Bokashi composting eliminates the work, the pests and the smells. Its fast and it leaves you with rich nutritious soil. Here is why and how you can get started right away!

The practice is believed to have its earliest roots in ancient Korea. Through Korean composting traditions and new scientific research, compost engineers were able to design what we know as bokashi today. Bokashi means "fermented organic matter" in Japanese and its been used in Japan for 30 years, it offers an option for the sustainable disposal of food waste. Originally it was rice bran infused with EM (effective microorganisms - a trio of anaerobic microbes - lactobacillus bacteria, phototrophic bacteria and yeast) but here in the west we tend to mostly use wheat bran. However any carbon-rich plant material can substitute for bran, even sawdust.

Compost everything

While traditional, aerobic composting, has its limitations as to what you can put in it -

• the natural chemicals and acidity in citrus peels and onions can kill worms and other microorganisms, which can slow down the decomposition in your pile. Plus, unless you chop them into tiny bits, citrus peels take forever to break down, which will delay how soon you can use your compost.
• you really don’t want to add fish and meat scraps to the compost pile. Fish and meat are organic and will add nutrients to your garden, but unfortunately their smell will act like a magnet for any rats, mice, foxes, raccoons, or cats in the neighborhood (or even coyotes and bears, depending on where you live), who will ransack the compost to eat them

The Bokashi compost is different. You can compost all vegetable and fruit materials including citrus, as well as raw or cooked food, and even dairy, fish, meat, and bones.

There are 2 types of decomposition: putrefaction and fermemtation. Putrid odor comes from the putrefaction process; not from the fermentation process. In the bokashi compost process, fermentation is taking place. This is like making wine. When yeast is added to grapes, grapes ferment, decompose, and become wine. Yeast, lactobacillus and other beneficial bacteria in bokashi ferment the kitchen garbage; therefore, bokashi compost smells sour like pickles, instead.

How come you can add things that otherwise takes a long time to decompose? Bokashi composting is essentially a two-phase process of fermentation followed by decomposition. The fermentation process takes about two weeks, and the complete process takes four to five weeks. Its the first, initial process that breaks down the foodscraps faster. When you do add food material that is considered "slower" its recomended that you add 2x the amount of bokashi bran. Large pieces of food should be broken down into small pieces to hasten the fermentation process.

Be sure to expose seeds of an item (such as cantaloupe) when adding to the bucket. Fermentation will ensure that the seeds will not sprout in your compost later! The fermentation process in a bokashi cold compost bin creates a very high acidic environment, which will kill both pathogens and weed seeds. In a traditional hot composting system, it's the heat which kills the weed seeds, but there is less heat in a bokashi bin. It's important to create an anaerobic (no air) environment in which the bokashi can work as a fermenter in your bin.

So how is it done?

There are a number of companies selling Bokashi bran all ready to go, some even have special buckets with taps (at the bottom so that you can drain the fluid and use as compost tea) for sale. You can make your own bokashi bran but one website I been trusting for information recommended that you buy your first batch - to see what it looks like (the texture, moisture) and what it smells like.

This is the one we chose. Since I now live in Canada it made sense to support a Canadian company and the reviews were good as well as the price.

So, what do you actually need to get started with bokashi composting?

• A bucket with air tight lid
• bokashi bran
• food scraps

The trick is to layer - we start with egg carton or toilet rolls ripped to pieces in the bottom, this will absorb liquid since we just have a regular bucket with no tap at the bottom. Dont use anything with print on it - you dont want the chemicals from the inks in your soil and food. Then add foodscraps - about a inch or so then sprinkle bokashi bran over it and keep layering like this. We add egg carton/toilet roll pieces if the food we are adding are on the wetter side. And when the bucket is full - write down the date on the lid and let it sit for 2 weeks. When the two weeks have passed you can either add the content to your nomal compost bin or dig it into the garden where its needed. Within 4-6 weeks it will be soil.

Here is a recipe if you want to try to make it yourself: https://www.the-compost-gardener.com/bokashi.html

But its winter?

If there is a will, there is a way :) But dont use shredded newspaper like she does!

And here is a video how you can use bokashi compost directly in pots!

I hope this post inspired you to get started - bokashi composting is super easy and it doesnt smell so you can do it even if you live in a apartment in the city.

This garden - elf is daydreaming about warmer weather - thanks for reading :D