William Bronson

I compost in a similar fashion, and it does draw critters.
The chickens, cats and dog all help by preying on them.
We had critters before the chickens and their, and we still have them.
The chicken feed is probably as big a draw as the scraps
If I were trying to control this I would keep the compost in a large container, like a storage tote or a fridge laid on its back, and close it up at night.

I love the smell of sassafras and I've recently listen to a podcast that makes me think they have been demonized as an edible.

So a lot of these seem to be quick pickles, but some are ferments and at least one post mentioned canning.

This gets into something if wondered about for a while, pickles that are shelf stable from just their acid content.
I've seen accounts of early European settlers needing cider for vinegar, for preserving foods, but never much account of how it was used.

Acid pickling for shelf stable vegetables seems like it might be a living tradition in India.
When I eat out at an Indian place there are always pickles on the table, the veg is cut in sizes that make me think of relish.
Evidently, these relishes might use salt, vinegar, citrus acid, fermentation and/or OILS to preserve the vegetables.

Very interesting post!
I'm not a big fan of sweet relish, but I love it as dill or mustard.
Now I'm wondering, what makes a relish a relish.

Seems like it's small sized bits of food in a vinegar based brine
It might be cooked but not so much that the good breaks down into a sauce or jam.

If one were to quick pickle diced onion it would probably count as a relish.
I think some hard pear, diced into small cubes, and some cracked peppercorn could pair nicely with the onions.

That's a good point, I'm usually planting them in nice soft garden beds, or weeding away competition.
Maybe they do better with a challenge.

It seems to me the heat from making  a  new batch of char could melt the frozen inoculant, which could then be used on the old batch.

Also, going forward you could quench the char with inoculant.
Lots of the microbial life would die, but the nutrition would survive and the microbes would rebound.

I love that plant, but I can't seem to get it to spread in my garden!
On a similar note, last night I was making waffle batter with oat flour and I had to keep adding milk so it could remain liquidy.

Hmm, I have experience with the KY coffee tree seed and their stickiness.
It might be perfect, it seems to make tons of seeds and there doesn't seem to be a lot of things that eat it.

I was thinking about replacements for plastic l, cardboard and other sheet mulches and landed on wood veneer...

Wood veneer cost too much and would be difficult to make at home.
Woodchips, sawdust, the shavings from a plane, autumn leaves, these are all low cost wood products we could put in a sheet mulch, but they are not in sheet form.

Industry uses glues and or high energy to turn similar materials into sheet goods.
These things cost too much, use a lot of energy  and introduce toxins.

Mucilage is a natural glue of sorts.
Sesame,okra,flax and chia are some of the seeds that mucilage can be sources from.
They are also food, and annual plants.
I've looked for trees with seeds that would produce mucilage, but only found quince.
Before I move on to other plant glues, like pectin, I thought I'd ask y'all if you have any ideas.

For what it's worth, Chinese Yam seems like a good perennial source of mucilage, one that could grow in a tree layer.

Very cool!
I have often thought that a storage tote could be used instead of a bucket or barrel, so the container would be bigger but remain low to the ground.
Easier to drag across the ground, and potentially stackable.