Thinking about bokashi

[Snoop Puss]

Shh, Sarriss. Don't say that out loud. You're not supposed to give chickens anything that's been prepared in any way in the kitchen, as I understand it. Some kind of law brought in post bovine spongiform whatever to ensure no contamination of animal feed or something like that.

Our chickens aren't keen on 'real food'. They eat their feed, pluck at grass and love grated cheese, oh and melon seeds. But turn their beaks up at anything else. Very odd.

[toomanytommytoes]

Our bokashi bin just gets dairy, meat and all cooked food waste. Everything else is composted or wormified.

[SarrissUK]

I know Snoop, I whispered when I said it. And of course, I peel all my veg outside in the garden and cook it on a bonfire haha

[SarrissUK]

Our bokashi bin just gets dairy, meat and all cooked food waste. Everything else is composted or wormified.

Yeah, that is excellent, and I wish I had enough waste like that for bokashi... but there just ain't much waste. The kitchen is so dull for one person that way....

[MarkPelican]

Same here VC - almost all of my peel goes into a pot, gets boiled and turned into porridge with peels for the chickens, and they need it in this cold... or the dog eats it. I'd love a wormery if only I had stuff to feed them

We're not allowed to keep chickens or anything so I don't have animals to feed the stuff to so bokashi helps. Bokashi also gets rid of non vegetable stuff (meat, fish, bones, eggshells, anything left over, stuff which would attract vermin) and in the past that has been most of what we have put in. Everything that I don't compost and which I would send to food waste if they collected it around here. However, I've increased the amount of fruit waste I've put in because I read that the enzymes do better with some extra sugars and it seems to be doing even better.

My understanding is that if the container is really airtight, you won't get any fungi. If its not perfectly airtight that you get fungi. A way to test how airtight the bin is is to fill it with water and then turn on the tap. If the bin empties a bit and then stops its really airtight, if it keeps on running then air is getting in. That doesn't mean it can't be used, just that you probably will get some fungal growth. My guess is that a brewing bucket isn't perfectly airtight but I don't see why it shouldn't work if it will stand having the lid taken off every day.

[Snoop Puss]

Interesting about the fruit. Thanks Mark.

[Baldy]

Another money saving thought just popped into my head - I've seen one or two things online about making your own bokashi - seems a little bit too much for me - but perhaps using some bought bokashi as a 'starter' and adding it to bran/molasses might work... I am perhaps getting ahead of myself here (as per usual)

[Snoop Puss]

^I've looked at some of those too. As far as I can tell, a lot of these homemade bokashi brans only have lactobacillus, not the full range of 'effective microorganisms'. I've found effective microorganism liquid on sale on Amazon, but it's not cheap here and doesn't last that long once opened, apparently. Either that, or I can buy in the assorted ingredients to make a couple of tonnes of the stuff, but I'd have to buy a tractor too, by the sound of it.