Bokashi composting is an amazing way to reduce waste streams, stock up on nitrogen-rich material, and bless your garden with microbes. Don’t let the “weirdness” scare you off. You definitely want to give this a try!
Check out our video on Bokashi Composting!
Traditional composting and vermi-composting only involve plant materials.
Bokashi composting, however, unlocks the ability to compost just about anything by pre-fermenting your food and plant scraps.
How Bokashi works
Bokashi is the Japanese word for “fermented organic matter.” By inoculating food scraps with effective microorganisms (EM1) you can ferment any food item through anaerobic (without oxygen) fermentation.
That may sound intimidating, BUT, if you’ve ever made Sauerkraut, Kimchi, or any other lacto-fermented veggies, you already know exactly what to do.
Simply layer your food scraps in a bucket, mixing the bran inoculated with EM1, tamp it down and let it sit. After two weeks, you will have “finished” bokashi food scraps that are ready to use. Be sure to count two weeks after your last addition to your collection bucket so that all of the contents can fully ferment.
How to use bokashi-fermented food scraps
- Compost it – the most common way we use our bokashi food scraps is by adding them to a compost pile. Bokashi is rich in nitrogen (known as a compost activator, similar to comfrey) so it will give your pile a kickstart
- Bury it – if you want to add a surge of nutrients and helpful microbes to your soil, simply bury it in the ground. If you intend to plant into this area, bury the bokashi food scraps a month in advance; this will give them time to break down fully.
- Feed to worms – as odd as it might sound, composting worms love bokashi-composted food scraps! Make sure to mix your Bokashi food scraps with an alkaline substance—like crushed egg shells—since Bokashi is very acidic. Try feeding your worms a little at first so they can get used to the strong culture. Before long, your worms will be craving the pre-decomposed food scraps!
Bokashi Bucket Options
Make your own!
You can easily make your own Bokashi Bucket by drilling 1/4 inch holes into the bottom of a 5-Gallon Bucket and placing it inside of another 5-gallon bucket. Make sure there is a good seal so that no excess air gets in through the bottom of the bucket with the holes in it.
Bokashi grains draw out moisture from your food scraps, so you need to drainage holes and a little bit of space for the “Bokashi-juice” to collect. Again, this isn’t (too) weird, especially if you’ve ever collected worm leachate from your worm bin (this is basically the same thing).
Purchase one!
You can also purchase a pre-made Bokashi bucket for fairly inexpensive. These are the ones I use most often and I find them very effective.
Using LAB in place of EM1
Some people bypass the EM1 bran altogether and use Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB) to ferment their food scraps. We have use LAB as an additional component to our Bokashi bran, but Bare Mountain Farm uses it without any bran to great success.