Way back in April I went to a friend’s baby shower. After we’d finished eating and the plates were being cleared, the hostess asked us to scrape all the leftovers into a bucket, raw and cooked alike. At first I was horrified, didn’t they compost?! Then the hostess went on to explain that they had a Bokashi bin which composted all their kitchen waste, including bones and fish.

I was agog, I didn’t know anything about Bokashi bins but I wanted one! On my return home, I surfed around and sure enough there they were and so was the not so budget-friendly price. So, I added it way down the list of priorities and left it to sit in the back of my mind for a while.

When we moved house we had to leave the old compost bin behind and with nowhere to recycle our green waste, I’ve been making trips to the dump. I realised a serious investment in a garden compost bin was required and dad suggested looking at the local council website as he remembered they did special deals on compost bins.

So back to surfing again and I discovered that not only do Adur have subsidised compost bins, they also do a great deal on Bokashi bins too! So I ordered everything: a 200 litre compost bin, 2 Bokashi bins and Bokashi bran, all for less than £50!

I am so excited, the Bokashi bins arrived today and I can’t wait to try them! As well as the usual raw fruit & veg waste, you can also compost cooked food waste, including bread/baked goods, all dairy products, meat & bones, fish, even pizza. The compost produced is very nutrient rich and you can either put it in a garden composter or add it directly to the soil as a conditioner.

The bin is small enough to store in the kitchen and does not smell bad or attract flies. There is a little tap at the base of the bin, which is used to syphon off a liquid that you can dilute and use to feed plants indoors or out. Apparently you can also put the liquid down the drain to help it stay fresh and not get smelly.

All you have to do is put in your leftovers, cover with a layer of the Bokashi bran and then seal the lid. You keep adding leftovers and a layer of bran until the bin is full, then you seal the lid and leave it for 2 weeks to fully ferment. Whilst the first bin is ‘cooking’, you start filling up the other bin in exactly the same way as the first. After 2 weeks of ‘cooking’ the bin can be emptied, washed and used again.

The Bokashi bran “usually takes the form of a carrier, such as rice hulls, wheat bran or saw dust, that has been inoculated with composting micro-organisms. These effective micro-organisms (EM) are natural lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and phototrophic bacteria that act as a microbe community within the kitchen scraps, fermenting and accelerating breakdown of the organic matter” from Wikipedia.

So gone are the days when we had to get rid of a half-full bin bag because it stank the whole kitchen out with 3 day old chicken bones! Hopefully this will cut down our rubbish even further and I feel like I’m doing a bit towards sending less to land fill. Just have to see how long 600g of Bokashi bran lasts and hope that the cost to buy more is worth all the wonderful claims.

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