Bokashi is hot in Edmonton!

…I will have a post up about it at www.adhdcanuck.ca very shortly but shall outline the basics here…also I posted about my own experience at the link below, which covers the experience of a single person fairly well.

http://adhdcanuck.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/bokashi-composting-my-ongoing-experiment-pt-2/

I placed a bokashi system from www.ecolivingorganics.com in each of four urban environments. An office, a busy family of 5, a young couple in an apartment, and a busy professional power couple in a home starting a family. They have all been operating for weeks, except one which just started due to a family vacation.

I got some great high profile participants including the Deputy Mayor of Edmonton (city of 1 Million) where I live, and an NGO office called the Alberta Council for Global Co-Operation. (www.acgc.ca).

I have tracking mechanisms in place, and am going to demonstrate how it is now easy and cheap to reduce your garbage output by 50% or more, even in a dense urban environment. They will be reviewing all aspects of the system, ease of use, cleaning, smell, how it integrates with their lives over time, and generate a LOT of tips about how this composter works in different environments. They behave differently when you fill them quickly, slowly, the type of material added, and the experiences of new people who have never done it before is very important.

There’s also another family on the go in Edmonton who are blogging about their Bokashi project, more about them in a separate post! So far so good it seems for them, it seems to be turning out easier and better than they thought. Which is handy when you’re flat out with everything else life throws your way.

What’s especially interesting about this project is that life in Edmonton is about as cold and white and icy and snowy as it is here. Don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining all the time, but it really forces you to be creative about your composting strategy! (Along with a fair few other things…)

Winter storage is the big one. If you can find a way of storing your Bokashi over the winter you’ve got it made, because when spring comes you’ll be really, really glad you did. Even a small garden can take any amount of Bokashi, the soil just goes on getting better and better. Insulated compost, biobags stacked until spring, sacks with leaf mulch and Bokashi — it will be interesting to see what these guys do in the months when you can’t get a spade near the soil.

And for the experiment gang there in Canada — please keep us posted! It’s really interesting to see what you’re doing. This community experiment is a really great initiative, not just for your local community but for all the rest of us out here in Bokashi-world who can pick up some inspiration from your efforts. Thanks!