New content below this post.

Feedback is always appreciated.

Thanks to Carol Browne for the photo[s].

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• Retweet: New blog post: I’ll be at the Vancouver Farmers Market this summer http://tinyurl.com/5jw8co #

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• Facebook is logging me off after just a few minutes of inactivity. Is that happening to anyone else? #
• Tom Waits is one of my musical heros #
• Watching: YouTube - Tom Waits - Ol’ 55 http://tinyurl.com/58ryah//www.foxytunes.com/artist/tom_waits #
• I have finished many tasks in the past 24 hours and feel satisfied about it for the first time in a very long time. #
• Awake @ 340AM. Darn, wanted to sleep longer. #
• Old tweets from weeks ago appearing as new. #
• Bookmarked: bokashi, baby http://tinyurl.com/4ntuht #
• Eat out a lot? Check Vancouver Coastal Health’s - list of restaurant closures to date in 2008. http://www.vch.ca/environmental/food/ #

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It is official. I have 16 days at the Vancouver Farmers Market this year. Eight days each at Kitsilano & Riley Park. You can see a schedule on the right, but for the record, here are the days:

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If you are in the Vancouver network on Facebook you can join the Farmers Market group page here and their fan page here.

I also have a fan page on Facebook: Great Day Bokashi

• Been back since 3pm. Meeting was good and relevant. Been updating brochures and info for printing tomorrow. On track for Sunday!! #
• @greggscott Eurythmics! #
• @hummingbird604 There is a difference between fainting & blacking out for 1.5 hours, I think. #
• @hummingbird604 Take care of yourself. Fainting is [usually] short term. A few minutes. Something else might be going w/you. I hope… #
• @hummingbird604 …you will consider looking into why this happened. Again, take care of yourself. #
• Trying to pace myself so I don’t burn out before Sunday Kits Farmers Market. I’m taking the rest of the week off to get everything done. #
• Rooftop Vegetable Gardener at Rocket Rooftop Garden takes us on a tour! — City Farmer News. Wow!! http://tinyurl.com/6bake7 #
• Client confirmed meeting this morning with Gtalk via http://www.digsby.com Love it! #
• What’s happening with Facebook today? I have to log in every 5 minutes. Anyone else have this issue? #
• Paying bills is the best part of getting paid. #
• Friendfeed is as good as email! Better even. #
• Off to Inprint http://tinyurl.com/5vtduo for an editing and printing marathon. Drop by after 5pm, if you are in the ‘hood. #

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This is a post about a news article about Guerilla gardeners that showed up in the Asian Pacific Post a few weeks ago. I mentioned it in some Twitter posts when I found that they had used some of my images without my permission. This has been corrected.

The same article appeared yesterday in the Sydney Morning Herald. It is ephemera of the news cycle that I find interesting. The story is a filler that editors can add when they need more content. The Asian Pacific Post added a local angle which they were not required to do but I’m glad they did. I’m surprised the Sydney Morning Herald could not do the same [from their own publication!]

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J. received a bokashi bucket as part of a corporate prize draw, so I did not have the opportunity to explain the system in advance or provide a small intro demonstration. My instruction sheet and information brochure are being changed to include some of the concerns raised.

Edited for clarity:

I need more bokashi. I am only 1 person using this system & started the composted at the end of March — so in less than 2 months I’ve used up the bag. I think used too much –but the reason why was because every time I opened the bucket to add more food scraps, I would find mold on the top of the food/enzyme pile AND all over the interior sides of the bucket.  So, I would try to scrape the sides & add more bokashi in order to cover the mold & aid digestion.

I’m concerned that this system really does not break down the organic materials into compost. It really is in a very early state of decomposition and not appropriate for putting in my window planters (I’m an apt dweller). It appears that it only gets to a state of partially digested/rotted food. Is this correct?

Thanks,

J

My reply:

Thanks for your comments. I’ll answer them as best as I can. Using a 1Kg bag of bokashi in a two month period is within a normal range but for a single person, you are correct: it should last longer. Bokashi is very forgiving. As long as it has something to eat/grow on, it will continue to do its work.

With regard to the mold, on Page 2 of the instruction sheet is says:

The Signs Of A Successful Fermentation
Smell: Well fermented food organics should have a smell similar to that of pickles or
cider vinegar.

Visual: Occasionally, particularly for longer fermentation periods a white cotton-like
fungi growth may appear on the surface. This shows that a good fermentation
process has occurred.

The Signs That All Is Not Well*
Smell: A strong rancid or rotten smell indicates a poor batch of compost.

Visual: The presence black or blue-green fungi indicates that contamination has occurred
and the process has not fermented but putrefied.

Was your mold white or black? Did your food waste smell fermented or putrid?

With regard to what is happening in the bucket, again, you are correct: the system does not break down the organic materials into "black gold" compost.

It states this on Page 2 of the instruction sheet:

The Composting Process
The composting process is one of fermentation, which is like pickling
onions in a jar. The organic food will not breakdown or decompose
while it is in the bucket. So if you have a bucket that is fermenting
with a pickling/vinegar type smell and looks the same when you put the
food in the bucket, this is okay composting is still happening.

On Page 4 it states that the finishing process is as follows:

How To Use Your Biosa Bokashi Compost or What to do when the bucket is full

In existing gardens
Dig a hole/trench approximately 20-25 cms deep, add the fermented food organics and mix with some soil, then cover with the remaining soil. The FM fermented compost is acidic when first dug in but neutralises after 7-10 days. Bacteria in the soil and compost will start to break down the food and after about 2-4 weeks all the food will have decomposed. Alternatively you can add it to an existing compost bin.

For people who live in apartments, there are different solutions possible and I offer the suggestion provided in this weblink:

http://www.livingsoil.co.uk/learning/planters.html

According to one of my clients, this has worked very well for him.

I hope this is helpful for you J. The concerns you raised will be made more clear in my information brochures and instructions.

Please contact me to get another bag of bokashi.

Regards,

Al

*I did not include this section in my original reply.

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• Listening to: St Germain - [Tourist #01] Rose Rouge - sooooo nice to destress with http://tinyurl.com/5wmjjn #
• “KRAZY! at the Vancouver Art Gallery…” Female graphic artist has some things to say about that. http://tinyurl.com/5jefw3 #
• Going to an all day Health & Safety meeting. Hope it is more exciting than it sounds. #

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• Made a label for my bokashi bags. No more plain ziplock. Will be interesting to see how well it lasts. #
• @Miss604 I don’t feel bad about this one. QE Park is for the view, Stanley Park is for the trees. Short term pain, long term gain. #
• Breakfast: Cottage cheese, walnut oil, curry powder. Protein, satiated, flavour #
• Off to Coquitlam via Skytrain to deliver Vita Biosa http://www.greatday.ca/VitaBiosa.html - a probiotic beverage. #

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• Moved compost from work to home and picked up compost bins from back lanes that I saw a few days before. Will probably go to a new client. #
• Decluttered Twitter. If they really want to follow me they can figure out how to send me an email and I might unblock them. Maybe. #
• Watching NASA deservedly crowing about successful Phoenix mission landing on Mars http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html #
• @moneycoach Canada has a role in the Mars mission: the weather station & we will also operate it http://tinyurl.com/56kzy6 #
• @moneycoach Thanks for @MarsPhoenix. JPL is doing this, so the updates will be in real time. Nice. On FB too http://tinyurl.com/43dmgu #
• Speaking of space, here’s a unique way to search for Flickr photos http://www.taggalaxy.de Keeping zooming in!! G’night #
• Tag pics taken at any Vancouver Farmers Market eatlocal.org http://tinyurl.com/4xv2sn & YLFMS http://tinyurl.com/3ejqsu #
• Radio stations tell me the weather forecast every 10 minutes, but I need to see it to really know it: http://tinyurl.com/4j3u4s #
• @MarsPhoenix Give yourself some credit. Some will miss the NASA show, so direct us to the source http://tinyurl.com/6l5peh Which one? #
• Walking to work for a 1pm start #

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