Bokashi Buckets

Online retailers offer pre-made plastic Bokashi buckets that are cute-looking and handy. These buckets have a false floor inside that allows liquid to drip down and stay separate from the fermenting matter, as well as a little spigot on the outside so you can drain away the juice.

• Sustainable Community Development (SCD) offers the "Happy Farmer Kitchen Composter" by itself for $59.99, or as a complete starter kit with a 1-gallon bag of Bokashi mix (normally $9.99 by itself) for $65.99. It's offered in tan with a green lid, all black, or "marble" (all white).


• Real Goods and Gaiam (same company) offer the same starter kit for $75.00, and the 1-gallon Bokashi mix refills for $12.00. Although they are more expensive, I'm listing them in case you want to check out all their other cool product offerings :)

• Al Pasternak, a dealer of "Biosa" brand EM, sells the above kit for $45.00 - but without a spigot - and only in Canada. His Bokashi refills are $15.00 a bag.
  

You can also make your own Bokashi buckets for a lot less. Click here to see an awesome DIY project by a man named Jay, who made his own Bokashi bucket out of a square tub that some kitty litter came in. Instead of nesting two buckets, he built a false bottom out of a piece of acrylic, and also added a spigot.

I don't have the tools to make such a fancy Bokashi pail, but after a bunch of digging around online, I came up with a very affordable source for buckets with a spigot already installed - from a home beer-brewing hobbyist site!

My plan is to drill holes in the bottom of a plain 6-gallon bucket, then nest it inside a bucket with a spigot.

• 6-gallon bucket with spigot: $11.45
• Plain 6-gallon bucket: $7.95
• Lid (very important!): $1.75
• Total: $21.15 + shipping (although I still have to order a bag of Bokashi mix)

My only worry is that if I nest the plain bucket inside the bucket with the spigot, the bottom of the plain bucket may sit lower than the spigot. I hope that's not the case! From eyeballing the photos, I think I'll be okay.