Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Farm 432: Your Countertop Protein Generator

quote [ Farm 432 enables people to become independent from the system of current meat production by growing their own protein source at home. After 432 hours, 1 gram of black soldier fly eggs turn into 2.4 kilogram of larvae protein, larvae that self-harvest and fall clean and ready to eat into a harvest bucket. Black soldier fly adults don?t eat, therefore they don?t have any mouth parts and do not transmit any disease. The larvae can be fed on bio waste, therefore the production almost costs no water or CO2. Black soldier fly larvae are one of the most efficient protein converters in insects, containing up to 42% of protein (dried), a lot of calcium and amino acids. ]

Wiki: Black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens)
[SFW] [food & drink] [+10 Interesting]
[by Ankylosaur@7:17pmGMT]

Comments

midden said @ 2:26am GMT on 21st Jan [Score:3 Informative]
On an only tangentially related note, I've just discovered the wonder of washing rice. Goodness, my, what a difference!

Put your rice, of whatever variety, in a big bowl or pot with two or three times as much water. Let it sit for two or three minutes, then swish it around until the water gets cloudy. Change the water and do it again. It takes two or three times until most of the cloudiness is gone. Now cook it like normal (which includes never, ever stirring it while it's simmering!). Result, amazingly fluffy, non-gummy rice. I've done three or four kinds of rice this way in the last few weeks and it has changed how I think of planning meals that include a rice component.

This may be old news to most of you, but as you can tell, it's a delightful new discovery to me.
mechanical contrivance said @ 3:42am GMT on 21st Jan
I like my rice sticky.
foobar said @ 8:11am GMT on 21st Jan [Score:1 Underrated]
Sticky and gummy are not the same thing.
mechanical contrivance said @ 1:59pm GMT on 21st Jan
What's the difference?
rhesusmonkey said @ 2:56pm GMT on 21st Jan
Thai "sticky" rice is glutenous rice, and bonds to each other after a normal cook due to the higher gluten levels. Japanese "sushi" rice is washed with vinegar to achieve a similar result where the gluten bonds the rice together to hold the shape. Arborio rice, slow cooked with plenty of stock and some white wine will make a wonderful side dish of what i'd call almost "congealed" rice, since you cook out almost all the starch in it when making risotto.

Then there is overcooked jasmine or other "plain" rice, which is not quite to the level of being Jao but is definitely not the el dente consistency you want. It also tends to stick for the same reason as the risotto.
ComposerNate said @ 2:01pm GMT on 21st Jan
1 mug rice, 2 mugs salted water in silicon cake form. Microwave ~18min and let set another two. Rice is perfectly consistent and cutely shaped to silicon which afterwards squishes into dishwasher. Never again stir or burn rice or scrub pans.

Mix into rice whatever amount of red lintels or bulgar wheat for nutritional variety.
arrowhen said @ 7:33pm GMT on 20th Jan [Score:2 Funny]
Yes, I've always wanted my very own countertop protein and nightmare generator.
cb361 said @ 8:31pm GMT on 20th Jan
It does look like something that would chase Gordon Freeman around, until he whacked it with a crowbar.
mechanical contrivance said @ 8:11pm GMT on 20th Jan [Score:1 Funny]
How hard is it to grow soybeans?
foobar said @ 7:48pm GMT on 20th Jan
I cannot imagine a factory farm being anywhere near as revolting as this.

That said, this could be an excellent way to generate feed for fish farms, or perhaps even those factory farmed cows.
Jack Blue said @ 7:52pm GMT on 20th Jan [Score:1 Insightful]
Bleb said @ 10:10pm GMT on 20th Jan [Score:1 Insightful]
For some reason I want to see a giant portrait of Citizen Kane at the far end of this coop.
foobar said @ 7:54pm GMT on 20th Jan
I'll certainly take that over larvae.
Ankylosaur said @ 7:59pm GMT on 20th Jan
What if they were really tiny chickens squirming about in a countertop breeding pod?
foobar said @ 8:03pm GMT on 20th Jan
...

I think I'll stick with my relatively natural debeaked pen chickens, thanks.

Or backyard chickens. I could go for those. I'm sure they'd love to eat these larvae.
ComposerNate said @ 8:03pm GMT on 20th Jan
If we now start feeding our children obvious insects?
KingPellinore said[1] @ 4:03pm GMT on 21st Jan [Score:1 Funny]
"Vergessen Sie wie Mann Englisch Sprechen?"
ComposerNate said[9] @ 9:35pm GMT on 21st Jan

ComposerNate's Greater Avatar Wall of SE Personalities

Welcome KingPellinore to Our Great Wall, long time waiting and longer deserved, first inductee of 2015.

ComposerNate said[3] @ 10:10am GMT on 22nd Jan
Still clueless how this comment was broken, I fixed it offline: SE HTML
steele said @ 12:04pm GMT on 22nd Jan
So I can close the ticket then?
ComposerNate said @ 5:26pm GMT on 22nd Jan
If you've fixed whatever it was that went wrong, or else wait for it to happen again. I suspect it was an extra </div> I dug out using Notepad. See the nonsense.
steele said @ 8:00pm GMT on 22nd Jan
"happen again" You planning on doing it again? ;)
I'll add a feature so that you can hide the history while editing for cases like this, but I'm not too concerned about the occasional broken comment. Quit breaking shit and we'll be fine. :P
KingPellinore said[1] @ 3:00pm GMT on 22nd Jan
Yay!

Ah, crap. Mod first THEN reply!
ComposerNate said @ 5:27pm GMT on 22nd Jan
Yay! Small, sweet victories.
JWWargo said @ 8:20pm GMT on 20th Jan
"The volume is configured to breed about 500g of harvest per week. This makes about 2 meals."

So it's designed to supplement your diet. Not really helpful for starving third-world countries.

Seems like the kind of thing people with money who want to "save the planet" could get into, assuming they are cool with eating insects.
foobar said @ 9:13pm GMT on 20th Jan
The silly molded plastic can be tossed. I'm sure a simpler design could be made buildable with scraps.

It could be useful for making use organics that aren't fit for human consumption, but I doubt it would be more efficient to turn scraps into feed for chickens than to just feed the scraps to livestock you'd eat directly, like pigs.
lilmookieesquire said @ 4:45am GMT on 21st Jan
This would be a wonderful supplement to an aquaponics system actually.
foobar said @ 8:10am GMT on 21st Jan
Yes, exactly. It would even make good feed for the higher trophic level fish that taste better, like salmon.
Jack Blue said @ 9:51pm GMT on 20th Jan
Never mind the eating of insects. What really bothered me was her using a metal fork directly in a nonstick frying pan. That is just sick!
sanepride said @ 11:30pm GMT on 20th Jan
Now why would anyone pay for this thing and wait for like 2.5 weeks when they can just go outside and dig up bugs right now for free?
midden said @ 2:19am GMT on 21st Jan
This would be much more palatable if they first roasted them, then put them through the food processor to make protein-meal. From there, you could do all sorts of things with it, like use it in lasagna, soups, ravioli, over salad, etc. It's the form, not the content that wigs me out.

I'd be happy to replace the big bag of whey protein powder I keep in my kitchen with bug protein powder, but it's not worth the effort of doing it with a setup like this one.
foobar said @ 8:14am GMT on 21st Jan
Ankylosaur said @ 10:13pm GMT on 21st Jan
A tube of pureed pig anuses. Yet larvae is off the menu.
foobar said @ 10:18pm GMT on 21st Jan
Hey, that's 100% beef anus there.

At least they've removed the bones and digestive system. When they work out how to butcher a larvae, maybe.
midden said @ 3:32am GMT on 23rd Jan
If they made hotdogs out of larvae, I'd be willing to give them a shot.
mechanical contrivance said @ 4:50am GMT on 23rd Jan
If they made larvae out of hotdogs, I'd be willing to give them a shot.
midden said @ 10:33pm GMT on 23rd Jan
I'm quite sure an awful lot of fly larvae are birthed from the womb of Oscar Mayer.
arrowhen said @ 3:50am GMT on 23rd Jan
MAMMAL anuses. You gotta draw the line somewhere.
rhesusmonkey said @ 2:57pm GMT on 21st Jan
Can't wait to try this in my next Soylent recipe!
rylex said @ 3:18pm GMT on 21st Jan
432 hours? That's so inefficient.

Bend over and I'll generate some protein for you in about 40 seconds.

Post a comment
[note: if you are replying to a specific comment, then click the reply link on that comment instead]

You must be logged in to comment on posts.



Posts of Import
Karma
SE v2 Closed BETA
First Post
Subscriptions and Things

Karma Rankings
ScoobySnacks
HoZay
Paracetamol
lilmookieesquire
Ankylosaur