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Bokashi Bran

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Bokashi Basics: Compost All Your Food Scraps | Bokashi Bran

Turn all your food scraps into rich pre-compost. Even meat, bones and dairy.

Bokashi Bran® ferments your kitchen waste right in your kitchen, so less goes in the bin and more goes back into your garden.
Deluxe counter caddy with Bokashi Bran bucket and scoop on a wooden counter with vegetable scraps in the background.

What is Bokashi Bran®?

Bokashi Bran® is wheat bran fermented with beneficial microorganisms, including lactic acid bacteria, yeast and phototrophic microbes. Sprinkled over your food scraps, it pickles them instead of letting them rot.

Unlike traditional composting, bokashi handles cooked food, meat, bones and dairy, so almost all your kitchen waste has somewhere useful to go.

How it works in 4 simple steps

1. Collect your scraps
Keep a counter caddy next to where you cook and add fruit and vegetable peels, coffee grounds, leftovers, meat, bones and dairy. Empty it into your bokashi bucket every day.

2. Layer, sprinkle and seal
Add the scraps to your bokashi bucket, sprinkle a layer of Bokashi Bran® over each addition, press down to remove air pockets, and close the lid tightly. Bokashi works without oxygen, so a good seal matters.

3. Drain and ferment
Drain the liquid through the tap every few days. The amount of liquid (bokashi tea) you get depends on the water content of the food in your bucket. Once the bucket is full, leave it sealed for about two weeks. A white, fluffy mould on top is a sign of good fermentation.

4. Feed your garden
Bury the pre-compost in a trench or hole in your garden and cover it with soil, or mix it into your compost heap.

 

A woman and a young girl watch liquid drain from two stacked black Bokashi Bran buckets into a metal pail in a garden, with the Deluxe counter caddy and a box of Bokashi Bran® on a table beside raised vegetable beds.
Authentic Bokashi Bran®

Why bokashi?

In your kitchen: Less food waste going to landfill, fewer trips to the bin, and a sealed system that doesn’t attract flies or give off a rotting smell.

In your garden: Bokashi pre-compost adds organic matter and beneficial microorganisms to your soil, supporting healthier soil structure and stronger plant growth.

A woman in floral gardening gloves digs soil beside tomato plants, next to an open black Bokashi Bran bucket of fermented food scraps with white mould, the Deluxe counter caddy and a 1kg box of Bokashi Bran®.

Choose your kit

Standard kits are available in the Obsidian range (25-litre black recycled-plastic bucket) or the Alba range (20-litre white bucket).

  • Bachelor Kit R438: 1 plastic counter container, 1 Bokashi Bran bucket, 1kg bokashi and a scoop.
  • Starter Kit R645: 2 Bokashi Bran buckets, 2 x 1kg bokashi and a scoop
  • Super-Charged Starter Kit R692: 1 plastic counter container, 2 Bokashi Bran buckets, 2 x 1kg bokashi and a scoop

Deluxe kits (with the Deluxe Counter Caddy: 6 litres, charcoal filter lid, stainless-steel handle)

Already have a bucket? The Deluxe Caddy Bundle (R550) includes the Deluxe Counter Caddy, two 1kg boxes of Bokashi Bran® and a scoop.

Quick questions

Does it smell? Bokashi usually has a sour, pickled smell when opened, rather than a rotting one.

What if I don’t have a garden? Give it to a community garden, a friend who gardens, or add it to a garden pot of potting soil and grow a small veggie planter box on your balcony.

How long does a box of Bokashi Bran® last? The average household fills a bucket in a month. You will use about 700g of bokashi in the bucket.