Aloha
That's pretty neat, having Acacia confusa in your neighborhood!
Meanwhile in Switzerland i'm starting to get the hang of cultivating it in pots. Attached is an image of my biggest one - it nearly died in winter, maybe because a friend cut the tip, but it made a nice recovery this summer.
What was the yield you got?
A/B doesn't really give better yield than STB btw, but it is easier to produce white crystals with it. Faint yellow crystals are perfectly OK though - some actually prefer them over white.
The main difference is that you do boils/simmers in acidic water first, then filter out the bark, maybe reduce the volume of liquid, then proceed to base and pull. So the naphtha never has contact with the actual bark. This also means that if you're not thorough enough with the boils before filtering, you will not get all the yield. In STB, if you suspect more content in the bark, you can just do another pull.
Glad to have you, i think you'll love it here.
Homo Trypens attached the following image(s):
confusa_2022-07-31.jpg
(157kb) downloaded 33 time(s).