I know how dumb this sounds, but I’m serious (I’m also kinda poor tbh)
Is it reasonably, and affordably, possible to take grass, from the lawn, and make it into something nutritious and digestible? It would be so beneficial after mowing the large area by our house to take the pounds of pounds of grass clippings and be able to consume them for protein/nutrients
It would save a bunch of money. I know this is a very far out idea, but it would be really useful.
No. This is dumb.
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This is dumb
Well duh. 
Animal pee/poop and pesticides. First thing I thought about. Also, you don’t have a four-chambered stomach (ruminant digestive system) so there’s that.
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Nope
Ok I asked chatgpt (not very reliable, but for what I’m asking it will suffice enough)
After taking several pounds of lawn trimmings, Wash them very well (cleaning step I have to refine), and then I will dry them out. Once dry enough I will crush it into a fine powder. The next part is the important part. You have to remove the cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and apparently ‘silica bodies’ found in the cells. The next step is to heat it for a few hours in warm slightly alkaline (4g NaOH lye per liter water) water (30-40 C, to prevent protein denaturing), and then strain, and then neutralize pH to neutral (7) Repeat this again to ensure adequate water-soluble protein extraction.
I’ve done a bit of chemistry, and I have sufficient equipment for this. If anything it gives me a fun project to do.
Note: This is only semi serious, I get enough protein from food, but I want to be able to have this freedom
Fun idea: Find a way to save 90 cents a day. Spent that 90 cents on a daily serving of Superfood that’s actually good for you.
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No, no, no, its not that I don’t have money, I’m just incredibly cheap (and I’m 15, also)
So, what benefits do you think this will give you? (My morbid curiosity kicked in.)
That’s a great question.
I don’t know in all honesty. I suppose a chance to use up pounds of grass trimming from the 1/4 football field sized space I get to mow
I actually appreciate a curious mind willing to experiment with science and learn something, and at age 15. Cool.
So, here’s an idea: use that brain (and ChatGPT) to learn how to make mulch. There’s some cool science there. Then sell it to your neighbors for a couple of bucks a bag or something.
Do not eat it. 
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I could do that, and/or I could take gravel chunks, tumble them, and make jewelry. I’ve tumbled limestone (the gravel we have), and it can turn out nice.
Making mulch is that easy? Wood chips, leaves, and grass, chopped up, and then precomposted a little? Thank you actually. I might consider doing this
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We have ample grass, and across the creek is a forest with lots of leaves that I can add, and fallen branches, I just gotta find a way to cut the stuff into equal sized bits, shouldn’t be too hard
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Dump
With how this works out, it will only cost 6 dollars per bag’s worth of jute fabric, And whatever for the sewing thread. I could do this
No I cant, given a 20lb bag of mulch is less than $6. Need to find cheaper material
Well I found cheaper material. 18 cents per bag, 500 bags 90 dollars. I would want to sell the at 5 dollars per 20 pounds mulch. With chatgpts calculations, Im not doing this. I need to make 18 bags of mulch, or 360 pounds. Chatgpt says mulch is about 40% grass by weight, so 144 pounds of grass. Except it doesn’t. It need 144 pounds of DRY grass. To break even, I need, according to chatgpt:
576 pounds of fresh grass
240 pounds of leaves
and 127 lbs of wood.
Again, thats just to break even with the 90 bucks.
Mulch as a business?
Hell nah.
This reminds me of a guiding principle I abide by.
If I ever have a good idea, and I’m the ONLY one to have that idea, rather than assume I’m a genius, I assume I’m an idiot and try to figure out why no one ELSE has this idea.
Because most of us are mowing lawns, most of us have access to lawn clippings, and none of us are making money off of it, there MUST be a reason.
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The profit is in the scale. Think tonnage.
I did tree work for a long time. On a typical day, we’d create about 10 tons of chips.
We’d drop those chips off at a few landscape suppliers and trail maintenance drop points.
Before anybody asks- it wasn’t worth taking away time from the tree work to make mulch. Other places were already tooled up and ready to run it through their process.
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See, your right. The problem is at 15, (and given that I don’tt have a workers permit yet, I’m waiting till next summer when I’m 16), I don’t have access to many job oppurtunities.
I’m slowly finding my way though. I mow the one neighbors lawn for 25 bucks per mow. I need to get another neighbors lawn though also.
I can chop wood, Ive done it before and I have strength. Any idea when a good time of year to ask around to do that is? I know a household near me has wood I could split.
