pinkoyd wrote:If you haven't done so already, separate the root bark and shred it while your batch is still fresh. The roots dry out hard as rocks and the rootbark becomes impossible to separate from the cortex making it disproportionately more difficult to process for extraction.
Thanks pinkoid, that's great advice! I think I discovered that the hard way, a couple years ago (I mentioned it in the desmanthus work space thread) and ruined a large volume of bark. I didn't have time to process my roots (and was familiar with the root/cortex fusion problem) so left them to soak in a bucket of water which became rancid (the roots are a bit fatty?) and then, absentmindedly exchanged the water with an addition of vinegar, a few times, until I had time for an extraction
(yes, you may call me dumbass, henceforth)....aaaand dumped the vinegar and water soak, down the basement sewer.
Yes, I processed the current harvest immediately, with a hammer, then garden pruners, then to the blender
"We dance round in a ring and suppose,
while the secret sits in the middle and knows." Robert Frost