Calling all DIY Food junkies!!!!

You get into a few gray areas there though with the non-profit status. Also I had a discussion with the Argent / Cyclopeeze guys and about got read the riot act for posting that we were using their particular product in our mixture and calling it by their product name vs just calling is "cyclops" or "phytoplankton" because I wasn't paying a $10K royalty to them to use their name. It was enough to tick me off to the point of not using their product anymore. So while I think it is a great idea in concept, in reality it's probably never going to happen as a direct connection to the club. Not to mention that doing so detracts from supporting your LFS even though just doing this event kind of does that really...

 

I did the last one in the fall and I pretty much need it every 6 months so yeah september time frame for the next one is fine with me. Then can can raffle off freshly made food at FF.

Oh yeah and Nik that thing about a non-member coming to a free event - you PMd me that, you didn't post it LOL

 

I just cleared it with the wife to have it at our house on 4/14, any particular time frame we should set? Say 10am, plan on being done by noon or 1? I'll have to plan the prep/thaw work a little better this time, last time it took a lot longer than planned.

 

Here is "The Formula" that I'm following:

Reef Food

5 lb Cod Fillets
15 lb Table shrimp
10 lb Scallops ("dry")
4 lb Squid
4 lb Baby Octopus
0.5 lb Oysters (blended)
50g Unroasted Nori
4 lb Jumbo Krill
40oz PE Mysis
6 2.5oz bars Cyclops
6 3.5 oz cube trays Brine shrimp
6 3.5 oz cube trays Spirulina brine shrimp
6 3.5 oz cube trays Bloodworms
6 3.5 oz cube trays Rotifers
6 3.5 oz cube trays Krill
5 100g cube trays Mysis
4 1000g flat packs Daphnia
150g 2mm NLS Pellets
150g 3mm NLS Pellets
3 60ml bottle Selcon
1 2oz bottle H20 Life GVH Seaweed Soak
1 4oz bottle Kent Marine C
3 1oz bottles Kent Garlic Extreme
1 8oz bottle Kent Coral-Vite
1 30g jar Two Little Fishies ZoPlan
1 30g jar TLF PhytoPlan
1 16oz bottle TLF Marine Snow
2 28g jar Coral Frenzy
2 1.5oz jars BRS Reef Chili
1/4 gallon RO/DI
Veggies (amounts and exact ingredients TBD, but peas, broccoli, spinach, etc)

That works out to about 68 lb total weight, minus the frozen water that will be drained out so around 60lb total food

The costs are not 100% final as we are finding some better deals, but the plan is to make as many bags as works out to $10/bag, which will each be at least 12 oz and probably more like 13-14oz.

FOWLR Food

The FOWLR food will be the same list above minus the TLF stuff, Coral Frenzy, and Reef Chili. Right now it works out nicely to just make a batch that is 1/4 of the size of the Reef food and split a few things up (already figured in to the above list). It contains a lot of good stuff for all sizes of fish, as well as inverts.

The price will be pretty close to the Reef Food, mainly because it's a smaller batch so the savings are offset a bit.

Right now there's just me and Nik in for about 7 bags, but the 1/4 size batch will make more than double that. So if anyone is interested in a bag or two of this please speak up.

Large/Aggressive Food

We will also make a Large/Aggressive batch for Matt Nelsen, and anyone else who wants some of this please let me know ASAP. This batch will include:

1 lb Cod Fillets
3 lb Table shrimp
2 lb Scallops ("dry")
1 lb Squid
1 lb Baby Octopus or Squid tube
3 lb Jumbo Krill
1 60 ml bottle Selcon
1 1oz bottle Kent Garlic Extreme

So this is really your most basic food, in big chunks, for those big piggy fatty fish that just eat a ton. This will currently make about 11lb 15 12 oz bags for $5/each or about 11 lb.

For anyone who was at the last one we did at my place and remembers how long it took to figure out how to split everything up, I've got that problem solved. We're going to separate the ingredients ahead of time and basically make 3 completely separate batches. I'll have an order of operations all set up so that it will go more quickly and I'll get the thawing process done by 10am in time to start the fun.

The tools that will help are:

Blenders, and preferrably, Food Processors (Joe has one we use, could use 1 or 2 more)
Big, extremely sharp knives
Cutting boards (wood or plastic)
A heavy-duty drill (I have the mixing bit)
An accurate digital bathroom scale
Portion scale (Joe has this)
Manpower

We are planning on starting at 10am and want to be all done by Noon, 1pm at the very latest.

Also, based on lead times for getting everything, I think we can extend out the deadline to get in on this by a few days. We have enough commitment to make the big batch, and we can stretch this batch a little further without making it bigger by just adjusting the price per bag down, and (if we get a LOT more requests) we can just add more seafood to the mix.

For right now, I'm extending the deadline to commit to the end of the day Sunday. After that, you may or may not be able to get in on it.

 

Right on with no bones. Also the cod is not a large part of the mixture so I think we're OK there.

Did you want 5 bags of all 3 types?

 

Bump for Monday...