[Cob] quicklime sources

[Amanda Peck]

Interesting.

I once spent a summer in a very isolated area of Mexico--45 minutes walk 
from the nearest motor vehicle, and that was a tractor whose fuel may have 
come across a river on horseback.

Family I was staying with soaked their corn in hydrated lime and water, then 
washed the result in the stream  (I've always wondered how awful that was 
for the environment) after the hulls were soaked off, ground it to make 
their tortillas.  Much, much better than the ones from the stores.

But they bought 50 pound bags of hydrated lime--yep, at least from the river 
to the village, it came in on horse- or mule-back, theirs or one of the 
traveling merchans'.  All clearly labeled "for building use only" in 
English.

I have made tortillas that way this a few times, generally with food grade 
"pickling lime."

But I've mostly just started my bags of lime soaking so I can plaster my 
cob--or just now, light clay wall.

Ocean wrote (snipped):

(Interesting side note: Kettle Foods in Salem Oregon uses it for their 
organic corn chips!)