[Cob] New poster; lime source?

[Amanda Peck]

Welcome to the group, Jon.

It sounds like you're having the same problems I had with lime.

a) avoid quicklime. If you JUST HAVE to experiment with it--and it's 
dangerous to turn it into slaked lime--try water treatment plants.

b) ask around.  Ask for Hydrated Lime.  The farm bureau co-op in my county, 
and the county to the south do not ever carry the hydrated lime. The 
TSC--don't know about the co-op--in the county to the East only has it in 
the spring.   I was getting right frustrated by all this until some people 
living in the--very tiny--county to the north said, "our co-op has it all 
the time."   And they do.

I could also have driven a couple hundred miles into Alabama and picked up a 
truck-load of bags.

And I live in a county that still has a "Lime Kiln Road."

If you want teensy-tinesey quantities of the stuff, the grocery store at 
this time of year will probably have "pickling lime."  Food-grade, in 
1-pound boxes or bags.

If you have a large Mexican community--including women who make their own 
corn tortillas from scratch!--they will be able to tell you.  I do recommend 
corn tortillas from scratch--the stuff made with masa isn't near as good.

...............

Jon Kerr writes:

Where can a fella get lime/mason's lime/quicklime in the Twin Cities area?  
Google doesn't even have anything!  And I searched the home depot but 
nothing. There's this gorgeous limestone cliff face next to the river in St 
Paul with tons of fine sand at the bottom, but I don't really have a way to 
heat it to 1200 degrees.  Plus I made a halfway decent earth oven, but would 
like to get a protective lime plaster on it pretty soon and don't want to 
wait for lime putty to age. Any ideas?

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