Happy Farmer Composting KIT Black

The Happy Farmer Kitchen Composting system is a unique, in-house product used to recycle kitchen scraps into an organic compost soil conditioner. This system ferments and pickles your food waste in less than half the time of conventional composting methods w/o odors.

Kit includes 1 composting container and 1-gallon bokashi compost starter.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars A lot more work than I bargained for
More work than I thought it was going to be, and it doesn't really MAKE compost, it just gets it started, then you're supposed to bury the pickled food scraps in dirt in order for it to really break down. The return policies include restocking fee, so make sure you really want to buy this.

4 Stars Not a complete solution, but it does fill a need
Opinions on this product are going to vary by the person so take my review FWIW. First, a set of pros and cons:

Pros:

- It does digest and compost food as it says.

- The compost isn't complete until you get it outside to finish, but it finishes quickly and provides fantastic compost.

- The bucket/fixture is pretty unobtrusive and looks good.

- It holds more than you'd think, primarily due to the fermenting/pickling reducing the size of items.

- It produces a liquid fertilizer that is great for houseplants.

Cons:

- It does smell when you open it (although the smell goes away quickly when you're done and close it).

- It is kind of a pain to "batch" piles of compost -- the process is a little cumbersome to do every day, and results in a small collecting pile of deteriorating food items in between batches.

- It does require finishing outside, preferably in a compost bin/pile.

- The cleanup of the bucket is not fun -- smells a lot like vomit.

Overall, I like this composter, and have been using it for a year now. I find it very helpful during the winter months to keep composting when I can't get at my regular compost pile. Once you empty a batch in there, it looks nasty (everything looks the same as before, only moldy and white from pickling) and smells nasty too -- but is turned into workable compost in days. I was actually amazed at how quickly it turned over. The batching is a bit of a pain, since you have to leave things out until you have enough to process -- which sometimes results in unsightly gatherings of food and sometimes mold! The fertilizer liquid smells horrid, but is fine when you add a shot to a gallon/bucket of water for indoor houseplants. I've never smelled anything bad from the houseplants once they've been watered with this concoction.

Thumbs up, with some caveats -- can work well in certain households!

4 Stars It does work
I've gone through a few loads of bokashi fermented food in this unit. I also made my own out of some 3 gallon buckets. The happy farmer unit has never rotted the food. Yes there is an odor, but it is not rotten- my homemade bucket at one point was not airtight and it rotted food- there is a very big difference. The smell is a pickled smell, and I suppose it is stinky but honestly its not too bad. We use ours inside only. One tip is to put a plastic bag inside on top of the food and push it down so it eliminatess any air. The fermenting process is anaerobic so any oxygen in there just slows things down.

It isn't effortless, yes you have to sprinkle the powder on every time you use it, and every once in a while you have to drain it out- this isn't tough, and for me it helps to remind me to water the plants since it works as good fertilizer. This bucket isn't perfect, but it beats the heck out a homemade bucket and lid because those are so hard to open.

Bokashi is more work than just throwing it away, but that small effort is rewarded with rich compost. Yes you have to either bury it or put it in your composter- if you do put it in a composter it turns super hot and rich really quickly, so I think its worth it.

1 Star bokashi: it does smell
It's a nice idea, but frankly it smells. I don't find it a pleasant smell, the smell of fermenting molasses... And once food is added. eew. I believe we used more than ample amounts of bokashi so that wasn't the issue. Also once it's set and it comes time to bury it to finish composting... well you'll want a gas mask. Plus, there's a limit to how many holes you can realistically dig in your yard.

I can't imagine that people do this inside. We had to move it outside even though it does seal up... and the fermented juice is not something I'd want to dump in my houseplants.

If you want to try bokashi anyway, a 5 gallon bucket from home depot with a sealing lid works just as well.

It's a lot of work and its been months since our first pickled burial, and it's still rotting, not compost.

It was a lot of effort and so far no compost reward has happened.

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