants.

"The beauty is that using only 5 percent by volume of vermicompost has a tremendous effect on plants," Sherman said. "It makes seedlings emerge more quickly, makes root systems better developed, makes plants produce more."

She recently visited the Sonoma farm and saw the new vermicomposting system.

"I think it's a unique design, and I know it's very well tested because Jack's very methodical," she said. "It won't break the bank and will fill a niche for smaller-scale vermicomposting."