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, fer-

ment, 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.

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 Farm-

ing series. Thanks to all of you,

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

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 tech-niques 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 us-ing fermentation. What is old is now new again!!

Our Web Site is One Year Old In March

The Secret Is In The Soil - Fermentation Is The Way

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 ques-

tion 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 ele-

ment is LIFE and life promot-

ing processes. So it makes

sense that if the difference

between dirt and soil is life,

why not use a method of com-

posting and soil amendment

that adds and promotes life?

This is where Bokashi Com-

posting and Korean Natural

Farming excel.

Why is yoghurt better than

plain milk and why is Kimchee

healthier than plain cabbage?

They both are fermented prod-

ucts that because of their fer-

mentation have far more bio-

logically 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, health-

ier plants, and healthier people

with healthier lives.

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 Farm-ing excel in capturing, cultivating, and utiliz-ing beneficial mi-crobes.

Fermentation is an an-cient, 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.

ProKashi Probiotics Bryan McGrath Lawrenceville, GA

April 2012 ProKashi Probiotics

Where It All Started

Facebook: Prokashi

Twitter: Prokashipro

YouTube: Prokashi

WWW.PROKASHI.COM

My 3 member family can easily

fill our 4 gallon ProKashi Fer-

menter 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 fer-

ment 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 calcu-

lator (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 mo-

ment...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 Ser-

vices (ie: Police, Fire, EMS).

The SECOND greatest ex-

pense 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 com-

post 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, cup-

cakes, spaghetti sauce, I get

the same answer “Those are

NO-NO’s, 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 gar-

den inputs. Do yourself, your

family, and your community a

favor. Bokashi compost now

and see fresh rich compost and

improved soils in weeks in-

stead of months or even a year

or more.

use your scraps to feed chick-

ens, cows, goats, pigs, etc.. In

doing so, you are doing a great

service to the animals them-

selves. 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 bacte-

ria in their systems, and giving

them natural and safe doses of

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 fer-

mented food scraps that can

be fed to ruminants or cud

chewing animals. That is ex-

actly what is in your Bokashi

Composting bucket. You can

antibiotics, antioxidants, vita-

mins, and minerals. Your ani-

mals 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 ani-

mals, and cleaning up your

food sources are all possible.

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 use-

ful and elementary, it is use-

less. Enter the MICROBE. If

your soil is already poor, then

certainly your microbial popula-

tion is in the tank as well. Bo-

kashi Composting captures,

cultivates, utilizes, and distrib-

utes 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 natu-

ral enzymes, antibiotics, and

unlock vital minerals and nutri-

ents. 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 soil—Baby Bear Just

Right!

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 garden-

ing 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 expen-

sive. Even if you have the big-

gest pile of leaves, grass clip-

pings, or gleanings to turn into

the ground, it doesn't mean a

Page 2

We Are Running Out of Space and Time

The Cure For Clay, Sandy, Diseased, and Poor Soil

Bokashi Just Aint For Compost Anymore

Why Bokashi?

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

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. That’s it,

nothing more complicated, Sugar.

The typical sugar used is Unsul-

phered 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 vigor-

ously, 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 that’s 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

morning—this 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 mi-

crobes and things by rinsing it with

water). Mix in raw sugar 1/3 to 1/2

by weight—dry 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 non-

chlorinated water to moisten every-

thing. 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 container’s 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 : 500-

1000 parts H2O dechlorinated),

spread as a foliar and/or soil

drench. Adding Lacto Serum in-

creases the effectiveness and

makes the FPJ more biologically

available to the soil microorgan-

isms 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.

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 mate-

rial, alcohol (ETOH - ie drinking

alcohol) is added to the con-

tainer. 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

Fermentation using natural

sugars uses Osmotic Pressure

to extract water soluble nutri-

ents; however, many plants

and herbs have additional com-

pounds 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 combi-

nation of Garlic’s sulfur com-

pounds and the Ginger family’s

anti-inflammatory cucurmins

are used to help restore dis-

eased plants without resorting

fill the fermenting container’s

1/3 air space. Tightly cover the

container after stirring the alco-

hol 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 dechlo-

rinated water and spray to the

plant’s leaves and fruits as

necessary.

Microbial Mediation is the

process of using microbes to

assist and accomplish a spe-

cific 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 plant’s surface, We

feed them, multiply them, and

use their natural digestive ac-

tions, enzymes, and byprod-

ucts 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, indige-

nous, non GMO inputs natu-

rally at home.

Sugar used in the KNF fermen-

tation 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 mois-

ture 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.

Page 3 ProKashi Probiotics

The Secret To Korean Natural Farming Fermentation

Korean Natural Faming Tinctures

How Does Sugar Ferment and Extract the Goodies?

How Do We Ferment?

“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 Mi-

crobes

OHN– Oriental Herbal Nutrients