I make mine with the whey from kefir which has accidentally frozen in our crazy refrigerator several times and still wakes up and ferments the milk just fine so I'm of the opinion that they're pretty hardy little good-bugs and I'd give it a try. No promises, of course, but I'd give it a whirl on at least a small batch. You can always start a new batch and have it going so if it doesn't work you'd not have lost too much time.

Veda, I like your idea......I'l just make a small batch and see what happens. Your mention of whey from kefir reminded me about something I've wanted to try and that is making bokashi bran using whey from my homemade yogurt. Usually I make Greek yogurt so (after straining) I get about 3-4 cups of whey per 8-10 cups of whole milk used. Have never tasted the LAB from rice wash method but it looks just the same as my yogurt whey. I'd be interested to know if anyone has tried using yogurt whey (or kefir whey) to make their bokashi bran.

Harry

I do it all the time- I save up the whey in the fridge until I have about a quart, add molasses, add a gallon of spring water and mix it in with wheat bran or rice bran from the feed store, seal it up in a garbage bag in a bucket with all of the air squished out of the bag and let it ferment someplace dark and warm for 2 or 3 weeks.

Veda, great to hear but have you used any of the bokashi bran yet and if so how effective was it? I found that my last batch of bran didn't produce nearly as much of the "good" white mold on the fermented bokashi scraps. Maybe the amount of white mold is not the ultimate measure of the success of the bokashi process.

Harry

I've been doing it this way for a couple of years now. ;)

Veda, does your finished bokashi food scraps have very much white mold or just a very thin coating like mine has had recently. Also, what do you do with your finished bokashi......bury it in your compost or garden or feed it to any worm bins you might have?

Harry

Not much white mold, but I've always read that if you are packing the buckets tightly with little to no air you won't get as much white mold so I've never worried about it and have never had problem with a batch breaking down quickly once buried. I have always been under the impression that mold *may* happen and if its white there is no need to worry because its the good stuff- not that it WILL happen. :)

what I do with it really depends on what is happening when it is ready- if I have a bed I'm getting ready to plant I bury it there a couple weeks before I do, I have used a 4'x4'x16"" raised bed as a "dirt maker" just burying the bokashi as ready and turning it and then top dressing beds with it when ready. If I don't have a place for it I bury it in the regular compost as an accelerator. A worm bin is on my to-do list but its a long list....

Veda, is your"dirt maker" bottomless and sit on native soil?

The reason i'm asking is because I recently had about 20 red wigglers migrate up from the soil upon which my finished bokashi bucket was sitting! It only had about 1gal. of bokashi in it and 6-7 holes (1/4") drilled in the bottom.

What I'm getting at is if worms can find their way into your "dirt maker" from underneath you might have the best of both worlds!

By the way, that's sort of how I discovered vermicomposting. I had plastic composting container (with no floor) and had thousands of worms migrate/populate the contents of the bin within 1-2 years. As they say......"build it and they will come."