Adam Footer - Bokashi Composting: Scraps to Soil in Weeks

Praise for

Bokashi Composting

I have to thank you for writing this book Adam FINALLY we have a well-researched, comprehensive guide to bokashi composting. Ive already changed a few of my techniques based on your advice and my bokashi is decomposing faster as a result. Your information is thorough and your writing style is clear and refreshingly humble. Youve really created THE step-by-step guide for making bokashi, and people lucky enough to pick up this book will have created a beautiful microbial inoculant for their gardens and houseplants in no time.

Phil Nauta, www.SmilingGardener.com, author of Building Soils Naturally

As we reach our teens in the 21st Century, its clear that we must explore more and newer ways of reducing our waste output. We have already achieved great reductions in what enters urban landfill sites, and more efficient recycling. But what can we do in our own homes in our urban condos and apartment buildings? In this upbeat, informative book, Adam Footer reveals the bokashi composting option, and shows us how to further reduce our food waste, turning it back into the Earth and enriching the soil as we do. His explanation of bacterial culturing is clear and simply stated. Whether you purchase a home bokashi kit or build your own, following Footers foolproof instructions, this is the manual for you.

Mark Macdonald, West Coast Seeds

BOKASHI

COMPOSTING

ADAM FOOTER

BOKASHI

COMPOSTING

SCRAPS to SOIL in WEEKS

Copyright 2014 by Adam Footer.

All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.

Images iStock: top veg esp-imaging;

bokashi composted veg author; soil craftvision First printing November 2013.

New Society Publishers acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) for our publishing activities.

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-86571-752-7

eISBN: 978-1-55092-549-4 (ebook)

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Bokashi Composting should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.

To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers

P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada

(250) 247-9737

New Society Publishers mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. We are committed to doing this not just through education, but through action. The interior pages of our bound books are printed on Forest Stewardship Council-registered acid-free paper that is 100% post-consumer recycled (100% old growth forest-free), processed chlorine-free, and printed with vegetable-based, low-VOC inks, with covers produced using FSC-registered stock. New Society also works to reduce its carbon footprint, and purchases carbon offsets based on an annual audit to ensure a carbon neutral footprint. For further information, or to browse our full list of books and purchase securely, visit our website at: www.newsociety.com

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Footer, Adam, author

Bokashi composting : scraps to soil in weeks / Adam Footer.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-86571-752-7 (pbk.)

1. Compost. 2. Organic fertilizers. I. Title.

S661.F66 2014 631.875 C2013-905773-0

Dedication

To my wife Kim, for her undying support in all my endeavors,

and to my daughters Kelly and Nicole, for showing me that

the future is worth saving.

Contents

T HE GOAL OF THIS BOOK IS TO RAISE AWARENESS OF BOKASHI as a legitimate form of composting. The roots of bokashi composting lie in Japan and Southeast Asia, where it is widely practiced. There is some more recent history and minor usage in countries like Australia, the UK, New Zealand, and South Africa, but a relatively small amount of information has made its way over to the US up to this point. Most Americans dont compost organic waste regularly, and the majority of those who do have never heard of bokashi, so the whole concept of fermenting food waste using bokashi is unheard of for the most part. Yet the benefits of bokashi composting are profound, so it is worth getting the information out there and spreading the word.

Bokashi is a form of composting that uses a specific group of microbes to anaerobically ferment organic matter, resulting in a finished product that can be rapidly digested by the soil biota. The process doesnt require mixing of greens and browns and doesnt generate heat or greenhouses gasses, and all of the by-products are contained within a closed system so nutrients arent lost in the composting process. Since the system is closed, the user doesnt have to worry about insect or rodent problems, or unpleasant odors emanating from a pile of kitchen waste. All of these advantages make bokashi a good option for someone with space constraints. That might be an apartment dweller, an occupant of an office building, or anyone who doesnt have room for a large traditional compost pile. If you have enough room for a few five-gallon buckets, then you can compost all of your kitchen waste, keeping it out of the landfill and ending up with a finished product that will add a lot of organic matter to your garden. Bokashi composting is also a potential solution for individuals who have tried to compost organic waste in the past using more traditional techniques but have been unsuccessful for one reason or another. The bokashi composting process takes a lot of the complexity out of composting food waste, making the whole process much easier to follow for the average person, so hopefully they can recycle all of their kitchen waste.

When I decided to write this book, I wanted to be sure that I didnt extol the virtues of bokashi composting at the expense of all of other forms of composting. There are absolutely times where vermicomposting, traditional hot composting, or windrow composting are appropriate and/or necessary if we want to keep a lot of organic waste out of the landfill. Each form of composting has its appropriate place and time, but there are also times when one form or another may be problematic given the user and their specific situation. Each form of composting also has its distinct set of disadvantages, so given our own unique situations, it is important that we have a variety of ecological methods to choose from so we can recycle all of our organic wastes. I encourage everyone to compost or reuse all of their organic wastes and keep all (or as much as they can) of their organic material on their property. Bokashi composting may work well for some in achieving that goal so it deservers to be shared and practiced by a wider audience.