Monday, January 6, 2014

The Sourgum Project, Part II: The Smoke Machine

Remember that 40 pounds of sorghum we were given? It's still hanging out in our kitchen. The other day I decided to get real about using some of it. One of the uses for sorghum that I found online was to pop it like popcorn. The instructions were pretty simple: A little oil in the bottom of a pot + sorghum grains + heat + some stirring = popped sorghum. Easy right? Wrong.

As I was popping the sorghum, Lima Bean started crying, so I turned off the stove and went to figure out what happened. In the 4 minutes it took me to calm him down, the pot of sorghum went from oily kernels to smoke machine. The whole apartment filled with smoke. I got the kids outside and got the pot off the stove. I opened the doors and windows to vent the smoke. I added water to the pot to prevent the kernels from igniting. The contents of the pot had transformed into a large, black briquette. After a minute of hacking because of inhaling the smoke, I shut the doors (leaving the kitchen window open), grabbed the diaper bag, and decided to go for a drive. I took the kids to the park to calm them down. I called my hubby to let him know what happened and that we were okay.

My clothes and hair wreaked of sorghum smoke, so I took a long shower that night. I'm still trying to scrub the charred residue out of my pot. The apartment still has a smokey smell, but it's not as bad as it was. I'm not sure if it's fading or if I'm just getting used to it. Either way, I won't be popping sorghum for a while.

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