If, like me, you want to believe that throwing potato peelings into the hedge is the same as feeding the shrubbery, then you will be chastened by this introduction to bokashi. Bokashi is the stuff that transforms kitchen waste into useful compost.
Neal Foley is the Podchef and in this video of roughly 6 minutes he really gets into the chemistry of making compost. He gives a demonstration of how to make fermented wheat bran (bokashi) that you can add to the kitchen waste bucket to help transform useless slops into a non-odorous and effective compost.
Bokashi takes quite a bit of making. You need to have wheat bran, mineral salts, ceramic powder and molasses and also a rich microbe/kelp mixture standing by. You combine them all with hot water (in the video Neal gives the precise quantities for the ingredients) and then let it stand, airless, for two weeks or longer, “the longer the better” according to Neal.
In the fullness of time you mix your organic kitchen waste with it and let the lot pickle until the food has begun to break down. It’s great — “not stinky”, says Neal — and the compost gets finer the longer it stands. Then you can use it to feed your plants, to feed your animals and to put it down the septic tank to reduce odors.
Now I know why people just buy finished bokashi instead of making it themselves!
Leave a Reply