Bokashi

We are trying to implement additional steps with a goal to becoming more sustainable as a business. The statistics around the amount of food that ends up in landfill is alarming, particularly from commercial food businesses and catering.  Although every business contributes negatively which is unavoidable, hopefully our environmental impact is net positive.

The amount of waste we produce has always weighed on my conscience. When Harry joined Beaten by a Whisker as a baker last September, he was very keen to implement a Bokashi system in the kitchen. I had never heard of it, and although keen to explore a way we could do something more responsible with our food waste than landfilling it, at first I was skeptical about the practical implications. Based on my previous experiences of compost bins domestically, I thought it would smell bad and attract flies, which made me nervous… but this was different! Harry is passionate about Bokashi being the answer for small businesses as well as peoples’ homes, as the food waste ferments and breaks down anaerobically in a sealed (and therefore odourless) container. The magic sprinkle of Bokashi bran is all it takes to instigate the breakdown of organic matter: cooked, raw, citrus, anything really! It is far less fussy than other composting techniques.

How do we do it?

We purchased four, 15 litre bins from Wiggley Wigglers, that we could fill on a rotation, leaving them two weeks to ferment down before burying them in the compost heap at St. Mary’s Church. Harry liaised with Tim, the gardener there, who has kindly allowed us to do this on a regular basis.

How to make your compost:

·      Collect your daily food waste

·      Chop larger items into smaller pieces with scissors so they breakdown quickly.

·      Sprinkle with a scoop of Bokashi bran and shake to lightly coat the food waste.

·      At the end of the day add your food waste to the Bokashi bin and compress down with the plastic tool.

·      When the bin is full, leave to ferment for around 2 weeks. On occasion let out the ‘Bokashi tea’ (a concentrated liquid that can be diluted and used on your plants or used as a potent natural drain cleaner) from the tap on the Bokashi bin.

·      When totally broken down, tip the bin onto a compost heap or bury in the ground to give your soil an explosion of incredible nutrients or supercharge your composting. The worms will love it!

What have we achieved?

Since we began, we have generated 570 litres of Bokaski compost and diverted it away from landfill.  The major constituents of our waste are: bountiful banana skins from our ever-popular banana bread that we make every morning, onion skins, vegetable trimmings, bench flour scraps and crumbs.

We and your local worm community advocate implementing a Bokashi system in your home on the proviso that you have somewhere to bury it. Although councils provide a compost bin collection, if this isn’t available in your postcode, or you find the odour off-putting, this could be your answer. The online shop Wiggly Wigglers is a great resource for information about how to implement it in your own home. You can buy all the equipment and the bran you need there. We have a monthly subscription!

We obviously only compost our food as a last resort. The ultimate goal is to minimize it. There are a few waste management strategies that give excess produce a new lease of life. If we bake too much bread, for example, we can use it to make breadcrumbs, which we use in our sausage rolls. In the winter we turn yesterday’s bread into toasties and staff lunch.

A recent venture inspired by Lily’s Loaf (a fabulous South London based micro-bakery) is turning our excess sourdough starter into crackers. Dotted with seeds the flaxseeds strained away from our flax ‘egg’, and sprinkled with Maldon sea salt flakes, they are nutritious and totally addictive. Having made them to solve the waste dilemma, I now face the temptation of deliberately making excess starter in order to make them!

For other excess bakes we use the ‘Too Good to Go’ app to ensure that nothing goes to waste.  We’ve heard our Goodie Bags are affectionately described as ‘gold dust’ and there is quite a hype around securing this extremely good value loot! Sign up for notifications and keep your ear to the ground.

As an independent business we pride ourselves on achieving as little waste as possible, which can mean that an abundance of freshly baked options late into the afternoon is not realistic for us and thankfully our lovely customers seem to understand that. Winding our stock down to almost zero by precisely 4pm is a fine art. We monitor patterns, study weather forecasts and school holidays and seasonal trends and still wrestle with making the perfect amount to keep people content but minimize food waste. The team all care deeply about the issue of food waste and feel a responsibility not to contribute negatively to this colossal problem that we have as a society.  There’s a long way to go to, but at least your plates pretty much always come back clean as a whistle, so thanks for doing your bit too!