I have nearly 2 large buckets of compost to add to my garden this spring. It seems as though using more bokashi works better–almost enough to cover the layer of food scraps.

As I mentioned before, I drilled holes in the bucket to drain off the liquid. At some point in the next few months I’ll need another bag of bokashi; perhaps if you’re in the area you could drop one off at [my work], or I could take a trip to your neck of the woods.

….

I’m still wondering whether the system would work for the store –most of the employees aren’t too practical, and I suspect that some of the [people] would be grossed out by the “messiness” of the procedure. However I think the owner is keen.

Tom is using his own buckets to collect his kitchen scraps, so he only needs the bokashi. He has been a client since May of 2006.

Edited from an email sent to a customer:

There are a number of options available:

1) Mix the Biosa, molasses and water with bran using this recipe*. Let it ferment in a warm place for a few weeks then dry. 1L of Biosa, molasses and water will make 160Kg/350lb of bokashi. 1Kg of dried bokashi can last 8 - 16 weeks, so it encourages use for composting household waste indoors [even during the winter.:-)]. It can also be used in larger settings such as school/community center lunch rooms and as a kitty litter deodorizer.

2) Mix the Biosa with molasses and water. This creates an Activated Biosa that can be diluted as low as 2%. 1L of Biosa will make 34L Activated. At a 2% solution, this is enough to use with 1700L with water. There is a limited shelf life to this product, 2 - 4 weeks, but it would be the best solution for dealing with a lot of post-consumer waste. You don’t have to make it all at once. Smaller quantities - as little as 500ml - make it accessible for use in restaurants, cafeterias etc. It can also work as an odour control agent; if you know what the smell of a fat rendering collection truck is like during the summer, this would be a big help if they washed their trucks with it.

*includes link to a list of suppliers all over the world, including me.

On this site, you can order here.

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Technorati Tags: biosa, bokashi, activated, diy, recipe, EM, lactic+acid+cultures, fermentation, compost, composting, bakashi

This is the brightest rainbow I have ever seen:

Beautiful. Click for the full size image.

20Mar07: Duane Storey, in Helsinki on business, saw the same sunset via KatKam.ca

Paul Cipywnyk’s sunset view from Burnaby

about our day and age:

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version)

It is hard to believe that a little video I created in my basement in St. George Kansas could be seen by over 1.7 million people, be translated into (at least) 5 languages, and be shown to large audiences at major conferences on 6 continents within just one month of its creation. In some ways, the journey of the video speaks volumes that the content of the video could only hint at. I know I could not have done this with the technology available 3 years ago - certainly not 13 years ago - so the world really is different and I’m just happy to be part of the mass of people trying to rethink how we can best live in this quickly changing environment.Digital Ethnography

Speaking of a “quickly changing environment”….

Did You Know? aka Shift Happens

Source info on Karl Fisch’s blog.
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I went to this trade show today:

http://www.epicvancouver.com

and made good connections with some people including two sales. Nice.

Next year, I want to be an exhibitor.
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Three weeks after planting this small corner, I can see a green carpet developing:

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Technorati Tags: guerrillagardening, guerrilla, gardening, vancouver, bc, clover

My YouTube adventures the other day gave me the kind of belly laugh that I have not had for a long time.

In Len Davis‘ favourites is this parody/remix of Cecile B DeMille’s famous movie: 10 Things I Hate About Commandments which led me to watch this remix of Glengarry Glen Ross [profanity, NSFW].

This ‘preview’ mentions another film “Must Love Jaws” which I could not find on that page. So I searched for it. This was the result:

Whaaaaa?

When I did the same search on Google, no alternative was offered unless I put it “quotes”.

Laughter is good therapy

This event went so well.

Read about it here* and see more pictures here

The next step is to plant them. April 1st seem like a great day for that.
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*08April07 - Meetup.com changed their message format from online writing/storage to email only. What they didn’t tell us is that they would be deleting all existing messages. Grrr!

16March07 - More about seed balls from workshop participant Andrea Bellamy here and here

Technorati Tags: guerrillagardening, guerrilla, gardening, vancouver, bc, urban, landscaping, public, spaces

Jessica asked for some advice on her blog about apartment composting

My comment/response written March 8, 2007 remains in moderation:

Hi Jessica,

From You Grow Girl:
Make this budget conscious compost bin for your deck or small outdoor space.
http://tinyurl.com/397pok

For your counter-top composter, I recommend a bokashi system as seen on Treehugger: http://tinyurl.com/fvmr8

[Full disclosure: I make and sell my own bokashi bucket system.
http://tinyurl.com/3dltmx Happy to answer any questions you may have.]

Be Well,

Al

I used “tinyurl” to keep the comment looking clean, but did not make them clickable in the original comment.
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