What did you do to prepare today?

[Andy F]

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[Andy F]

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[Andy F]

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[dirtmurphy]

We discussed mealworms and almost went with them but black soldier flies have other benefits. They eat biological wastes so we can feed them poop and roadkill. That means that I can speed up the decomposition of my chicken manure. I took a class by Chris Link who runs the farm at Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy where they use black soldier flies. He said that they can process 80 lbs of organic matter a day. He also said that the N in manure is reduced by 62%. That's important because that steep reduction will make it possible to run the manure through my worm bins faster than I would otherwise. Apparently black soldier fly residue isn't safe on its own as a soil amendment, so it's recommended to run it through the vermicomposting process.
That's fine by me because vermicompost is a fully stabilized soil amendment at a near neutral pH. It's microbially active, has a high water holding capacity, and has humic acids. It also has gibberellins, cytokinins, and auxins. Those are plant growth hormones. I've kept worms now for 6 years. I start all of my seeds in it and use it in all of our containers. I also make actively aerated compost tea with it and use it on my garden beds here as well as in other people's gardens.
All of that is a long way of saying that the black soldier flies meet other criteria as well as that of a protein source.
This is the link to the vid demonstrating the build that I plan on doing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-XsU19U0kQ
Here is another link that I found interesting. This came from AgWeb and is a vid called "Weathering the Storm" about how farmers are coping with the cold wet year that may not change anytime soon. https://www.agweb.com/article/weatherin ... rm-report/

[Andy F]

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[Andy F]

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[dirtmurphy]

We've been stocking up on food this week. I haven't seen any food shortages here, and I'm not complaining. Anyhow, I've spent the past two days canning peaches and tomatoes. I hope to finish processing the bushel of tomatoes tomorrow.
I started the black soldier fly digester but got sidetracked. I hope to get on that project again in the next couple of days.

[Andy F]

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[dirtmurphy]

That's funny Have you ever been bit by a horsefly? It hurts like a mofo.

[Andy F]

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Anyhow, carry on!