The humanure thread

[FarmerChick]

wow

as long as there is water and scraps for compost etc. I sure will never be adding human pee and poo to my food supply...lol

just not there for the 'total experience' and probably never will be

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

wow

as long as there is water and scraps for compost etc. I sure will never be adding human pee and poo to my food supply...lol

just not there for the 'total experience' and probably never will be

Better not use any dirt from outside then

 

[Britesea]

so true. Humans have been around a LOOOOOOONG time, and they've always been full of it, lol

 

[FarmerChick]

wow

as long as there is water and scraps for compost etc. I sure will never be adding human pee and poo to my food supply...lol

just not there for the 'total experience' and probably never will be

Better not use any dirt from outside then

nah, I am talking about peeing in a cup and throwing it on my crops. ya know, direct contact from the toilet to the veggie

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

wow

as long as there is water and scraps for compost etc. I sure will never be adding human pee and poo to my food supply...lol

just not there for the 'total experience' and probably never will be

Better not use any dirt from outside then

nah, I am talking about peeing in a cup and throwing it on my crops. ya know, direct contact from the toilet to the veggie

Ummm, its aged quite well before that happens. Months in fact.

 

[FarmerChick]

just not in me to keep buckets of human pee and poop around my home. I gotta say there are just way too many ways for me to enhance my crop...and be comfortable doing it and eating it after lol

 

[Britesea]

well, I don't do that. But I have occasionally thrown it on the compost pile to "wake it up" Still, urine is sterile when we don't have an infection (although it grows bacteria better than a petri dish), and apparently safely drinkable (I've read about people that drink their urine for health benefits-- don't think I'll ever be able to force myself to do that). I also read that the Inuit used to wash their hair with urine, since it doesn't freeze; also read that gypsies used to use it as a final rinse, to get rid of any lingering soap. Our attitude to urine is simply part of the entire germophobic attitude we have (and maybe some harsh toilet training techniques?)

 

[FarmerChick]

mine isn't germaphobic...I would drink it if dying in the desert and I knew I was on my last legs to the grave.

my problem is to me it is just plain disgusting

 

[rathbone]

well, I don't do that. But I have occasionally thrown it on the compost pile to "wake it up" Still, urine is sterile when we don't have an infection (although it grows bacteria better than a petri dish), and apparently safely drinkable (I've read about people that drink their urine for health benefits-- don't think I'll ever be able to force myself to do that). I also read that the Inuit used to wash their hair with urine, since it doesn't freeze; also read that gypsies used to use it as a final rinse, to get rid of any lingering soap. Our attitude to urine is simply part of the entire germophobic attitude we have (and maybe some harsh toilet training techniques?)

I have read a lot of that too. Also that many cultures used fresh urine to bathe a newborn baby in. If we have a line for the toilet in the morning - I usually send one little boy outside to pee in the compost. It is urine. I am much more comfortable with urine than the chemicals many use on a daily basis (and hence are putting on our earth).

 

[Beekissed]

If you have a dog or even if you live in the country at all and don't have your garden securely fenced, one time or another you have eaten veggies that have been peed upon, peed around, peed at.

Pee is pee....horse pee, cow pee, deer pee, sheep pee, or goat pee...it eventually gets put on a garden somewhere in the load of manure that gets mixed in and sometime or other we have all consumed food grown in pee.

One of the main ingredients in commercial fertilizers is urea.

What one has to understand is that people don't just dump a load of pee on a veggie and then go eat it...the substance is poured at the base of the plant during times of high nitrogen needs...usually NOT when the plant is bearing fruit but when it is in its first growth.

The subsequent rains, filtering by the soil, etc. dilutes this substance and brings it down to where the root system can actually utilize it. The roots do not act as little straws that suck pee into their stems to place it directly into the fruit you will be eating, so if that all consuming image of pee in your food is the sticking point, one only has to educate oneself about how nutrients are utilized and broken down by plant life.

It's a nutrient, like any other nutrient in the soil...time to get over it.