bokashi food waste, also fermented food waste (FFW): a solid fermented matter (a bokashi ferment) made by sprinkling bokashi bran or spraying Activated EM (bokashi spray) onto food waste and let to ferment anaerobically for at least two weeks. All food waste (including meats, bones, dairy, baked goods, seafood, shells, raw or cooked) can be fermented with the bokashi method. It is then used as a soil amendment in different ways: buried or trenched in soil, pocket-feeding between plants (buried about a foot away from plants), buried around trees at the canopy edge, or sandwiched between soil in pots or planters. Soils amended with FFW and not used to grow anything can be harvested later (at least a month after burying/trenching) as bokashi amended soils. The bokashi food waste can also be composted as a green material mixed with brown materials (leaves, twigs, and other plant matter) requiring much less turning with less heat (i.e., a mesophilic composting process) and produce bokashi compost which requires much less curing time.
For details on how the bokashi food waste process is done at a NYC community garden, visit downtoearthgarden.org/bokashi-process.