Sunday 22 April 2012

My Bokashi Bin

As often happens when Deb says, "shall we just drive to so and so and straight back?" we ended going on a lovely jaunt. Firstly we collected Deb's car from Nedlands where it had had a full service. Deb drove slowly through the surrounding streets so that we could admire the beautiful old houses and gardens in the area, I saw rainbow lorikeets in a tall palm tree and such huge bougainvillea plants that they seemed like solid walls of colour.

Then Deb says "shall we drive home through Fremantle?" and it's "oh yes please" from me! As we got to Cottesloe I ask if she's been to the Boatshed Markets which is my idea of paradise in a shop. We entered through the adjoining fish mongers where a nice young Scotsman was frying snapper fillets in coconut breadcrumbs for shoppers to sample. "They'll be ready in 5minutes" he assured us so we admired the huge range of fish, shellfish and condiments and then went downstairs to the French Bakery. They had at least 30 different types of bread, unctuous cakes/gateaux, pies and genuine macaroons. Next we drifted past the deli counter and admired such works of art as a Moroccan Chickpea Salad and 4inch high slabs of lasagne. On to the cheeses next $100 a kilo for imported cheese was a bit much so we walked around the beautiful fresh fruit and vegies section....the variety here is remarkable and it's all so very fresh. So we went back to the fishmonger's to see if the snapper was ready and it had all been eaten already lol We waited patiently for the next batch and dunked our generous serves into a pot of delicious aioli, it was perfect.

Back in the car Deb says, "shall we see if the Planet Ark store is open this time?" So she drives into Freo and we park right at the door and wander in...I was looking for a safe paint or varnish for Twitch's cabin in January but the owners were away in India at a retreat. Now that Twitch lives indoors I don't need the paint but it was very interesting to look around the shop and chat to David, the owner. Deb was especially looking for a filter to put on the outside of house to filter all the water coming in. Then she spotted the great lighting systems and LED globes and spent the next 30 minutes asking questions about them!!

In the meantime I'd been looking at the Bokashi composting units for indoors and I still had some money from 2 Christmases ago so I bought one. Narelle has blogged about how to make one from two plastic bins and a tap etc but it was really beyond me so I am happy to have bitten the bullet and bought one at last. Narelle also shows how to make the material that breaks everything down. The beauty of this system is that it takes all kitchen scraps, even meat/citrus etc that you wouldn't add to a compost pile and you get the rich "tea" or liquid compost on tap with very little fuss. Each evening I press the waste down firmly, it's sitting on a colander type basket, and apply 1/3 of a cup of the bokashi powder. The lid is very firm so there is no smell and cockroaches etc can't get into it~~teabags, coffee grinds, banana peels and strawberry hulls are visible in this pic..



The unit hold 20 litres of waste and the juice comes from the tap you can see here




It takes a week for there to be enough 'tea' ready and you dilute it 1-1 with water and apply to plants.

I'm excited!
Love from Sue
xx

1 comment:

  1. Oh Sue, I've been looking at those for a while, I'll be interested to see how it goes, as N's system though good is a bit beyond me.

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