Bokashi Compost - what's it all about...?
Bokashi compost can be made from everyday kitchen waste that is cut up into small pieces and other sorts of organic materials such as straw, weeds, crop wastage, animal manure hay and mown grass. The fermentation process ensures that rotting and bad smells do not have a chance. Tapping–off the collected juices at the base of the bucket is recommended every 2 days.

METHOD
• cut up vegetable and green waste into small pieces
• spread a small amount of Bokashi bran over the bottom of the kitchen-waste bucket
• put a layer of kitchen waste into the bucket
• spread a small amount of Bokashi over the kitchen waste
• Press the material down lightly (using a flat plate)
• Close the lid of the bucket
• Repeat this process until the bucket is full
• Draw off the liquid that has accumulated in the base of the bucket. Dilute this liquid at a concentration of 1:100 parts water. This can then be used as plant feed for house and garden plants. Or alternatively poured undiluted down the sink to clear pipes.
• Leave the contents of the bucket to ferment for at least 2 weeks
• The contents of the bucket are ready to use after this time and has a sweet and sour smell
• This bokashi compost can either be directly applied to the garden ( dug into trenches) or collected in a covered compost heap in the garden

Further Tips and Info
The organic materials must be air tightly packed so that a fermentation process can take place whereby metabolic elements consisting of micro-organisms are produced. This means that Bokashi compost, just like sauerkraut has a higher nutritional value than organic substances that have not been fermented. Bokashi is suitable for use as a soil improver and also as a nutrient in cattle fodder and is also a source of nourishment for micro-organisms that grow in the soil. These establish themselves on a permanent basis in the soil, multiply and then dominate the harmful bacteria, viruses and fungi that are present.

Bokashi has been traditionally used in Japan in order to increase the level of microbial diversity in the soil and provide plants with bioactive foodstuffs such as growth hormones, antibiotics, vitamins and amino acids. This means that plants receive more essential energy and have an increased resistance to harmful bacteria and fungi. The neutral micro-organisms existing in a pathogenic soil that would normally choose the dominant harmful micro-organisms will now follow the EM effective micro-organisms. This means that the soil that initially was a potential cause of disease is now turned into a disease suppressing soil. Within the areas of agriculture and horticulture, there is no other sustainable method of getting as much as possible out of the soil as that described above.

The value of Bokashi Compost
In contrast to other kinds of compost, Bokashi compost retains its energy. Bokashi ensures the following:
· faster availability of the nutritional elements that will be absorbed by the plant;
· good environment for micro-organisms;
· Detoxifying effect on the soil.

The Effective Micro-organisms that are present in the Bokashi ensure the following:
· the production of all kinds of important bio-active substances such as enzymes, natural antibiotics and growth hormones, vitamins and antioxidants;
· a shift towards an increasingly disease suppressive soil;
· an increased microbial diversity and activity.