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As I mentioned in my last post, I am putting together composting equipment for this winter-- a set of bokashi pails for the kitchen and a worm composting (aka vermi-culture) bin for the side room off the kitchen.
Bokashi involves culturing kitchen scraps with a sort of probiotic that one sprinkles on the waste each time it is put in the pail. It is an anaerobic method of composting (meaning there is no air involved-- more like making traditional sauerkraut) and I intend to take the probiotic scraps and bury them in an 18" deep trench in my backyard and cover the probiotic with soil. In 2-10 weeks (depending where you live), the bokashi will be unrecognizable as kitchen scraps. It will even digest meat, bone, and avocado pits. I have been reassured that there is no nasty odor involved in making bokashi.
The kit for making my bokashi includes 3 5-gallon pails and 2 tight fitting lids for the pails. Today I drilled 3 small holes dead center in the bottom of 2 of the pails. I will fit a pail with holes into the pail with no holes, and put on a lid. When it is full, I will remove it and put it on the deck for a few days (with the lid still on) before digging it into the trench. In the meanwhile, I will have the second pail with holes fitted into the pail without holes, and will be filling it up with my chopped stuff. I will let you know more about this as I do it (my son is making the actual bokashi formula and I will talk more about that as well in another post).
My other composting project is a Vermi-Culture or worm composter. In my last post I talked about 'planting' a melon "cup" to collect the worms out in my regular backyard composter. I'm going to check to see if that worked later this afternoon. I also have to get together some vegetable-ink printed newspaper strips/shreds to make a bed for the worms, spritz with some water to dampen, add a little table scrap food, and then add the worms. Still a way to go, but not an impossible task... no banging of hammers and hauling of heavy wood, etc. I took a workshop a couple of Sundays ago at the Comox Valley Composting Project on Headquarters Road in Courtenay. I bought a cordless drill (have been wanting one for a long time) and drilled three holes along the top of each long side of the bin (dime-sized) for aeration, and about 4 small holes in the middle of the bottom for drainage. The worms don't like light, thus the lid. I'll keep you posted on this project.
FIRST (PREVIOUS) STEP: THE VERMICULTURE STARTS WITH MY COMPOST BIN
As I mentioned in my last post, I am putting together composting equipment for this winter-- a set of bokashi pails for the kitchen and a worm composting (aka vermi-culture) bin for the side room off the kitchen.
Bokashi involves culturing kitchen scraps with a sort of probiotic that one sprinkles on the waste each time it is put in the pail. It is an anaerobic method of composting (meaning there is no air involved-- more like making traditional sauerkraut) and I intend to take the probiotic scraps and bury them in an 18" deep trench in my backyard and cover the probiotic with soil. In 2-10 weeks (depending where you live), the bokashi will be unrecognizable as kitchen scraps. It will even digest meat, bone, and avocado pits. I have been reassured that there is no nasty odor involved in making bokashi.
The kit for making my bokashi includes 3 5-gallon pails and 2 tight fitting lids for the pails. Today I drilled 3 small holes dead center in the bottom of 2 of the pails. I will fit a pail with holes into the pail with no holes, and put on a lid. When it is full, I will remove it and put it on the deck for a few days (with the lid still on) before digging it into the trench. In the meanwhile, I will have the second pail with holes fitted into the pail without holes, and will be filling it up with my chopped stuff. I will let you know more about this as I do it (my son is making the actual bokashi formula and I will talk more about that as well in another post).
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| 5-gallon pail for bokashi process. I drilled 3 small holes for drainage of the "compost tea" that will collect in the bottom pail. |
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| Just showing the airtight lid that will cover the pail. The lids can be purchased separately from the pails at a hardware store. |
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| 3 dime-size holes along the long side of a plastic storage bin takes care of letting in air. |
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| Drilled 4 small holes in the bottom of the bin, for drainage. I will put a small saucer under the holes and pieces of wood under the bin to raise it up somewhat to accommodate the saucer. |
FIRST (PREVIOUS) STEP: THE VERMICULTURE STARTS WITH MY COMPOST BIN
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