I've discussed the benefits of biochar before, but as I did more research, I realized that gardening with biochar isn't as simple as taking charcoal and throwing it in your soil.  Instead, you need to prepare the charcoal a bit to get best results.  The first step in preparation is soaking the charcoal --- charcoal is naturally hydrophobic, so you have to overcome that barrier to water.  The second step is to add some kind of high nitrogen input to the charcoal to give the first microorganisms something to eat.  You can do both preparation steps at once using urine. 

I filled a four gallon bucket with biochar and poured a gallon of urine over top.  The charcoal chunks snapped, crackled, and popped just like rice cereal as they soaked up the liquid, and only a scant half cup was left in the bottom of the bucket a few hours later.  I'll apply the mixture to the garden soon and hope that microorganisms get to work on the fertilized biochar in time to see results in this year's garden.  (Much more on biochar to come in next week's lunchtime series.)