My thanks to Douglas Mounde for raising my awareness of this topic

Source: https://www.thespruce.com/basics-of-bokashi-composting-2539742

JANE PERRONE: BOKASHI COMPOSTING: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SLIMMING DOWN YOUR BLACK BIN WASTE

Nearly every or would-be gardener knows that that composting is a good practice for the garden and for the environment, but not everyone knows there are many ways that composting can be practiced. At a basic level, all composting is a process by which organic materials are deliberately decomposed in a controlled fashion to produce a material that can be used to return nutrients to the soil. The recipe for traditional composting is a mixture of “green” materials that are high in nitrogen, “brown” materials that are high in carbon, along with air and water.

But within the broad definition, there are many ways to practice composting¹.

Simple on-site composting in which pretty much all organic scraps and refuse (except for meat products) are heaped together and allowed to decompose.
Vermicomposting uses red worms to hasten the breakdown of organic materials.
Windrow composting is high volume composting using long rows of organic materials that are aerated regularly.
Static-pile composting involves piling up organic matter to be broken down by bacteria.
In-vessel composting takes up the least amount of space because organic materials are collected in a drum or vessel to be manually or mechanically turned and mixed.
Bokashi composting is quite different than other methods. While it takes some special equipment and materials, Bokashi composting requires only about 10 days to convert organic materials into useable material, and the nutrient value of the material is among the highest of any method of composting.

How Bokashi Composting Works

Bokashi is a Japanese word meaning “fermented organic matter.” Developed in the early 1980s by Dr. Teuro Higa, a professor at the University of Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan, the method involves layering kitchen scraps (vegetables and fruits, as well as meat and dairy scraps) with a Bokashi inoculant in a special bucket. Usually, the inoculant consists of either wheat germ, wheat bran, or sawdust combined with molasses and effective microorganisms (EM). The bran/molasses serves as the food for the microorganisms, which are the same natural microorganisms found in soil. You can make your own system² or buy complete Bokashi composting kits online, from garden stores, or natural living retailers, which also sell the replenishment products, including the effective microorganisms and bran/molasses.

The Bokashi bucket has an air-tight lid and a spigot at the bottom to drain off the liquid that is produced. The liquid must be drained off to prevent the bucket from developing a somewhat foul odor, but the liquid serves as a very nutritious “bokashi tea” that can be used to fertilize houseplants.

When layered and left to sit out of direct sunlight, the mixture quickly begins to ferment, and within 10 days the fermented mixture can be dug directly into the garden or added to a traditional compost bin or pile to finish its decomposition. In essence, the bokashi process is a fermentation process rather than a traditional composting method.

Unlike traditional composting, which is an aerobic process that requires oxygen, Bokashi is an anaerobic process that requires that you isolate the materials from oxygen as much as possible. The bucket should be opened only to add scraps, not to check on the materials. Some people recommend pressing the food waste into the composter to squeeze out the air, then leaving a plate (or another flat object) resting on top of the material to shield it from exposure to oxygen.

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Other

Bokashi Composting: A Step By Step Instructional Guide

Bokashi composting is an anaerobic fermentation process that relies on inoculated bran to ferment kitchen waste, including meat and dairy, into a safe soil builder and nutrient-rich tea for your plants.

Bokashi is a composting method of fermentation that you can easily do at home with just a few simple steps that involve sealing kitchen scraps and organic waste in an airtight container with a medium.

The finished product is an extremely nutrient-dense plant food that may be buried in compost trenches in a garden.

It is an anaerobic fermentation process that relies on inoculated Bokashi bran to ferment kitchen waste, including meat and dairy, into a safe soil builder and nutrient-rich tea for your plants.

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Bokashi Compost Buckets: An Easy DIY Method

Most stationary and tumbler-style composters handle plant materials, paper and cardboard, some manures, and the occasional eggshell. Vermicomposters can handle all of those as well as occasional rice or pasta that can gum up a tumbler composter or draw pests if added too frequently. But only one method of composting can handle all of the above as well as dairy products and meats, and that is bokashi composting!

Videos

I will discuss the benefits of Bokashi composting, and show how easy it is to compost from start to finish. This method will allow you to compost efficiently in a small space.

Bokashi composting is one of my favorite ways to make extra use of an abundance of food scraps. By building a simple bokashi bin or bokashi bucket, and using inoculated bran as a fermentation agent, you can ‘pre-digest’ food scraps before you put them into your soil. It’s an absolutely amazing way to compost quicker, and compost MORE. You can compost meats, fats, oils, and cooked food with bokashi, none of which you’d put in your hot compost pile or worm bin

If you are curious about Bokashi Composting or just getting started and want to know what to expect, this is the only video that shows you the complete process including what it looks like as you put it into your soil. You can get a Bokashi Composting system here. https://amzn.to/2LEuYw4

You can make your own Bokashi Bran “from scratch” with this DIY recipe. The purpose of the bran is to inoculate the food waste with microorganisms to help them ferment – the main organism is lactic acid bacteria. My experience has been that this simple method of culturing lactobacillus from rice starch makes for an effective bokashi starter. I gather the starch from rice wash (rice water), culture the lactic acid bacteria using milk, then finally inoculate the wheat bran. When finished, the bran can be dried and stored for a year or more. This method is quite inexpensive compared to buying the bran in small batches commercially or even buying the EM starter liquid.

Bokashi kits

https://www.bokashi.com.au/shop/Bokashi+One/Bokashi+One+Starter+Pack.html