Su Ba

Had to change my vote to the highest number once I started listing the trees.  Oops. I have more than I thought.

5 lemon
1 lime
2 orange
1 tangerine
1 tangelo
1 grapefruit
1  pomelo
1 Surinam cherry
6 persimmon
2 tomatillo  
2 good eating guavas and dozens of wild ones only good for feeding livestock
2 eggfruit
2 apple
1 mango (doesn’t produce, but it’s a lovely tree)
6 avocado
56 clumps of bananas, each with 3 to 5 stalks . I’m actively increasing my banana clumps. I’m in the process of lining the driveway with them.

Scrounging makes my homestead style life affordable and possible. I have not been shy about letting people know that would appreciate picking up their "trash". A goodly portion of my material goods arrived on the farm as discards and somewhat damaged. By using my time to clean things up and doing repairs, I now have a nice inventory of usable stuff. Looking around my place I see —-
… an electric chainsaw, leaf blower, riding mower, ATV, wheelbarrow, various shovels and other assorted gardening tools, lengths of fencing (very usable for making trellises), t-posts, a 16 foot metal field gate, 2 lawnmowers, lengths of metal pipe, lengths of poly pipe, a chain link fence gate, a roll of 4 foot high chain link fencing, a roll of 6 foot high chain link fencing, trash cans, many hoses, two  50 gallon stock tanks, 2 backpack sprayers, a small cast iron firewood stove, several rolls of carpeting, several plastic dog cages, a super large rice cooker, a nice aluminum ladder, enough steel roofing to cover my chicken pen, a washer machine, a refrigerator, a freezer, a clothes dryer. Gee, people are always tryjng to give the last 4 items to me. I never turn away coolers and I now have several. The list goes on and in.

As one of Paul’s Gurts, I live comfortably enough. One of the ways of helping to make that happen is by not spending money I don’t need to spend. And that’s why I can afford to buy a pick up truck when I need to.

Pallets - yes, I haul plenty of free pallets home. They are usable for all sorts of things.
Clothing - yes, I buy from cheap thrift stores, church bazaars, yard sales. Speaking of yard sales, I offer to return at the end of the day and cart away anything they haven’t sold and wish to take to the dump. I’ve gotten some real gems that way. And our local thrift store gladly takes whatever I don’t wish to keep for myself.

I didn’t vote because I’m in a unique circumstance. Being able to produce food year around, there is seldom need for long term food preservation.   But some of my foods are seasonal, therefore, sometimes I take steps to extend the harvest via freezing, pickling, drying, and…..canning. Right now I have some canned fruits in the pantry in the form of jams and thick syrups : strawberries, jaboticaba, guava, tamarillo. I’m not a canner myself. Simply no need since I have a freezer. But I can trade for canned goods when I want them.

Canning is not my number form of food preservation.
#1- freezing
#2- pickling (fermenting in the case of sauerkraut)
#3- drying
#4- turn the excess into something else that can used in the future for food. Examples: feed it to chickens for eggs and meat. Feed it to pigs for meat. Sell it so I have money to buy future foods. Trade it for future foods. I trade a lot and often get payment delayed, such as the future promise of breads, etc.

Oh Lordy, Lordy, Lordy!  (violently rolling my eyes) I.m surprised that my gardening students haven’t brought up this gem so far. I bet there are plenty of people who will buy them (sigh). Oooohhh, it’s so painful just to contemplate the thing.

Gift to self: a quiet lazy day. A long guilt-free nap in the afternoon.

Happened to see this discussion…….not that I plan to debate the pros and cons. Just wanted to interject some information to clear up what I noted as a tad of confusion……

Precocious lactation —— it happens with mammals. The animal produces milk even though it was not pregnant. It most commonly occurs with pseudo pregnancy, that is, a false pregnancy. BUT in my vet practice I have seen both cats and dogs be precocious milkers. It is quite uncommon but it happens. And decades ago, one of my friends had a young Alpine doe do it too. Now here’s a very interesting case: a spayed 2 year old husky bitch adopted a litter of kittens and allowed them to suckle. 2 to 3 weeks later it was noted that the bitch was lactating. She lactated for 4 to 6 (I cannot remember to exact details of the case anymore).

Precocious lactation is not the same as natural lactation. The amount of milk is much reduced and the duration appears to be shorter. I have only seen about half a dozen cases in my veterinary career, so it is not all that common, but it does exist.

Here’s one I was presented with yesterday at our farmers market. A lady wanted to know which variety it was so that she could grow those seeds too.  And she wanted to sell her excess cucumbers to me because she couldn’t eat that many.

Tomote de árbol is the "tree tomato" in Hawaii, also called the tomatillo. It is a perennial small tree-like plant that grows well for me as a forest margin tree. This means that it prefers some sun, but also shade and lives along the edge of a woods or forest in the zone between dense tall trees and low brush and grassland. I have been told that it grows in the full sun in places, but mine do better in the margin area.  It is a long lived perennial in the tropics. Mine typically last 7 to 10 years. It is hardy and plants can be replanted barefoot style.

The fruiting is seasonal. Fruits are often abundant. The thick tough skin is not eaten. The soft pulp inside is usually eaten in Hawaii  as a tart but also sweetish fresh fruit. One either bites or cuts off the pointy end and then sucks or squeezes the pulp out directly into your mouth. When making jams or mixing with other ingredients, the fruit is cut in half and the pulp scooped out with a spoon.  It is not used as a substitute for slicing tomato.

I have seen three different varieties here in Hawaii, although there could be more. The red is more tart and astringent. The yellow the sweetest. And the orange pleasantly tart and with some sweetness.


As for a perennial slicing tomato or cherry type tomato, here in Hawaii the plants will last for a full year or more. I have had plants that are still producing at 1 1/2 years of age, but they are no longer robust. I normally take tip cuttings to create the next generation of plants, usually doing that in September. Cuttings can be taken at other times as long as the mother plant is not over mature. September works good for me because the new plants are starting to produce just at the time in want to pull out the old plants. Old plants do not do well through the winter months here, but young plants grow and fruit just fine.

I can only tell you how this works in Hawaii, but this information may help you.

As an instructor for home food production, it drives me batty to have a student approach me with some crazy picture they got off of some social media site showing an impossible garden situation. The, as yet non-educated novice gardener, wants me teach them how to duplicate this marvelous gardening success story. And often they suspect I’m a sorry excuse for a teacher because I can’t. Geez, I really cringe when I see one of those phony pictures pop up.

My hubby is strictly a lettuce fan —- iceberg or romaine. Me, on the other hand, like to make salad out of an assortment of greens, which I grow myself…..
Leaf lettuces, especially the red oak leaf types
All sorts of Asian greens, especially tatsoi, various bok choys, and Chinese cabbage especially one called Tokyo Bekena.
Spinach
Amaranth
Chard/beet greens
A little bit of basil

I’m not fond of arugula or mustard, though I know people who love them in salad mixes. Same for malabar spinach, which I like cooked but not raw.

Force grown dandelion is delightful served with a hot vinegar/bacon dressing. I could eat this every day!