deathmtn

6. What is 'Pod Blasting' and why do you do it?
One of the most accurate methods to determine peanut maturity is to shell the peanuts and look at the color of the inside of the shell. The darker the color, the more mature the peanut. The most mature will be practically black while the least mature peanut will be pure white. North Carolina State University developed a method of actually sandblasting the outside of the hull, which is faster than shelling the sample. The process removes the outside covering of the shell and reveals the maturity colors you see when the peanuts are actually shelled. After they have been "pod blasted", the different colors are separated and we (Richard Rhodes) determine what percent are ready to dig or how long it will be before we should dig. By waiting and digging 10 days to 2 weeks later, at the optimum time, our yields can increase 3 - 500 pounds per acre or $100 to $150 per acre. On the other hand, waiting too long will cause the pins to shrivel and dry out, causing the peanuts to shed and fall off when dug.

For Cordisco, as for many transfeminine musicians, the prospect of giving voice to trans issues through music can pose a problem. While estrogen does not have any significant effects on the voice, testosterone causes vocal cords to thicken permanently. This means that beyond expensive and invasive surgeries that are not without risk, transfeminine people who undergo hormone therapy after their initial puberty cannot expect their vocal cords to change. While voice training helps many learn to speak and sing in ways that may present to others as more feminine, the process of voice feminization can be expensive and demanding. Because of this, many transfeminine people learn instead to find comfort in their voices through a mix of adjustment, self-acceptance, and radical defiance.

“It is very personal in that way,” Cordisco says. “I did have some trepidation at first like ‘Okay, my voice sounds very angry and very traditionally masculine. Is this something I should be worried about?’” But as she continued working, the concern dissipated. “The more I did it, the more I stopped caring. This is about liberation, and this is about empowerment. I’ve been doing thrash vocals for 18 years, and the whole point of my transitioning and the trans liberation movement is to say to hell with the gender binary and what we ascribe as feminine and masculine and to not be bound by these rules. Then it became very clear that this is what I’m gonna do and this is how I’m gonna do it and I’m gonna let myself feel good about it.”