Hi Oliver, what a good question and wonderful intentions and ethics for your new enterprise. I have a few thoughts, experiences to share, and ideas for you.
Obtaining 501(c)(3) non-profit status in the U.S. is not as easy as it might seem. I'm currently serving on a board for a newly formed nonprofit that doesn't have (c)(3) status yet; plus, I also have nonprofit organizations as some of my accounting/bookkeeping clients. If you do proceed with this, you would certainly want an attorney licensed in your state to assist you. The executive director of the newly formed nonprofit actually IS an attorney, but not practicing, and they are not versed in nonprofit law. So after attempting to apply for (c)(3) status ourselves, the board agreed a nonprofit attorney made sense.
Just to be clear, to obtain (c)(3) status requires proof of a broad benefit to the larger community. Your educational plans could fit the IRS definition(s), but be mindful about this. In my corporate days, I was the Accounting Manager for many entities, one of which is a nonprofit whose stated mission is to support a specific neighborhood community. The attorneys who formed it knew it would not qualify for 501(c)(3) status and would have to be 501(c)(4) status - a foundation. Donations to a (c)(4) are *not* tax deductible, but donations to a (c)(3) *are* tax deductible. (Which might be moot with some of the tax changes in 2020, but that's for another discussion.) See also nonprofit tax filing requirements in the last bullet in technical accounting thoughts, below.
The concern over having a non-profit overlap with for-profit enterprises is a valid one.
Also, running a profitable educational model as part of a farm isn't always as easy as it seems either, without a large following and/or grant or sponsorship funding. I've been the bookkeeper or assisted with the books for several regional permaculture events, PDCs, RMH events, and more. In my experience, they are very difficult to run in the black without additional support, or without already having a large, dedicated following.
On the other hand, agritourism / farm education can surely diversify income and make the operation more viable! IMHO, location and the quality/draw of your property is rather key here.
Ideas and more thoughts:
I also agree that starting small first is smart! - form a simple LLC (for profit) and try a few classes to see what turnout you have
you might consider a for profit business, with a nonprofit to support the educational aspects - I think Mark Shepard, https://www.forestag.com/pages/mark-shepard, has offered classes on having interconnected businesses like this, but in general, I think that model is a nightmare for a beginner!
you might consider a cooperative or worker owned but still for profit business model
Technical accounting thoughts:
the more entities you add, the more you need accounting/bookkeeping help - including separate sets of books, separate bank accounts, etc.
LLC = Limited Liability Company and does NOT default as a corporation - this has surprised some new business owners who thought they were getting a corporation
an LLC is liability protection and stops the liability at the business in order to protect your personal assets
LLCs that are sole member file a Schedule C or Schedule F attached to the 1040 personal return
LLCs that are a partnership or corporation file a separate return - 1065 or 1120, respectively
sole member LLCs or sole proprietors are not allowed to put owners on payroll
corporations (especially s corps) *do* require payroll for owners, so if you don't/won't have payroll otherwise, this can be a burden
nonprofits file a Form 990 and must report on admin (overhead), fundraising, and program financial activity. They need to prove/maintain 80% of financial activity in programs otherwise they can lose nonprofit status. Bookkeeping and accounting plus a large portion of the director's salary (if not all of the E.D. salary) must always be 100% admin.
You might already be aware of some or even most of these aspects from your people, though I like to help clarify what kind of bookkeeping/accounting burden these things can take on.
Wishing you the best! And would love to hear how you decide to proceed.
I was out gardening and noticed a fresh green husked walnut rolling into my yard from under my back gate.
Then tiny, lightning-fast, gray-furred hands yanked it back out of sight.
😁
I think the OP was more about storing summer squash, but one way I like to store food is to make huge quantities of a dish and then freeze it in single meal portions.
Scarpaccia is a kind of rustic Italian tart (from the Tuscany region), usually thin, extremely good and, by the way, vegan.
And here is a page from The New Laurel's Kitchen cookbook (which was "new" decades ago, but is still excellent IMHO) with one of the best yellow summer squash recipes ever!
Jocelyn Campbell wrote:
<post about bullet journaling>
Did it end up working for you? I watched the video, and the more details he went into, the more my brain said, "This isn't for me!"
Bullet journaling worked for me a little while for planning and notetaking, but as a journal of what I did for the day, not so much.
I mostly went back to using apps (Evernote, Trello, Google Calendar) to store my lists, events, tasks, etc.
Nicole Alderman wrote:Somehow (maybe because I watch videos about Bookbinding) I stumbled across this video:
<snip>
I like not being constrained by a pre-determined "you must use this journal this way" method. I already have a 5-year planner book, so I don't need a calendar in my journal. I just need a place to store and process my thoughts.
<snip>
I like how low-key it is. Sometimes making the process too fancy or organized can prevent us from using something, because we're afraid of it not being perfect. I'm trying really hard to keep myself from feeling like I "have to" us my book one way or another
YES! That is a GORGEOUS journal with your parents' couch leather! Wow!
I have friends who are using sketch journals for wildlife or property observations, and/or art practice, and that's what your book reminds me of.
What I do like from the bullet journaling method is the idea of keeping a "contents" or index page in case you are using the journal or book for a reference down the road. But if a book is more for free form fun stuff being drawn or written about, an index is certainly not at all necessary.
That creative drawn process and using handwriting are both SO important! I can't seem to compel myself to do more of it though sometimes my fingers kind of itch to draw or create (when my hands aren't cooking or gardening, both of which are my primary creative outlets these days).
How long will ginger juice keep in the fridge without going bad?
I hate to buy a that will go bad before I use it.
It keeps a remarkably long time, but it's certainly personal preference on what feels safe to you.
I know I have thrown some out before, just to be safe. But even then, it didn't smell bad and didn't have any signs of mold or anything.
I just found another super creative wall hanging idea for cast iron pans and I thought of this thread.
Again, I do not have a kitchen with wall space to do this (I'm no longer in Montana as I was in earlier posts in this thread), but a cast iron storage "pantree" just looks so fun!!
Despite my diatribe above, I don't think guerrilla composting is a terrible idea.
I just think a little thought (or design, if you will) helps to make it truly a benefit and not a nuisance.
Not everyone has room, or bandwidth for vermicompost or even bokashi systems. (Speaking of those without outdoor compost pile availability and without municipal compost services, etc.)
Guerrilla composting might truly be the easiest, best option. I'd recommend just trying to be respectful about it. Think about animal patterns (especially rats or pests). Think about keeping out of waterways, and where there could be runoff. Think about whether your food scraps might be "too hot" (too much green waste type nitrogen) for tender plants. Rotting food scraps touching, or on top of plants, can induce rotting of the plant they touch.
For example, tucking out of sight under a hardy bush in poor soil is likely a huge benefit--when it's away from buildings. But maybe you're in a city where there isn't much that is away from buildings. Then I'd want to not only tuck it under the bush, but also bury it or mulch it heavily to reduce it being a pest attractant.
I love the idea of guerilla composting! I have some additional thoughts and experience that might give you more ideas.
Tl;dr: the burying or mulching helps kitchen scraps be slightly less of a critter attractant, and definitely less of a litter appearance to humans. Please be mindful of what effect the scraps might be having on wildlife patterns.
I've done a lot of Ruth Stout composting - which is burying your scraps under a deep mulch right in the garden. In Montana, we had copious straw, hay, or sawdust to put over the top of our scraps in the garden. These mulched piles were sometimes dug into by the wild turkeys or other critters, but mostly did an amazing job of improving that sand and rock soil we had there.
When I lived in downtown Missoula, I was in an old house converted to apartments and had small garden beds in front of my porch. I didn't have hay or sawdust, plus that might offend the landlord and neighbors. So I specifically bought a bag of bark mulch for the garden beds, just so I could put my kitchen scraps underneath it and no one would be the wiser!
Now I'm on a property where my "yard" (as Americans call it) is the former goat pasture. Here, hay or leaves break down quite quickly with all the rain, and there is a lot of wildlife. So I do what is often called trench composting - I dig a shallow hole and bury my scraps. The wildlife critters (coyotes, rats, mice, racoons, opossums) frequently, but not always, dig it up.
My landlady here is fine with my compost burying, she just doesn't want raw meat scraps in the pasture. She's concerned raw meat could encourage or introduce parasites which would not be healthy for future pasture livestock.
I'm trying to improve the soil around the dripline of a neglected mulberry tree. If it weren't for that, due to the scraps attracting critters, I'd probably bury my scraps at the far corner, farther away from the buildings.
That's the thing with putting food scraps out - they could change wildlife movement patterns and/or encourage wildlife where you don't want them.
There's this story Toby Hemenway writes about in Gaia's Garden, where he had carefully planned a hedgerow with native forage on the outside for where the deer passed by, and grafted-on fruits on the inside side, for human consumption. But then his neighbor started putting apples out for the deer. So the deer changed their feeding pattern and now started grazing the INSIDE of his carefully thought out, carefully grafted hedgerow.
Nicole Alderman wrote:
Ooooh, that looks so much easier than trying to wrap each in cheesecloth! But, would you be able to remove the feathers/flowers afterward?
Well, I think if you're peeling the egg, it might not matter as much.
To be honest, I don't know if dried egg white would soften up from getting wet or being washed off with soap. Does anyone else know?
All of which makes me think that if you are wanting to eat the hardboiled eggs underneath, you might wish to sterilize the feathers by a dunk in boiling hot water, and/or only use edible flowers, just to be safe.
For me, I would not worry about the dried egg white on the egg, but others might be concerned about a salmonella risk, and might wish to wash the egg thoroughly before peeling.
(Edited to add that commenters said this is a sign in a parking garage in Santa Monica California near 4th and Colorado. Sometimes I wonder which of these kinds of things are photoshopped, and which are real. This one truly exists! Ha!)
Whoa about this line: "It takes up to 23 minutes for a person to regain focus after they've been interrupted."
The author of the linked CNBC article helps BIG companies retain top talent...like introverts. I love how she calls out introverts' strengths and best accommodations in the article.
I posted about this in another group and someone commented there that alcohol sprays like this have been used a lot for ballet costumes to freshen and deodorize between performances without a full cleaning.
Jan White wrote:I stress sweat at work, too. And, yeah, it's very different than regular sweat. I actually haven't found anything that helps with that, and once it gets into my clothing, that's it. Various soaps and detergents, alcohol, baking soda, vinegar, nothing seems to get the smell out of synthetics or natural fibers. The weird part is that the clothes smell fine, wet or dry, until I stress sweat in them again. Then it's like a concentration of every stressful day I've worn them. I've started wearing, whenever possible, light, cotton t-shirts under my office clothes to prevent getting sweat on them, but also to prevent activating the smell that's already lying latent in them.
Uff! That totally sucks. I feel for you. I think I've had that kind of sweat permeate some of my clothing too. That's smart of you to layer a bit to preserve the outer garments.
Someone I knew was taking a chlorophyll supplement for their b.o. and it seemed to help them. I don't know if it would help enough with nervous sweat, but it might.
Sweating is so healthy, and eliminates toxins from the body, but personally, I avoid sweating like the plague! Ha! Not very smart of me to avoid it so much. I even worked at a Naturopathic clinic, and one of the main treatments for those with toxin overloads was to regularly sweat in saunas. Patients built saunas at their homes just for their recovery from exposure to toxins.
Jan White wrote:I alternate between using rubbing alcohol and ACV with a bit of essential oil as deodorant. I find I need to alternate, I think because different bacteria grow in different conditions. After using ACV for a few weeks, I start to get a particular odor that I don't like. So I switch to alcohol until I start getting a different particular odor I don't like. Then it's back to vinegar until that odor shows up again, etc.
Just mentioning it in case something similar starts happening with your clothes.
That makes sense to me. Though so far, I've not had any problems with fabric odors with the booze method. The odor is gone and the booze evaporates with no residual odor. While sometimes vinegar leaves its acrid scent behind.
I've struggled with deodorants myself because nervous sweat is a whole different animal. It smells far different than sweat from exertion (it's more rank IMHO). Plus I'd read something about it being different that escapes me now.
I found an all natural pit paste that I like, but I don't use it every day. Only when I know I might nervous sweat or get extra hot and sweaty. I've wanted to try an alcohol spray deodorant so it's cool to hear your experience with it. I might change up to trying that after my pit paste runs out.
But back to spraying on clothes. You reminded me that I wanted to mention that I think keeping oils (scent or essential oils) *out* of the freshener / sanitizer spray for clothing is important. The oils could stain or create an oil barrier trapping in the bacteria. Skin is different. Oils are in general a happy thing there. Just not for fabrics.
Clothing freshener and more. What else might you all use this for?
I just made up a new bottle of sanitizing spray for my bedroom. It's a smaller bottle that distributes a finer mist than a larger spray bottle typically used for cleaning. The finer mist means quicker evaporation for my purposes.
FWIW, I used Everclear instead of rubbing alcohol because I've been choosing that over rubbing alcohol these days.
This spray is for three things:
- bras
- shirts (armpits of them)
- wrinkles in clothes
It's usually bacteria that gives us B.O. and as long as that bacteria is not encased in excessive oils, dirt or grime, a quick spritz of booze water, let dry/evaporate (for me/my climate, letting dry overnight is best) and the odor is gone! Nice!
This saves me time, because I don't have to wash bras and shirts as often. It saves money from less washing (less utilities and laundry expenses) and from less wear-and-tear on my clothes so I don't have to replace them as often.
Of course, I am an office worker, with very little, primarily nervous sweat from my work. This method is not as likely to work for heavier sweat situations or if pit paste has encased the bacteria in the fabric.
(Also, just because some folks might go here, I would NOT recommend this for socks or panties, briefs or boxers. Alcohol won't kill fungus or other stuff that could be factors in those places. Changing those garments every day is recommended!)
The other fun use I found for this is as an anti-wrinkle spray without using an iron! Hang your wrinkly item on a hanger, spray the wrinkly area(s) with alcohol mist and stretch or smooth the wrinkles. Let dry. Might take a repeat, and isn't as good as ironing, but it makes a difference! Also, you'd need to know if your fabric would be safe and colorfast for an alcohol misting. I'd recommend testing an inconspicuous area first if you're not sure.
Do any of you do something like this? Or what would you add?
Best, easiest info on sauerkraut, curtido, dosas and other fermented foods.
Amazing resource for nose-to-tail eating such as bone broths, using organ meats or offal. In other words how and why to eat more than just muscle meats.
Though this book is not just for omnivores, it's also many folks' guide for the how's and why's of soaking grains and beans to remove the anti-nutrients.
Very interesting question! I've enjoyed reading all the replies.
I think that being self-employed, and working from home, one might think I'd have more similarities between my work self and home self, but there are differences.
When I work with a client, I am focused, I have lists, we stay on the client's needs as the topics, I/we (we being myself and my bookkeeping staff, and/or myself in collaboration with the client) organize data and documents for our clients, and I/we get things done in an orderly fashion.
When I am in my home life, I am often less focused, and while I try to make lists, I don't always follow them, and the corners of my place are stacked up with things to organize "some day." But this sounds almost normal from the replies here.
I think we sometimes give our all on the job and are tired and need to recover at home, so that's why we might be less tidy or organized than our "personality" might wish.
In both places I am certainly a big time caretaker in a lot of ways, and it makes me happiest when I can make a difference and collaborate with others.
Sooo....this does not help when you have a surfeit of tomatoes. But for when you don't have enough. Or when the tomatoes aren't ripe yet (especially in colder climates with shorter growing seasons).
One of my other favorite salsa recipes is rhubarb salsa. Rhubarb is a perfectly amazing substitute for tomatoes in salsa.
I know I've posted this elsewhere on permies, but couldn't easily find it.
That was a sunlit picture of some rhubarb salsa I made on a camping trip in May earlier this year. The trickiest part (but still super easy) is cooking the rhubarb just enough to be soft, but not mushy.
For me, having savory rhubarb recipes is a huge win over all the sugary treats usually made with it.
Jocelyn Campbell wrote:Does anyone else have a reference for oil/fats and our taste buds?
For me, the revelatory book that really captures the essential flavor aspects of fat is the James Beard Award winning MASTERPIECE,
Salt, fat, acid, heat: the four elements of good cooking by Samin Nosrat
ISBN 9781476753836
I just LOVE the prose, the artwork, the foldout diagrams and the ingenuity of this unusual book. Samin Nosrat knows oil/fats and teaches in a way that is accessible and inspiring.
Even if you have too many cookbooks, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is a must have.
I'm sold! I'll be looking for this book.
I did watch Samin Nosrat's Netflix series by the same name, but it wasn't exactly very technical. It seemed more a lovely romp around the world and highlights of these four key flavors.
Jocelyn Campbell wrote:My fave is a type of pico de gallo (sp?). Though I've never measured amounts.
Use the following fresh vegetables to taste:
tomatoes
onions
jalepenos
cilantro (a big favorite of mine - and it helps pull mercury from the body, too!)
(optional):
tomatillos
mango
bell peppers
fresh corn
Then add lots of fresh lime juice. Lots.
Salt.
This is usually good for me. Most folks like to add some vinegar (red wine vinegar is good) and/or a bit of sugar.
Especially yummy mixed half and half with cooked black beans as a dip.
Wow! Someone just found this old post.
I'd like to update that I like to add two things to this not listed above:
garlic
a dash of olive oil.
I learned in a cooking class that even a small amount of oil allows the taste receptors on your tongue to take in (some?) flavors better.
That class was over 10 years ago, so I can't recall the exact wording or aspect involved. Does anyone else have a reference for oil/fats and our taste buds?
...your morning routine doesn't mean any fussing with hair or makeup, but you do spend a little extra time schlepping buckets and watering cans. Because there's a watering can in the kitchen that captures extra water from all sorts of things; plus a bucket to capture water in the shower. The bucket in the shower you also pee into! Then you take these outside to water plants before starting your day.
Heather Staas wrote:I'll toss in another word. "Lawn".
Yard: outdoor space for personal recreational use
Garden; space for growing plants other than lawn
Lawn: outdoor space planted with grass, or clover mix, and is maintained with mowing.
A yard can include gardens and lawns, or patios, or courtyards (another word?). Lawns and Gardens are possible elements in a yard but separate from one another, although either can have the other within it LOL.
When I grew up, we used one more term in addition to Heather's list:
Garden beds: space for growing (mostly ornamental) plants, typically along or around the lawn, buildings, driveway, or as islands in the lawn, etc.
In my experience, "garden beds" was a label that was distinct from a "garden" that grew edibles, or was more for show or collections (like a rose garden) only.
Ever since I'd heard Europeans often (usually?) use "yard" to mean where the livestock are turned out, I've tried to change my language to calling a typical America "yard" a "garden" instead.
Rose Bugler wrote:The weather for much of the winter here (and often all year round) is horizontal rain. Thought we have had a dry still patch of weather recently.
So... I've been exploring dehumidifiers that have a clothes drying setting. meant to be more energy efficient than using a drier & the washing drying inside doesn't add to the already high humidity - it's usually about 80% but is in the 70's% at the moment. The dry spell has meant i've been able to use the line more than usual. But i'm thinking about trying the dehumidifier idea for this winter as a low energy low damp promoting approach for the ""inclement" weather ahead. 🤞
We've done this without a clothes drying setting, and it works quite well with a regular dehumidifier. As you might know, sometimes this can be called a "drying closet" when you hang your clothes in a small room with a dehumidifier.
I've lived in the damp Seattle area, then the dry Montana area, and now I'm back again in the damp Seattle area. We're often at 60-70% humidity here, so perhaps not as terrible as many places.
When you put a drying rack and the dehumidifier in a small space like a bathroom (or if you had a walk-in closet, that might work nicely, but I haven't had that) it's remarkable how quickly your clothes will dry. Maybe not as fast as the dryer, but quite fast really (depending, of course, on loads of factors).
In Montana, I liked doing this during the winter because heating with a RMH (wood stove type heat) didn't always reach into all the rooms. When we were both drying clothes inside, *and* needing to dry out the bathroom a bit any way, the dehumidifier worked wonders! Plus, my dehumidifier does put out a fair amount of heat, so between sucking the moisture out, and heating things up, it was quite nice to have in the far corners of the house away from the fire.
In the Seattle area (Western Washington State), dehumidifying is nice to do almost 3 seasons a year because of how/where I live and using very little heat or A/C. I cook a lot, which adds heat, reducing my need for electric or wood heat in my small space, but it also adds more moisture. Plus, I use a clothes drying rack indoors at least 3 seasons a year. On top of all that, the cold, grey, damp drizzle seems to seep into your bones here. If I'm not using the wood stove to heat and dry things, running a dehumidifier just makes everything warmer - both by taking the damp out and the additional heat. So I certainly consider it stacking functions and usually prefer it over the regular forced air electric heat.
There might be fancier dehumidifiers that don't put out as much heat (especially important for warmer climates or seasons!) and have the clothes drying setting that you mentioned, but mine is pretty basic and works for my circumstances.
Have you seen those adult coloring books or pages meant to reduce stress? Well, they've always looked stress-inducing to me! Too complicated, or too saccharin-sweet for my tastes.
Well, lord love a duck, I found a coloring page for me!
From this blog post, http://www.tommykovac.com/main-blog/tag/coloring+page, (I don't know if I like the artist's other work, because I didn't really look at it) and he says this art is welcome to share. They are called "rage pages."
This one makes me smile for some twisted reason!
I printed it out and couldn't stop coloring it last night before bed.
Edited to add: this has been SO cathartic for me! Surprisingly so. I just smile while coloring this dang thing.
Also, I originally found this guy's art somewhere else where they actually cut off his signature at the bottom and did not give him credit. Talk about WTF!! So please, send loads of traffic to his site, look at his library comic. I would love to make sure this creator gets some traffic and love.
NO brassicas - I'm guessing that is just a personal preference due to the taste? I include these in my broth and have never noticed the taste to be too noticeable. I even use the tougher bases of asparagus!
The brassicas thing is a bit personal preference, plus what I've observed with larger groups of people. It's been my experience that most people think overcooked brassicas smell like dirty socks, or worse.
If your homemade broth smells like dirty socks, it's just not very appetizing, no matter how nutritious, tasty, or frugal/eco/smart it is!
When I worked in a corporate office there was once a broccoli incident in the microwave that became legendary for the stench. So many office jokes about that one!
If your own household doesn't mind the smell, or somehow avoids that smell, then go for the brassicas! In a community kitchen that cooked for visitors and guests, and the potential for far too many brassicas in one batch, it was safer for us to avoid them.
Maybe the sensitivity to the smell of overcooked brassicas is similar to how only some of us can detect the asparagus odor in urine. Who knows!?
Heather, I feel for you! Being sensitive to the sun is no fun at all.
Loads of great suggestions and discussions in this thread and I have just some minor thoughts or tweaks to add.
Magnesium or other minerals / electrolytes - your body could be dumping it out due to "dirty genes." The book by the same name, Dirty Genes by Ben Lynch is awesome at explaining the how's and why's and what to do to help.
Food sensitivities - as a kid I would get a rash from the sun. And while I know your reaction is different, I eventually somehow figured out my reaction was worse if I ate citrus. It was a painful, red, burning/itchy rash. To this day I still do not like citrus fruit much, but I did grow out of that reaction. What can really help to identify food reactions is to do an elimination challenge. I think I wrote about steps to do that elsewhere in the forums, but it's can be super super helpful and only takes time (no expensive doctor visits or lab tests!).
Herbs / medications / supplements - lots of good thoughts on this already (who knew about Vitamin D?!). The most common one I've heard of being a problem is St. John's Wort which can make folks, especially the fair skinned ones, sensitive to the sun. I wonder how many other herbs that we consider "mild" or completely safe might cause us issues. For me, even slightly estrogenic herbs like lavender and red clover would increase my hot flashes when I was peri-menopausal, so it's always a good idea to do elimination challenges with some things we might not usually consider.
Someone in a group on another platform had old rusty barbed wire to get rid of. Another suggested she offer it up for free, but the OP was curious if people would actually want it.
There is cool art made with recycled metal of all kinds, so I did a quick web search to help the OP see some examples.
I found this, someone selling balls of rusted barbed wire as garden art for $200 (here) and I think it looks pretty cool!
