M Ljin

master gardener
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since Jul 22, 2021
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Biography
Previously, this biography called me a "gardener" which may have been a mistake. I am rather a forager who has a small garden with sage, sea kale, mountain mint, chives & garlic chives, garlic, amaranth, lamb's quarters, wild carrot, and some other weeds and perennials; and a small, new orchard of peaches, mulberries, cherry, apple, quince, grapes, bur/gambel & red oaks, and a plum. Really though, there is so much wild, I think that it is nearly or wholly sufficient for human consumption, depending on the population density. I also found that many of those foods, picked at the right time and prepared according to their nature, are healthier and tastier than anything else.
I grew up eating wild mushrooms, ramps, fiddleheads & a little garden produce (especially beans, kale and squash, which were always the most reliable) but upon finding Sam Thayer's books, the scope of my understanding of wild foods broadened immeasurably. I also began taking & harvesting wild plants for food, medicine, fiber & woodworking materials. I try my best to leave the soil, biodiversity, and water cycle, wherever I go, better than when I found it.
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Recent posts by M Ljin

Thank you so much for this guide, Ray! I love this setup and at some point hope to try that sort of homemade spile. For now I’ve used sumac, which drips into a container placed on the ground, but there are advantages to having them hang as well.
4 hours ago
I am curious to hear about people who’ve actually found their love here through Permies. There are a lot of people seeking, and you usually just hear back if something hasn’t worked out. Who knows—perhaps they all moved on, but maybe some are still hanging around?

And if you haven’t found someone, what issues seem to get in the way? What would you like to have known about a person before reaching out?
7 hours ago
Thank you!

By Bulrush do you mean Bolboschoenus generally, the sort that makes rounded tubers in the muck, or something else?

I find that sort of bulrush a lovely late summer snack, and another sort—Schoenoplectus—is wonderful for basketry. Both of these I sowed in a bucket before planting them out in the slough.
8 hours ago
I have eaten Dioscorea polystachya aerial tubers, which are a different species but same genus—they taste like tuber-bulrush! (Which in turn tastes like yam) Or similar to the white part of cattail shoots. And starchy of course.
8 hours ago
This could go for ukulele or guitar or any string instrument with multiple strings—but intervals or two-note chords have been helpful for me to learn and help a lot for flexible playing and improvisation (which I recommend trying at some point). This sort of thing will be present already if a song has two or more lines of melody that are played simultaneously.
19 hours ago
One thought is to cover them with enough sawdust that they disappear into the mulch. Perhaps also stomp them in with the sawdust and some big dirty muck boots?
22 hours ago
As a percentage of living human knowledge, as in common knowledge rather than things like personal history, I’d guess about 5% give or take depending on how deeply you look, is readily available. For all human knowledge on the internet, which may require some intense digging, that might come closer to 50%, but likely significantly less.

The categories of things are varied. If you include some categories, the estimate gets larger, others and it gets smaller.

If I include the placement of chairs in this room, the internet will know absolutely nothing. The same with the actual shape of the river.

Is this “human knowledge” or “natural knowledge”, though?

Words can only contain so much—in the end they become misleading.
1 day ago
(If anyone recognizes the above ballad I will be pleasantly surprised!)
1 day ago
art
On Tuesday evening I did go
Down to the meadows for to hoe.
I hoed, I hoed, all round the field
With the pesky couchgrass at my heel

When I received this strangest thought,
I laid my hoe down on the ground,
For to gather them up was my intent,
Musing aloud long as I went.

And I was heard, both near and far
But no friend to me did appear
For this they thought, some fool’s strange words
Thus alone I was left to ponder

That an acre of couch was worth far more
Thus the ancient sages said
Than the same of carrot, planted well
And brought to market, crisp and fair.
1 day ago
art
Also I think it’s day 19, week 3 or 4 depending on where you start counting.
1 day ago