I got back into some bread making recently but with a twist. I am experimenting with making flour from sprouted wheat I buy from the local feed and seed.
I sprout the wheat myself, and the resulting flour has more simple sugars in it and less gluten which makes for a particularly weak dough. The high hydration techniques were disasters, and I've found that a dough of around 55 to 60% hydration is better. A long cool ferment helps, but haven't yet overcome all the brick like properties. Not get much oven spring at all.
I'm proofing in a loaf pan and placing it in a cooler oven because the hot, fast technique for modern bread doesn't cook the dough through properly. I have a water tray underneath the pan full of boiling water, and I mist the loaf when going in but so far no success.
I will use pine mulch with blueberries, haskaps, and strawberries to help them along. I'm not sure if it's the acidity or selecting for certain fungi that form symbiotic relationships with these plants is the fundamental reason why they benefit.
John Kemf and Elaine Ingham will turn your world upside down lol. And they both openly declare that this is just scratching the surface on what is really going on in the soil.
Plants absorbing microorganisms they want, Deconstructing them, transporting their DNA to another part of the root zone, reconstructing them, and then expelling them alive back into the soil is like something out of a sci fi movie.
Nick Kitchener wrote:Provided that there is a health and diverse soil microbiome, the plant will create its own ideal Ph in and around its zoot zone.
Developing a suitable fungal dominated soil structure, and inoculating with a wide spectrum of organisms harvested from healthy soil is a good starting point.
I think there is much truth in that, and it's a goal that lets us thumb our noses at global supply chains. Good.
Still, it's worth considering that the general pH trend in soil is related to the bedrock of a region. For example, the Canadian Shield (granite, naturally acidic) is quite different from the Western Sedimentary Basin (limestone, naturally basic). As a result, techniques for pH adjustment vary.
I happen to live on Canadian shield. The issue there is a high organic matter soil (basically decomposed wood) on top of a (very) hard pan which leads to an anaerobic soil environment because it's basically a foot or two of saturated woody material (peat).
The wild blueberries tend to prefer old forestry cuts where they come in and cut all the trees down and chip the branches. When I dug down to see what was going on, there is a few feet of decomposing woodchips full of fungi and relatively dry. Then there is the original muskeg which is water logged and finally the shield.
The blueberries will tolerate acidic conditions and they do grow in the muskeg, but the biggest, thickest, and most vigorous plants are found in the woodchips.
Provided that there is a health and diverse soil microbiome, the plant will create its own ideal Ph in and around its zoot zone.
Developing a suitable fungal dominated soil structure, and inoculating with a wide spectrum of organisms harvested from healthy soil is a good starting point.
This is a lecture. It has lots of technical chemistry terms. But watch it anyway because it will likely turn what you think you know about plants and soil upside down.
Haha I live in zone 3 and garlic is just beginning to emerge.
I always grow it under a thick layer of mulch and have found that after a few years the generations get better and punching through it. I don't water it because it's protected by so much mulch, and I don't add anything to the soil apart from the mulch.
I'll use straw, hay, or leaves. Whatever I can find.
Last year we had some volunteer potatoes show up in a garlic bed and the garlic were really happy about that so this year we will be interplanting potatoes with some garlic to see if it also helps keep the deer off the potatoes.
That is weird. Normally you have sprouts with roots emerging from the joint where the sprout comes from. You carefully separate the sprout, nodule, and roots in one piece (called a slip) from the tuber and grow that out in water.
I've never seen roots emerge at one end and shoots at the other. Then again, the usual method involves cutting up the tuber into pieces first (chitting).
Chances are the backwash function is draining the line at some point. If there is a power interruption, like a power overload on the circuit by running other appliances, then if the pump is not self priming, it will fail to function.
Interesting thing with blueberries is that they tolerate acid soils more than other plants. They are quite happy in normal soil too.
Dan Kittredge talks about this. The plant will create its own optimal soil conditions provided that the soil life is healthy and abundant.
The most suitable breed is very dependent on context. For example, here in zone 3 an ideal breed is hardy in night time temperatures of -30C for weeks at a time, can plow through 4ft of snow to access forage for 6 months of the year, can cope with summer temperatures of 35C, is resistant to parasites, and can defend itself from bear and cat predation.
Lots of discussion on how temperature changes influence us. But has anyone considered that weather systems are electrical, and out nervous system is also electrical?
There has been a ton of scientific research over the past 5 years looking into how much influence on mental health, cognitive abilities, and cardiac events that large scale electrical systems like geo and space weather have on biological systems, and humans in particular.
Hugelkultur is a very old technique that was traditionally used as a system to create soil in areas where there is very little or poor quality top soil.
It is primarily a soil generating system. With this knowledge, it follows that the soil you use in making a hugel bed isn't really important in the big picture context.
If you're constructing them for a different context then soil quality may be important.
I've used spent coffee grounds extensively. Yes, wet used grounds will clog. If you spread it out on a tarp for a few hours in the sun it will evaporate off enough moisture to use in the method you present.
However, I have applied used coffee grounds as a surface mulch and quite frankly it sucks. Even a small covering will dry into a thin crust that then repels water. If you hit it with enough water over a long enough period it will eventually loosen up, but then it explodes with mold, dries back into a crust and you're at square one all over again.
You can avoid this pain by applying the grounds to the soil, and then incorporating it into the soil with a shuffle hoe or similar implement. Even a hard tine rake will do it. It's extra work but it will save you a gallon of tears later on.
Yes, I caught some tadpoles with the kids and we put them in a big plastic tub half full of water. The sun shone down later in the day, and cast shadows of the tadpoles on the wall of the tub. That attracted chipmunks, and we found 3 or 4 of them drowned before I realized what was going on.
Back to the TP roll seedling pots. If you plant them directly in the soil, make sure the bottoms are open so the roots can grow down because the cardboard doesn't break down in my experience.
Sort of related but off topic... Toilet paper does make an excellent seed tape medium. I make a glue out of corn starch, lay down the paper, place the seeds, add a drop of glue and leave to dry. Then roll it back onto an empty toilet roll.
I've used it for carrots, parsnips, and inter-seeded mixes like carrots / spinach / radish. In my zone 3 it makes sense because we have months where everything is frozen and we have the time to make seed tape or other crafts. When planting time comes, I just roll it out onto the ground and cover it with compost. Planting done.
In my zone, the planting time window is short and the weather conditions are unpleasant. Being able to precisely lay down seed quickly and get out of the freezing rain is a real benefit.
The paper itself just dissolves into the soil, unlike the toilet paper roll seedling pots that refuse to break down even after a year in the soil.
Yes you make a good point. Heat will destroy some nutritional content. How much would be good to know.
My take is that I'm growing nutritionally dense food to begin with, and this method of preservation I am developing for food storage systems that require no ongoing energy inputs once processed. Lacto-fermentation is another option in this category.
The powdering gains the benefits of space and low energy storage but there is always a penalty, and I'm guessing it's in the nutrition.
I make cider regularly, and I have a press and processing equipment. I make juice, cider, apple wine, apple jack, and apple brandy.
The most basic hard apple cider I have ever made goes like this:
Buy a food grade 5 gallon plastic pail and lid from your local hardware store. Clean it out with hot water and dish washing detergent, and rinse it with more hot water. Do the same with the lid.
Buy the cheapest 100% apple juice from concentrate you can find, and fill the pail 3/4 full.
Get some white wine yeast and add it.
Put the lid on. Don't take the lid off for 2 weeks.
This will produce a rather nice hard cider of around 5%. If you want a wine of around 10%, then add around 2.5Kg of sugar to the juice, stirring it until dissolved. You can do it before you add the yeast right at the start, or later if you like.
The 5 gallon pail lids don't create a perfect seal, and so the CO2 can escape during fermentation.
I do this sometimes when I want to make apple brandy but I'm short on apples to press. If you want to get fancy, try adding a cup of molasses to the batch.
One time I made a batch like this intending to make brandy from it, and I ended up drinking it straight from the pail instead it was that good. It's not as refined or complex as fresh pressed cider, but it is a far cry from pruno lol!
Greg Judy mentions in one of his books that the best way to get through to people like that is by example. In a rural community, you can bet your life that folks will notice changes in your property, and when those changes become blaringly obvious and a vast improvement compared to surrounding properties, they will come to you with 1000 questions.
I didn't have success with TP rolls either. The seedlings were sickly and I put it down to some sort of chemical in the cardboard. I noticed that plain paper pots will mold easily and damping off is a problem. No mold at all on the TP pots which reinforced my suspicion about some kind of chemical.
I powdered 5 gallons of shredded zucchini. I pressed the juice out first in a cider press. It all fit in a peanut butter jar one it was done.
I powdered a lot of kale last summer as well as Swiss Chard and beet tops.
2 years ago I was given around 2 dozen roasted chicken breasts. I took the skin off, dehydrated and powdered it. I was a bit nervous dehydrating chicken, but it's as good today in soups and stews as it was 2 years ago and I haven't poisoned myself lol.
I live in zone 3. There are no insects at all for 4 or 5 months of the year. We typically store food outside for 3 months because it is as cold, and often colder than the chest freezer.
I haven't even seen flies in a barn. I have seen the odd one in the house, but they go sort of dormant even if it's 72 degrees. It might be something to do with light levels as much as heat.
The CEO of Ikea has just been voted president of Sweden. When asked what he will devote his first 3 months of office to, he responded "Assembling my cabinet".
Have you tried opening a window in the basement? As someone already mentioned, you may not have enough volume of air entering into the house when it's sealed up to offset the volume of exhaust gasses escaping through the chimney.
Nick Kitchener wrote:We can get hard red wheat sacks (50lb) at the feed store for $15.
Our local food security group has a flour mill, a roller mill for processing husked grains like barley, and a cheap corona mill for processing beans, peas, and corn.
I have no idea what a ‘food security group’ is . . . Sounds like a great set up.
It's a local group of people who predicted supply chain breakdowns a few years back, and got together to establish greater food independence. We coordinate what each site grows based on the merits of the site, we work together on different projects at different sites, help with sowing, weeding, harvesting, and processing etc. And we share the bounty.
We are also connected to similar groups around the region and trade amongst each other (seeds, plants, animals, products). As it grows, it establishes a distributed food supply chain largely independent of the one most people's lives rely on.
Who controls the food supply controls the people...
We can get hard red wheat sacks (50lb) at the feed store for $15.
Our local food security group has a flour mill, a roller mill for processing husked grains like barley, and a cheap corona mill for processing beans, peas, and corn.
I'm looking at a potential pond site at the highest point in the property. It's about 80ft uphill from the building site and it will be an excellent gravity fed water source delivering roughly 35psi.
The trouble is that the high point in the property sits on the end of a flat topped hill. The flat top is about 5 acres in area, and I'm wondering if the pond will fill.
Any thoughts? Is this going to be a pond or a crater?
