To me, Bokashi is the circular economy of food waste. It is a simple process that allows you to process your food scraps from the kitchen and the table back into the soil to enable you to grow more nutrient rich food.
Why is Bokashi so important?
Today, most people in the world have poor soil, with not enough nutrients to grow good food. This is a sorry state of affairs and it comes down to the development of houses and use of chemicals in the soil, which deplete it. Simply put, if a nutrient isn’t in the soil, it can’t be in your food. So this means that if we don’t fix our soils, our food won’t be able to provide us with the basic nutrition we require.
What can I do with Bokashi after I process it?
Our soils are seriously lacking in carbon (brown material) content. Bokashi is a simple way to improve our soils by using our food scraps, inoculated with EM bran, then layering with brown materials to replenish our soils and grow great vegetables.
The benefits of using the bran inoculated with EM (effective microorganisms) is that it accelerates the breaking down of the food waste when in your soil, which improves soil structure, retaining vital nutrients and water. It also helps to stabilise pH levels, promotes earthworm activity, suppresses plant diseases and helps break up clay-based soils, while feeding the soil millions of beneficial microorganisms.
What kind of impact will using Bokashi have on growing food in my soil?
By using Bokashi, our vegetables will grow quicker, bringing early maturity with a better colour and cell structure. Because it also helps to retain moisture in our soils, this really helps in the heat and drought of the summer when you’re growing your summer crop!
Really it is a no brainer when it has so many good properties and uses.
In the height of the summer, your compost bucket on the bench can attract fruit flies and flies that lay eggs which sometimes hatch into maggots!! Most people freak out at the sight of wriggly maggots, however it is always good to look at the benefits rather than the negatives. If you have a compost bin full of maggots, just tip this into your Bokashi system and sprinkle your bran on top and close the lid. Next time you open your Bokashi bin the maggots will no longer wriggle as there is no air in your bin, so they cannot survive but will help add protein into your soil!!!
Once your fermentation process has finished and your Bokashi is buried in the ground it will no longer be attractive to dogs or rodents, as the food is pickled. By using this process of pickling, it will reduce your volume of food waste by up to 50% as the moisture is extracted and either drained into the bottom of your bin or absorbed if you are using it large scale.
Top tip: Always remember to add carbon (brown material like dried leaves) to your mix when burying it, as Bokashi is a nitrogen. This means that are we adding nitrogen and microbes to our soil with Bokashi, plus carbon too, which our soils are seriously lacking.
Did you know that a lot of countries around the world rake up all their leaves and burn them, which is toxic to our environment. Put them back in the soil, they are VALUABLE.
Bokashi is simple – yet many people are put off by the hassle and the unknown. I regularly host workshops on Bokashi and blog about the step-by-step processes of using your waste for nutrients in your garden. If you need advice or have any questions – just contact me. I’d love to get you started!
One of my missions at Grow Inspired is to help change the way we throw our waste away – and put it back into our own food. If you’re thinking about getting started, drop me a message. Always happy to help!
Happy Bokashi-ing!
Thank you for your information.It is very fruitful for me as I am an associate professor of chemistry department and I am focusing about solid waste management.