What is Bokashi composting?
It’s fast and easy! In just two or three weeks, it creates pre-compost rich in beneficial microorganisms. This enables plant nutrient absorption and brings soil alive.
Bokashi means “fermented organic matter” in Japanese. It makes composting in urban environments easier. The fermentation reduces unpleasant odors, and all pre and post-consumer food scraps are thrown into a compost bucket: dairy, meat, small bones, eggs, and citrus peels. It all goes in!
Bokashi in a nutshell: It’s a combination of effective microorganisms, used for centuries by Japanese farmers. We use these microorganisms to inoculate dry material such as rice hulls. Then we sprinkle the rice hulls in compost buckets and on food scraps. Left for a couple of weeks in a sealed, anaerobic environment, the inoculated food scraps quickly pickle. Since the process is anaerobic, microorganisms consume the methane produced. We then turn the fermented food scraps into the compost pile, where they are broken down and absorbed. At Ashland Community Composting we sprinkle innoculated rice hulls in the bottom of every bucket!
EM (Effective Microorganisms) are also being used in the cleanup of waterways, and to remediate soils in Japan after the Fukishima nuclear accident.