A really cool product I discovered for organic waste is the Bokashi Kitchen Waste Microbial Bin, which I am now using in my kitchen. At last a nifty container, which nukes all possible smells and gets the breakdown process starting right in my kitchen. As far as I know it’s the first container of its kind; something I’ve been waiting for.
This is basically a bucket with holes at the bottom, within a bucket with a tap. Now the organic juices run through to the bottom bucket and you pour it out the tap.
Mixed with water it’s good for your plants, containing plant enzymes, proteins, fats and minerals. Into the top bucket you deposit all your kitchen scraps, each time sprinkling a bit of bokashi as inoculent over the waste.
Bokashi is the Jananese word for fermented organic material. Fritz Otto, who introduced me to this, makes the bokashi by fermenting effective microbes (EMs) inside a special mixture of finely ground organic material. The effective microbes proliferate and control the breakdown process, preventing unwanted microbes from creating bad odours and attracting flies.
Instead, you have sweet smelling compost happening right in your kitchen. Once the bucket is full you dig a hole in your garden and bury the contents right there. So you gradually fertilize your whole garden with your own powerful soil conditioner. Educational for the kids. Let them do the job and watch the garden grow.
Better still, plant your veggies in this soil and you have completed the waste to food cycle. Fritz supplies the buckets and bokashi.
By Elma Pollard
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