First off, what is Bokashi? From Wikipedia:
“Bokashi is a method
that uses a mix of microorganisms to cover food waste to decrease smell. It
derives from the practice of Japanese farmers centuries ago of covering food
waste with rich, local soil that contained the microorganisms that would
ferment the waste. After a few weeks, they would bury the waste that weeks
later, would become soil.”
Sounds promising. As I said in my first post about it,
here,
I was at
Park + Vine when I saw an
indoor composter on sale. At the time composting was not something we could
really do. We live in an attached townhouse and the neighbors would frown if we
started dumping food out back by our and their house. We could do little things
like throw stale bread out to birds, or make it into croutons. So I was
intrigued.
They were selling an
All Seasons Indoor Composting
Kit. It was basically a five gallon bucket with an air tight lid on top, a
spigot near the bottom, and a screen above the spigot on the inside to keep
solids from getting caught in the spigot. There was also a bag of Bokashi
inside.
How it worked was easy. Put the screen in (it only fits one
way). Sprinkle a bit of bokashi on it. And then add food scraps adding some
bokashi each time. Simple enough.
Let’s clear up a bit of confusion here. If you think using
this thing properly will make compost in a bucket you are mistaken, as I was.
What this does is store up the food scraps and lets me start the compost
process. After a few days you’ll start to smell a pickling smell and you’ll see
white mold growing on the food (only if the lid is off). Every few days you
should drain out the “tea” it makes through the spigot. You can use this to
water plants just make sure you water it down first. Once it gets full transfer
the contents to a five-gallon bucket with a tight fitting lid. Let it sit in
the five-gallon bucket for two weeks while you are filling up the composter
again and then bury it or add it to a compost pile.
I buried mine in a compost pile at my father’s house. Not
too deep, I wanted to be able to check on it. Three weeks later all the gross
looking stuff was gone:
So far I’ve made 15 gallons of compost and I’ve used a bag
and a quarter of bokashi. I do add dairy and meat sometimes and I add more
bokashi when I do this.
Final thoughts:
If you live in a place where you can’t have an outdoor
compost pile this thing is great. There is no smell unless you have the lid
open, which you will when you fill it. The bokashi lasts a long time. The food
scraps turn to compost quickly once they are buried. So this is more for the
condo, apartment, or townhouse dweller. If you can have a compost pile you may
only use this guy in the winter. And as a side note, the “tea” that comes out
works as really great plant food.
I highly recommend this to anyone who doesn’t
have access to a compost pile, but keep in mind you do have to find a place to
put it when you are finished.
