Bokashi is a Japanese fermentation method the word itself means "fermented organic matter." Rather than breaking food down through decomposition like traditional composting, bokashi pickles your kitchen scraps inside an airtight bucket using beneficial microorganisms embedded in a bran mixture. The result is a nutrient-dense pre-compost ready to enrich your soil.

Traditional composting is aerobic it needs air, takes months, and can smell. Bokashi is anaerobic, taking as little as 2 weeks in the bucket plus 2 weeks buried in soil. It requires no turning, produces minimal odour, fits in a kitchen cupboard, and crucially can handle foods that would ruin a regular compost heap, like meat, fish, and dairy.

Yes, this is one of bokashi's biggest advantages. Virtually all food waste is welcome: cooked and raw meat, fish, cheese, eggs, fruit and vegetable scraps, bread, pasta, coffee grounds, tea bags, and small bones. The high-acidity fermentation environment safely neutralises pathogens that would cause problems in an outdoor heap.

Avoid liquids (water, juice, oil, milk), as they can overwhelm the fermentation process. Skip large bones, plastic, paper, ash, and animal waste. Also hold back any food with blue or black mould these aggressive moulds can disrupt the beneficial microbes. White mould, however, is perfectly fine and actually a sign things are working well.

Healthy fermentation has a few telltale signs: a tangy, vinegar-like or pickle smell (not a rotten one), white fluffy mould on the surface of the food, and liquid collecting at the bottom of the bucket. If you're getting a foul, putrid smell, the most likely culprits are an unsealed lid letting oxygen in, or not enough bran being added.

Indoors is ideal - under the kitchen counter or next to the bin is perfect. The fermentation microorganisms work best around 20°C, so avoid direct sunlight and cold spots. Keep two bins on rotation: one filling up while the other completes its fermentation cycle.

Bokashi tea (also called bokashi juice or liquid gold) is the nutrient-rich liquid that drains from your bin during fermentation. Drain it every few days via the spigot. Diluted at around 1:100 with water, it makes an exceptional liquid fertiliser for houseplants and garden beds. Undiluted, you can pour it down drains the beneficial microbes help break down pipe residue.

Once your bin has fermented for 2 weeks, the food waste though still recognisable will be thoroughly pickled. Bury it in a shallow trench in your garden, add it to a compost heap, or use a soil factory. Within 2 more weeks the microbes will integrate into the soil food web and the pre-compost will be fully transformed. Keep fresh plant roots away from the burial site during this final phase, as it's still quite acidic.