Ingredients
- 3 – 4 cups black tea brewed very strong + strained tea leaves
- 2/3 cup sea salt
- 3 cups wood ash
- 3 cups charcoal ash
- 1 3/4 cups quicklime
- 18 fresh duck eggs
- 2-3 pounds rice chaff
- Latex gloves
Preparation
Step 1
Brew the tea. At least a cup of loose tea leaves for 8 cups of water Let the tea sit for at least an hour to get really strong. In the meantime, find a large, non-reactive vessel (like a plastic painter’s bucket or other very large and deep bowl) and put the salt, ashed and quicklime into the bowl. When the tea is done, add about 3 cups and stir well. Then strain the tea, preserving both the liquid and the solids and add the spent tea leaves to the mud mixture. If necessary, add more brewed tea until the mud is a thick, but not watery solution.
Put on latex or other protective gloves. The mud is caustic and will cause skin discomfort.
Place the first batch of eggs into the mud and coat them well. Let them sit for about 15 minutes before moving on to the next step. Find a large, deep bowl and fill it with rice chaff. After the eggs have rested in the mud, take them up one at a time and make sure they are completely coated. The mud is a bit sticky and almost serous and doesn't want to adhere to the surface of the shell. When the coating is more or less uniform, place the egg in the chaff. Wipe excess mud off of your gloves by scraping on the edge of the vessel holding the mud. Then take handfulls of chaff and cover the egg with it completely. Pick up the egg and put chaff on the reverse side if needed. Then lightly compress the egg in your hand to try to get the chaff to bond with the mud. Remember the egg is raw and don’t squeeze too hard. When the chaff fully coats the egg (add more chaff if necessary), set it on a plate and move onto the next egg.
When all of the intended eggs are coated with mud and chaff, clean up. Let the eggs sit overnight before burying them in soil and lime. Use soil from outside (not potting soil) to fill the crock to get some natural microorganisms in the mix. Set crock in an out-of-the-way place and wait a few months. 100 days