Talk to me about digesters/wormeries, please

[2Happy]

dsis (hope she is working today and doesn't see this thread!) would like a digester of some sort for her birthday, and am thinking of getting one for us at the same time. But not sure what to go for. Have read a bit about them on the net, but wondered if anyone has any first hand experience/advice they would like to share?

TIA

A friend of mine has recently got a wormery and a bokashi bin which she's very pleased with, Her only complaint so far has been that they're not terribly attractive to have in the kitchen

On the plus side, they have almost no waste in their wheely bin now.

I'd love a bokashi bin, 2happy thanks .

Aw shit! Big birthday surprise then!!! I thought you were working today!

Thanks, Twink, clearly you knew exactly the right thing to recommend

I was waiting for you to ask what I wanted so I could beg for one anyway! I've seen them in Dobbies, a bit pricey - you might need to go joint with someone. I was going to try and make the bran myself as it is very overpriced for what it is.

Make the bran? How on earth do you go about doing that then?!

If it turns out to be a GOOD THING, I may get one too (though heaven only knows where we would actually put it!). Having read yesterday's Money section am now convinced that the whole world is going to go belly up financially and self-sufficiency is the only way to go. Sort of

Anyhow, tis all sorted. Oh, and the other half of you Christmas present finally arrived last week!!

I have a recipe . It involves bran, molasses and some kind of primordial soup type stuff that you can buy on the internet!

Ooh I'm . I want a bokashi bin too!

If you can make the bran yourself, do you think it's possible to somehow construct your own bokashi bin or is there something about the bin itself that makes it special?

Would you be able to share your recipe liath?

TBH I think the only advantage of the bins you buy is they have some kind of tap on them to drain off liquid.

The recipe I got is:
10 lb bran
1 tbsp sea salt
2 tsp ceramic powder (God knows where you get THAT from LOL!)
3 litres hot water with 30 ml molasses (animal feed grade)
30 ml of "effective microbes" ( I found a site called The Blue Sun that sell this).

We just got bokashi bins. There is no magic to the bins, but if they don't have a tight fitting lid there could be problems with flies come the summer, and if no tap they will be squelchy.

so far so excellent, but we have only filled the first and put it aside to ferment. No smell at all.

I love my Bokashi. The bins must be airtight as the microbes need to be in an anaerobic enviroment, but the tap isn't necessary.

I buy my bran in a huge tub from Bubblehouse worms as it is much more cost effective, and works out at very little.

I got my bins from www.recyclenow.com for much cheaper than elsewhere

Thanks for the link cmotdibbler. I'm going to get one.

I must get my bokashi bins out and have anotehr go. to be honest they didn't seem to do anything at all, and we seemed to produce too much stuff for them to manage. maybe i was a bit mean with the bran? I don't have indoor space for a fermenting one - will a cold but insulated greenhouse do the biz>

I used to have a can-o-wroms too but the damn things couldn't keep up with us.

Sorry - I meant to say thanks for the recipe too liath.

Missing - I find the same thing with my can o worms. Ideally I'd have several on the go at the same time, but we just don't have the space. It does produce great compost though.