PORT ANGELES — Composting is “like going on a diet,” said Ed Beil. Converting kitchen scraps into compost is “a brilliant idea, but you have to follow the program.”

Instructions on composting, Beil added, “is one of the most important things I came for.”

Beil, who lives west of Port Angeles, was among about 300 attendees of Saturday’s Making It Last fair, a free celebration of living clean and green on the North Olympic Peninsula.

He grazed across the Peninsula College PUB on Saturday, nibbling at information set out by the Port Angeles Master Composters, local certified EcoBrokers and the Dial-a-Ride bus that runs all over the Dungeness Valley.

Then he went on a tour of the college’s two worm bins.

Among other things, Beil learned that 40,000 worms can eat up 75 pounds of compost a week.

The containers are called wigwams, since their inhabitants heat them to over 70 degrees.

Big bins full of worms work for cafeterias and restaurants — Jefferson Elementary School in Port Angeles just put one in — but home gardeners like Beil can simply put worms and compost together in small wooden boxes or trash cans in the backyard.

“The biggest misconception is that it’s difficult,” said Port Angeles Master Composter Cynthia Warne.

The practice is simple, she said, and local organizations such as the Master Gardeners of Clallam County and the city of Port Angeles will offer classes later this spring.

Barbara Priebe of Port Angeles was another Making It Last fair-goer looking for ideas.

“You hear so much about everything being so polluted,” she said.

So like a mason bee pollinating, she flitted around the PUB, gathering information on how to nurture the backyard “salad garden” she’s planting in a raised bed for easy access.

“I’m just starting to be serious about this,” Priebe said.