vermicomposting or bokashi composting?

[prairiemom]

I was just looking in my latest Realgoods catalog and they have a "bokashi composting system." It's a little spendy, but says it will compost anything--including meat and cheese. We have a hard time composting during the winter--we're never able to get enough composting going before it gets too cold and everything freezes. We sort of need to compost year round because we have no garbage pickup so all the garbage we produce is either 1- recycled, 2-burned 3-composted or 4-hauled to the dump. And organic matter doesn't burn too well, so we prefer to compost (and besides it's so good for the garden. So my question is: have any of you tried bokashi composting and how well does it work. OR...I've been toying with the idea of composting with worms during the winter to deal with kitchen waste. Anyone try this? Any ideas which would be easier to do?

[jennvan40]

My parents used to grow worms to sell to dumps and other places for vermicomposting so I can probably tell you just about anything you want to know about it. I don't know what bokashi composting is about other that a quick search on the internet so don't know what to tell you how they compare.

[FixItGuy]

I love your ideas for composting year round and worms. I have bought compost starter products and wasn't that impressed. Think I read that manure adds bacteria and gets it started?? Don't want manure in the kitchen. Would compost be warm enough in the garage to work during the Winter? I don't like to put large quantities of stuff in the garbage disposal due to our septic tank and our soil can use all the improving it can get.
When we did the canning this year (my whole family cans at our house) I layered the peelings with the chicken poo and wood shavings out of the coop and the dirt left over from growing 'taters in the garbage cans, in the garbage cans right outside the back door. Don't think it will work very fast because it's cold.
However, legend in my family tells that my Great-grandfather in Star Valley, Wyoming grew cabbage that was the envy of the neighborhood by starting it earlier in the Spring on the manure pile which kept it from freezing.
What about putting worms in the square foot garden? Will worms die from the heat in the compost?
It is going to be hard for me to wait all Winter to plant again.

Jenene (FixItGuy's wife)

[signseeker]

Isn't manure a heck of a lot easier than composting? I mean, not that we are the types to take the evil easy road, of course.

[FixItGuy]

I am a big fan of the evil easy road. I have managed to roast my plants to death with manure in my enthusiasm to take good care of them. Smart, huh?
In the context of this world, I have this fond dream of growing the perfect vegetable. If I can create the perfect soil maybe I have a shot at it.
We have so many rocks in our not so great soil in Highland that my gardening success in it hasn't been that good. Success with square foot gardening, however, has been pretty good and compost is an ingredient in that. Also, I have this compulsion not to waste that mountain of left-over stuff from canning and every day eating. Also, this chicken poo and wood shavings mixture is great stuff.

Jenene (FixItGuy's wife)

[jennvan40]

If you are looking for something that will grow insane great plants/gardens, you should definitely do the vermicomposting, also known as worms. They create this create stuff called worm castings that is Fabulous for your garden. They sell this stuff in stores for like $20/lb.
Its fairly easy to keep worms, they have an optimal temperature but can live and reproduce even outside of that temperature. They "eat" just about anything you give them. We put a bunch of the worm castings on our garden and our corn grew 10 feet tall. Everything we grew and have grown in the last few years has been amazingly abundant. If you have specific questions about the worms, growing them, keeping them, how they work and stuff like that, please fee free to post questions. I'll try to answer them the best I can.