Sparrow Party

I heard the birds chirping from across the street, then went closer for a better view.

A post from Tiny Choices explains

Four Ways To Compost Indoors

For those of us without access to backyard, frontyard, or even sideyard space in which to compost our food scraps, there are four ways in which we can participate in this wholesome and environmentally sound pastime from the comfort and safety of our own homes.

In the post they talk about the Naturemill composter, Worm composting, Community composting and Bokashi:

“Bokashi (Japanese for “fermented organic matter”) is a method of intensive composting“– and it’s supercool– basically, the bokashi (a dry mixture most commonly made from bran, molassas, water and “effective microorganisms (EM)”) ferments your food scraps in an almost odor-free way– the process is reported to smell like apple cider vinegar!

Bokashiman says: “Simply place your kitchen waste in the bucket, sprinkle a small amount of the [bokashi] mixture over the waste, slightly compress and reseal the container. The beneficial microbes immediately go to work to ferment the food scraps, releasing valuable nutrients and enzymes, without the problems of odour, heat or insects. The organic material does not breakdown, it pickles.”

Nice. They do a good job of including all the major bokashi suppliers in only four paragraphs.

Update: The blog post on TinyChoices includes some Q&A discussion about various options for finishing the bokashi in the comments section.
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Technorati Tags: compost, composting, methods, indoor, vermiculture, vermicomposting, worms, bokashi

This is one of the reasons I and so many other people love Vancouver. When the rain stops and skies clear, the world looks like this:

Technorati Tags: vancouver, bc, snowline, northshore, mountains, changeeverything

…New Zealand! That is the first outside of North America and the farthest away to date. It will be hard to beat.

As much as I would like to claim being a global business [I do have a few clients in the U.S.A.], I explained that the cost of shipping and carbon footprint would be to high and bokashi products are already available in New Zealand.

I feel like Kris Kringle in “Miracle on 34th St“. Yes, you can buy it from me but the store across the street has it cheaper.
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A short video from City Farmer showing how the Vancouver Aquarium has introduced full composting to their public facilities. Well done!

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Heather showed me a new composting initiative taking place at the Vancouver Aquarium. Eighty percent of waste produced at the cafeteria including plates, cups, cutlery, napkins and food waste, goes to a compost facility in Metro Vancouver.

More videos here
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Technorati Tags: vancouver, aquarium, composting, city+farmer, biodegradable, utensils

Making Bokashi

Bentley relates his story on making a small batch of bokashi, including pictures and links to two different reference pages.

Truth be told, I wasn’t really looking forward to making my own mix. I thought it was going to end up being a huge hassle, and I wondered why on earth I hadn’t simply ordered ready-made bokashi. Now that it is all taken care of however, I’m very I glad I did! It was a lot of fun, and much easier than I expected.

Yes. Once it is done the feeling of accomplishment can be very satisfying. I offered a few additional tips in the comments section.

Was Where to put it.

from email:

From: Rob [name changed]

To: bokashi@greatday.ca
Received: 1/3/2008 2:49:11 PM
Subject: Where to put it.

Hi Al,

I found your website and your info on bokashi very helpful, thank you. I’m
in an apartment in **** and would like to start using bokashi.

My main concern is what to do with it once its done “pickling”. I was
thinking of getting a large plastic container, placing it on my patio and
filling it partially with dirt and then put the pickled food in there. Would
this work?

I was also wondering have you ever found anything that should not be put
in the bucket? From what I can gather pretty much anything that is organic
can be placed in it.

From: “Al Pasternak”
To: Rob
Subject: RE: Where to put it.

Hello Rob,

Thanks for your email.

You are on the right track by mixing dirt in containers on your patio.

Here’s a link from a site in England that is doing the same thing using planters:
http://www.livingsoil.co.uk/learning/planters.html

Laying a plastic bag/sheet on the top of the dirt in the bucket will work if your buckets are to big.

Citrus juices, milk and oil are best left out of the bucket. They won’t pickle. Hard cheeses are okay.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Al

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