Re: Moira and others
I've seen this suggestion, that bone meal isn't what it used to be, in a
gardening magazine recently. The (bone of) contention in this case wasn't the
way the cows were fed but the way the bones were so over-processed that all the
virtue was gone. The article had a 19th century recipe for stewing bones with
lye or something until everything was nice and gooey and ready to be turned into
bone meal. The part I didn't understand was how the modern processing could
render the phosphorus in the bones useless, or maybe it was supposed to be
removing the phosphorus? What would be left in the meal?
Kay Dreher
Berkeley, California
