This fermented product is then either buried in the garden or mixed into your normal composting making system, such as compost tumblers, compost bins, or a compost pile, where the decomposition process finishes, thus improving the microbial diversity of the finished compost and the soils and plants in which it is used.

What does “Bokashi” Mean?

Bokashi is a Japanese term that means “fermented organic matter.” It is a byproduct of EM and is used as a compost accelerator. The EM are natural lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and phototrophic bacteria that act as a microbe community within the kitchen scraps, fermenting and accelerating breakdown of the organic matter.

Kitchen scraps fermented in this manner will be ready to bury in your garden within two weeks. When you use the bokashi method, your kitchen scraps do not decompose as in traditional composting methods.They ferment, like pickles or wine. Therefore, the finished product does not resemble compost, but, like finished pickles, it looks about the same as when you started, just pickled.

When the fermenting process is finished, the next step is to bury the resulting product in your garden, about a foot deep,  or mix it into your regular compost making system and let it finish breaking down into compost.

How to Use the Liquid from Bokashi

The liquid that results from the bokashi method is very beneficial to your plants, but should be diluted 100 parts water to 1 part of the bokashi liquid.  If you have a septic system, you can pour the liquid down the drain and it will keep your septic system healthy.  Other drains in your home that are blocked and sluggish will also be “cleaned out” by the addition of this liquid.

How to Use the Bokashi System

To use the bokashi system in your kitchen for kitchen waste, you will initially need a supply of the bokashi EM mix, which consists of bran, molasses and the microorganisms, and two buckets with tight fitting lids, as the bokashi system is anerobic (without oxygen).

You would add a layer of shredded newspapers on the bottom of the bucket with a layer of the bran mixture. Then start adding layers of refuse, about 2 inches thick, each sprinkled with a handful of the bran mixture.

Keep the layers compacted so there are no pockets of air. Keep layering until the bucket is full, being careful to keep the air-tight lid on the bucket at all times except when you are adding your kitchen refuse.

When the first bucket is full, set it aside and start with the second bucket.

The first bucket should continue to process for about two weeks and can then be buried in your garden or put into your regular compost making system. By this time, the second bucket should be full so you can set it aside and start over with the first bucket.

The Advantages

The advantages of the bokashi system are many:

• ALL kitchen refuse can be put into the bokashi system, even fish, meat, cheese, and bones.
• There is no odor as there is no oxygen to react with the scraps and the lid on the bucket is air-tight.
• Since you are not putting the raw kitchen refuse into a compost making system outdoors, you don’t have to worry about bugs, or animals digging up the refuse.  The finished product that you ultimately put into your garden or compost mixture is already pickled so it doesn’t attract bugs or animals.
• The bokashi method is much faster.  The resulting product is ready within two weeks of when you finish filling the bucket.
• The liquid resulting from the process is excellent for your plants when mixed with water in a 100:1 ratio.
• You reduce the amount of refuse you put in the local landfills.  This not only helps the landfills, but it can save you money.
• As with a wormery, you can use the bokashi mix to ferment dog feces, but you must first mix the feces with other organic matter.  Do this separately from the bokashi you will be using for your vegetable garden. After it has fermented, bury it under about 8 inches of soil in your ornamental garden.
• If you have a cat litter box, the addition of a little of the bokashi  mixture to the cat litter each week will reduce the odors and is not harmful to the cats.  The resulting litter can be processed the same way as dog feces and, after it is fermented, it can be buried in your ornamental garden.
• Your bokashi mixture will last for many years if kept in a dry place out of direct sunlight.

An Earth Saving Revolution

Use the Bokashi System to Extend YOUR Compost Making Season

• Continue putting your kitchen refuse into the first of your two bokashi compost buckets, sprinkling them with the wheat bran medium inoculated with the microorganisms developed by Professor Higa.
• When the 1st bucket is full, set it aside for 10 days to 2 weeks to finish the ‘pickling’ process and start putting your kitchen waste into the 2nd bucket.

STEP 2:

• When the contents of the first bucket are finished pickling, put them into a back porch compost tumbler.
• These compact compost tumblers weigh just 40 pounds, stand 37″ high x 31″ wide x 26″ deep, and sit on 6″ wheels which makes them really easy to move around.
• Make sure your compost tumbler already has a small amount of compost inside, composed of green and brown organic materials and a little soil.  This gives the kitchen scrapes what they need to interact with to finish the compost making process.

Click here “I LOVE COMPOST MAKING!” to buy what you need for YOUR compost making!

How to Compost Using the Bokashi Method is a post from: Compost Tumblers & Composting

Just because the weather has turned cold, doesn’t mean you have to stop your compost making efforts. Your kitchen refuse is still going to pile up so you need a system to extend your compost season as long as possible.

Here are a couple of ways on how to compost during the colder months:

Compost Tumbler System:

Keep a compost container, such as a compost crock or compost pail, in your kitchen and collect your kitchen refuse every day like normal.  when the compost crock or compost pail becomes full, transfer the refuse to a Back Porch Compost Tumbler, similar to the one pictured below.

These compost tumblers are small in size, measuring just 37″ high x 31″ wide x 26″ deep, weigh just 40 pounds, and sit on 6″ wheels, which makes them easy to move around.  You can easily keep it on your back porch, patio, balcony, or laundry room.

In one of these locations, it shouldn’t freeze and will continue to convert your garbage into useful organic compost.  If, for some reason, your compost doesn’t get hot enough, you can always add a compost activator to get things perking along.

The Bokashi System:

Another alternative is to use the Bokashi system in your kitchen, such as the ones made by All Seasons Indoor Composters.  With this system, you alternate your kitchen refuse – all of it – in an air-tight bucket with layers of a medium, such as wheat bran, which has been inoculated with effective microorganisms. This mixture basically “pickles” your garbage in 10 days to two weeks. It’s usually good to have two buckets and alternate them.  When one is full, you switch to the next.  By the time the contents on the first bucket have ‘pickled’, the second bucket is full.
When the contents are ready, you can put them in your back porch compost tumbler with the rest of your compost and proceed as normal.  If it’s still possible, you can alternately bury the pickled mixture directly in your yard and it will be ready for your garden by Spring.

A Word of Caution

Before you begin putting the contents of your compost crock, pail, or bokashi bucket into your back yard compost tumbler, the tumbler must already have a small amount of “normal” compost to interact with the refuse from your kitchen containers. A good mixture would be green and brown organic matter and a little dirt, just like you would use when you are starting a normal compost pile in your back yard.

Whichever system you chose, compost crocks or pails, or the Bokashi system, used with your Back Porch Compost Tumbler, you can effectively extend your compost making system throughout the colder months.

Click here “I LOVE COMPOST MAKING!” to buy what you need for YOUR compost making!

How to Extend YOUR Compost Making Season is a post from: Compost Tumblers & Composting

Something to Read When It’s Cold Outside. . .

Work in the compost arena has slowed down a bit during these colder months.  There are a few things you can do, but it’s really too cold to do much outdoors. So here’s an alternative. . .

For my birthday in 2002, my husband gave me a copy of a book that I cherish to this day.  And what I really want to do is encourage YOU to do a little reading yourself.  I think you will enjoy it.  The name of the book is “A Sand County Almanac: And Other Essays on Conservation from Round River” by Aldo Leopold.

Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) worked for the US Forest Service for many years.  He became the Associate Director of the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin in 1924.  In 1933 the University of Wisconsin created a chair of Game Management in his name.

His writing has been compared to the nature writing of Thoreau.  He loved the land and had an unparalleled understanding of the ways of nature.  The main premise of the book is his observations, on a monthly basis, of the changes of the countryside in Wisconsin.  The book also has a section of informal pieces written by Leopold over a forty-year period as he traveled through the woodlands of Wisconsin, Iowa, Arizona, Sonora, Oregon, Manitoba, and elsewhere.  In the last section,  Leopold addresses the philosophical issues involved in wildlife conservation.

And besides all the data about the environment,  what I found especially beautiful about the book is his prose, his way of observing and describing nature, and the things he saw around him.  It’s an incredible book and I think anyone who loves nature as much as Leopold did will enjoy reading it.

Let me know what you think.

• Buy a load of mushroom compost and leave it in your yard to cure over the winter months.  Mushroom compost has a lot of soluble salts and this will allow them to leach out, thereby protecting your young plants in the spring.
• If you know where your garden is going to be, and your soil is not frozen, and you’re using the Bokashi System for your kitchen waste, you can bury your waste every two weeks directly into the future garden area when it is “pickled.”
• If you are using a back porch compost tumbler during the cold season, keep tabs on the temperature of the compost.  Make sure it reaches the required temperature to decompose.  You can buy a simple compost thermometer for this purpose.  If it needs a boost, put in a little organic compost activator.
• When the weather is nice enough, tidy up your yard.  Stack branches or other big items in one place so you can shred them or chop them up with pruning shears in the spring.
• Tidy up the tools in your storage area or garage.  Make sure nothing is rusting.  Clean and oil everything.  Buy a nice tool box or wooden crate to keep everything in so it’s easy to tote when you can begin compost making again.

Click here “I LOVE COMPOST MAKING!” to buy what you need for YOUR compost making!

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold is a post from: Compost Tumblers & Composting