Thursday 21 April 2016

Are You a Wannabe Bokashi Ninja?


Food and yard waste aren’t garbage – they’re a plant's best friend! When these materials are composted, the end product (compost) can be added to lawns, flowerbeds, vegetable gardens, and house plants to add nutrients to the soil, conserve water, and reduce weeds, pests, and diseases.

Home composting allows residents to separate their organics from their garbage so these materials can be composted instead of trashed. If every household in Saskatoon composted their organics, it would divert more than 25,000 tons annually from the landfill.

What is Bokashi? 
The Bokashi compost method uses Effective Micro-Organisms (EMs) – yeast, photosynthetic bacteria, and lactic acid bacteria – to ferment food waste in an anaerobic environment. The EM culture is mixed with a bran material to produce Bokashi. It ferments the food waste and neutralizes odours.

Bokashi is a Japanese word meaning ‘fermented organic matter.’ Bokashi works with all food waste, including meat, fish, bones, cooked plate scraps, bread, rice, pasta, etc. Once the food is fermented it can be dumped in a traditional compost heap or buried in the ground.

Do You Want to Participate in a Bokashi Trial? 
Michelle Liota is a compost coach and volunteer with the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council and a member of the University of Saskatchewan Horticulture Club.

She was looking for a way to compost even in the middle of winter and discovered Bokashi. Unfortunately, no one in Saskatchewan produces the bran or sells the EM. Plus, Bokashi is unfamiliar and people are reluctant to try anything that is different.

Michelle approached EcoFriendly Sask for a grant so that she could run a trial project to show people how easy and beneficial it is to use the Bokashi method. If you participate, Michelle will provide the supplies, and you’ll provide two months’ worth of data to document your experience.

Sign Up Today
If you are interested in the Bokashi method and would like to give it a try, be sure to like Michelle’s Facebook page, Bokashi Ninja, and ask to sign up for the trial.