Oh… My… God!
Worm Grunting… unbelievable.
I was watching Discovery Channel last night, well not really watching it, more for background noise as I worked on my laptop. Dirty Jobs was on and I was too lazy to switch the channel. The episode covered a few dirty jobs, Worm Grunting being one of them.
A little digging found quite a bit more information on the topic, including a Wikipedia page on Worm Charming:
Worm charming, worm grunting, and worm fiddling are methods of attracting earthworms from the ground. The activity is usually performed to collect bait for fishing but can also take the form of a competitive sport. As a skill and profession worm charming is now very rare, with the art being passed through generations to ensure that it survives.
Worm Charming sounds a bit fancier, conjures up images of an exotic snake charmer. I don’t get the Worm Fiddling thing. The fact that this is ‘now very rare’ points to an era when everyone was Worm Grunting, or at least a lot people were.
I remember collecting worms as a young boy but we would either wait for rain, water the lawn, buy them from a bait shop or one of those worm vending machines.
What started out as background noise ended up being really interesting so I paused the show, put my laptop away, grabbed a snack, put my feet up and enjoyed it.
Funny what grabs your attention…
the dan blog 