The continuing saga starts with an explanation and disclaimer.
Bokashi numbers 1, 2, & 3 are in the foreground of the picture above from right to left.
The Continuing Saga Explanation and Disclaimer
If you read through The Bokashi Set-Up, The First Week, and One Month In, you may get the idea that I have continued with the Bokashi ever since 2019. Technically, yes I have kept these pails in my basement fermenting for almost 2 years. Once the first pail was full, which took about a month, and we started to fill the second pail, something occurred to me.
We live in a townhouse with no yard.
I had installed 3 small vegetable gardens over the 12 or so years that we lived there. Just on the fringes, where nothing seemed to grow in the degraded soil. We didn’t have a community garden plot, or bigger compost pile that we could add the excess Bokashi too either.
By the time the third pail was being filled, I thought, “we had better pull the plug on this experiment before the basement is filled with Bokashi”. So, that is what happened. We stopped collecting for the Bokashi and went back to the drawing board. But, I kept the 3 pails for future additions to the gardens I have.
Fast Forward to November 2020
Then we moved!
In November of 2020, we finally got the opportunity to move into a bigger space. A space complete with a (very beat up) back yard. Finally there is space for the Bokashi. No time to waste.
The weather was being very cooperative during the move. So much so, that I was able to dig about 8 inches into the ground before hitting the frost. I quickly gathered materials and set up to use at least some of the Bokashi. The rest will be saved for the Spring.
The Continuing Saga of Bokashi #1
As you can see in the top picture Bokashi #1 was started in February and finished being filled in March 2019. At the time, it was filled right to the brim so to keep the air out. When I opened it in November of 2020, the top of the material was about 2 inches lower. The smell was that of a “party hall the morning after, when you go back to clean up” Kind of a sweet, alcoholic, funk.. Not pleasant, but not totally stomach turning.
I dug a 6×4 foot hole about 8 inches deep.
Remember this is November in Canada. It is extremely lucky this whole yard isn’t covered in 2 feet of snow, or frozen completely solid. I also had a few pails of garden soil and compost to empty onto this pile, so I wasn’t worried about attracting any pests by the shallow pit.
The contents of Bokashi #1 were emptied into the bottom of the pit. Effectively making it the new compost pile for now. I would say the contents were mostly indistinguishable. There were definitely still bones visible, and some bigger objects, like eggshells, but that is to be expected, I think.
I had some extra organic compost from cleaning up the truck after a topdressing job in the summer. And, some finished, but roughly screened, worm compost from our vermicomposting bins. So I placed that on top of the Bokashi. Then I buried the whole thing with a mix of straw and the soil I had originally dug up from the yard in the first place.
The Best of Intentions…
My initial intention was to get some straw bales and make a temporary cold frame greenhouse around this pile, and plant into it for an early harvest, but that hasn’t happened yet. That is why there is an insulated tarp covering it in the picture below. I was trying to buy time to get the garden set up, but there were other priorities with the new house.
So, for now, I will dig it up in the Spring (2021) and see what we have. I put the tarp away and just let it freeze.
The Continuing Saga of Bokashi #2 coming soon..