For the last 6 months or so, I have embarked on a journey to finding that closed “system” that allows me and my family to reduce our garbage volume while enriching/fertilizing my vegetable garden which in turn feeds my family and reduces our grocery bill. Who wouldn’t like that?

I started out with traditional composting – my second attempt with lots of research and efforts. And boy, the compost piles really stunk probably due to neglects and ignorance! Most of the homes in our area simply are not large enough to create enough of a critical mass/pile (3’x3’x3′) or ~1 cubic yard to be successful with the traditional compost. I have yet to find a foolproof way to do traditional compost without creating a big mess and smell.

I stumbled on Bokashi composting as an alternative to the traditional composting, thanks for many video channels on youtube and other reference sites. Initially, I bought a Bokashi compost kit that includes a special bin and a bag of Bokashi bran for me to sprinkle over the kitchen waste. It works really well in composting continuous stream of kitchen waste without the bad smell. This was fine until I found out that each bag of Bokashi bran costs about $10. Each bag lasts about 2 months or so. It might be cheaper to just buy 3 cubic feet of compost!

So I decided to find out how to make my own Bokashi bran and made a how-to video.

Bokashi bran are usually made of wheat bran inoculated with the beneficial bacteria – cultured in “EM”. Wheat bran works well but is hard to find in bulk and relatively expensive compared to shredded old newspaper. Here I show you how to make Bokashi “Bran” with shredded newspaper instead of wheat bran.

The EM can be purchased here. 12oz bottle should be sufficient and good for a couple of years for most families.