Ann Lovejoy är en amerikansk författare, skriver trädgårdsböcker och tidningsartiklar om allt som har med trädgården att göra. Här skriver hon på en Seattle news sajt om Bokashi som ett bra sätt att återföra köksrester till trädgården hemma. En mycket enkelt och effektiv lösning tycker hon …
A reader wants to recycle kitchen waste into the compost. She has a garbage disposal in her sink but prefers to use the food scraps rather than waste them. Can she rescue the food scraps and mix them into the planted pots on her tiny patio?
Composting food scraps in a small space is not easy, but it can be done. Rather than try to tuck food scraps into soil where potted plants already are growing, you might puree scraps in a food processor daily. The resulting slurry can be composted without attracting pests, or can be buried in soil, though it will take months to break down.
Over the years, I have tried many kinds of composting devices made for home gardeners. In my experience, indoor composting buckets don’t really work. Indoor or outdoor worm bin systems can work, but only for plant-based waste. And in small spaces, the bins are pretty hard to hide.
Happily, a simple composting system developed in Japan allows you to recycle all non-liquid food scraps, including dairy and meat. Called bokashi — the Japanese word for fermented organic material — the system relies on efficient microbes (EM) to transform leftovers into finished compost in four to six weeks.
EM bokashi is a lot faster than traditional composting and works in an entirely different way. Instead of rotting, bokashi ferments food waste, then breaks it down into enzymes and amino acids directly usable by plant roots. The fermentation stage takes about two weeks, and the composting phase takes between two to four weeks.
To use bokashi, you put all non-liquid food scraps into an airtight bucket with some bokashi starter, usually wheat or rice bran inoculated with beneficial microbes. When the first bucket is full, set it aside to ferment and begin filling a second bucket. /…/
Bokashi food recycling is practiced in many schools around the country and in more than 80 countries around the world.