April 2012

ProKashi Probiotics

ProKashi Probiotics Bryan McGrath Lawrenceville, GA

Bottom Line Points To Remember

Without microbes there will be no life, they are the foundation for the food chain and the core of healthy soils. Bokashi composting and Korean Natural Farming excel in capturing, cultivating, and utilizing beneficial microbes. Fermentation is an ancient, simple, effective method for increasing microbial populations in soils, increasing nutrient cycling within soils, and creating natural organic inputs that increase plant quality, quantity, and yield.

Our Web Site is One Yea r Old In M arch

ProKashi.com turned 1 year old last month!! My Family and I would like to thank you all for your support and interest in ProKashi Bokashi Composting and our Korean Natural Farming series. Thanks to all of you, would never have dreamed of just 12 short months ago. I would like to thank Farmer D Organics of Atlanta GA for being a representative and supporter of our product at their Briarwood Rd. Atlanta, GA location. With interest in our Bokashi Wheat Bran going Global, we have shipped bags as far away as Manilla Philippines!! Even with interest and demand growing daily, I still make, ferment, sun dry, and package each batch of Bokashi Wheat Bran personally and by hand. I have been and will continue to being a family business with customer service and quality as the corner stones of the ProKashi products. Best Wishes and Thank you once again to everyone who made this possible.

An Ancient Technique Reborn in Modern Gardening

Every civilization and culture has some form and technique of fermentation. We can use these ancient techniques in this era of high tech science and chemicals to produce not only food things but to rebuild our soils for a healthier food stream (and by extension a healthier person.) The emphasis of ProKashi is to teach people how to use simple items off of the grocery store and kitchen pantry shelf, how to use simple fermentation techniques to recycle organic kitchen scraps and yard wastes, and how to culture beneficial indigenous microbes in order to use them to rebuild our soils, cleanly raise our farm animals without chemicals and harmful antibiotics. You can empower yourself using fermentation. What is old is now new again!!

Where It All Started

our YouTube Channel (which turns 1 year old next month in May) has over 20,000 views and our web site has over 3,000 hits with 12,000 page views from 96 countries world wide. These are numbers that I

The Secret Is In The Soil - Fermentation Is The Wa y

Many of us have heard the saying The Secret Is In The Soil. That most certainly is true; however, what is the way? How do we get there? My focus in answering that question is FERMENTATION. First let me define what I mean by fermentation:
The chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, fungi, or other microorganisms.

The difference between Dirt and Soil is that dirt is just some combination of rock,

mineral, or dust that has been weathered and broken into fine particles. Soil on the other hand is Dirt that contains large portions of organic matter, macro and micro organisms, and enzymes. The key element is LIFE and life promoting processes. So it makes sense that if the difference between dirt and soil is life, why not use a method of composting and soil amendment that adds and promotes life? This is where Bokashi Composting and Korean Natural Farming excel.

Why is yoghurt better than plain milk and why is Kimchee healthier than plain cabbage? They both are fermented products that because of their fermentation have far more biologically available nutrients, enzymes, beneficial bacteria, and health benefits. They have and promote more LIFE. Open your mind to the concept that we can use fermentation to grow healthier soils, healthier plants, and healthier people with healthier lives.

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Wh y Bokashi?
My 3 member family can easily fill our 4 gallon ProKashi Fermenter bucket each week. That amounts to at least 25 pounds of organic matter/food scraps per bucket. In filling that bucket, the waste food on the bottom has fermented while the scraps on the top have not yet. Assuming that I let that bucket set for one additional week to allow the top material to ferment and Catch Up with the materials on the bottom, I can rotate fermenter buckets and organic matter into my garden or soil generator each week for the remaining 50 weeks of the year. Checking with my calculator (I went to Government schools Guys) that gives me a MINIMUM of 1,250 pounds of compost in my first year alone.! Let that fact sink in for a moment...that is a little more than a half ton of materials that would otherwise be going to the land fill from one small family alone. On average, the greatest cost to County/City Government is Protective Services (ie: Police, Fire, EMS). The SECOND greatest expense is Sanitation - the cost of picking up our trash. When you remove all of the standard recyclables, the majority of what is left is organics (lawn wastes and food scraps). We spend more on garbage than on our schools - what a sad fact. Ask people Do you compost at all? and the answer is Yes, some just the fruits and veggies. When I ask them why not the meats, fish, chicken, dairy, cooked/uncooked, cupcakes, spaghetti sauce, I get the same answer Those are NO-NOs, they stink and bring in the vermin. Well my friends, with Bokashi Composting you can reuse it all, keep it out of our shrinking landfills and help save your wallet both in higher tax costs and in buying expensive garden inputs. Do yourself, your family, and your community a favor. Bokashi compost now and see fresh rich compost and improved soils in weeks instead of months or even a year or more.

We Are Running Out of Space and Time

Scientists tell us that there have been 5 Great or Mass Extinctions on Earth. What survived, what rebuilt the eco system, what built civilizations, what is keeping us alive right now? THE MICROBE

The Cure For Cla y, Sandy, Diseased, an d Poor Soil

Very few of us have Perfect Soil. In fact most of us have Goldie Locks soils This one is to hard, this one is to poor, this one is to clay, this one is to sandy. Most books on gardening and soil management from the Experts break the solution down to one thing ORGANIC MATTER. Organic Matter can break the hardest clays and it can build the poorest sands. But buying Compost is expensive. Even if you have the biggest pile of leaves, grass clippings, or gleanings to turn into the ground, it doesn't mean a thing unless that matter can be broken down and the nutrients unlocked and converted into a form that is usable to the plant. You can throw the greatest organic fertilizer down that you can find but unless in can be converted into something useful and elementary, it is useless. Enter the MICROBE. If your soil is already poor, then certainly your microbial population is in the tank as well. Bokashi Composting captures, cultivates, utilizes, and distributes beneficial bacteria, fungi, and yeasts at the same time as you collect and incorporate your organic waste materials into the ground. They Pre-chew your scraps in the fermentation bucket, they add their own natural enzymes, antibiotics, and unlock vital minerals and nutrients. Then when the matter is turned into the garden or Soil Generator Box they spread outward into the surrounding areas (repopulating, growing, conditioning the soil, attracting other beneficial organisms). They reestablish the foundation for great soilBaby Bear Just Right!

Bokashi Just Ain t F or Compost An ymo re

Bokashi composted matter is used most often for composting and adding organic materials quickly to the soil. Did you know that fermented foods scraps are excellent sources of food for animals. SILAGE is the term for fermented food scraps that can be fed to ruminants or cud chewing animals. That is exactly what is in your Bokashi Composting bucket. You can use your scraps to feed chickens, cows, goats, pigs, etc.. In doing so, you are doing a great service to the animals themselves. Many ruminants have poor digestion, that is why they have multiple stomachs or long digestive tracts. By giving them Bokashi Compost you are feeding them a more digestible food source, repopulating and adding to the beneficial bacteria in their systems, and giving them natural and safe doses of antibiotics, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. Your animals eat less, absorb more, and maintain or gain weight. The product of their efforts (be they eggs, milk, meat, or fur) tend to be of a higher quality and quantity. You may be able to reduce or eliminate the need for medicated feeds, shots, and hormones. Cleaning up you scraps, cleaning up our animals, and cleaning up your food sources are all possible.

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ProKashi Probiotics

How Do We Ferment?
Korean Natural Farming inputs use fermentation and the power of micro organisms to bring life to the soil. The question begs to be asked How do we ferment? There are many techniques; however, KNF simply uses SUGAR. Thats it, nothing more complicated, Sugar. The typical sugar used is Unsulphered Molasses, Brown Sugar, Cane Sugar, anything raw and natural - except honey which is naturally anti-microbial. Take Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ) for instance. We observe nature, we find a plant that grows vigorously, we suspect from natural observation Hmm, that thing must be full of natural growth promoters. Its roots go deep, I bet it is full of minerals. Hmm thats medicinal for this XYZ reason. We want to capture and harvest these qualities and add them to our soils and plants. But how do I do it? Pick or cut the fast growing sprouts/tips/parts of the plant in the morningthis is when they have the most moisture and energy in the top of the plant. Shake the loose dirt off but do not rinse (we don't want to loose the good microbes and things by rinsing it with water). Mix in raw sugar 1/3 to 1/2 by weightdry items need less sugar, wet materials need more sugar. Pack these greens tightly into any container so that it is 2/3 full, and press down firmly with a rock or add a touch of nonchlorinated water to moisten everything. The point here is that the material must be in contact with the sugar and must be moist. Remove the rock after 24 hrs. Make certain to maintain an airspace above the fermenting material that is 1/3 of the containers volume. Cover the jar with a breathable cover like tissue, or cloth, secure it with a rubber band or string, and leave in a cool dark place for 7-21 days warmer temperatures take less time and colder takes more. A sweet smell with a touch of alcohol or vinegar smell is a good indicator that the fermentation is complete. Strain the liquids and this is your FPJ. Mix with water (1 FPJ : 5001000 parts H2O dechlorinated), spread as a foliar and/or soil drench. Adding Lacto Serum increases the effectiveness and makes the FPJ more biologically available to the soil microorganisms and plant. Keep in a dark container, out of sunlight in a cool dry place. Add the same amount of sugar again to the remainder of the finished mixture to help keep and store the FPJ for up to a year.

The Secret To Korean Natural Farming Fermentation

How Does Sugar Ferment and Extract t he Goodies?

Sugar used in the KNF fermentation process uses two actions to accomplish its job. Osmotic Pressure is the mechanism by which areas of high moisture/water move to areas of less moisture/water. The sugar used has less moisture than the plant materials being fermented. The cell walls leak the water from inside them outside to the sugar. In doing so, water soluble nutrients are moved out of or extracted for our use. Microbial Mediation is the process of using microbes to assist and accomplish a specific purpose or goal. The sugar is a natural easily digestible food source to bacteria, yeast, and fungi. These microbes are present in the wild and on the collected plants surface, We feed them, multiply them, and use their natural digestive actions, enzymes, and byproducts to grow and repopulate our soils, make our plants strong, vigorous, and more nutritious. We can use sugar to ferment and cold process plants for FPJ, Fruits for FFJ, and even Fish scraps to produce or own Fish Emulsion. Each product or material has its own unique qualities that we can use to custom design an input to meet our garden and soil needs. The process produces truly organic, non chemical, non heat treated, non denatured products. You can create uniquely alive, organic, indigenous, non GMO inputs naturally at home.

You can create uniquely alive, organic, indigenous, non GMO inputs naturally at home
Definitions in Korean Natural Farming

FPJ Fermented Plant Juice FFJ Fermented Fruit Juice FAA Fish Amino Acid (Fish Emulsion) IMO Indigenous Micro Organism LAB Lactic Acid Bacteria BIM Beneficial Indigenous Microbes OHN Oriental Herbal Nutrients

Korean Natural Faming Tinctures

Fermentation using natural sugars uses Osmotic Pressure to extract water soluble nutrients; however, many plants and herbs have additional compounds that we may wish to utilize and extract that may not be water soluble. For instance Ginger/Garlic extract is used as a natural fungicide. The combination of Garlics sulfur compounds and the Ginger familys anti-inflammatory cucurmins are used to help restore diseased plants without resorting to chemical copper and sulfur based sprays. To make a tincture, the basic process is the same as above for making FPJ. After the sugar has fermented the plant material, alcohol (ETOH - ie drinking alcohol) is added to the container. The alcohol must be a minimum of 40% by volume which is 80 proof. Add enough 80 proof or higher alcohol cheaper is better (Vodka and Gin are common in the US) to fill the fermenting containers 1/3 air space. Tightly cover the container after stirring the alcohol and FPJ well (the lid keeps the alcohol from evaporating). Mix the concoction every day for about 7-10 days. After that, extract the liquid portion and store it in an air tight container it never goes bad. Dilute 1 part concoction :1000 parts dechlorinated water and spray to the plants leaves and fruits as necessary.