ProfessorPangloss
Amateur Kentuckian
This thread is a long time coming, and I'm glad the day is here. I'm attempting to make perique out of Perique, using the lessons learned from others and some ingenuity (student labor). Since I work at a high school with a great vo-tech program, I was able to come up with some specs for the kids to build. The teachers love giving the kids problems to solve, so the student machinists made me a "cider press" from scrap steel. It takes a 3/4" threaded rod ($4.75 @ Lowe's). The welding kids added a handle from scrap of their own. The press itself is two pieces of 3/4" oak glued crosswise and clamped for three days to form a solid 1.5" puck of oak. The pot was from a thrift store. The press-follow is a floor flange with an Allen plug. The total investment is less than $10, though not everyone can get this done like that. Still, it's cheap and hopefully effective.
Here's an entire sterilite bin of Perique from last year's grow. It's not great leaf, especially in comparison to this year's. If this whole batch goes pear-shaped, I can try again with better materials. I de-stemmed all of this, which took almost two hours.
Here's an entire sterilite bin of Perique from last year's grow. It's not great leaf, especially in comparison to this year's. If this whole batch goes pear-shaped, I can try again with better materials. I de-stemmed all of this, which took almost two hours.