HEMP BLOG

9/03/08

8/15/08

The definition of hemp in the Oxford American dictionary reads:

hemp

1. A plant from which coarse fibers are obtained for the manufacture of rope and cloth. 2. A narcotic drug made from this plant, such as hashish or marijuana.

This definition omits the use of hemp as a food. Thank you Oxford Dictionary. Thus, I went to the biggest tome of a dictionary I could find, the Complete Unabridged Webster version which weighs about 20 pounds. It has a much lengthier entry.

Hemp

n.O.E. haenep, henep, M.E. hemp; cp. Du.hennep, O.H.G. hanaf, Mod. Germ. hanf, O.N. hamp-r, Swed. hampa, Dan. hamp ;fr. Gmc. type hanap-az, a very early loan fr. Lat. cannabis, cannabum, fr. Gk. kannabis, -bos, wh. is prob. fr. a Semitic source. cp. Arab. kinnub, and see canvasa Name applied to various plants whence a fiber is obtained for manufacture of ropes and coarse cloth; bplant related to the mulberry, which yields a resin of narcotic properties, and fibre having commercial value; c narcotic drug made from thisd (rare and obs.) a hangmans noose

I am surprised that the huge dictionary neglected hemp as a food as well. People have been eating hemp for for a long time, the seed is extremely nutritious. It has the highest ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 essential fatty acids out af any plant. The seed can be eaten raw, cooked in a dough, ground up, or pressed for oil. It can also be pressed into industrial oil that can power a diesel engine.

Even the dictionary people don't know of hemp as a food which is hard to believe. Its not like hempseed tastes bad either. It actually tastes really good.

Now that you know this information, eat hemp next time you go to a health store, and try it for yourself. Or, you could order some at the Hemp Store.

8/13/08

It so happens to be that the kite string of Benjamin Franklin in the year 1752 was made of hemp.Sweet. Here is the link to this interesting article on how Benjamin Franklin was also the grandfather of long-range weather forcasting. Benjamin Franklin was more than Kites.

Hemp string is the best. It has properties that renders UV rays non-harmful, the plant itself thrives in ultraviolet rays. Nylon rope and string get warped in the sunlight, while hemp keeps its shape. Another plus about hemp string is that it does not attract mildew, because of its antiseptic property.

7/13/08

Hops and hemp are related to one another. This fact is widely unknown, but it is not that surprising when one looks at their pictures.

click images for original page

Botanically, they are in the same family, Cannabaceae. Hops grow in a vine, while hemp grows vine-less.

The leaves of each plant don't appear similar, but their flowers are where they relate most. The hemp flowers are used for medicine around the globe, just like the hops plant. One of the many uses of hops is to treat insomnia.

The most common use of hops is to supply a bitter flavor to a batch of beer. Hops are boiled in with the malt, grain and water for an hour. When the soon-to-become-beer is done boiling, it is cooled to a certain temperature, yeast is added, and it is stored to ferment. Another common brewing practice is to add more hops to the fermenting beer, not just because of the flavor, but because of its anti-septic properties. There is a chance that the fermenting beer can spoil, if there happens to be any bacteria in the container. Hops lessens this chance, plus it adds a pleasant scent and flavor.

6/27/08

Hemp seed is the most nutritious part of the hemp plant. It has a full array of essential fatty acids and proteins that are highly valuable to human health. Even more, they taste great and are filling. Here is a picture of hemp bread that I made recently from scratch:

This bread easy to make, even though it is the first time I ever tried to make bread. I looked at my mom's King Arthur's cookbook to get a Hemp bread recipe. From now on the bread will be called Hemp Hearth Bread. The book suggested adding any seed to make it more nutritiuos.

The ingredients are rudimentary. I only had to go to the store to buy yeast packets.

• 6 cups of flour
• 2 cups water
• 1 Tablespoon of salt which is optional
• 1/4 - 3/4 cup hempseed
• 1 yeast packet
• 1 tablespoon sugar which is optional

The majority of the time is spent waiting for the dough to rise. I was fortunate because it was thundery the day I baked, so the barometer pressure in the sky made for the dough to rise about twice as fast as normal.

1. Mix in the yeast packet and the water (warm-hot) to dissolve and activate the yeast.Wait about 10 minutes.
2. Add the first cup of flour and the tablespoon of salt. Stir together.
3. Add 4.5 more cups of flour plus all the hempseed, and stir until the dough comes into one piece and detaches from the mixing bowl.
4. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes on a floured surface. Keep adding the rest of the flour when you need to place more on the kneading surface.
5. Let it rise for about 1-2 hours, until it doubles in size. Make sure you cover it with a wet towl.
6. When it has doubled, punch it down in towards the bottom of the bowl, to pop all air bubbles.
7. Knead it for about 5-6 minutes, and cut the dough in half. Make each dough ball into the shape of a loaf by using your hands.
8. Let it rise again for an hour or so. Cover.
9. Pre-heat the oven to 475, 15 minutes before it rises all the way. Pay attention to the timing to get good results.
10. Melt 1/5 of a stick of butter in the microwave to wash the top of the dough. It makes it crust taste better, but is optional However if no butter is used, you need to wash it with water. An egg wash can be used to substitute butter as well.
11. Slash the top of the loaves 4 times each, Diagonally make two cross slashes.
How to mimic a hearth oven:
• Place an empty wide baking tray in the bottom of the oven while it is pre-heating.
• When it is heated to 475, pour 2-3 cups of water into the tray to make steam. Watch out for the steam.
12. Bake for 25 minutes. Check after 15. If it looks too dark, lower oven temperature to 450.
13. Remove from oven. Wait a couple minutes, then start eating it.

6/24/08

Here is an interesting video documenting Ford's hemp-plastic framed car, that is shown being wacked with a sledgehammer, and withstanding the blows. Schwing I'd like to ride around in one of these!.

6/22/08

I found yet another hemp trivia fact that shows how the perception of the hemp plant has been been spun around in recent history.Thanks to the people at Hemp Farm I found this picture on the back of a 1914 US Federal Reserve ten dollar note. Depicted on the note are Hemp farmers harvesting the crop to sell to their fellow countrymen.This should be no surprise to hemp historians though, since hemp was once legal tender in the American Colonial era. Take a closer look.

6/16/08

Hempty is now on myspace at myspace/hemptydumpty Please visit if you have myspace to be hempty's friend.

I have some new intriguing designs I am working on. Once I get my gimp image editing program operational, I will upload them, and put them up in the hemp store.

I always will post some interesting hemp fact here on the hemp blog. Today's hemp fact is that in Colonial America, it was possible to pay your taxes in marijuana. If you didn't pay your taxes, you'd better watch out for the hIgh. R. S. haha. I crack myself up.

6/6/08

It is now a year after Krunkdy Dumpty has been born, Spring break '07. Since then, he has switched his name to Hempty Dumpty..

I have been reflecting on the company, and I felt that there needed to be a Hempty Blog. Here is a picture of the first Krunkdy Dumbtee. It is made from a 55% hemp, 45% cotton blend of textiles, and it is durable, comfortable, dry, and the best shirt ever.

Soon, this domain will be known as Hempty Dumpty, to promote Hemp in general, as well as the shirt. The promotion of the hemp plant is the number one goal here at hempty dumpty, not the promotion of being krunkdy. It was fun while it lasted though.

Believe it or not, hemp was readily available at a pharmacy before 1937, the year it was illegalized.An ounce of it cost a dollar. No exageration.Legislation was passed that illegalized the plant. There was a fear of the plant being smoked by "psycho" Mexicans. Smoking Mexicans were used to politicize the whole hemp industry, so that it could be illegalized. Now, petro-chemical produced textiles such as nylon were being produced by certain American corporations who wanted an end to the self sufficiency that hemp provided for the American farmer.

It is hard to believe that now it is demonized, particularly because the flower, or bud is smoked. The rest of the plant is omitted in the political discussion. For instance, how many times have you heard news stories of people getting busted for smoking, and how little have you heard of the ethanol producing cabability of the hemp plant. Or the way that hemp stalks grow drastically quicker than any tree, and that it can be made into paper without having to de-forest.

Hemp is also very nutritious. The hemp seed has a high concentration of amino acids, and it gives you a lot of energy. I make a milkshakes with hemp seeds, ice cream, milk, orange juice, and mango in it, and gives me tremendous energy. I mix it up in a blender and I am good to go for many hours.

Also, hemp seeds can be used as a supplement to the malt when brewing beer. I put some in the wert(preliminary beer mixture), steeped it, and fermented a nice hemp lager.Hempty likes to smoke his beer. As a side fact, hops, the reason of the bitter blissfullness of beer, is in the same family as hemp.

Anyways, here at Hempty Dumpty, hemp is not taken for granted.It is time that people get back there senses and realize how this plant has become politicized over the years. Once America's top medicinal benefector, now designated as one of America's substances that is put in a criminal perspective.I am not saying the hemp plant is great to smoke recreationally. That can lead to tremendous idleness and being in a state of dangerous complacency. At the same time though, drinking to many beers is just as dangerous, actually a lot more since it blacks out memory as opposed to limitiing short term memory. Instead, take the middle path, Smoke some beer in moderation. Just like Benjamin Franklin suggests, everything in moderation.

Most of this info above I read in a book titled The Emperor Wears no Clothes by Jack Herer. Read it, you can buy one on amazon for pretty cheap.

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