Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label bokashi

Earthquake Clean-up with E.M.

When you think earthquake, do you think about the following possible events, sounds and sights? Impassable roads (fallen hidro lines, collapsed bridges, landslides, tsunamis or boulders blocking any passage like the ones you see fenced off on the roads through the Rockies No hydro; no phones because of pole and tower collapses No cell signals because of jammed, inoperable towers Broken water mains; perhaps obstruction by landslides No operable bank machines Fuel confined to use by emergency vehicles only Only the most seriously injured will be seen by doctors or hospitals No food delivery systems Hoarding of supplies results in rapid emptying of shelves in the stores Now, what about smells and pathogens (disease-causing microorganisms?)?  How about the smells that will result when sewage lines break and mix with the flood waters everywhere?  Most of us have had our delicate noses assaulted by something like a backed-up toilet or a malfunctioning septic system once or twice

Putting the Bokashi and Worm Compost Equipment Together

--> As I mentioned in my last post, I am putting together composting equipment for this winter -- a set of bokashi pails for the kitchen and a worm composting (aka vermi-culture) bin for the side room off the kitchen. Bokashi involves culturing kitchen scraps with a sort of probiotic that one sprinkles on the waste each time it is put in the pail. It is an anaerobic method of composting (meaning there is no air involved-- more like making traditional sauerkraut) and I intend to take the probiotic scraps and bury them in an 18" deep trench in my backyard and cover the probiotic with soil.  In 2-10 weeks (depending where you live), the bokashi will be unrecognizable as kitchen scraps.  It will even digest meat, bone, and avocado pits.  I have been reassured that there is no nasty odor involved in making bokashi. The kit for making my bokashi includes 3 5-gallon pails and 2 tight fitting lids for the pails.  Today I drilled 3 small holes dead center in the bottom of 2

Organic Harvest Score Card 2010

Friend Generous Mike's lush organic kale crop This year our older grand- daughter started kinder- garten. After her first day in the system (an hour in a Montes- sori classroom) she announced, "Kinder- garten is fine, Lola. I made lots and lots of friends". And I watch other kids returning to school in their new duds or new post-summer identities, all looking hopeful, with their new backpacks slung over their shoulders. All this hopefulness and optimism for the coming year reminds me of my gardening persona in about May. Any May. I have sprouted new plants, tilled and amended new garden patches, read new advice in books and online. By mid-July (any mid-July) I have pretty much slacked off on the daily 10-minute check for weeds, the necessary watering, the pruning of roses, the pinching off of bolted Cilantro, etc. We travel here and there doing fun summer things. I spend a lot of time on the Internet doing fun writing projects (or just maintaining my su