As I Sit Here Making Sepp's Bone Sauce

[George Collins]

While making the rounds today, and with a mental image of that cucumber plant fresh in my mind, I decided to check on some of the trees which had bone sauce applied to them. I didn't notice a discernable pattern as to which trees had leaves burnt by the sauce but several of them did. Chestnuts unfortunately seemed particularly vulnerable to having their leaves burnt. Some apples and pears, but certainly not all of them, were susceptible. Peaches and plums seemed uniformly immune to the effect.

The upside is that there seems to be no new damage to any trees that had it applied whereas there was some new damage done to a volunteer mulberry that was left untreated as a control.

[George Collins]

Here is a screen shot of a research article on the comparative effectiveness of various deer repellents. Seems as if Sepp's bone sauce (which has been sold commercially as Magic Circle) has been tested and found to be "ineffective."

[matt walker]

Interesting, the last sentence is telling. I have a lot of bobcats, coyotes, and mountain lions running around here. Never have had a deer problem regarding the new trees. I think there might be some correlation, according to that article.

[George Collins]

One thing that I should have mentioned in the post above is that the product analogous to Sepp's bone sauce was tested as an area repellent and not as a contact repellent.

I have encountered no studies evaluating the effectiveness of bone tar as a contact repellent.

Seems the jury is still out.

[George Collins]

So I had a go at a making Sepp's bone sauce a second time and think I gained some experience. Experience here being defined as a failure that I learned from. Time will tell.

The first time I made bone sauce, the wind was kicking pretty good and the fire was raging.

The first time I made pine tar, the wind was kicking pretty good and the fire was raging.

The second time I had a go at Sepp's bone sauce, there was no discernable wind and the fire was blah. When I separated the pots a few minutes ago, I was just certain that beautifully black nasty golden elixer of putrescent ambrosia was going to offer up greetings.

Wrong.

Instead if the bones being charred black, they were a pitiful shade of piss yeller.

Instead of that thick, viscous luscious tar, I was this watery . . . thin . . . dark brown water.

So, I figgered, "That tar must still be in them bones." I put it all back together, sealed it back up with clay and started the fire up. This time, I've used FAR more fire wood. Think, bigger than a camp fire, smaller than a bon fire.

[George Collins]

So after the pot cooled enough to be handled, it was dug up. The pots were separated and there, in the bottom of the bottom pot, was (.......drum roll......) NOTHING!

Something went seriously wrong. I scratched my head wondering what was done differently. Here are a few possibilities:
1. Substantially less clay was used to make the seal. Perhaps as much as 1/3 less.
2. No water was poured around the perimeter of the pots to settle the dirt.
3. The bones, being already partially "cooked" were fired the second time for slightly longer than 2 hours bringing the total time in the fire up to a bit longer than 4 hours.
4. There was a small amount of pine tar left in the pot from the previous run.

I think that the lack of a sufficient seal allowed the oils driven from the bones to escape and burn off.

At any rate, its Back to the drawing board, but this time with much more clay and making sure i water it all in prior to starting a HOT fire that burns for two hours and only two hours.

[matt walker]

I wonder if you could brine the bones or something beforehand to increase the, uh, sauciness?