Thom Bri

Honored!

Lots of seeds are designed to pass through without being damaged. Some species even require it. Whole corn is rarely fed to animals for that reason, so much goes right through.

If you are not a serious prepper, just buy one extra can of whatever every time you hit the super. Over a few weeks or months you have a good stock, and hardly notice it in the budget.

My wife cooks and also follows the sales. At any given time we might have 20 pounds of flour and 10 of sugar and oatmeal, boxes of breakfast cereal and whatever. Plus whatever I have saved from my garden from the prior year. Might as well call us preppers.

I put them in the garage without any cleaning. What starts rot are imperfections on the rind, bug or animal bites or what have you. Eat those first. My squash will generally last until spring, so roughly six months. Some do go bad over that period.

Last night I made pop corn. The bag says 'Use before 2017'. So it's at least ten years old. It smells normal, and pops pretty well. Not quite as well as fresh pop corn, but good enough.
It tastes fresh.
It is stored in the original plastic bag, inside a plastic container, on the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard. No special temp control or anything unusual.

If you visit a local gardening store you will find a variety of potted herbs ready to take home. Simply choose one you like.
As for light, south-facing windows are best. If there isn't enough light, a simple grow lamp (also at the garden store) will suffice for one plant.

Burned in it most of the day to cook out the moisture. No significant cracks.

It got too hot to touch. I understand now how the rocket mass heater works. That big mass of clay will hold heat a long time even after the fire is out.

Alder Burns wrote:@ Brian White I never measured or anything, just aimed for a good dark brown tea.  Put a drop or 2 of dish soap in it to help it stick.  The mythology I remember reading is that if you make tea with 2 cigarettes worth in boiling water, and then drink the water, it's a guaranteed fatal dose!  So it's pretty strong stuff.  There actually used to be a commercial insecticide based on this, called Black Leaf 40.  I haven't heard of it in a long time, not sure if it's still around...

Gotta be real careful with nicotine! Even too much handling of green plants can cause a reaction if you are not already addicted. Be very careful with strong tobacco tea. Keep it in kid-safe containers, or don't even make it if kids are going to be around.

Glenn Herbert wrote:You are right that you need more exit airflow, but you could easily get that by making little pillars all around the top instead of a flat top with small grooves in it. I might try six pillars with equal spacing and height as their thickness. Put them toward the outside edge of the top of the chimney so there is just enough inner/upper surface to properly support the smallest pot you want to use.

Tried it with just a heavy grill on top and that did the trick. Water boiled easily and fast. Just that little extra bit of air flow.

If the power went out I could make one of these in an afternoon and be cooking food that night. Even faster if I had bricks. One more survival skill learned. Thanks Permies! I am not really a prepper, but somehow I have half a year's food stored and a way to cook it.

I'd feed to animals. Unless is an economic crisis, facing severe hunger, why eat them? Fresh whole grains are pretty cheap, except maybe specialty products like quinoa.
Corn is $10 for a 50 lb bag. Oats maybe $18.

If you must eat it. Smell it. Musty? Rancid? 'Off' smells of any kind? Avoid.