Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Black Seeds

So... turns out I was working too hard again... Any store that sells bird feed sells black oil sunflower seeds at about $1/lb... That's not the $13/cwt but it's better than $2.50.. the black seed is also higher oil content. So After I picked up the kids from school I stopped and bought some seeds, came home and ran about a pound through the press.

Because they get run with the shells on they are harder to press. It looked to me like I was getting about the same amount of oil per pound but then I am running the shells as well as the kernel. The oil is now sitting to clarify... the big question will be, how does it taste? better? worse? the same?

Meanwhile, I took the cake... which having the shell in it is REALLY no good for human consumption. I ground it back into a powder, mixed it with some water, and formed it into cones with string in the top and a chop stick sticking through it. These are now in the oven (along with dinner that I was making at the same time). The idea... once they are baked hard I should be able to hang then in the tree as a bird feeder.

I've backed off from the idea of making chicken food for now because of the complexity. There is a real science to chicken food mixing and if you get it wrong the chickens will not be healthy... too much pressure!

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