Hilary Duinker

I've been growing celariac for successfully for several years.  I'm not a huge fan of it, but like you said, I appreciate having a wider variety of winter veg and it is good in soups and stews.  We grow a pretty big annual veg garden and I start a bunch of things early so have the whole grow scene going late winter/early spring.  They do take awhile to get going, but I always end up with more starts than I really want lol.  I usually sprinkle seeds into one 4" pot around late FeB/early march when I start onions and leeks and then once they finally get big enough, I prick them out and separate them into 6packs.  We live off grid and have pretty limited power at that time of year so I don't use bottom heat and they do fine.  They get transplanted out into the garden about a foot apart around april and stay there until winter, I just pick out the biggest one whenever I want one.  You can get away with one good deep watering per week but they're happier with more than that.  and they do well with diluted pee fert.

Anyone out there growing luffa / loofah in a cooler/coastal climate?  I am homesteading on an island in the Salish Sea (coastal BC Canada) and have been trying to grow luffa for several years with no luck.  Our site does get hot in summer but usually only for a couple months.  Last year the vines did ok but only just started making fruits and they didn't get far enough elog to make the dish scrubbies I was hoping to get.  I'm just trying to source seeds to try again and they are so expensive (like $6.50 for 4 seeds!!!??).  Has anyone here in zone 7/8 or colder had success growing luffas?  There seems to be a woman in Nova Scotia doing it ( https://luffacanada.ca/ )
and I've sent her a message, but thought I'd ask here too.  I had this epiphany about plastic dish scrubbies - no wonder there's so much microplastic out there!  Holy geez.  So many things we buy just to wear out into the environment and pollute it eh?  (paint, tires, garbage bags(!)......

Hi folks,
We just got our squash in, several different types.....ok geez, actually there's like 90 squash this year! In past years we just stored them on the floor upstairs, near where the hot water tank and the chimney from the woodstove below are, to cure them for a bit and then they get stashed away under beds or wherever we can fit them, really.  Last year there seemed to be alot more mold where squash were left on the floor, so I'm thinking we'll try to lift them up on racks or something, but I thought I'd post here and see if anyone has any useful insights or ideas about storing lots of squash.  We are in Coastal BC/cascadia, in a off-grid wood heated home, so temps do fluctuate a fair bit.  We have a root cellar space but it's a bit too damp I think, works well so far for taters.....  Where do you store your abundance of squash?

this recipe also popped up on one of my social media feeds and I want to try it out, sounds yummy!

Butternut squash chilli

brown ground turkey and set aside
sauté onion, carrot and celery in olive oil
Add the garlic and thyme and sauté for another minute.
Follow that with cubed butternut squash, canned or cooked beans, turkey, and chicken broth.
Bring to a boil then simmer 15mins
Towards the end, add cream and chopped kale and stir to combine. Simmer for an additional 4-5 minutes.
Serve garnished with your favorite toppings - diced avocados, cheddar cheese, and tortilla chips, a dollop of sour cream or greek yogurt.

I have been getting seeds from West Coast for many years, but now adays I avoid buying from them unless they have something I can't find elsewhere.  They have gotten really big and their customer service and seed quality has suffered in my opinion.  It is ABSOLUTELY worth getting their catalog tho, as it has a TON of growing info for all types of veggies, herbs, flowers and covercrops, including great planting tables that help you figure out what to plant when, now for a bunch of different regions, not just coastal BC.  If you are just getting into gardening, especially if you live in coastal BC, you could get their catalog for free to get you started and probably do pretty well (Linda Gilkeson's email list is another great free resource).   I know several folks who have had issues with seed from them - not true to type or really poor germ etc and when reported they didn't seem to care.  They do have a very extensive catalog though, so if you can't find something elsewhere you might find it here.  I remember Steve Solomon talking about hardware store seed racks and how they are usually the shittiest floor sweepings of seeds because the company knows alot of home gardeners won't know the difference, they'll just think it was something they did wrong.  Most of the seed racks I see in hardware stores around here are West Coast Seeds now and they are definitely marketing more to new gardeners than farmers, as they used to. I would give them 7 acorns out of 10.

Hey y'all, first responder and wilderness first aid medic here, thanks for all the great herbal suggestions!  I want to share a couple things I learned when I was kayak guiding related to first aid supplies.  When you're guiding, it can be hard to figure out how many bandages (and of what sizes) to bring - you're usually with a larger number of people so there could be several injuries and then they all need multiple bandages if you are out for multiple days and they need changing, fall off etc.  And of course there's alot of small cuts on ppls hands and most bandaids don't last in all the wetness when you are kayak touring.  So you aim to minimize how many bandaids you go through, which, I mean, we should kinda be doing anyway, right?  so much medical waste happening already. So what I was taught is that it's best for many small scrapes etc to just to clean well and leave alone as many have already said.  A herbal goop can be helpful for larger scrapes that you think need something but can be left to scab up rather than be bandaged.  The scab is of course, biology's bandaid. If the cut is bigger/deeper and/or somewhere it's likely to get grubby/needs protection, there's a type of fancy transparent bandage that you can put on and leave on for the week or so it'll take to heal and still monitor the cut -brand names Opsite and Tagaderm are ones I know of.  There's also something called "friar's balsam" also known as "tincture of benzoine" that you can put on intact skin AROUND the cut to help the bandage stick better.  I think it stops the skin from sweating.  Whenever you are dealing with a cut it is worth taking the time to get it really clean and then bandage it really well if it needs bandaging.  Letting it bleed for a bit is fine, as it does help clean it from inside out as someone else already mentioned.  Deadly bleeding (gushing) is of course important to stop right away with pressure!  Hope that's helpful <3

words by Rilke, narrated by Vandana Shiva, animated by @the.impossible.future

plenty of good comments here already so I will just add my bit briefly.  I got a milwaukee battery powered chainsaw about a year ago and am loving it so far.  It's been plenty big and strong enough for anything I've wanted to do (pruning, carpentry work, dealing with windfalls) but next time I want to fall and buck up a big batch of firewood I'll definitely bring the bigger gas saw too.  My advice would also be to get both, but get a battery powered saw first, cause it's way nicer to use and feels good to cut wood with sunshine rather than dinosaur juice.  Then if/when you need something bigger, get your buddy to come help and bring his big gas monster ;)  If you go with one brand for all your battery powered tools, you will be more likely to have charged batteries available when needed, because you'll likely get one for each tool and thus have multiples.  

Also, there was a good comparison of brands in Popular Mechanics: https://www.popularmechanics.com/home/tools/a28522787/battery-powered-chainsaws/

I find tomato starts are the key offering, and those need warm conditions to get started, so you'll likely need to do them inside anyways (not sure where you are though....).  A propagation cupboard with lights might be a better place to start (?).  Don't stress too much about making mistakes, that is the best way to learn!  For greenhouse, just get started with a budget DIY design - cattle panels, plastic pipe or rebar frame with plastic sheeting and think of it as a learning opportunity rather than the end solution. Base the design on the resources you have available to you most easily - ie maybe the cheapest option is actually building with scrap wood and old storm windows you already have lying around, rather than buying a bunch of new plastic pipe/rebar etc.  I have a small A frame greenhouse built with wood and plastic vapour barrier that my ex made.  It's not big enough and I don't like the design that much (not enough headroom when the tomatoes get big) etc etc but I've had use of a greenhouse for several years now, so I'm grateful for that and hopefully sometime soon I will get it rebuilt in a better way.  

Catie George wrote:What brand are you using? I'm going into my 3rd winter with some of my merino long johns, with very little mending required yet. I particularly like the Stanfields ones.  Other than that, consider trying a larger size/brand - if you are getting rips in the crotch it may indicate it's too tight in that area, or possibly cut wrong for your body.  

Most of them are from Mountain Equipment Co-op, and the fabric is just too thin.  there are some crotch rips but alot of them are just rips on the leg from me putting them on!  I was already pretty disappointed with MEC and now they've gone and sold out to a company in California (wtf?), so won't be buying anymore of those.  Have tried some other brands too.  I am short and curvy so hard to find pants that fit in general.  My honey wears Stanfield stuff and it seems really itchy to me, but maybe they have some merino stuff that's better?  Just splurged and bought a pricey pair of Icebreaker longjohns with a nice pattern so I can wear as leggings, so will see how they wear.  I splurged similarly last year and got a pair with gorgeous pattern from Adventure Pants in Australia and they ripped......  I will keep you all posted on how it goes....once I carve out some time for sewing hopefully later this week.......  Thanks for all the suggestions!  I have darned socks but haven't sewn through fabric like illustrated above, just filled holes so I will try it out.  I have a duffel bag full of socks to darn this winter too......