I got a bokashi bin for Christmas. Two actually.
And yes, I did ask for them!
When they finally arrived in January, I ripped open the package, full of excitement, to find two black bins, some bits of plastic and a large bag of bran. Somehow all this was supposed to turn our cooked kitchen scraps into something that would feed the garden.
The place we were renting wouldn’t allow a compost bin (short term rental and who wants someone else’s potato peelings when they move out?!!), so bokashi seemed the perfect solution.
In case you’re not familiar with bokashi composting, you basically get an indoor composting bin (the specially designed ones have a reservoir for draining of the liquid which you can use to clear blocked drains. I never knew last month’s porridge could do that! Scary thought) and the bran stuff.
The bran is a mixture of bran, molasses and these special micro-organisms called “ems”. “Bokashi” is allegedly Japanese for “fermented organic matter”.
The idea is that raw vegetables can go straight on the compost pile in your garden, but cooked food shouldn’t because it will attract rats and doesn’t degrade in the same way as the rest of your compost. By putting the cooked stuff in the bokashi bin and sprinkling a layer of bran on top each day, over the course of a month it becomes highly fertile composting material.
I have to say that, over the first few months, I was quite impressed. The food seemed to break down well, the bins were inoffensive in the corner of my kitchen, even after a month, and my drains were beautifully clean (according to the smell, I didn’t actually get in there and look). I had two buckets – the old “use one while the other ferments” idea. And then, one day, both bins were full.
What to do with the contents?
Chuck them under a convenient bush and fertilise away, I thought.
But no, it would appear it’s not quite so simple. On studying the instructions, I discovered that it either has to go in a compost bin, which I didn’t have and wasn’t allowed, or had to be buried in a long, shallow trench and then covered with a predetermined thickness of soil. Not an option either. Yet after all that effort (and expense), I certainly wasn’t going to send my mulched-down leftovers to landfill.
So what did I do? I took both bins with me the next time I visited my parents and donated them to their compost bin!
Now I’ve moved and am the proud owner of a shiny, new, huge compost bin, I don’t have any problems with what to do with my bokashi mix in 3 weeks’ time.
But I was wondering whether it’s all really worth the effort? The bran itself isn’t cheap and the start-up kit is up to £90, depending where you buy.
While I love the idea of all those friendly little micro-organisms munching away at my kitchen waste, it does seem a fairly extravagant way of doing it.
I would love to hear from any GGG visitors out there who have thoughts or opinions on the bokashi subject – and is there a cheaper way of recycling kitchen waste?
Clare x
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July 14th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Hi Clare,
Brilliant post and great question too!
The only other alternative for cooked waste, to my knowledge is the Green Cone; but once again you need a garden, so it’s no good for those without access to the great outdoors. With the green cone, you have to dig a hole to push it down into too – so not the answer for everyone.
Another idea, which you can keep indoors if you have no outdoor space is a wormery – these little fellas will give you ‘liquid gold’ which can be used on houseplants, or you can donate it to friends with gardens.
You’ll probably hate me for sounding like your Mother, but the real answer is not to produce any cooked food waste. If you don’t have any cooked waste and only need to get rid of kitchen peeling, then tbh; I would just stick with an old fashioned compost bin – the bokashis really come into their own when you’re dealing with cooked food or meat / fish.
So, practise better portion control – scrape that porage saucepan and eat what’s left or make less in the first place! and view any ‘leftovers’ as ingredients – A bit of left over pasta can be mixed with tomato, spring onions and sweetcorn for tomorrow’s lunch. A couple of bites of cooked sausage can be put into a casserole and filled out with barley. A tablespoon of cooked rice can be fried with onion and some eggs for fried rice.
There is a brilliant site Love Food Hate Waste and you can take a peak at our site too, where we have an article about reducing food waste
I’m looking forward to other solutions too, because at the last count 38% of our readers had a problem getting rid of food waste.
Mrs Green x
July 16th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
In the past few months our local council has started collecting all food waste (hurray) apparently it gets sent to an in-vessel composting plant. Perhaps petition your local council to start a food collection waste service. With E.U targets for landfill all councils will eventually have to adopt this so why not sooner than later.
July 16th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Hi Kate, Hi Mrs Green,
Thank you for your replies!
Kate: yes, I’d love the local council to collect food waste. Time for an assertive letter, methinks. Thank you for reminding me!
Mrs Green: so true – don’t create the waste in the first place. We’re getting there… Slowly… Fortunately I’ve “trained” my 3 year-old and 1 year-old to eat almost anything, but chances are there are always scraps left over. The freezer is full of the odd portion of this and that, but again I’m concerned about the environmental impact of running a chest freezer!
What does everyone else think?
July 17th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
Hi Sarah
I also use bokashi – but I put it in my planters, leave it covered in compost for a month then plant my veggies in it.
My Tomato plants are fab this year.
I looked around and found 2 bokashi buckets from this site http://www.bokashibucket.co.uk where the full kit was delivered for £45
Good luck with your bokashi its a great way to compost
July 18th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Claire, I will soon be moving and living in a small basement flat. Its not been confirmed yet whether I can put a compost bin in the shared garden and I think the asnwer might be no anyhow. So I have been thinking of using either Bokashi or getting a womery. The Bokashi route looks a bit expensive for me, so a womery may be more suitable. I want to use the waste from the wormery so I can grow some basic sald and vegetables in plant pots, hanging baskets etc.
Mrs Green – thanks for sharing the hate food waste website, there are some good ideas on there. My new place will only have three small cupboards and space for a small fridge so its highlt unlikely that much will be going off as I wont have space to store anything! So I will be visiting the local green grocer and farm shop quite often to purchase fresh.
July 23rd, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Hi Clare. The point of using bokashi for food scrap composting is to keep down the bad smell until you get those scraps to the compost. If you take your food scraps out to the compost bin everyday then you don’t need the bokashi. Simple. But if you forget for a couple of days it gets stinky and then you are, well I am, less likely to compost. Also you can keep you food scraps in the fridge if you have room till you take them out. And how much bokashi are you using? I see pictures on sites where the food scraps are completely covered with a layer of bokashi bran and it doesn’t take nearly that much. A fairly light sprinkle really. You can experiment with the amount. The worst thing that will happen is it will get funky and you will dump it in the bin and start over. And bokashi scraps don’t have to ‘age.’ Take them to the bin at your convenience. You get an A+ for composting! -Lisa C.
August 11th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
I also got a double Bokashi bin a couple of months ago and have just got to the point where we need to get rid of a full bin of the Bokashi waste. We live in a flat with no garden – which is why a compost bin has always been out of the question. We produce very little in the way of cooked food waste (chicken bones are the main culprit) but eat loads of fresh fruit and veg so I always felt bad about sending it all to landfill. Like you, I was really impressed with the various uses to which I could put the Bokashi ‘tea’ but have been unsure how to handle the bulk waste. Fortunately we have friends with land that I can dig the waste into and after watching several videos on YouTube (type Bokashi and be amazed at how much is on there!) I have seen that it doesn’t require digging a huge pit plus the material breaks down far faster than conventional compost because so much of the decomposing has already taken place in the Bokashi Bin. Getting the council to come pick up food waste is convenient and better than it going to landfill but it seems a shame not to be able to use something that you’ve invested time and money in on land that you have some connection with…
I only just dug in the waste so can’t give you any feedback yet but if it turns out as well as the stuff in this fella’s garden I will be very pleased!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBhPmLFpIo8
April 30th, 2009 at 11:48 am
I’m about to start, and like many, didn’t like the look of the cost!
So i’ve bought two 15 litre bait buckets from ebay (£9.50 combined & delivered), plus 1 kg of bran for £6 delivered to get me started, with a view to making my own bran later by buying the pure EM-1 liquid and some plain bran and molasses.
I’ve got barrel taps to put at the bottom (don’t cost much) and i will make up something out of fencing or mesh, to screen off the bottom to let the liquid settle.
There’s always a cheaper way if you’re willing to add a little effort!
May 20th, 2009 at 4:02 am
Try making the bokashi yourself if you want to keep it more economical. I found a youtube.com video by a chap who gave the measurements and instructions. I think he was from Austrailia or New Zealand. Here is a link to the video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96fSXccQx9Q
It was a pretty simple ratio using a medium size kitchen laddle. 100 parts water(very warm), 1 part molasses, 1 part em. He mixed it with 10 pounds of wheat bran in a plastic bin. Cover with plastic wrap and the bin cover to keep out the air. Let it work for I think it was 2-3 weeks and it should be ready to use. You could scale down the quantity to something more the size you need.
Doug
October 19th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Thanks for the informative read on Bokashi. This is a very good guide on the subject and very helpful too.