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| The 8' step ladder with about 15' of plastic drain-tile tied to one upright continues to be an awesome productivity aid. Climbing up-and-down the ladder is non-value added work. I have the top of the drain-tile sticking about 18" above the top of the ladder. |
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| The black bucket is a 7 gallon nursery planter. Two "sets" of the ladder filled the bucket to the level you see. The third "set" produced the scatter of apples on that you see on the ground. |
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| Somebody wanted to give me some fertilizer. I gratefully accepted 175 pounds of this and 220 pounds of high-nitrogen fertilizer. At current prices the water-soluble "plug" fertilizer costs about $250 and 220 pounds of high nitrogen fertilizer would run about $150. |
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| The gentleman is moving to Florida. He also has a bunch of metal halide lighting to give away if anybody is interested. Obviously, it has been a while since he grew whatever he had been growing. |
Sanitizing seed-nuts
Unfortunately, acorns and chestnuts are likely to be harboring various kinds of weevils. The protocol for sanitizing the nuts is to soak them in 120 degree F water for 20 or 30 minutes.
The literature says that 20 minutes only kills 85% of the weevils, so I would go with the 30 minutes.
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| Quite the bargain at approximately $40 |
It occurred to me that a sous vide cooker would be the cat's meow for taking care of business.
drain-tile as an apple chute, brilliant..... TeX
ReplyDeleteI saw it at a commercial orchard. They had a moving scissors lift and the platform could index sideways. Each picker had a urinal to drop his apples into. They rolled down the drain-tile into the wagon behind the scissors-lift. A hay-rake with flaps leveled the pile of apples.
DeleteI kept the cheap, easy, non-moving part; the drain-tile.
That looks like my first sous-vide cooker.It was(in theory)accurate to .1F. It lasted between 3-4 months before it died. It may have been my fault. After use I rinsed it let it drain dry and put it away I believe that calcium build up caused the circulator to freeze up. With my new one I put about a cup of vinegar in the pot and let it run for an hour. after I get done cooking. I've had the new one without problems for nearly four years That's not scientifically proof but hey... another point I want to make is a YouTube channel I watch uses their sous-vide to pasteurize their mead. But one time they were making beer and just dumped the wort into the pot with the machine running. It didn't continue to work for very long. By that I mean ou do have your nuts in a bag,right? by uninformed
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought that far ahead.
DeleteMy thought was to use hot tap-water to get the nuts/acorns close to the 120F mark and then add them to tap-water that had stabilized at 120F. Wait until it hit 120 again and then start the timer.
Please elaborate on what problems I might encounter.
When I got my first sous-vide machine, it never crossed my mind that the dissolved solids in my tap water would concentrate as evaporation occurred . 200 hours of operation then the machine died. That was just water alone. I suspect that anything else that might be in the water, would tend to help gunk up the rod that has at one end the impeller blades and the other the motor. I don't have a clue where the "gunking" occurred. I am however reasonably sure that the more crap in the water the harder it is on the machine.(One of the reasons you put the steak you're cooking sous-vide into a bag is to keep the water clean.) I suspect that nuts growing in the wild have stuff on them.That stuff might be bird and bug poop or dust.It seems wise to put the nuts in gallon freezer bags,( using the water displacement method) weigh the bags down, wait till the temp button to indicates you've reached desired temp and wait till the countdown timer runs out.Just my opinion uniformed
DeleteI'm still trying to wrap my mind around almost poaching seed nuts.
ReplyDeleteHow did they do it before accurate semi-cooking techniques were available?
"All things are possible with enough grad students and cheap coffee." -attributed to Tromfin Lysenko
DeleteSometimes you worry me Joe.
DeleteMichael the oddly anon today
I took the liberty of taking a snapshot of a small snippet of a central New Hampshire soils map and it looked like chestnuts would be very happy there.
DeleteAdams, Becket, Tunbridge and Colton soil groups abound. Well drained, low pH. Ample rains.
Joe what chestnuts still exist? I heard they were trying to breed up some that would survive that blight?
Deletehttps://centerforagroforestry.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Descriptions_of_Chestnut_Cultivars_for_Nut_Production-2021.pdf
DeleteLuvall's Monster is reputed to be exceptionally cold-hardy.
http://www.chestnutgrowers.org/MikeNave-NewCultivars.pdf Many pictures of chestnuts.
"Korean" chestnut lines are considered to be quite hardy, too.
Deletehttps://www.canr.msu.edu/chestnuts/horticultural_care/michigan-cultivars
ERJ, I have also had a number of "Aha" moments when traveling by looking at small operations that are commercial and have to work smarter, not harder. Your apple capture device is one example.
ReplyDeletecouple a crock pot and temp controller?
ReplyDeletehttps://a.co/d/dARkRUE
And that Temp controller can be used for Sous Vide and controlling temps for fermentation and seed starting
Huh! I always thought the way to get rid of the buggy nuts was to put them n a barrel full of water and then pick out and chuck the floaters. Then remove what's left from the water. dry, and inspect. Chuck any with holes. Put what is left in the freezer for a few weeks.
ReplyDelete