Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Bicycle generators, beer, and salt production

I got a little burnt riding through the desert so today I'm just taking it easy researching homemade remedies to our rural problems. My first scheme is a bicycle generator, which I hope will solve a couple problems. All I'll need is an old broken bike, some wood or metal to make a flywheel, and a little electrical motor to actually produce the volts. I'll keep you posted on my progress. The second wild scheme is beer brewed from Haitian grains. A little research on the web and a little inquiring with people from Africa leads me to believe millet beer will not be the answer--the consensus, too thin, too sour. However I did come across some recipes popular in the 13 colonies during the colonial era. The beer was made from wheat bran and molasses and supposedly the founding fathers were quite keen on it. In Haiti molasses is readily available but wheat bran is thrown to the pigs. I may also be able to use corn or millet to provide the sugars needed for the fermentation so long as the wheat bran is providing the body, color and flavor.

Tomorrow I'm heading over to make my first inquiry into the salt production. I'm not going to take the sun lightly again. My limbs are going to be fully covered with a straw hat to boot. Although I feel intimidated by embarking on such a large project with so little knowledge and no help from others, there is really know one else doing anything, so whatever I can contribute is going to be better than nothing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

beer and power conversion. almost my two favorite topics... ;)

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.