The Old Folks Home

[chickadoodles]

Quote: I have never tried to cook whole grain rice. I don't think I have even seen it in the grocery store. lol But that is the way to go at 17 min.

 

[chickisoup]

Oooooh, whole grain rice

up here we like to mix it with wild rice, some good chicken stock, mushrooms and onions. YUM!!!

 

[ronott1]

Oooooh, whole grain rice

up here we like to mix it with wild rice, some good chicken stock, mushrooms and onions. YUM!!!

We had thin breaded fried pork cutlets, whole grain rice, bread and broccoli.

It was all very tasty!

 

[LindaB220]

I found the EM-1, but what is AEM?

To make up a gallon o AEM you add 3/4 cup EM-1 and 3/4 c feed grade molasses ($7 gallon) from feed store, to a 1/4 gallon warm water. Stir really good to melt together and fill the rest of the gallon jug with reg water. Put top on milk jug and sit in a warm place for several days. Hot weather it is ready in a few days. Cold weather, bring in and leave in warm place up to a week or so. This is your start. You have a whole gallon to work with. For a 5 gallon bucket of fermented feed, add 1/2 c of AEM and 1/3 C molasses to warm water and stir. Then fill half full with water and start adding grains and feed. Until about 4 inches from top. Let sit. You may have to add more water. Think mortar oatmeal. It'll take 4 days the first time. After that get down to about 2" from the bottom and refill the bucket. It will be ready the next day. If there is a white film on the top, stir it down and feed.
When it comes time to make more AEM just keep 3/4 cup availabile and add 1/2 cup molasses and do the same thing again. I've been doing this for over 6 mo and still have way over half of my original EM-1 bottle left. I just this last couple of weeks ago bought the 2nd gallon of molasses. Totally worth the money You can also put 1/2 c of AEM in water and 1/3 c molasses in water and spray down your coop. Soooooo beneficial for the chicks. Or spray on your garden before planting to amend the soil.
Now EM-1 is not necessary for fermented feed. It makes it with apple cider vinear with Mother or add just plain water and grain and feed. I have tried it with the vinegar and it was good. Very good. But, I just get better results with the EM-1 The consistancy was better and the chickens liked it better. At least, my chickens did. YMMV There, have I confused you enough? Let me know and I can confuse you more.

 

[pdirt]

Thanks for the information on EM. I am using Big Ole bird which is similar. I may try the EM next time.

Hmm, hadn't heard of "Big Ole Bird" before. Looks interesting. Perhaps it's based upon EM technology, but I couldn't find any info on their website as to what exactly is in it other than the generic probiotics, humic and fulvic acids. Like the EM-based "BioAg" by SCD, it's a point-of-use item, meaning, you use it straight from the bottle. What LindaB220 and myself are doing is using a "mother culture" of EM and brewing our own point-of-use product with water, molasses and the mother culture. Increases effort but dramatically decreases cost. Not too difficult to do if you have an unused picnic cooler and a lightbulb.

 

[pdirt]

Okay, pdirt, give me an example of what you mean. I understand using food grade molasses but how do you mix it and with what? Juice? By itself?

You're talking about for human brews? A simple answer would be to replace about half of the molasses (as if you're making AEM) with frozen/concentrated juice, grape juice is one of my favorites. Or make the recipe as normal and add a cup of powdered turmeric to the brew. I brew these at about 100F for 2-3 months. It might work in a simply "warm place", but I haven't tried it. Since it takes so long (and I've had some go bad), I usually only use the straight EM culture, not AEM. If you're really interested, PM me and I will see if I can round up some more specific recipes for you.

 

[getaclue]

LindaB, thank you. I will be trying this out soon. I had been holding back on trying some things because I wanted to wait until we bought our home, and got settled in, but that seems to be taking awhile, and I would rather get them started on the benefits from this now.

 

[tridentk9]

I am cooking whole grain rice in a pressure cooker tonight. It normally takes an hour to cook. Pressure cooker is 17min.

I either use a rice cooker or cook it similar to rice-a-roni except from scratch. Oh wait, I don't cook. Never mind.

 

[Alaskan]

@bamadude lots of kinds of mushrooms are perfectly fine.

Most of the mushrooms in my yard are edible ones, and none are super deadly ones.

 

[vehve]

After this cup of coffee it's time to clean the coop and take a look at what kind of bedding we received. I think I'll take down the bean bushes at the same time to get some more greens in the compost.