Amy Gardener

Maggie writes,

Since fireplaces are such woefully inefficient ways to heat a space and I would really like to heat with our local wood, I have been looking but am unable to find any information about the possibility of converting them to a more efficient system. I'm wondering if I could build some kind of small masonry heater system into the firebox using firebrick, or built a small rocket mass heater into the firebox using cob and such, or else cob (maybe sand and then cob) around a wood stove inserted in (with the proper pipe inserted inside the chimney).

About 10 years ago, I attended a lecture at the Dorothy Day Center in Albuquerque, NM, where the original fireplace in the old adobe home was converted to a rocket mass heater within the previous decade (around 2005). In a wonderful spirit of sharing knowledge, the staff at the time gave me a tour of the entire system from indoor fire starting to ground-level clean-out to roof top vent. I highly recommend scheduling a field trip to see the system and understand the issues with the conversion. It is possible that the system was removed due to staff turnover and loss of rocket mass heater expertise over time. If you do schedule an appointment, please let us know what you find out.

While Tim specifically asks about sifting, would you consider minimizing ash by burning then dousing the biochar in a burn pit?
By making a small fire in a pit, then covering it with layers of sticks to partially smother the burn, I am able to carefully douse the fire from the bottom up while the new layers of char continue to burn on top. There is little to no ash in this process.
I mostly follow this excellent video by Manuel Angerer with this small modification: instead of dousing the fire completely, just add water to the bottom of the pit while keeping the upper layers burning. When finished with the burn, douse the entire pit as shown in the video.
After years of avoiding biochar due to concerns of adding alkalinity to my highly alkaline sandy soil, I am very pleased with this minimal ash method.

Using a slow cooker works really well for me. A covered slow cooker prevents the water from evaporating so basically all you do is cook the polenta on low until the water is absorbed and the corn is fully cooked.
Mix 1 cup of polenta with 1/2 t salt and 1/2 t baking soda (for whole grain meal) in the bowl of the slow cooker. Whisk in 2 cups of cold water until smooth. Whisk 2 cups of boiling water into the polenta mixture. Start the slow cooker on high and cook until bubbles form (about 45 min). Whisk again then turn cooker to low setting.
Cook on low until water is absorbed, polenta is tender and the polenta tastes like corn (not paste). Stir occasionally to cook the mixture evenly.
I cook my whole grain, coarse milled, dent corn for a total of 5 hours on low. The slow cooking produces and outstanding porridge: tender and full of rich corn flavor. If your polenta is de-germinated, the time could be much less so taste every hour and experience the flavor transformation.

Serving options:
To the hot polenta, add some butter and cheese, if desired, then top with your favorite pasta topping.
For breakfast, serve the porridge topped with berries, honey and milk.
For a wonderful warm up on a cold day, combine polenta with any kind of milk 1:1 plus maple syrup or honey plus cinnamon to taste. Blend until smooth. Serve hot in a mug. I drink this Mexican inspired “atole” whenever I have some leftover plain polenta. Amazing!

Dear Anne, Phil and Joseph,
Would y'all be willing to share the types of cactus, thorn bushes or other prickly plants that you are working with and weeding around. Prickly pear is probably very different from raspberries.
And Joseph, what is your "specialty hoe"? Did you custom design some low tech super hoe?
Anyone cultivating an actual garden with dense thorns that you love?

Here at my place, the prickly pear is growing tall (up to 4’). Interspersed among the cactus is silver leaf nightshade and a few desert globe mallow that I am working to extract.
I am having some luck removing these invaders using a narrow weeding tool called a “long handled corkscrew weeder.” I can twirl the long unwanted stem inside the corkscrew then continue toward the root by twisting the tool clockwise underground. Once I have the root I can pull the weed out of its prickly fortress. The brand is DeWit. I am happy with the results around the prickly pear in silt-sand soil.

Those of us who have a landscape that involves prickly plants know that weeding around spines, thorns, and prickles is difficult, tedious and painful. Each type of cactus or thorny bush probably requires a unique approach so if you have suggestions, please note the plant you are trying to weed around.

What methods or tools help make this job easier for you with your particular plant?

Christopher writes,

I'm dubious that cooking it with juniper ash produces the same niacin transformation, but I don't really have any way to judge.

Happily, there is a source that can answer your question! The information provided in the link in the original post was published by the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). As an academic institution, they are obliged to site their research.
Contact information for the research provided is available at BIE.edu if you scroll down on their home page.

Thanks for your curiosity Christopher.
I don’t have any scientific studies that compare the American Southwest’s treatment of corn with the Mexican treatment (though much of the Southwest used to be Mexico). Both treatments incorporate alkaline additives to access and add nutrients to the corn.
In my case, adding a spoonful of ash that is made from free and locally sourced juniper for my home-grown corn offers benefits that support multiple permaculture goals. By following the locally sourced method, my respect for the ancestral traditions that emerged out of this place deepen.

Now a question for you! Given that corn is part of the history of Minnesota, how did the tribes of your region process corn for maximum benefit?

Chef Lois Ellen Frank, Ph.D, of Red Mesa Cuisine in Santa Fe offers this instructional video on how to produce Culinary Juniper Ash and Blue Corn Mush at home.
I found this video exceptionally helpful in producing my own juniper ash without any grit.
This is a fun and very accessible cooking project!

In an effort to improve the nutrition and digestibility of the heirloom corn that is finally growing in abundance, I am learning about nixtamalization.
Unfortunately, most of the instructions require boiling corn kernels in a lime solution for some lengthy period of time and letting the corn rest in this solution overnight: a significant additional step and time consuming process that I would like to avoid.
I'd like a method that dovetails easily into my current corn-cookery practice: grinding about a week's worth of corn into coarse, medium and fine meal then cooking it into mush, polenta, grits and/or cornbread.
Luckily, the answer to this question of how to avoid the boiling/soaking/waiting steps is right here among the tribes of the American Southwest. This linked PDF from The Bureau of Indian Education provides an overview of the Diné process of adding 1 teaspoon of juniper ash per cup of cornmeal to get the nutritional and other benefits of nixtamalization.
After some experimentation, I am now able to produce a 1 cup jar of juniper ash in about an hour from a juniper on-site. This cup of ash contains 48 teaspoons with long (maybe unlimited) shelf-life. An actual serving of juniper ash is 1 teaspoon and a serving of cornmeal is 1/4 cup so I am now testing the flavor impact of increasing the amount of ash per cup of cornmeal.

Are there any other permies using this process who have suggestions or tips to share? If anyone has questions about implementing this step, please ask and others may have answers.