MIDDLETON, Mass. (AP) — Down the back stairs of the clubhouse kitchen, on a plot lost among the expanse of tightly trimmed fairways and greens, weeks-old food is buried under a tarp and mulch and left to decompose.

But this private country club in Massachusetts isn’t taking an unsanitary shortcut with its trash. It’s trying bokashi, an obscure composting method it says will help it recycle 4 tons of food waste each year.

Bokashi is based on an ancient Japanese practice that ferments food waste by covering it with a mix of microorganisms that suppress its smell and eventually produce soil. Bokashi is not widely used in the United States, but its practitioners think it should be.