Fading Away
To Bokashi or Not to Bokashi that is the question!
I’ve just received an email from *Woodsmith Weekly reminding me that Spring is that urgent time of year for firewood. Apparently, my logs need ‘cross-cutting’, splitting and placed in the log store ready for winter… annnnnnd, would I possibly be interested in buying one of their exquisite axes.
*not their real name
As much as I like the idea of cross-cutting my wood, whatever that is, I favour the more urgent time of year known as ‘winter’, as my prepping period for winter.
“Is that snow? followed by, "Do we have firewood?”, is how that conversation generally goes down with my long-suffering, wife every December.
I wish I were more organised and less chaotic I really do!
One thing I somehow manage to organise is kitchen scraps and soil. It’s just a thing that I’ve done naturally. Worm farms, Hot Composts, The Berkley method, Hügelkultur, Bokashi Bins…you name it, I’ve tried it!
If you’re interested in making more things flower or grow in your garden it starts with good soil. That’s why you’ll not meet a decent gardener who doesn’t know his or her way around a good compost heap.
Many compost roads lead to the proverbial black gold but today I thought I’d gently introduce you to the world of Bokashi.
What’s the Fermented Organic Matter
Two google-gleaned facts…
The accepted spelling is B.O.K.A.S.H.I
The name bokashi is transliterated from spoken Japanese (ぼかし). The meaning is uncertain but might be related to an artistic process that translates as “fading away”…which sounds like a good enough description of it.
The internet will also tell you that Bokashi is Japanese for “fermented organic matter” but I’m fairly convinced that’s been conveniently made up because it sounds good.
With the facts nicely out of the way, I can now bluff my way through the rest of the post.
Basic Bokashi or Fancy Composting
Apart from the name, Bokashi is not ‘fancy’ at all. It’s just throwing some activated bran on top of your kitchen scraps and remembering to close the lid.
The ‘Why' of Bokashi
It’s bonkers that we transport the precious resource we call food scraps to a landfill or incinerator. As those trucks are driving from our homes, separate trucks are driving bags of organic compost to our shops which we then drive back to our homes.
Keep On Trucking
At-home composting is taking a few of those trucks off the road and saving yourself some cash-dollar in the process.
It’s also a meaningful way to ‘tie’ you into your landscape so that you’re not floating about on it but rather a part of the cyclical nature of it all. Become part of the ebb & flow of your garden.
Bokashi, in particular, solves the problem of having smelly food waste rotting in your kitchen. The fermentation process means there’s no rotting involved - only microbes doing their thing.
Does it work?
That’s a great question!
Let’s leave the answer to someone who relies on her garden more than an enthusiastic amateur like me! Sara Bäckmo who’s published 6 books in her native Swedish on gardening.
5minute video of realistic Bokashi results
Smelly?
That’s not to say it doesn’t smell. It’s fairly pungent.
I quite like the smell whilst my wife has a hyper-sensitivity to smells and can’t go near the thing. It’s not that putrid smell that the body signals as harmful to us.
Mildly Annoying
It annoys a few folks who get into it naively because there are stories… *cough* lies… all over the internet of having perfect compost in 10 days.
The reality is, after 10 days you may have perfect worm food but it still needs to break down in the soil. You can’t just tip it on your plants.
Had Gan
If we’re going to get going- or get ganin’ in my native Geordie dialect- on environmental change… I think we really ought to be at the diving-in and doing stage.
My advice would be to move beyond the overwhelm of thinking you don’t know what you’re doing and just dive right in! If you keep reading the internet you’ll spread yourself too thin with all the information out there.
Even if it’s not Bokashi, just choose the few environmental things to which you want to donate your precious energy towards.
Try.
Fail.
Try again.
Find something that works when you did a thing. Do more of that.
The Best Bokashi Resources on the Internet
I’ve spent a lot of time (too much) looking at websites offering various degrees of quality information about bokashi, so you don’t have to!
I don’t know if they’re the best but these definitely chime with my experience of using Bokashi. More importantly, I can tell they’ve actually spent many years doing this method and aren’t just jumping in on a Green trend to get views on their blog posts.
Bokashi World Facebook Group - basically you have free access to a bunch of experts. Ask all the questions!
If you’re in the US TeraGanaX has the full gambit from DIY to educational videos to providing all you’ll need to set up
Sara’s Homestead & Flowerfarm has been at this a long time and has lots of wonderful long-form videos you can relax into. Her blog is also an incredible encyclopedia of all things bokashi
Signing Off…
Lately, my bokashi has taken a back seat because I’ve been ramping up my worm composting set-up. I now have three different designs, from a DIY wheelie bin to a commercial worm hotel, and an in-bed worm composting system. I’ll be sure to give you the full download on worm composting in due course.
I’m about to step into the world of bokashi again from scratch, so if anyone feels like jumping in we can go through the process from the beginning step-by-step together!
What do you think? Bokashi or no bokashi? Would it work for you?
My husband seems to get very annoyed by my indoor composting efforts so I am limited to outdoor for now. Yesterday he threw out some beautifully black bananas before I carried them out to the heap. I can't complain too much because he *was* cleaning the kitchen. Maybe you could you have a word with him? 😂