Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
tohelp fight offdecay,socutting them openbypasses the protective skinandgives the microorgan-
isms direct access to something they can start eating and breaking down. The protective ability of
vegetable peels is pretty impressive. I have seen whole apples and tomatoes last for a few weeks
in very active worm bins and look relatively unchanged. Squeeze the fruit and pierce the peels and
they get eaten pretty rapidly. So when dealing with the scraps you will put into your bokashi bin,
smaller and cut up is better than larger and whole.
But cutting stuff up takes extra time, why bother?
A lot of bokashi users compost on a fairly small scale, so a little extra time on the front end isn't an
issue. Many users live in apartments or houses and are only interested in composting their kitchen
waste, sothe amount ofmaterial isn'tenoughtodeter alittle extra processing. Breaking foodwaste
down mechanically before it hits the bokashi bucket will only take a few extra knife strokes and an
extra minute or two when you are preparing a meal, but the smaller size really helps to speed up
decompositiononthebackend.Thisplaystothedesiresofsmallerusers,whotendtowanttocycle
things faster. Many are also gardening in small spaces and want to go from food waste to usable
compost fairly quickly. Preprocessing the waste can help speed up this cycling.
If you don't care about speed, fine. You don't have to take any extra measures to decrease the
size of anything. It is all a time trade-off. Less time breaking down food waste on the front end
means it will ultimately take longer to ferment and break down on the back end. Larger operations
such as farms and institutions might not see the need to spend a lot of time and effort preprocessing
wastebecausetheyhavethespaceandtimetoallowformorecompostingtotakeplace.Large-scale
users who want to maximize their fermentation speed and efficiency can use industrial shredding
machines that can process large volumes of food waste before it goes into a bokashi composting
system or a vermicomposting operation. These are expensive and use grid-based energy, so there is
a trade-off. Every individual will ultimately have to decide what they need for their system.
To ferment your food waste, you will need to introduce a microbial source. The microbes are
usually applied on a solid carrier, commonly called bokashi bran. Earlier you learned how to make
your own bran. Now I will explain how to use that bokashi bran and your bokashi bucket (com-
mercial or homemade) to ferment your kitchen waste. The process is extremely simple, and even a
child could do it.
How to use your bokashi bucket with a spigot or drain:
1. Sprinkle a layer of bokashi bran onto the bottom of the bucket.
• A dusting is all that is needed.
