Bokashi is a Japanese fermentation technique that allows food scraps to be prepared for decomposition in the soil.
Using the technique, meat, dairy, and cooked foods can be composted or buried into the soil alongside typical fruit and veggie scraps. All you need is a bokashi spray, or an inoculated bokashi bran. The bran is used to inoculate food scraps with beneficial microbial cultures which then spend several weeks fermenting in a quasi-anaerobic condition.
To see how this works, check out our video guide below.
Making Bokashi Bran
Whereas most home gardener’s purchase pre-inoculated Bokashi bran, the process of making your own should not be intimidating.
There are only a few essential ingredients needed to make this bran: Lactic Acid Bacteria and Wheat Bran.
However, any time we create an inoculant we have the opportunity to add additional ingredients to increase its microbial diversity and nutritional composition. Please consider the “optional additions” as you make your bran, only if you already have them. There is no need to make them for the bran — LAB alone will do the trick.
Ingredients
- Wheat bran (rice or oat bran can be used if more easily available)
- Sugar-preserved Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB)
- This refers to LAB that has been preserved by adding equal parts high quality sugar to dehydrate the LAB
- Dechlorinated water
Optional Additions
- Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ)
- Fermented Fish Amino Acids (FAA)
- Sea salt (I use Redmond Real Salt)
- Azomite (I use this one)
Materials
- Mixing bowl
- Whisk/stirring stick
- Scale (digital or analogue)
- Sealable Plastic Bag and hard container
- For smaller amounts double-bagged 1 gallon Freezer Bags can be used
- For larger amounts garbage bags and 5 gallon buckets will do well
Instructions
Mix wet ingredients – Use the following table to create your solution that you will use to hydrate bran. The grams column provides an example for quantities of each ingredient based on 600 ml/g of water.
| Ingredient | Part | g |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 40 | 600 |
| LAB | 2 | 30 |
| FPJ | 1 | 15 |
| FAA | 1 | 15 |
| AZOMITE | 0.25 | 3 |
| Sea Salt | 0.1 | 1 |
Note: This solution is used to hydrate the wheat bran. Every bran is slightly different and will hydrate more or less quickly by adding different exact amounts of the solution.
Hydrate the bran – Use the solution to gradually moisten the bran. You are aiming for a “damp, not wet” moisture level. Feel free to add extra bran if you over hydrate. The bran should produce a single drop when tightly squeezed between your hands.
Ferment the bran – transfer the hydrated bran to an air-tight plastic bag that can be sealed. Consider double-bagging to prevent seepage if the internal bag ruptures. Squeeze out air from the bag as much as possible. Allow to ferment for 2-4 weeks. The finished product should have no foul odors. It should smell pickley sweet.
Dry the bran – spread out the bran into a thin layer on a plastic sheet or table and leave to dry in the open air. This will dehydrate the bran and allow it to store indefinitely. Store out of direct sunlight and keep dry.
Using the bran
This bokashi bran can be used in a variety of ways. It can be used to spread microbes to garden soil, worm bins, and compost piles. It can be used in potting mixes to increase plant start health. Most notably it is used to ferment food scraps. Coat food scraps with the bran, press them down into a fermentation bucket, and allow the bran to inoculate and culture the food scraps.
Check out our in-depth tutorial on how to use the bokashi method to ferment food scraps and turn them into soil.