How A Single Bucket Changed Our Game For Composting

On our homestead, we do our best to limit our waste including food scraps. However, with four young boys whose tastes change from week to week, we often end up with cooked foods (most commonly left over from their school lunches) that can’t go into our traditional backyard compost pile. 

For years, I thought our only option was to toss them into the municipal green bin; that is until I discovered a solution.

Welcome to Bokashi. 

Our bokashi bucket comes with a handy spout to drain off nutrient-rich bokashi tea.

With bokashi composting, we can compost all food waste, from vegetable peels and bread to cooked meals, oils, and even meat & dairy - things that normally don’t belong in a traditional compost pile!

Unlike traditional composting, which can take months and months to fully break down, bokashi is a fermentation process that uses beneficial microbes to pre-digest food scraps before they head into the soil. 

The result? Faster breakdown, fewer odours, and nutrient-rich compost that our garden loves.

What Is Bokashi Composting?

Bokashi is a Japanese method of composting that relies on anaerobic fermentation. 

Instead of tossing scraps into a pile outside, food waste is layered inside an airtight container and inoculated with a microbial solution. Over a couple of weeks, the microbes ferment the scraps, creating a “pickled” mix that breaks down very quickly once buried in the soil.

Using Homemade LAB Spray Instead of Bran

We make our own LAB solution and keep it in a jar and spray bottle for easy use with food scraps.

Most bokashi systems use purchased inoculated bran, but we decided to make our own inoculant LAB (lactic acid bacteria) spray. LAB is a powerful culture made by fermenting rice water and milk that is so easy to make! 

It’s full of beneficial microbes (predominantly lactobacillus strains) that help break down organic matter, while suppressing harmful bacteria.

By spraying our food scraps with our homemade LAB spray, we:

• Save money (no need to buy bokashi bran)
• Use what we already have in the kitchen
• Maintain a strong, active microbial culture that’s effective and natural
• Naturally decrease odours - substantially! Keep reading for info on how it acts as odour control! 

How We Do It

1. Collect food scraps. Everything from vegetable peels to leftovers goes into our bokashi bucket. (Yes, even things that don’t do well in a traditional compost pile like bread, cooked food, and even oils!)

2. Spray with LAB. Each time we add scraps, we give them a mist of homemade LAB. This helps start the fermentation process.

3. Keep it airtight. We cover the scraps with a reused plastic sheet to help limit oxygen and then place the sealed lid on top. The bucket stays sealed until it’s full, which keeps things oxygen-free. This fermentation works best in an anaerobic (limited oxygen) environment. 

4. Fermentation time. Once the bucket is full, we let it sit for about two weeks. The food scraps “pickle” during this time.

5. Soil integration. Once fermentation is complete (white bacterial growth can be seen throughout the bucket), we dig a hole in our compost pile and bury the fermented food waste. Within just a few weeks, the scraps are fully broken down into rich soil life that feeds our plants. We have found the heat generated from our compost pile is greatly increased and even the yard waste added to our compost breaks down much faster. 

   

   The white growth is healthy LAB bacteria at work, fermenting our food scraps instead of letting them rot.

Why We Love It

• Low odour. Thanks to LAB, the bucket smells more like vinegar with no scent of rotting food.

• Fast breakdown. Once buried, the scraps decompose quickly, enriching the soil.

• No pests. Because the food ferments rather than rots, it doesn’t attract mice, raccoons, or other critters.

• Year-round composting. Since the bokashi bucket can be kept indoors (remember - no putrid odours), we can compost even in the middle of winter! 

• Soil health. LAB adds beneficial microbes to the soil, which improves plant health and resilience.

Natural Odour Control

One of the biggest benefits of using LAB spray is its ability to control odours, and not just for compost! 

Stinky drain? Pour some down it! 

The beneficial bacteria in LAB simply outcompete and suppress the microbes that normally cause food scraps and other bacteria ridden items (like drains) to smell bad. 

When it comes to bokashi specifically, our fermenting bucket of food waste ends up smelling more like a vinegar/pickled smell instead of a foul odour. This odour reduction also continues once buried into our outdoor compost pile. 

Fun fact, LAB is so effective at neutralizing odours that it’s often used in large-scale poultry and pig farms in Japan and parts of China to help control the smell of manure!

Plant Booster!

We mix our homemade LAB solution with rain water in a foliar sprayer for easy application in the garden.

LAB can also be used as a foliar spray on any plants in the garden. It is believed just like how good bacteria can boost the immune systems of humans, the same can be said about plants! According to JADAM (a Korean natural farming method), LAB can promote nutrient cycling while increasing the plants resistance to pathogens.

We used it for the first time this summer, and will use it more often next season to see for myself if it does help to improve overall plant health. 

Bokashi Tea

The nutrient-rich bokashi tea is drained and diluted with water before being added to our garden.

Bokashi composting systems make a "tea" as the food scraps ferment (similar to worm leachate that can be formed within worm bins), this is why having drainage at the bottom of your bokashi bucket is so important. This tea can be added to rain or filtered water, adding a significant boost of the beneficial bacteria and nutrients within the water. We use it throughout our gardens, house plants, and if nothing is thirsty, we choose to pour it directly on our compost pile. 

Next Week: How to Make LAB Spray at Home

If you’re curious about how to make your own LAB spray, you won’t want to miss next week’s blog post! I will walk you through the exact steps we use to make it at home for pennies! From fermenting rice water to collecting and preparing the culture. It’s simple, inexpensive, and something anyone can do at home.

Fermenting rice water is the first step in creating our homemade LAB solution.

Our bokashi system with homemade LAB spray has been an absolutely game-changer for our homestead. Not only are we putting food waste to use in our very own yard, but it has also allowed us to make more compost than ever before in record time! It is so easy, costs next to nothing, and is incredibly effective - a perfect example of how homesteading is really about working with nature instead of against it.

Will you try it yourself? Please let me know if you do! Tag or message us on our socials! @thesunnyhillhomestead on Instagram or @sunnyhillhomestead on Facebook. 

Until next time, 

Sarah & The Sunnyhill Homestead Family.