#45 – Fermenting Trash in the Kitchen

I think the whole world should be doing this! – Alison

It just makes everything more pleasant with your food waste –

there is no rotting, no flies. – Tjasa

You know that Alison is always fermenting weird and strange things but when she told me she was fermenting her trash – it was a new level. I had to know more.

A little over a year ago, Alison off-hand mentioned something she called bokashi, and I had to ask her, “What IS that?” It turns out bokashi is the Japanese word for compost, and Alison had purchased a tool that she used to ferment her food waste – even bones & fat, anything she didn’t use or that went bad – into compost tea and compost, which she was using in her porch garden.

As you have seen on her instagram, she produced some incredible vegetables with the help of that nutrient dense lacto fermented supplementation for her plants. I know that any purchase Alison makes is extremely well thought-out and researched and, yes, she did her research on the bokashi process. She read books, watched videos, explored DIY options, and she did her due diligence to study this two-bucket system that we are going to talk today, as well as the inoculant that she adds to the food waste to compost it.

This fermentation process can be done in the house, it has no smell, it doesn’t attract fruit flies, and you can use the compost and the compost tea in your big garden, small garden and more.

In this episode, we will explain the process of fermenting waste, the bacterial inoculant that is used to ferment the food waste so efficiently and completely, and then we will actually interview the US and Canada supplier that makes the two-bucket system that Alison is using. Alison will ask her some more technical questions and we will come back to wrap up, and you can get about your day fermenting your trash!

Check out the Bokashi system here, and use the code AKP for 10% off!

What We Talk About:

2:29 What we had to eat!

08:24 A review from Ester @wolfdaughterdarling

12:24 Let’s talk about bokashi! Alison’s experience and why she was inspired to talk about this on the podcast

35:00 The US Giveaway (open until Nov 29 2022)

“A non-stop ferment of your kitchen waste.”

37:32 Alison’s interview with Tjasa

38:33 What is Bokashi?

39:09 What is “EM”, and how does it work in bokashi?

40:25 How are the microorganisms used in the bokashi bucket?

41:15 Is there a smell to bokashi fermenting in our kitchens? Fermentation vs Rotting

42:34 Using bokashi in a small apartment vs on a farm or larger household

45:23 What do the Effective Microorganisms do to compost?

48:08 The rules of bokashi composting and how it differs from conventional waste composting

54:40 How do you see bokashi making a difference in a larger scale?

01:01:14 Teraganix discount code & the giveaway

Resources:

10% off for Ancestral Podcast listeners! Teraganix is the US and Canada distributor of the bokashi fermenting system we use – use code AKP for 10% off

Dr Teruo Higa’s development of EM (Effective Microorganisms) for fermenting bokashi