Bokashi Fever!

I am completely, entirely obsessed with compost lately. I've been researching Bokashi composting, which is different from traditional composting. Bokashi composting works with anaerobic bacteria in a fermentation process. You add food scraps (including meat and dairy) and cover them with "bokashi starter" which is essentially rice or wheat hulls inncolualted with microorganisms and molasses. They are dormant until they come into contact with food, and then they activate, breaking down the food scraps. Once the bin is full, you let it sit for a week or so to completely ferment. Then, it can be added to the compost pile by burying it under a layer of soil. For me, this is the way to go; fermented scraps that are buried are of no interest to Les Ratas which have been a problem as of late. And, it makes compost much faster than a traditional pile.

The downside of the Bokashi system is that you need to keep buying more activator to layer with the food scraps. This could be cost prohibitive if you restrict yourself to their prepackaged product. As is the norm for me, I figured out a way to do it myself for much cheaper. You can buy the innoculant in liquid form, mix it with molasses and water, and then spray it onto wheat hulls, sawdust, whatever. Once it dries, you store it and add a few handfuls of it every time you add more food scraps. Also, you can't just keep the stuff in a bucket; I am using two gallon plastic buckets with Gamma lids. Gamma lids are like a five gallon bucket lid that has a hole in the middle that unscrews. Then its closed, it makes an airtight seal, which is great for anaerobic bacteria (and bad for fruit flies.) I have to install small plastic spigots to the bottoms of the buckets of drain off liquid every few days, much like compost tea. This can then be diluted and used on the garden. I've ordered my buckets, lids and spigots. For starters, I just ordered the prepackaged activator stuff, just to see how this whole process works out for me. I'd rather not end up with 50 lbs of wheat hulls if this doesn't work for me. it's about $10 for a one pound bag of activator, which is good for about 5 gallons of food scraps. I ordered two gallon buckets so they can fit easily under the sink in the kitchen. The advantage to multiple buckets is that you can have a space once one is filled and needs to sit and ferment for awhile. Iam so excited to try this!! If it works, everyone is getting Bokashi composters for Christmas.