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Andrea

From: “Andrea ….@telus.net>
To: ….@greatday.ca
Received: 7/22/2007 9:52:44 PM

We have a built in compost collecting tub in our kitchen countertop. Great
idea, very convenient, yet if you leave the veggie and fruit ends in to
compost for more than a few days, when you lift the well sealed lid -
wooooof! I tried adding some Bokashi product and it certainly made a big
difference is smell. I forgot last week and again lifted the lid and
everyone plugged their noses.

Thanks Al, this really does work well!

Andrea

Gail

Gail bought a bokashi bucket in the summer and now is getting another one for her tenant to use.

I couldn’t be more thrilled about the Bokashi system of recycling food scraps. The fact that there are no bugs, no worms, no odors makes this the ideal way to recycle and re-use. I would not use any other method of composting. I have told many about this and believe that I will be taking orders for Al in no time. We must save the environment and think of being clean and green. The Biosa Bokashi system is the only way to go. Thanks Al.

Tom

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.
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Tim:

I have been aware of composting for some time. Since I was a little boy, (about 30 years ago, now), my parents fetilized their two garden plots with egg shells, vegetable and fruit cuttings, tea bags and the like. In Winnipeg winter, it was fine, save for the unsightly appearance of vegetable matter peeking out of the melting snow. In Winnipeg summer, however, the kitchen was filled with little fruit flies. Less than desirable conversations were often generated about the pros and the cons of composting. (In Vancouver, the little winged-ones fly all year round!)

Regardless of the darling little janitors, putting rotting food stuffs into the ground is preferable to putting them into plastic bags, on top of landfills and under the sun. It is the interim period that produces the inconvenience of the fruit flies.

My parents began deterring the fruit eaters by filling the interim-bucket with tap water. I began doing the same, here in Vancouver, but then the question of the water table arose? The disatrous effects of chlorine leeching from the top soil into the water table have been well documented; here in Vancouver, in 1997, five glasses of tap water posed a lethal threat to the unborn in the first trimester! What to do?

One day, this last summer, my co-parent returned from the Trout Lake Farmer’s Market with a brochure and tales of a conversation with an interesting and gentle man about composting. I felt like it was answer to my composting dilemma and called the next day and ordered Biosa. However, after recounting my good fortune to a neighbour, I called again and canceled. I had been convinced by my skeptical neighbour that Biosa was a scam.

“Composting is free, this guy wants you to buy a product to do something that is free! Just tear up some egg cartons and add them to the bottom of your bucket. That is composting,” my neighbour said.

I got back home, flies still buzzing around. I deliberated. I met with Al, asked a bunch of questions, read some information. A week later, I got the bucket system.

A month later, when the first one was full, I got another bucket system both to continue the collection process as well as to let the first batch pickle well.

I am very pleased with Biosa Bakashi Composting system.

Immediately, my garbage is no longer wet, and when it gets to the landfill, I’d hazard a guess that it produces many times less greenhouse gases than compost-filled bags and possibly none at all.

In the long term, Biosa replaces the nutrients lost in the ever-eroding topsoil layer.

Given the current state of affairs, I’d say that Biosa is cheap at twice the price!

Thanks, Al!
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Susan’s Super Citizen Showcase:
Al’s pleasantly scented compost solution

“‘It’s changing the world - one bucket of compost at a time’.

That’s why Al Pasternak likes selling Biosa Bokashi Bucket systems to folks like me - a person who really loves the idea of things that are “hassle-free,” as Al describes his product. This alternative composting system is powered by beneficial micro-organisms that ferment kitchen waste (including meat and dairy products) into a soil conditioner that is buried directly into the garden.

Al, who promoted his product at the East Vancouver Farmers Market last season, says he has always been interested in sustainable living and a low impact life style. He’s been educating people about using Bokashi - which means “fermented organic matter” in Japanese - and offering it as a “simple and easy” alternative for recycling kitchen waste.

“My main message is that composting can be done in a small space and it can be done with a minimum of fuss - which means that it can be done indoors and it won’t attract flies and have odours,” he says. “I wanted to find something that involved dealing with waste - stuff we have here anyways - and making it available to to people when it otherwise wouldn’t be available… As a job, I love it - if you have to call it a job. It’s not work; it’s fun.”

A week ago, I bought a system from Al, who surprised me by arriving at my house with the whole set-up bungeed to the back of his bicycle - two 15-litre buckets and a one-kilo bag of Bokashi. It was with great delight that my six-year-old son inaugurated the bucket with its first handful of Bokashi, followed by the first piece of compost fodder: a half-eaten banana. Since then, we’ve been carefully following Al’s instructions to throw in our kitchen waste, compress it with a plastic bag, and sprinkle a handful of Bokashi onto every three centimetres of food.

So far, no stink, which pleases me immensely. In fact, it smells great - unlike some of my past, well-intentioned composting experiences. I still have a deep-seated olfactory memory of reluctantly opening the lid of a traditional kitchen compost, psyching myself for the wall of warm, steamy stench that seems to announce “party time!” to all flies lucky enough to be in the vicinity. It’s like the opposite of aroma therapy… aroma trauma! (Actually I’ve often wondered if there could be a market hole for aroma trauma…)

While a traditional compost decomposes food using heat and exposure to air (hence the stinkiness we tolerate in the name of recycling and being good to the Earth), the Bokashi system is anaerobic, doing its magic in an air-tight container. The Bokashi, which smells like sweet vinegar, is fermented by Biosa - a mixture of photosynthetic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria, and yeast.

According to Al’s literature, these micro-organisms occur naturally worldwide but in recent years, there are less of them in many soils due to over-farming and the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Hence here’s another advantage to the Bokashi system: it gets these helpful microbes back into the soil where they can assist plant growth and disease-resistance.

Putting this beneficial concoction of friendly micro-organism infested waste into the garden sounds like a great idea indeed - but what if you don’t have a garden?

“Of course the question comes up: Where are you going to put the stuff?” says Al, who suggests community gardens as a good destination for the Bokashi bucket’s finished product. Right now he’s exploring the possibility of starting a pick-up service for people who don’t have anywhere to put it - so check out his website and ask him about it.

I’m very thankful that Al has taken on this project and I will update on it further down the road. For more information on Biosa Bokashi, visit Al’s website:www.greatday.ca”
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Tiffany

Thanks very much - we’re loving the system and recommend it to all our friends.
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