Day 8 Update

A full week has passed since I started my Bokashi project. Today there was finally enough juice to drain from the spigot (I would estimate a pint or less).

I directed the spigot at my bathroom sink, which has been known to drain very slowly. It had gotten so bad recently, my landlord had to call a plumber. I had already tried home remedies, including baking soda and vinegar chased by boiling water, as well as a small hand plunger, to no avail. The drain was like this when I moved in a couple months ago, and I'm hoping that now that it's been cleared by a pro, I can use Bokashi juice to help prevent another clog.

As I started draining the juice into my sink, I got so carried away I forgot to save a little of the liquid to dilute and feed to my potted plants! Oh well, maybe next week.

The Bokashi juice was dark reddish brown, and slightly viscous. The closest analogy I can think of for the smell is soy sauce.

Additionally, I added another 2 layers of frozen food scraps to the bucket, and when I opened the lid, I was pleased to find that the smell inside the container was also inoffensive.

There was a fuzzy layer of white mold growing on the surface of last week's scraps, but I have been reassured this is normal. So far so good!

The bucket is still less than half full, and that's with 3 weeks worth of scraps. This means it will probably take about 6 weeks to fill it to the top - and I've read that the retail Bokashi buckets hold about 2 weeks' worth of scraps.

I'm not sure if my homemade bucket is just way larger than those, or if I just have less food scraps than what is "typical". That would be remarkable, considering we were just marveling at how MUCH food waste it seemed like was accumulating! One week's worth of food scraps takes up more than a quarter of the space in my freezer.

And yes, when I have food scraps from meals and snacks eaten at work, I do pack them up in plastic tubs and take them home! My coworkers already know I'm a nutty re-user/recycler (I'm the only one in my department who doesn't buy cases of bottled water to drink at my desk), so I haven't gotten any weird comments yet.