I've been using bokashi composting on and off for the past three years. What I like about it is that it really handles all the kitchen waste in our house. It's especially handy in the winter when the trek to the compost bin is less appealing.
We introduced bokashi composting in our town on a trial basis. A recent catastrophic flood here kind of sent this project way back but we did make some how to videos and I wrote these easy step by step instructions to help the program along the way.
This kitchen compost method is an anaerobic process. Handling food
waste this way is more popular in Asia, especially Japan and Korea where
people are open to anaerobic processes. After all, their staple food,
rice, is grown in the low oxygen conditions of flooded paddies.
Bokashi composting efficiently handles all food wastes, even
meats and dairy, in as little as four weeks. It is a two stage process.
In stage one scraps are fermented or pickled. In stage two they are
buried in a shallow hole. This link will take you to an in depth look at the pros and cons of bokashi composting.
Getting Started with Bokashi Composting - What You Need
Bokashi - this is the fermented bran that you will layer
between your food scrap deposits. Amazon carries a variety of bokashi bran products. I recently tried a liquid spray from SCD probiotics that worked well. We also have a page devoted to making your own bokashi in 10 or 50 pound lots. It's easy, a good group project and saves money.
Buckets - ideally you want two buckets (5
gallon or 20 liter) with lids that seal well and a small drain that
allows you to remove excess liquid as the food scraps ferment. You'll
be removing the lids every day or so to add your scraps so you want to
be able to get the lids off easily - a screw off lid is ideal. You can
get away with a strong plastic bag at first if you can't get buckets.
Plate- a dinner plate will likely be a
good fit for your bucket. This is used to protect fermenting materials
from the air as you fill your bucket.
How To Video
This is a video we put together to take people step by step through the bokashi composting process. Hope you find it useful. Following the video are tips and instructions with words...
A Few Do's and Don'ts for Bokashi Composting
Do use enough bokashi bran. It's impossible to use too much bran
in your system, but you can use too little. If you use too little your
nose will let you know. Instead of the sour saurkraut smell of healthy
bokashi the bucket will really stink.
Don't add a vat of deep fryer fat. Bokashi
composting can handle certain amounts of fats like fried food, cheese,
and the salad dressing on your leftover salad but your deep fryer fat
needs a different home.
Don't add food that has green or black mold.
These molds may overwhelm the good microbes in bokashi. If the food has
white mold it can be added.
Stage One - Pickling Your Kitchen Scraps
Place a small amount (a couple of spoonfuls) of bokashi into the
bottom of the bucket. If you have no drainage, start with an inch or so
of shredded newspaper, then add the bokashi.
Add your first layer of food scraps. Cutting them into smaller
bits, say an inch or so long, will help speed things along and keep air
pockets from forming. You can add almost all food waste including
cheese, meat, fish, salad with bits of dressing, eggs, eggshells, bones
etc. Food with white mold can be added but leave food with green or
black mold out.
Sprinkle a small amount, a tablespoon or so onto the top of the
layer. Press it down with a potato masher or something to eliminate air
pockets.
Put a plate or some other barrier on top of the scraps to keep air out and put the lid back on the bucket.
Every other day or so drain off any excess liquid that has
accumulated. You can pour this down the sink or toilet - it will improve
your drains. You can also dilute it 100 to 1 and use the diluted liquid
to water your plants.
Repeat. Remove your plate, add scraps, sprinkle with bokashi,
press, apply plate and seal until your bucket is full. Let the full
bucket sit sealed and undisturbed for 1-2 weeks or more. Keep removing
excess liquid as it sits if you have a drainage system in your pail.
Just as pickled onions are still the same size and shape as
onions, your pickled food scraps preserve their looks. In the compost
you are used to the material shrinks to half its size. Not so with
bokashi composting. This means more carbon is sequestered, no greenhouse
gases are produced and nutrients for your soil and plants are
preserved.
Stage Two - Digging a Pit and Burying the Fermented Material
Here's the second video talking about burying the fermented waste. It also addresses a number of questions asked by people from High River during the presentation.
Dig a hole or trench about 8-12 inches 20-30 cm deep. This hole
should not touch plant roots. Bokashi is quite acidic. It needs a couple
of weeks in soil to neutralize before plant roots are safe.
Pour the fermented bokashi bucket into the hole and mix with the soil. Cover with 6-8 inches 15-20 cm of soil.
Plant into the bokashi enriched soil 2-4 weeks after it has been buried.
This second stage can be a problem. What if you live in an
apartment and don't have a garden you can dig a hole in to bury your
bucket of pickled garbage. And what if the ground is frozen and you
can't dig a pit. Or maybe you are a no dig gardener and just flat out
don't believe in pits.
Pit Variations
Apartment dwellers can use a large planter to handle their waste.
One person tested this using a 25 gallon planter so four parts soil to
one part bokashi. He buried 8 buckets in the planter over the course of a
year. I'm not sure whether he harvested the soil for other planter
boxes after the 2 week burial period or not.
Winter makes stage two tough. You can plan ahead and have a
hole or trench ready but it is also perfectly fine to store ferment
outside. It's okay if it freezes. Bury it in the spring.
If you are a committed no dig gardener you can finish bokashi
in a regular compost. It will actually improve your compost. Just use
your compost as you normally do.