October 25, 2005

Corn kernel burning for heat Eastern IA and Northern IL had one heck of a drought this summer and, while the harvest isn't as bad as expected, a lot of it is sitting around waiting to be shipped down the Mississippi to hurricane ravaged ports. Meanwhile, a portion of the crop is testing positive for a toxic fungus. You might as well put it in your pipe and smoke it. Which is just what is happening as corn kernel stoves become popular amid rising fuel costs. They only need to be loaded once a day and need a simple vent to the outside. Oh, happy day!

And, when you are done burning some kernels, toss the stovers into the pumpkin patch.

posted by Hotcakes 19 years ago
  • My neighbors here in SW WI use one of these. It's a good deal. They're veggie farmers, but rent out some crop land, get a little $$ and a year's worth of heat in exchange! Heard about that fungus... another expensive year for anyone (me, for example) who feeds organic corn to their livestock.
  • So how do these things measure up when it comes to emissions?
  • Kudos Hotcakes! One of the best posts in a long long time.
  • Another possible fate for contaminated maize: fermentation into ethanol.
  • Let the organic cows eat the organic grass, says I. The shipping problems are something I recall seeing an economist write about after Katrina; something to the effect that the midwest farm belt was going to have huge problems because all the fertiliser comes up the Mississippi, and all the produce goes down it. The likely effects on the agricultural sector in the States (and, by extension, the rest of the country) seem curiously unreported on.
  • Also makes for a damn fine bourbon, which has on occasion led to the production of natural methane. Good post, by the way, and a weird coincidence — I just did a little piece-o'-crap bumf about replacing or supplementing gas heat with stoves (gas prices around here are expected to go up about 70% this winter). Your post gave me some info I didn't know. rodgerd: Most of the reporting over here (at least, in my neck of the woods) focuses almost exclusively on the price of groceries, which is certainly related, but it seems like most Americans don't care a whole lot about farmers. Most people only seem to notice that things have gone bad only when they've gotten so bad that green beans double in price. Besides which, that story's not nearly as sexy as the Plame case or the Miers nomination or what Jessica Simpson's doing right now.
  • Let the organic cows eat the organic grass, says I. So says I. The pigs, on the other hand, need something a little higher powered. We're experimenting with other feeds, such as turning 'em loose in the pumpkin patch. The old timers just let 'em fend for themselves, but that's a little more difficult these days -- in fact there's laws against free-roaming pigs. It'll be interesting to see what the effect of the shipping problems rogerd mentioned has on organic feed. And yeah, excellent post. Lotsa good linkies.
  • You could feed them a heck of a lot of acorns. Piss the squirrels off.
  • I ran across this at work today and thought it was interesting. (In a print source, and this was the only online source I could find) Whey is used for all kinds of stuff, but this is a new one on me.
  • parched hey cloud earth is thirsty she needs you to drop some rain the soil is dry her bones are showing as hungry winds blow dust away