Does Bokashi smell of stench?
I was doing a bokashi experiment last night. I took the food scraps that my wife had assembled over the last three days and began to make smoothies out of the materials. The first batch went easily. Long green leaves from leeks, plus potato skins and some coffee grinds. That is when the stench started. My wife asked if that was the bokashi, and the truth is that I had yet to open the bokashi bin to add the first batch of scraps. By the way, the food scrap smoothie was a lovely vibrant green which caught my wife’s positive attention. What was happening? Why was I getting that stench out of our countertop pail before I had even opened the bokashi bin? And why did they smell so similar? What is it about those promises that bokashi has no smell?
Answers.
Bokashi cannot correct the stench of rotting foods. Have you ever tried pickling rotting cabbage? As my wife responded, “Why would I?” You know it is going to smell bad. If we place rotting food scraps into a bokashi bin, with the bran, the food scraps are still going to be rotting and probably get worse before the bokashi system can be effective at arresting the rotting process by depriving the food scraps of fresh air and moisture. Rotting food scraps are going to smell like rotting, no matter what the promises of bokashi. The stench is not coming from Bokashi, but from the rotting food scraps.
What to do?
Don’t let your food scraps start rotting in your kitchen countertop pail. The stench can be horrible, just like in your garbage can after they have sat for 7 days. Try instead for a week to use food scraps that are only 24 hrs old. Fresh food scraps will ferment/pickle better than rotting food scraps. The odors will be much more tolerable!
