OG Tip of the Day: Make Your Own Bokashi Bucket
Thursday December 11, 2008
As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I really like my Happy Farmer Bokashi Composting kit, but I will admit that there aren't many people who are even remotely interested in paying $40 or more for a plastic bucket. The good news is, it's pretty simple to make a serviceable Bokashi bucket yourself. And you can even have a nifty spigot to harvest the liquids.
It won't be as pretty as the pre-made buckets, but for the price of two five gallon buckets (picture the ones you can buy at home improvement stores) and a few minutes spent with a drill, you can make your own bucket for Bokashi. It's pretty simple really:
1. On the bottom of one bucket, drill 20 to 30 holes with a 1/8 to 1/4 inch drill bit.
2. Set the drilled bucket into the other bucket, which you have not drilled holes in.
3. Cover the bucket with a tight-fitting lid. Usually, you will find matching lids near the buckets in the home center.
4. Start adding your food scraps and Bokashi to the bucket.
A few tips for using this system: the bucket needs to be air-tight for the contents to ferment properly. Remember, Bokashi is an anaerobic system. If you find that the lid you've purchased doesn't fit as tightly as you'd like, place a cloth or old t-shirt over the top of the bucket, and then snap the lid on. The extra bit of fabric will make the bucket more airtight. This basic system doesn't have a spigot, but it would be easy enough to harvest any liquid by lifting the top bucket off of the bottom bucket, and pouring any liquid that has collected in the bottom bucket into a separate container. If you want a spigot, you can find them at most hardware stores and home centers for under ten dollars.
All together, this system should cost less than $20, and requires nothing more than a basic drill in the way of tools. Good luck!
Making your own bokashi starter culture in place of commercially available EM is incredibly easy.
My goal from the start was to produce bokashi compost without the use of expensive EM, bran or fancy buckets.
Step one:
The most important component of the commercial EM in relation to bokashi is lactobacillus bacteria, the others are secondary (if at all necessary) and can be cultured in the bucket when conditions are favorable.
I culture my own lactobacillus serum starting with a rice wash water solution.
Making the serum is amazingly simple.
I mix one part rice thoroughly with two parts water (1/2 a cup to one cup). Mix thoroughly and vigorously. Drain. The resulting water should be cloudy.
Place the rice water in a container with 50-75% head space allowing plenty of air to circulate. Cover lightly (air should be able to move in and out of the container) and place in a cool dark spot for 5-8 days.
At the end of the wait the mixture should smell mildly sour.
Strain out any particles.
Step two.
Put the finished rice water solution in a bigger container and add 10 parts milk (I use skim). DO NOT seal tightly, the gases must be able to escape.
Allow 14 days for a complete ferment, most of the solids in the milk will float to the top revealing the yellowish serum.
Strain off the solids.
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Make Your Own Bokashi Bucket. 
