Bokashi is more a process of fermentation than composting. Essentially, exactly like beer making, in fact some advocate the use of EM to make beer. Virtually any organic material can be "started" in an anaerobic vessel with the right organisms to start fermentation. What it lacks, until the pickled or brewed ingredients go into a true compost pile, is the heat process that destroys pathogens, toxins and carcinogens making compost safe not only to work with, but also to apply to any food growing process. There is nothing magical about Bokashi any more than applying spent grains and yeast "wort" to compost. My primary question is one of why add an extra step to the basic and time proven aerobic process of producing good compost that in itself has plenty of value in soil improvement and plant growth. I collect my kitchen waste in a small container and add that directly to my compost pile where nature and worms do what they have for eons...complete with a broad range of fungi and micro-organisms. Ocassionally, when I make beers, ales, stouts, porters and european styles, the residual by product also goes into the compost pile...as did the Bokashi/EM I purchased...as I just couldn't see the value added of another step, another product, or another process.

I've done three rounds of bokashi. I made my own bins from 5 gallon buckets nested inside each other, a wooden insert to press the air out, and a gamma seal lid. I did buy the bran but was hoping to make my own next time from liquid EM. We'll see if I get around to it.

I'm in the south and don't keep my house very cool in the summer. My summer bokashi seemed to rot but the fall and winter rounds have done great. I've added it to my soil and it quickly (five weeks) was dark soil like material. I used the liquid on a lettuce container that was filled with only peat - slight oversight there but they did great.

The advantage of bokashi for me is I don't have to turn my big pile as often to produce good compost quickly. I currently don't have the time I used to for soil making. Because the bokashi is smaller (5 gallons at a time) I only need 20 or 30 minutes to do a big process like emptying it into the soil and covering it. Turning my pile by hand would take me at least an hour but closer to two. The bokashi will be in the soil ready to plant in with in 8 weeks after you seal it as full. That's faster than I was getting from my compost pile in general.

I still have my outside compost pile and will mostly use that in the summer this year unless I find a cooler place to store my bokashi.

Also, I was able to fill my 5 gallon bin in two days of relish making and pear canning. Sometimes it will take me three weeks to fill the bin with normal family cooking.

There is a site (check out LONG thread..."why I love the internet") back from last year, about this time.

One guy used newspaper he had soaked in lactic acid/non chlorinated water mix and then let the newspaper dry. He used that has his bran.

You can use the whey from yogurt the lactic acid. Plain yogurt, with active cultures. Even cheaper if you make your own yogurt.