Bokashi: Transforming Capacity for Community and Home Garden Composting
Since 2010, Kompost Kids has tested and demonstrated various methods to reclaim organics from the landfill in Milwaukee. In 2025, we’re piloting a very old, but *new to Milwaukee*, form of composting: Bokashi. In short, Bokashi composting ferments organics very quickly. After that, gardeners can trench the fermented/partially decomposed organics into the soil. After roughly a month of curing, that nutrient rich soil is ready for planting.
We’ll handle the storage and trenching as it ferments — we just need your VEGAN (plus eggshells) food scraps! AND for you to record online when you drop off those materials so we know how much is coming in.
See our #BokashiWithKompostKids Grant News for more info. In short:
- Drop off/record your VEGAN (+ egg shells) food scraps! (we’ll do the rest)
- Sign-up closed THURSDAY June 12
- Email compost@kompostkids.com if you can’t wait to be a #BokashiBunch Household
Bokashi has the potential addresses the many pitfalls (rodents, contamination, weeds) that we’ve seen shutter community compost sites across Milwaukee. It can be done on a small scale – even a person’s backyard. We’ll pilot this at our compost site in Milwaukee’s Garden District: 4100 S 6th St, Milwaukee, WI 53221.
Follow our #BokashiBunch Story on Instagram, and share widely!
We anticipate 2025 being a year of learning, failing, testing, and troubleshooting. We’ll create a “train the trainer” model to scale up. Our trainings have always been free and available in person, and we’ll document our process on the web/social media so you can do this too. As always — the finished compost will be free to the community. Bokashi families will get first dibs on that!
Follow us and join in the fun. Just want to learn more? Sign up here to volunteer AND learn at the same time. Starting Spring 2025, you can also see our events calendar in Facebook for upcoming happenings.
Bokashi inspiration:
- Institute for Local Self-Reliance 2018 Bokashi Webinars.
- Down to Earth Garden, East Village, NYC Bokashi Process.
Finally, this will NOT REPLACE our original community compost bins. Those will remain open to the public as always! We’ll have clear signage and orientation to Bokashi – when that is up and running.