Bokashi Composting: Scraps to Soil in Weeks

by Adam Footer

Bokashi composting relies on anaerobic fermentation in a closed system to recycle food waste in your kitchen, garage or apartment. Unlike conventional composting, the bokashi method can break down heavier items like meat, fish and cheese, and usually takes no more than two weeks. From scraps to soil, Bokashi Composting is a complete, step-by-step, do-it-yourself guide to this amazing process.

Genres: Gardening, Environment, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published December 16, 2013

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book --- like the modern incarnation of bokashi composting --- has its good and bad points. I'll start with the book's strengths. Adam Footer does a fine job of not padding the book the way so many non-fiction authors do, and instead presents the facts in an easy-to-read, short text that I was able to consume during one rainy afternoon. He also includes lots of photos, and even though they're black and white, I appreciate the sheer quantity of hands-on pictorials. After reading the book, I feel like I'll easily be able to set up a bokashi bucket and produce my own compost using his method.

Okay, so what didn't I like? The method seems to attract a lot of pseudoscientists, and the chapter titled "The Science" made me cringe. There's no attempt to cut through the commodification of the method to determine whether you really do need all of the types of microorganisms found in the store-bought starter solutions, although the author firmly tells us that a homemade Lactobacillus starter (using whey from yogurt, for example) won't be as effective. Meanwhile, Footer uses words like "consortium" to refer to the supposedly symbiotic relationship existing within the commercial starter...but gives very little information on how the consortium is supposed to be better than plain old whey. Then we hit the point where the author promises that the commercial starter will "reeducate other 'wild' microbes" --- that's where I had to force myself to keep on reading.

In the end, I'd say that if you enjoy publications by Acres USA, then chances are you'll love this book. But if you like your science in a little bit of a purer form, you'll need to read Bokashi Composting critically and to run a few tests of your own to determine whether anything the author writes about is worth believing. However, since this appears to be one of the few or perhaps the only print book in English on the topic, you might as well pick it up and take a look. Just take what you read with a grain of salt.

[Sarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first joined my local farm co-op, and went to volunteer at the warehouse, I was asked to help weigh and bag bokashi bran for sale. Several folks at the co-op swear by bokashi, since it can be done in-doors, doesn't smell, and can even help digest pet waste that shouldn't be composted in other systems (think cats and dogs). The most information I got about how it worked was, "Buy the bran, sprinkle it into your compost bin to start fermentation, and refresh whenever it stinks." But I like to know how things work, and especially how to manage a system myself with as little inputs as possible, and how to experiment with results. I've also been looking for a way to deal with the kitchen scraps that can't go in my worm bin, or to my dog, chickens, or (future) rabbits - namely citrus and bones the dog refuses.

Finally! Enter an in-depth book about bokashi. The pros of bokashi include: you can compost things like meat, dairy and citrus; you don't have to worry about ratios of carbon to nitrogen (browns to greens); it won't attract rodents; you don't lose any of the nutrients to the rotting process; and it can be finished in as little as 30 days. 30 days to have compost? Even my tiered worm bins teeming with red wigglers take about 6 months! Having smaller, but more frequent batches of finished compost is much more useful since I'm trying to garden intensively on a tiny urban lot. It's also an appealing process to me, since I'm a fermentation geek and already make my own yogurt, kombucha and vinegar, brew wine in the basement, and have mason jars of pickled peppers, sauerkraut and dilly beans. Bokashi is basically just one more mysterious fermentation culture to add to the homestead.

What's great about this book is that it has instructions for making your own bokashi bran. While I can purchase it for about $5/lb at the farm co-op, I enjoy experimenting and tinkering with processes. And, it's even possible to use other waste products like paper or coffee. Since I live in Seattle, surrounded by artisan coffee roasters, I'm thinking about tracking down coffee hulls to experiment with. (Another project. My housemate is gonna love this.)

While I don't think I'm going to completely convert my composting over to bokashi, I can see a few ways that this will make things a lot more efficient. The bokashi "pre-compost" as the author calls it, could be a great way to speed up my worm bins. It could also be an interested addition to my chicken coop (they sure do love eating kombucha mothers).

A couple of questions that I'm left with:
- Can I compost diseased plant material safely without possibly spreading the disease to future crops?
- I use the deep litter method in my chicken coop - can I throw some bokashi bran in there to speed up the decomposition of their litter? Is it okay if they eat the bran thinking it's food?
- Is it possible to use bokashi bran/tea/compost to inoculate more substrate?

Overall, this is a quick read and a great introduction to another way of dealing with "waste" and turning it in to a great soil ammendment.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was recommended by a Bokashi composting company owner during a seminar on starting to Bokashi compost. I learned a large amount more from this book than their class.

This book is exactly what people should be reading if they are wanting to Bokashi compost (which is really interesting for composting). The author goes into detailed processes and covers everything from what is happening, making your own bran, homemade buckets, and disposal of Bokashi tea.

[Onur Avcı · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are concerned about your carbon footprint,
I recommend this great method that will give you a completely different perspective on your kitchen waste.

[Marta · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good intro to Bokashi composting. Although I liked reading his opinions on things, I prefer reading the facts. My only other issue is that all the pics were black and white. Some color pics would have been nice.

[Anastaciaknits · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a vegetable garden and an apartment dweller, I was definitely hooked on the idea of Bokashi Composting - something I had definitely never heard of before - and is what Adam's book is all about, bringing Bokashi composting to the US and to people who might benefit from a different type of composting. He specifically mentions apartment dwellers, which is why I asked for this book to review (from netgalley). I've been wanting to try composting, but not having a yard of my own makes this problematic.

Adam begins the book by explaining how he wanted to write a book about Bokashi Composting, and how there's little information about it out there. He doesn't dismiss other types of composting and explains that each of the various methods all have their places. He then gets into the terms used with bokashi composting and the benefits of using this method over other methods - for example, you can compost meat, dairy, eggs and bread with this method & you can't with others. This section is interesting but gets repetitive - after all, you already have the book in your hands so why is the author trying to sell us on the method as much as he is? (it just feels like a sales pitch to me).

The next two sections are on the history and science of Bokashi Composting - another couple of sections that starts off interesting, but just got into too much detail for me and as I sat there reading, I kept wondering if this information was mere filler to make the book long enough for publishing. (these two sections are why I give the book 4 stars instead of 5)

Finally, in chapter 4 we get to the good stuff - how to make bokashi bran, the heart of the composting method (which is actually a process of fermenting). Now that we got into how to do the actual composting - I discover I can't use this method in my tiny 400 sq ft apartment - there's just no way I have the room (especially when we get to the part about how I have to spread the bran around on a large tarp to dry. I have NO floor space, period).

The end result is that this made for fascinating reading, and it was definitely interesting to learn about a new method of composting - but isn't going to work for my household, either.

[Zora · Rating 1 out of 5]

go out and buy some very expensive "natural" chemicals (what chemicals aren't natural, do you think? duh). Go out and buy some molasses in a plastic bottle. Toss them on your compost to make it rot faster. Not sure what you do with the empty plastic bottle.

There. I saved you the pain of reading this book. Nature will decompose your garden and kitchen scraps. Makes sure it's well watered. Instead of turning it, stick a long piece of rebar into it and make five or ten holes to aerate it. It'll heat up, and in a few months, you'll have finished compost the natural way.

[Mike Heymann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall very happy with this book. Great for a beginner. As a master composter using aerobic methods I was intrigued by the fermentation method of bokashi. This book was well laid out and easy to follow. Have my first batch in the bucket and hoping I get a good ferment my first attempt.

[Amy Wasko · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried it. I didn't like it. I gave it away.

[Dorthea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very technical and the process is more complicated than I can manage but very useful for anyone who wants to start using this type of composting.

[Jean-marie Prevost · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too specific for me, and ultimately about compost tea and not really compost the way I had in mind.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adam Footer introduces bokashi composting well enough for anyone who wants to give it a go. That probably won't be me anytime soon, since I've never had the slightest problem composting food scraps via "traditional" methods, and I could easily scale up to composting a lot more. But I like to keep up with composting techniques, even the ones I have no immediate need for. Other people I talk to have different circumstances, and my circumstances could change.

I gave the book a high rating for its comprehensive coverage of this niche composting style. I did not deduct for its "failure" to persuade me to tackle bokashi, because the book does not position bokashi as the only viable method. Footer clearly explains who might be a candidate, mainly two groups of people: those who live in high-density housing with no green space for a compost bin, and those who generate a high volume of food scraps without enough composting "browns" to balance them (mainly businesses or organizations such as restaurants, institutional kitchens, vegetable processors, etc.).

As Eliot Epstein explains in Industrial Composting: Environmental Engineering and Facilities Management, odor complaints are the number one reason for large-scale composting facility closures. These odors typically result from a facility receiving an excess of composting "green" wastes (green grass clippings, food waste, manures) without enough "brown" wastes (sawdust, wood chips, autumn leaves, dry straw, etc.) to balance them. This results in putrefaction, which on a large scale can send overpowering odors several kilometers downwind. It happened in my own town, when an urban compost facility took in too much food waste and created a storm of odor complaints, forcing its shutdown when a neighboring business hired lawyers who found a legal loophole to exploit. Footer didn't go into much detail about the large-scale use of bokashi at commercial compost facilities, but scaling up bokashi from a single household to virtually any size seems straightforward. This seems like an angle worth exploring. Epstein included three chapters about odor control at large-scale composting facilities, but he didn't mention bokashi.

I had a few quibbles:

1. Footer or his editor(s) should read some books about "plain language" writing. He has some inefficient writing habits such as beginning a sentence with "In order to" instead of the simpler "To". The words "In order" add nothing but bloat, which is why John Brogan calls them "dead words" in his Clear Technical Writing.

2. Footer's justification for bokashi is slightly overwrought. He talks about the "difficulty" of composting food scraps by "traditional" composting. While it's true that some home composters unnecessarily screw up the simple process, Footer then launches into an incredibly complex description of making bokashi bran and using it to pre-compost food scraps. The number of steps and things to go wrong is rather breathtaking. It's hard to imagine that anyone who can't figure out how to compost food scraps (including meats) safely in a traditional compost pile – something I literally need 5 minutes to explain and demonstrate to a new composting trainee, using two of the most common gardening tools, a hand cultivator and a shovel – is going to read this book and master the many-times-more-complex world of bokashi. Again, this is no knock on bokashi; it clearly makes sense for some people in some circumstances. But to position it as a simpler alternative to traditional composting is silly. It's just an alternative, not simpler.

3. Bokashi has the notable advantage of being able to process highly "green" wastes (i.e. wastes with C:N ratios well below the ideal ratio of 30 for aerobic composting). However, Footer overstates the "difficulty" of balancing an aerobic compost pile for the typical home composter. While it's true that a randomly selected household may not generate organic wastes with the ideal C:N ratio of 30 at all times of the year, there is no law against looking outside the household for some browns. The neighbors, for example, may be throwing away vast quantities of sticks, autumn leaves, straw, and so on. Arrange to take their browns if you need more. I've collected yard wastes from dozens of neighbors (using my very-green bicycle trailer) and every single one was more than happy to let me have all I could take.

3.a. Footer ignores (or may not be aware of) the simplest method for balancing an aerobic compost pile: by using older, post-thermophilic compost as a "universal balancer." After the material in a compost pile has gotten old enough that it no longer heats up, and has that faintly sweet earthy actinomycetes odor, it becomes like a miracle substance that can act as either a composting "brown" or "green" for balancing incoming fresh waste. Old compost balances everything – when you mix it with fresh green wastes, it reduces putrefaction and absorbs and eats odors; and when you mix it with fresh brown wastes, it supplies nitrogen in the most ideal form: already incorporated into the cells of microbial decomposers. Somehow a form of composting lore seems to have taken hold, which says you must always balance your compost pile by mixing fresh greens and fresh browns together to get the ideal C:N ratio of 30. But that's only because fresh materials don't yet have established communities of decomposers. To get to such a community from a starting point of fresh wastes, you need to mix your greens and browns, and give them time. But if you introduce an already established community in the form of older compost, you can balance an excess of either greens or browns in your fresh wastes. Therefore, when you havest compost from your bin or pile, don't empty it out completely. Keep as much as you need to balance whatever fresh wastes you have that are either too brown or too green.

4. Footer correctly points out that compost piles can generate powerful greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide, and a bokashi bin (probably) does not. However, his discussion of carbon dioxide, the other important greenhouse gas, might slightly overstate the case for bokashi. An aerobic compost pile certainly does churn out carbon dioxide – that's the source of much of the compost heat, the energy equivalent of very slowly burning some of the carbon content of the feed materials. But is bokashi any better in terms of carbon dioxide? The bokashi bin itself is not going to generate much carbon dioxide, but you then bury the bokashi pre-compost in the ground. Organic carbon introduced to the soil will then go on to slowly mineralize (oxidize), reaching the final state of carbon dioxide. Because carbon dioxide is a durable greenhouse gas, it doesn't make much difference to climate change whether the carbon in food scraps takes 10 weeks or 10 years to mineralize. If you really want to sequester organic carbon in the ground for a long time (thousands of years), which would be relevant to fighting climate change, you need to use a technique such as biochar or deep-well injection.

But the carbon dioxide from compost piles isn't really a net contributor to man-made climate change, because the carbon it contains was recently captured from the atmosphere by growing plants. Insofar as its carbon dioxide output is concerned, a compost pile is carbon-neutral, much like burning firewood for heat. The methane and nitrous oxide from composting, on the other hand, are not carbon-neutral, because those gases are many times more potent than carbon dioxide per molecule, and they weren't recently captured from the atmosphere by growing plants. They are being newly manufactured in the pile from other substances. Thus bokashi may have a legitimate contribution to make to fighting climate change, but Footer hasn't shown that carbon dioxide is a player here. That is, the carbon dioxide pouring out of an aerobic compost pile is not an argument for bokashi, since the same carbon dioxide will (probably) be percolating out of the soil over the next few years.

[Shevon Quijano · Rating 5 out of 5]

After starting this book with no knowledge of what Bokashi composting is and how it works, Footer did an excellent job of explaining the scientific and cultural history of EM's as well as step by step instructions on how to implement this method of composting.

My only hesitation is one that has to do not with Footers writing, although I'm glad he addressed it in the book, but about using a plastic Bokashi vessel. He explained that plastic is really the only option at this time. I sure hope that changes because microplastic infiltration into our bodies is scary.

[Lauren Seyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good primer if you wish to know what happens in the bin on a microbial level. A bit repetitive at points. Not a necessary read if you buy a kit with a manual. It also sounds as though you can't make your own mother/bran as cost (and time) effectively as purchasing it ready-made. I appreciated the comparison to different composting systems. Author makes a great case for using bokashi given it's closed system and nothing is lost, it has quick turn over, and doesn't require tons of brown/carbon waste (or turning) like in a pile.

[Zaeneas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A almost complete guide to bokashi composting. However, one feature of bokashi composting is that it is really difficult to get it wrong (unless your air tight bucket broke in your kitchen) Even you only use yogurt residue or sour dough starter, it still works.


It would be better if the science part could be more scientific, but it is not the author's fault because soil biology is indeed a new field.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stumbled into the Bokashi Composting rabbit hole and have been loving it as a way to help fix my soil/sand in my backyard at a quick rate. This was a great introduction for any newbies. I did find the science section lacking. I was also confused by the random commentary of "well...I don't know if that will work...the jury is still out" type parts a little odd. It was a non-fiction opinion piece in some parts.

[Joanne McKinnon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Persuasive

Been composting the traditional way for nearly 35 years. Reading this book taught me a lot. Mainly, that tired container soil can be rescued. Composting indoors is possible when your outdoor system is frozen solid. A landfill saviour.

[tfadius · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick read that you can finish in an afternoon. I quite enjoyed it and it gave more detailed information then what you find in random blogs online. I liked how short and informative it was. It's a good read.

[Bennor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative and seems to cover most aspects of bokashi composting, including what to do with a failed batch, but it does read as a little biased. It's presented as though there are no downsides at all to the bokashi method–which may be true, but feels too good to be.

[Christy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Should I decide to compost using the Bokashi method, This book has been pretty thorough regarding how, and even with methods that could save me money. This may be a good option for winter, when composting is more difficult.

[Jenna Citrus · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for composters.

[Clivemichael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well presented, occasionally repetive but very informative

[Ron Miller · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too much work. I'll just dump my compost in the yard.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needs a better editor and colour photos; also I have questions soon to be solved by googling "bokashi criticism".

[Yvonne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exploring alternative ways to deal with food waste? Read!

[Albertoalvarez · Rating 5 out of 5]

great in depth discussion about Bokashi and composting

Clear the water to desmitify what is this about and how to you rally do it. Clear and precise explanation

[DelAnne Frazee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Bokashi Composting - Scraps To Soil In Weeks
Author: Adam Footer
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Published: 1-1-2014
ISBN: 13-978-0-86571-752-7
ISBN: 10-978-55092-549-4
E-Book ASIN: B00GL9SUIS
Pages: 176
Genre: Home & Garden
Tags: Composting, Recycling


Adam Footer has taken the time and given the effort to provide us with an extensive study of the merits if Bokashi composting. Footer does not pan other forms if composting. He goes into detail as to why one might prefer Bokashi over other forms of composting. For those new to composting he provides an explanation for the basic terms and the history of Bokashi composting.


Included in the instructions on what you need to begin and if you choose not to purchase many of the required starting items such as Bokashi Bran or Fermenting Bin and how to make them. He will then walk you all the way through to the final product and how to use the compost material.


Using this and other recycling methods we can reduce the waste we send to our land fills to a bare minimum. With the Bokashi compost method I have reduced my trash to a miniscule amount. I have not had to put my trash receptacle out for pick up in almost a month. Where as before I was praying Wednesday would hurry up and get here because it was full. I know can recycle the paper, aluminum, metals and now kitchen waste in a such a way I can feel good about because I know I am doing my p0art to help save our world and am teaching future generations to do the same. Thank you to Adam Footer for helping teach us how we can each help preserve our world and perhaps help it heal itself as well.


Check out Bokashi Composting today it is a simple and easy way to begin your journey to learn how to compost on a small scale that you can enlarge as you need.

[Jes · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very good primer on Bokashi. I finished the book feeling much more informed and confident. I especially appreciated the appendices.

[MeganS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for beginners: great overview of multiple aspects of bokashi, but not too long. Nothing too exciting but provides helpful info