Got beaten by a 200 lb agave

[Im gone]

I don't know where this should go, but long story short is to take caution if you plan on tangling with a blue agave.
My buddy was ripping his out, and I said I would tear it out for him and try and make tequila. Big mistake.

First - Unbeknownst to us, agave sap can cause severe skin allergy, taking the form of blistering and stinging.
It sucks.

Second - cooking and juicing the agave is almost impossible. You need to cook it at a low temperature for a long time. The crock-pot was the closest thing I got to making it work, but there is way too much volume to move through a crock-pot.

Take warning when dealing with blue agave.

[Prairiepiss]

That sounds like it sucked. There are a lot of folk around here that would love to be able to get their hands on some blue Agave.

I read some stuff not long ago about some roast it first. Mite check on that?

[Bushman]

Here is what I found on cooking a blue agave to extract the juice:
Cooking
The pinas, which are comprised of pure starch, are steamed in stone ovens for about 24 - 36 hours at tempretures reaching 80 - 95 degree Celsius. A raw pina has a pale yellow colour and is virtually odorless. In comparison, a cooked pina possesses a brown-orange colour and emits a sweet, candy-like scent. Cooked pinas are then crushed in three pressing mills in order to extract the agave juice. Agave fibers tend to reabsorb much of the juice, so the fibers are washed in order to obtain the optimal amount of juice from each press. The result of the wash is called aguamiel or honey water.

[Im gone]

yea. I am familiar with the cooking process. It just becomes a logistic nightmare when dealing with such a large amount of material.

[junkyard dawg]

not for me...

I'd have had that thing cooked up in no time... well, about 24 hours...

A friend has a landscaping company. One of his guys took out an agave with a chainsaw once. He looked like he was attacked with acid afterwards... Blisters and red itchy skin.. ouch...

So, if anyone in central texas has an agave they don't want or have one that you need cooked or whatever... I'd be happy to help.

[junkyard dawg]

I got corrected on the buddy and his agave horror story.

They ran it through a chipper/shredder. It made these big fiberous wads that had to be removed by hand... thats how they got covered with that agave juice...

said they looked like burn victims...