Mary Appelhof was born in Detroit, Michigan on June 11, 1936, the daughter of Review Gilbert G. Appelhof, Junior. and Hilda Whiteley Appelhof. Her father was pastor of Saint John"s Episcopal Church in Alma and Saint Thomas Episcopal Church in Berea, Ohio.
In 1954 she graduated from Berea High School in Berea, Ohio and attended Michigan State University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Surgery in biology in 1958. Appelhof completed an Master of Surgery degree in biology from Michigan State in 1959. She later completed an Master of Surgery in education and enrolled in advanced biology studies, an experience of five years study.
In 2009 she was designated a Women"s History Month Honoree by the National Women"s History Project. Mary Appelhof was a woman of many talents, including an expert swimmer and award-winning nature photographer. In the early 1970s Mary Appelhof began experimenting with worms and organic waste.
Her home worm container would become a new career.
"Her vision at the time of the Stockholm Conference for the Human Environment (1972) was "tons of worms could be eating tons of garbage."
Soon she was publicly advocating using the earthworm to recycle food waste. As “Worm Woman,” she introduced thousands of schoolchildren and home gardeners to the fascinating, environmentally-significant activity of vermicomposting.
She was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to do videomicroscopy of live worms. This resulted in a Digital Video Disc "Wormania."
Mary Appelhof purchased an old mimeograph machine from the Democratic Party in the early 1970s.
She used it to produce a brochure, "Basement Worm Bins Produce Potting Soil and Reduce Garbage." By 1976 her publishing interests were firm, and she founded She later explained her thoughts on self-publishing her bestseller, Worms Eat My Garbage.
My goal, however, was not to make lots of money, but to influence people"s thinking. To get them to think differently about waste, and give them tools to deal with lieutenant Self-publishing my book was the way I could do that.
So I learned what I had to learn to be able to do southern
