bokashi composting

Get Your Hands Dirty: Composting with Bokashi 101

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Get Your Hands Dirty: Composting with Bokashi 101

Food waste is a global issue and when it is added to landfills it releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, that contributes to climate change. When throwing food scraps in the trash, they typically end up in landfills and incinerators. By diverting food scraps out of the waste stream and alternatively using composting techniques, you can return natural food waste to the earth, sequester carbon, and lower your personal greenhouse emissions. Composting returns unused nutrients from food scraps back into the soil which generates a cycle of sustainable living, supports local farms, and fosters a healthy connection to locally-grown organic food.

Our friend Danielle, who runs daily operations at Community Compost Movement has put together some steps so that you can start composting at home with an all-natural composting method called Bokashi. We hope you enjoy! – KH

 

What is Bokashi?

Bokashi is an all-natural composting method that uses inoculated bran to ferment food waste into a soil amendment, which adds nutrients and improves soil texture.

 

What is Bokashi made from?

  1. EM1 (effective microorganisms)
  2. Molasses
  3. Rice bran
  4. Water

 

What is EM1?

EM1 is a specific group of naturally-occurring beneficial microorganisms that was created in Okinawa, Japan by Dr. Teruo Higa. It is made of three types of microorganisms:

  1. Lactic Acid Bacteria – ferments organic matter and produces organic acids that inhibit pathogens.
    • Acts as a strong sterilizer.
    • Promotes rapid decomposition of of organic matter and surpasses harmful microorganisms.
  2. Yeasts – ferment organic matter that produces hormones and enzymes.
    • Produces useful substances for plants from the secretion of plant roots, amino acids, sugars, and other organic substances.
    • Promotes active cell and root division.
    • Produces useful substrates for other beneficial organisms to multiply.
  3. Phototropic Bacteria – helps maintain a balance with other beneficial microorganisms, allowing them to coexist and work together.
    • They are a group of independent self-supporting microorganisms.
    • They synthesize useful substances from the secretion of plant roots, organic matter, and harmful gasses (like hydrogen sulfide) by using sunlight and heat from soil as sources of energy.
    • They produce useful substances like amino acids, nucleic acids, bioactive substances, and sugar which all promote plant growth and development.

 

How to make Bokashi:

  1. Measure one 5 gallon bucket worth of dry rice bran (you can also use wheat bran).
  2. Put rice bran in shallow tray/large mixing tub.
  3. Mix 1/4 cup molasses, 1/4 cup EM1, and 1.5 liters water together.
  4. Pour liquid mixture in with the rice bran.
  5. Massage and mix together until all clumps are broken down and all the dry rice bran is mixed with the water.
  6. Texture test – when you squeeze a handful in your hand, it should make a ball and then easily crumble when you break it apart.

 

 

Benefits of Bokashi composting:

  • Meat, bones, and dairy can be added to your compost.
  • Produces no odor, heat, or greenhouse gasses.
  • Speeds up the process; food can completely break down into soil in 4-6 weeks.
  • Adds nutrients into soil that promote plant growth and health.
  • Easy to do in household kitchens.

 

Warnings/tips:

  • Do not add paper products (cardboard, coffee filters, tea bags, paper towels).
  • Only use EM1 when making your Bokashi, not your own mix of indigenous microorganisms (IMO).
  • If your bucket starts to smell, add more Bokashi.

 

Where you can find Bokashi/Bokashi buckets:

  1. EM Hawaii – www.emhawaii.com (Hawaii/Pacific).
  2. TeraGanics – https://www.teraganix.com (North America).
  3. Home Depot – This is where we get our 5 gallon black buckets with a screw top lid which people can use instead of a Bokashi bucket system.

 

 

 

How to use your Bokashi bucket at home:

Using a 5 gallon bucket:

  1. Store Bokashi in an airtight container.
  2. Save all food scraps/cuttings from making food at home.
  3. Keep your bucket in your kitchen or outside in the shade.
  4. For every 2 in. of food waste, add a sprinkled layer of Bokashi.
  5. Repeat until full.
  6. Bury fermented food scraps 6-8 in. under soil (mix soil in with food scraps).

Using a Bokashi bucket:

  1. Store Bokashi in an airtight container.
  2. Save all food scraps/cuttings from making food at home.
  3. Keep your bucket in your kitchen or outside in the shade.
  4. For every 2 in. of food waste, add a sprinkled layer of Bokashi.
  5. Repeat until full.
  6. Bury fermented food scraps 6-8 in. under soil (mix soil in with food scraps).
  7. Pour Bokashi tea (the remaining liquid) into your soil and around plants (don’t pour it directly onto plants).

 

If you live on the North Shore of Oahu you can join the Community Compost Movement and get your food scraps picked up weekly.

All Photos were taken by Jianca Lazarus.

Community Compost Movement (CCM) process:

  1. Drop off air-tight bucket, Bokashi, and information packet to subscriber’s house.
  2. Subscriber puts Bokashi into glass jar to keep on counter.
  3. Food scraps are put into bucket throughout the week and Bokashi is sprinkled on top each time food is added (the wetter your food, the more Bokashi is used).
  4. CCM driver picks up full buckets every Wednesday morning and drops off new bucket.
  5. Buckets from each house are weighed so that a carbon emission reduction report can be given to subscribers each quarter.
  6. Food waste is condensed into a large trash can at Waihuea Farm to sit and ferment for another week. Holes are drilled into the trashcans to allow liquid to drip out. Items that shouldn’t be in the buckets like paper, cardboard, tea bags, and coffee filters are removed at this time.
  7. After a week in the large trashcan, soil, food waste, and Bokashi are layered into a compost pile.
  8. After about a month, the layered soil, food waste, and Bokashi that has been sitting for four weeks can be harvested as new soil. Large screens are used to filter out food waste that hasn’t fully broken down, such as avocado pits, and these items are put back in the compost piles for further breakdown.
  9. Newly harvested soil is then given to Waihuena Farm, distributed back to subscribers who initially provided food scraps, or sold to members of the community.

 

Learn More about Community Compost Movement

About Danielle:

Originally from San Diego, Danielle lives on the North Shore of Oahu. She moved to Hawaii to work for a few companies repairing surfboards; she now works full time at Community Compost Movement. If she’s not busy composting at the farm you can find her in the garden, at the skatepark, or at the beach!

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