How can a food bank cut its garbage output from 85,000 pounds in one year to 40,000 the next—and produce tons of “good dirt” at the same time? By composting, of course. But large-scale composting without turning, and without machinery?

Michael Daltons and MJ Arendes of Gardens from Garbage explain how they are establishing school gardens, keeping tons of garbage out of landfills, and creating compost through a process most North Americans have never heard of, all at the same time. (And all despite the fact that according to MJ, they’ve “made every mistake in the book.”)

Gayle Gifford, Executive Director of the food bank in Great Falls, Montana, talks about how Bokashi has cut her organization’s garbage bills, intrigued Montana’s Department of Environmental Quality, and provided her with something to give back to the gardeners who contribute their produce.

Bokashi appears to do everything from clean up nuclear waste (see last week’s show, Kitchen Composting: Bokashi 101) to keep your cat box from smelling. Yes, you can put it in your cat box, but also your smoothies, your fish pond, or your septic tank, and it will help every time. Don’t believe it? Listen and decide.

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