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LIQUID GOLD - Carol Steinfeld

Fascinating little book about the practicalities of using urine as a fertilizer. This is an excellent introduction to how we can utilise urine as a free life-enhancing food for the garden, rather than see it as a waste-management problem. Because of the nitrogen content in healthy urine, it is an excellent on tap source. By simply diluting the urine from between 5:1 or 8:1 with water, the mix has significant positive effects on plants, as amply demonstrated in the books study of examples from around the world.

Steinfeld examines the whole process, from urine-diverting toilets, storage, dilution and application, complete with illustrations and photo's. Check out the photo on page 76 of a Mr Haken Jonsson and his home-made urine fertiliser distributor.

Piss had other uses too. Next time your at a wedding, sprinkle some piss on the happy couple, as practised in some areas of southern Africa...Next time your at a demo, chuck urine-nitrate bombs at the coppers and piss onto a face mask when the tear gas starts coming. This was common practise in world war one. Urine can also be used as a clothes dye.

But it's in the field if fertiliser that piss stands out.It's reckoned we flush away 1.4 milion pounds of nutrients each day in the UK. So, next time nature calls, answer by pissing on it (dilute first). And with your bumper crop of vegetables next season, you can give freely to your neighbours. Just don't tell then how you got the tomatoes so big.

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