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.
Hey, I was curious if this method worked as well as using wheat bran as I’m having a hard time finding the bran in bulk. Are you still using shredded newspaper to ferment your scraps or have you switched back to bran?
I’m doing both. The shredded newspaper works. However, it tends to get moldy if you don’t use it within a couple of months. I like to use wheat bran because it smells good and it’s not too expensive and doesn’t require shredding. I’m experimenting with a drying process on shredded newspaper that might fix the problem. I will have a follow up on my results.
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! And I didn’t say it before but thank you for making that video. No one else has really talked about making the ‘bran’ with anything else.
I’m thinking of making small batches of the shredded paper inoculant so perhaps that will take care of the mold problem. I’m also thinking of keeping the inoculant in liquid form and when I add to my bin, tossing in newspaper and then spritzing it all. Do you think that might work?
My pleasure to show an alternative to bran. I’ve tried spraying the innoculant directly into the organic waste without adding any “brown stuff” like newspaper or others. It works ok if your kitchen waste is dry like old bread but there is a tendency for the spray the leak due to the fermenting process to pressurize the spray bottle. You should try like you said. Your mileage may vary. Let me know how it works out for you.