My haul of cooking charcoal drying off after converting some wood waste from around the property.
I also got 3 wheelbarrows of smaller fine charcoal which went into the vegetable garden.
I'm starting to think about producing plant food at home again after becoming disinterested in it due my carnivore experiment. I think animals are a critical aspect that I neglected when I first looked at permaculture. I think perennial fruit trees, annual fruits, herbs & spices are worthwhile growing.
What inspired making charcoal, Brisket? Is it for cooking?
Primitive Tech looked at making charcoal in a few ways:
Yeah - charcoal was super important technology. Critical for metallurgy & blacksmithing before coal was discovered/abundant. I'm primarily interested in it for cooking - LPG isn't the most reliable but I have wood galore out here.
I was interested in bio char years ago & made a few retorts. It was very labour intensive. Charcoal is an amazing soil amendment - it has a huge surface area (very porous) and absorbs moisture & nutrients. It encourages microbial biodiversity in the soil & increases fertility. It doesn't really breakdown in the soil unlike wood. Search for 'tera preta' - super interesting.
nostr:npub1vm6mluqu4k7ewfjwtj47s4m3gmxlxugdjuh7fwnt9c2v83rznwwq5veyae showed me how to do it cheaply & quickly. You would have met him had you been to one of the recent Bitcoin meetups. š
Overdue! š I add wood ash, bones and spent brewing grain to the soil here. Building up the structure with charcoal is great but the sounds. Another reason to fire up the brazier.
I'm shifting away from fruit trees and going more for nuts and avocado.
I planted 2 avocados last week. I lost 2 seedlings last year to the floods. I'm hoping the charcoal will help with drainage.
If you can grow avocados, you can probably grow macadamias. They're about the only nut that has a decent fatty acid profile (ie not PUFA dominant).
I haven't had a lot of joy with the coconut I planted, but it's a lovely Palm.
Yeah I've got some macadamias in and trying to sprout some more. My dad has a mature tree that really produces, he's on the Adelaide Plains though and we are up in the hills, so they don't love it up here.
What method did you use to make your charcoal? What type of wood? We have mostly willow which isnāt good for charcoal but seasons quickly, last years harvest will likely be ready for the stove this winter, if itās stays warm and dry here.
It was a method that I'd not really come across before & a local Bitcoiner/permie showed me. It used cage made from corrugated iron to restrict oxygen & reflect heat which is doused with water when finished. It is incredibly efficient with your time & produces minimal smoke. Another Bitcoiner had suggested something similar a while back but for some reason I dismissed it.
The wood stock was mostly fallen branches & half rotted gum trees (eucalyptus) that I found when clearing. Really scrappy wood not useful for burning in the wood stove. The larger pieces of hardwood are probably what form this pile. I ran it all through a screen & barrowed the smaller stuff to my garden beds.
For me, it converts waste wood into a valuable soil amendment & cooking fuel. Win:win
The guy that showed me this method uses bamboo as feed stock. I'm sure willow will be fine but I've never burnt willow. This method seems to work best with smaller fast burning branches & sticks. Pyrolysis only occurs on the top layer of the burning wood (due to the o2 restriction), so you keep feeding the fire as it turns to charcoal.
A cage? Do you have a picture of the device? Iāve got corrugated iron sheets around. Most videos Iāve found use steel barrels but I havenāt seen it with corrugated iron.
Absolute. I eat a tonne of scotch fillet but fresh fruit and vegetables, especially ones you have grown yourself without the pesticides and herbicides, are fantastic! š±
I haven't really eaten vegetables other than potatoes for about 5 years now. My garden bed used to be full of collards & kale in winter. Then I found out about oxalates & had to admit that I really didn't enjoy all the green smoothies.
There is definitely something to eating locally grown produce. I use produce stands on the side of the road all the time. Most of it is grown with standard practices but it always tastes better when freshly picked & naturally ripened.
I think anything you can do to increase your resiliency is going to be useful for what's coming.
