Hey Kaarina, I'm glad to see you're back and getting healthy again.
Byron, I had exactly the same thing happen to me this year, minus the firewood and subzero temps-- broke my wrist, and my husband had just done surgery on his knee, also the kid smashed up my car, so we're down a vehicle, let's just say that this growing season (it's summer here) has mostly been a wash, except for plant-and-forget crops like beans. I can just barely squeak by doing my paid work, thank goodness I'm not raising/butchering rabbits intensively like I planned to this year....
We're generally strong, healthy people and this situation really knocked us for a loop, so I really feel for Kaarina. Everything is great, until suddenly it's not. We live and learn.
M Smyth, you've also had a heck of an experience and I think it's an important topic that others may find very useful. Would you consider making a thread about squatters (and avoidance thereof)? You could put it in the homesteading or community forums and resume the conversation.
Ulla, it sounds like you have gotten some great local answers.
I grow in 9b, but in the southern hemisphere, and I also have become seriously frustrated trying to adapt how I used to plant elsewhere. My biggest challenge is definitely that we don't get cold enough to kill bugs (we do get down to freezing and occasional snow, but it's never that cold for a full 24-hour period, never). But the bugs do tend to come in cycles, so I try to observe where I see certain bugs, and once I see them rip out their favorites (for example: I have a kind of beetle that only appears on beans and zinnias, and where it goes the white and black mildew follows, I try to control them as soon as i see them, but there's no point ripping out beans if I let the zinnias go all year- the bugs will be there when i start up again).
The other thing is I've learned to try growing out of season (or what I consider out of season) to tr to take advantage of climate. Here the big enemy of tomatoes is a stem-boring bug that only appears in warm weather. I have started growing tomatoes during the winter, when the bugs aren't around. They grow more slowly, sure, but I occasionally get a tomato.
Finally, the hardest thing (I think) about growing year round is ripping things out when they start to flag or when you have something better. I have a small urban garden and space is limited. I've learned to be ruthless about ripping out and also pruning to keep my space under control (for perennial vines and trees, for example). My pepper or chard plants may go 2 or 3 years if I let them, but usually after a full year they're pretty much done and should be yanked and the space given over to something else. The same about when it's the end of the season for kale, or cilantro, or whatever else- I needed to just grit my teeth and assume that was probably as good as it was going to get, rip it out.
I grow a lot of things on Patrik's list plus others, we have clay soil and lots of rain though. I have done hugel beds, rather than hugels, just because i'm on a slope and have a small urban space. And I've had bananas in for a few years, they seem to take their sweet time. My neighbors have bananas that produce, so I know it's possible here, but ugh, it is taking forever.
I've found mulberry to be good and relatively low effort in this kind of climate, they seem to do better in drought years.
Aaron, I can echo everything you are saying about cowpeas! They love abuse, need no care, come ripe outside of ripe bean season, and the green "peas" are absolutely amazing. I'm not a fan of the white-with-black-eye black eye pea and these are smaller, browner, more angular, they work very well for my favorite application (middle eastern ful, cooked beans eaten with condiments). No idea the cultivar, my mother in law gave me a handful saying they were "magic beans". I notice them around the neighborhood in people's yards, and since I planted them last year I have thrown them in all idle corners with poor soil. They take a long time to get moving (I grow year round, and they probably take 9 months to flower) but man, is it worth it. Can't wait to have them again!
edited to add: my husband and I had some great quality time shelling peas, an added bonus. We both spend a lot of time working and it was nice to spend a half day on the back porch shelling peas together and talking about whatever struck our fancy. I'm glad we don't have to do it, but it was a nice way to spend some time together.
I also think it's totally worth growing long beans (asparagus beans, yard-long beans). I find they are more resistant to mildew, which is what kills my green beans every summer. They also take a bit longer to get going but once they start there's no stopping them. I've grown purple ones and green ones, they're all fabulous.
Another vote for the nasty barrel of weed water (or, as David the Good says, putrid swamp water). I always have a barrel going for comfrey tea, sometimes I throw manure in there, and sometimes it's these horrible weeds I have that are super invasive and will take root wherever they get thrown, even on a compost pile. My bucket is small, one of those maybe 20L/5 gallon ones. it's enough, and you water down the tea anyway.
Anne Miller wrote:I would suggest cleaning it with some Murphy Oil Soap if you have that.
This is what i was thinking. i live somewhere there is no Murphy's and apparently any real soap (castile type or glycerine) will work as well.
Pearl, my first job was at a horse farm where often I'd have to dig out tack from storage (sometimes decades of storage, horse stuff is expensive and nobody throws it away) that was brittle, moldy, and often hard as rocks and then get it back into working order.
I'd start with a bucket of warm water and Murphy's and a sponge and sponge off the whole mess with lather, let dry then work in oil (usually neatsfoot, but you could conceivably use other stuff. i just broke in a new pair of boots a few months ago with olive oil, not even kidding, because that was what i had). then repeat. Sometimes it took a few times, and often once it started getting flexible the leather needed to be worked (kneaded, massaged, harrassed, etc. Good for working out your stress, not that I had much when I was that age....).
Because horse tack gets really dirty (and all this crap was already stained and gross) we often washed things with soap lather and water and then oiled them without thinking twice, I know sometimes people are super reticent to get leather wet but it worked for us. In fact I remember in some cases letting things soak (old long lines that seemed likely to break, harness gear), but I don't think I'd do that! All this old horse gear had gotten wet many times before it got mummified....
In this case because it looks like there are rivets in the leather i think it will be super important for you to let it dry so the metal doesn't oxidize.
is this a thing for sewing the end of sacks shut???
(I hope you can eventually take pics of how this thing works. Ive been running errands all afternoon and thinking about this blessed thing the whole time!!)
Does the crank work continually, or is it an in-and-back motion? It looks like for the crank to turn it would have to be mounted on the edge of something, where would the clamp mount on this device?
if your chipper is small like mine (1 hp) try to let things dry so you can get them through the machine dry (or if possible, alternating with dry stuff) to avoid clogs. When you're done, make sure the machine has no clogged stuff in there and let it dry thoroughly or you may find when you turn it on next that muck is dried up in there and it won't rotate (ask me how I learned that)....
if you have a monster chipper I imagine you won't have these problems.
I grew cowpeas for the first time last year and I'm sold. I like them dry and green (dry, they're like a black-eyed pea, green, think edamame), they like absolutely crap soil and dry weather, and the beans ripen in a different season from the other dry beans I grow. The plants take a long time to get rolling, but they are apparently perennials where I live (9b). I have two trees I pruned severely after harvesting in maybe September (southern hemisphere, end of winter) and they have recovered their size entirely. I will have cowpeas growing in every "marginal" wasted space from now on, I love them (and the rabbits love their foliage).
Yay sighthounds! I had a whippet once upon a time, it was fun to have a dog that needed clothes (I now have shepherds, who would rather eat clothes).
What I've done with haired-up velcro is to use a long needle between the "rows" of hooks to lift up the mat of hair one row at a time and then get it out as a unit. Takes a bit of time depending on how big the velcro is, but probably easier than tape.
Jordan Holland wrote:Think loaded baked potato and make it into a soup. !
this is exactly the recipe I came here to share.
I don't like cream soups, this baked potato soup is made of baked potato flavored with wine, thyme, fennel, has kale or whatever greens you've got, and then a big old crouton thing made of a baked potato wedge. I've mashed some of the potatoes to make it creamy, thrown in beans to make it a bit more substantial, it's good all around (like pretty much everything from this cookbook author).
Opal-Lia, that is an awful lot to deal with, even just one thing at a time, all together is unthinkable. I'm so sorry for all you're dealing with and wish you strength as you keep on keeping on and being there for your son.
Thanks a bunch Heather, your links are always super helpful and always greatly appreciated, I will check them out. We are already starting nose work (the nose on this boy!!!) but I'm intrigued to see what free work involves!
(just looked at this BAT thing and I can't remember where I saw it but I've been following another trainer who does essentially the same thing, since I'm using this new harness that I've never used before and needed some orientation. Lots of treats for a slack line and paying attention. When I go to my favorite "park" -- actually the parking area of a small private airport I have access to, lol, no dogs or kids or bikes or nothing but plenty of curbs, walkways, noise, birds, trucks, etc-- he can do this like a boss. Unfortunately, when we are in the neighborhood, he turns into Cujo. We're working on it.)
Julia Riding wrote:Have you considered using hexies in Japanese folded patchwork?
I just had a "ratatouille moment" reading this and had to dig this out of storage to share.
This zippy purse is about the size of the palm of my hand. My old boss took a quilting class, many years ago in Japan, and made this for me. The hexagon covers a hole in the fabric but is also possibly the best thing about that panel!
I am a week behind, but we made it to 5 months last week! But just barely. The last month was really hard, frankly, and not getting easier anytime soon.
I was looking forward to starting to take both dogs to the park regularly when, in the space of a week or two, my husband had surgery, my daughter crashed my car, and I found out I've been walking around with a broken wrist since October. Between these three things, no walking is getting done, and I was really looking forward to it. Neither I nor my husband can hold the pup walking around the neighborhood (aggressive street dogs all over the place, he pulls with the harness and with the halter), no car to go to the parks where things are calmer.... I'm frustrated. Inside the house and the yard we practice with his harness and he's great, but out in public it's a free-for-all and he's unpredictable with people and with other dogs.
I've been doing a chase pole in the yard to exercise, and lots of ball playing, but it's also raining buckets every day and sometimes the play is just nominal. Luckily a few weeks ago I bought a dozen chewy bones (not even kidding, saw them on sale and thought, 'can't go wrong') and that has been getting us through the summer rains-- and teething.
Other than that, things are okay. Tanuki is finally switching out his baby teeth (lost 3 yesterday), muuuuuch less biting, and we've been doing some smell games. He is now taller than my other dog and while he still is using the "puppy bark" to ask to play, I am not sure how much longer he will "obey" the old man.
Let's see, he's also always dumping his water bucket, eating the other dog's poo, and last night destroyed the outside bed. None of this is unexpected....
I know I've just got to hang in for another few weeks til either my husband is cleared to start walking again or I get my car back after repairs (trouble finding parts, so much so that they won't even give me a time frame, saying it could be "weeks to months"). one day at a time!
One surprise: Tanuki has never been snuggly (in fact he'd make hippo noises and thrash if anyone tried to hug or otherwise restrain him), but lately wants to be on our laps. I've been implementing some of the feeding games in the video shared above (holding the bones/horns/chewies/etc has been especially good) and I think that maybe has helped.
Ah and ears still unpredictable. The breeder messaged me around New Year to ask, and apparently his brothers have all got pointy ears by now, but considering he still has baby teeth I think it's a bit early. His ears are the least of my concerns!!!
my next door neighbor's garden lot faces south/southwest (also southern hem), she gets all sorts of good stuff. I think the individual site speaks a lot more than general things, as well as what you will plant on it. I have a passionfruit vine that I let "escape" into her yard, so it's on the SSW-facing wall of my garage, and that thing is covered with fruit! And another neighbor has a similar vine on the same orientation- they seem to appreciate it a lot.
I garden in an urban setting and I would happily trade an unshaded SSW facing slope for my current garden that is slopy and shaded by neighboring buildings for half the day. (and yet, I still get amazing yields!)
I'd look around the area and see what other people are growing, what is happy there, and as mentioned, see what you can do to make things work.
So my kid tried a few different approaches to this (i'm the gardener and she's the soapmaker who sells her wares, so we were experimenting) and ultimately, as mentioned above, while it's super pretty to have a slice of soap with a loofah in the middle, I'm all about usability.....it was so much easier to use when you had a "sleeve", or better, if you just used the loofah by itself after soaping up!! (the exception might be leftover soap bits, which are great to wedge in the middle). Like you mentioned, a cross-cut loofah is scratchy!
Then again, when you're selling, sometimes you're going towards aspirations rather than reality...... almost all the search results I'm seeing for loofah soap are slices.
I'd love to hear what others have done, and I'll pass it on to my soapmaker.
Elizabeth, i find that all my normal pests stay away from loofas. To me the foliage has a very strong smell, not sure if that is why but the loofas seem to survive well, as long as they have good sun and can climb.
giving the ones that didn't dry right (or have a bad spot) to the dog is a briliant idea. Now that I've got another young'un around the house I'll have to do that (it's early to see if I'm going to get a lot this year or not, they take a long time and haven't started to run yet).
I use mine mostly for dishes and for scrubbing in the shower, but I am looking forward to eating them if I do get a lot of fruits.
my only suggestion is... better fences or some sort of physical block (not sure how many trees you have- if it's just a few, can you put around large stones, blocks?
I have two diggers and if it isn't the moles they're after, it's the mulch. or the fertilizer. Or some tiny critters I can't see but they can sniff out. My one dog turned the yard into a moonscape digging up things I couldn't see. I ultimately ended up staking down chicken wire so he couldn't dig (he still tried for quite a while) because the house was a rental and the owners were not happy.
Abraham, you hit on something that made me think a lot.
One way of training appreciation is not having the thing, and permies may have an advantage.
As a young person I moved from a place where life was essentially the same across the year (we ate the same foods, did the same things all year round) to a culture that changed greatly depending on the season. I may have lived in a concrete jungle but I could tell by what was on the lunch menu, clothes people wore, and other season-related cultural clues what time of year it was. I remember early on asking about where to buy tangerines and the person saying "you can only get them in winter! Are you nuts?" I had never realized things weren't just available all the time.
I learned to anticipate and to appreciate. Now, I am thrilled to get the first plum in summer, and the first tangerine in the winter, and I never buy things out of season (they're never as good as you want them to be). I don't go nuts to get imported things here either-- when I'm abroad I'll drink root beer, or eat local cheese or sweet corn or Spencer apples, and I'll appreciate them even more. It's a habit I'm glad I learned, I think honoring the seasons is what brought me to gardening and working with nature, and as I get older I think it sort of spills over into everything else.
my mother in law is a similar soul, and someone I want to emulate. It seems, from what I know, that what teaches this amazing ability is adversity. Not everyone who suffers gets it, but some do.
For those of us who are lucky enough to not be suffering, just "being here now" is a good start. It's harder than it looks!
(i'll also say as someone who grew up in the US, left, moved to the developing world, but goes back on a regular basis: in America you are programmed to CONSUME [and correspondingly want, crave, seek reward, etc], I personally find it overwhelming. usually after a few days i've had enough, just being bombarded with such messaging.)
I use tallow, lard, or schmalz for almost all my pan cooking, depending on what protein or flavors I have going. Chinese food is delightful when you use lard as the base fat for frying up your garlic and spices (adding a wee bit to soup or noodle broth is also transcendent), and if you make schmalz with onions it's gorgeous even spread on bread, but makes things like soup next-level. Tallow can have some mouthfeel issues so I always put it on something that we will eat hot. I also am always happy to use tallow on my skin, thanks to Carla's suggestion.
I usually render lard and tallow in the crockpot as described above-- schmalz I prefer to do in the frying pan on the stove.
it is everywhere. and not any easier for the shops either- the scanners need to have upgrade packages all the time, which of course aren't free (although there are some nice side businesses among code people who know how to override them....
It seems like if some manufacturer can save half a cent doing something bizarre, like putting the last spark plug in the most impossible to reach place, they will (just had a car in the shop last week where a previous mechanic had broken it and left it in there broken, because just getting that last plug was too stinking complicated). It's hard to explain to a client that labor for something apparently simple is going to be pricey because you need to take two hours just to get to it.
The other thing is that parts are hard to come by since the start of covid and supply chain breakdown, and never really got back to how it used to be. in the past we could always get them from the dealer (at a price, $$$$) but now even the dealers don't keep parts, it all is ordered from somewhere else and takes forever to arrive.
I can also corroborate problems hiring. we've needed to hire a mechanic for years, and no dice. Thank goodness in the pre-holiday rush time we got a nibble for a helper-apprentice and he's a smart kid and been working out well, otherwise I really don't know how we'd still be above water.
I am super stoked to see the John Deere thing, but I suspect modern tractors crossed the fixable-with-basic-tools-in-the-barn line a long time ago. As mentioned above, will be interesting to see the details.
I also am in 9B (south america) and it took me several years to get loofa going-- until the year it mysteriously went well and I got HUNDREDS. They take a bit to get started (I have birdhouse gourds going alongside loofa, planted at the same time, and the gourds have exploded while the loofa is still small) and they do like heat. They are, however, resistant to all the bad things in my summer garden- no bug attacks them, they dont get the mildew that kills the beans, once they get going they are unstoppable. I'd say look for a nice warm place (my best ones were against a wall that stayed warm) and get an early start, as mentioned above.
I also didn't get them to dry on the vine (needed the garden space for other things after so many months...), I cut them and hung them on the porch til they dried enough to be processed.
I use them in the kitchen, give them away, next time I'll eat them immature, but I only grow them every few years because when they are successful you're drowning in them!
I do find the seeds to be viable after years (they fall out of the current sponges when I use them, and there are dozens)
i make other things with that butter-flour roux (most commonly curry blocks) and it's imperative for that roux to get golden-- I can't tell you how long it takes, but I'm pretty sure it's a bit longer than 2 minutes. you want it to get golden and nutty smelling, at the very least, it takes off that floury taste.
I am currently eating cornstarch based chocolate pudding!
i like to use it to roll out cookies or rolls or other baked goods sometimes
my favorite, though, is to coat chicken in it and use it in my spanky air fryer oven to make AMAZING fried chicken
(I use various different kinds of starch- corn, tapioca [there is a sour one and a non-sour one, corresponds to Jordan's above], potato, arrowroot. None of them are super healthy, big picture, but i'm not eating it by the bowl.)
i get it when i heat milk (not boil) to make yogurt. It seems to appear after you pass 150F (I stop at 170, don't even get close to boiling).
Here people call it the cream, but it's... not cream. Doctor google says it's fat and protein. I kind of like eating it, like the skin on pudding (yes, i'm a monster).
I'm already halfway into my season, so I'll share what I've done so far.
-plant old seeds already (i don't think i need to describe my seed stash problem to permies). I did get a few things that have never come up (like bottle gourds and cantaloupe), too early to say whether they'll actually produce or not, but here's hoping
-keep on trying. 5 batches of okra in the ground and i'll put another one in tomorrow. they've been in since september and grown maybe 5 cm max, forget about actually making leaves or flowers. Eventually they'll grow, I just need to keep trying. My first batch of sweet corn made ears at less than a foot tall, I ripped it all out and batch 2 is looking a bit more promising
-roll with punches. We've had insane weather and health challenges. The plants keep growing, whether I'm out there or not. I wish I had more garden time but I'm taking what I can get and not feeling too bad about it.
-zen thinking: I have a new puppy who is determined to destroy every blessed thing I own. Just this week he got over a 5-foot fence to eat my cucumbers and a six-footer to destroy my succulents. I'm trying to remember that there will be other cucumbers, succulents are a dime a dozen, and that one day this puppy will be an old dog laying in the sun, and that all this is temporary.
every "failure", for the lucky person, is actually a learning opportunity. My year last year was similar to yours- and there's not a darn thing I could have done about the weather, bugs, plagues, and other assorted craziness. But I did learn to put in things that like wet, and things that like hot, and keep trying til something sticks.
I think it's easy to end up missing the forest (permaculture) for the trees (the actual details of straining out comfrey tea and the dog eating the cucumbers and etc etc). I know I personally can't keep my eyes on the forest the whole time. Good on you for recognizing it.
To update: things here are going better. L Johnson, thank you for the good vibes, I think they helped because yesterday (after xrays, MRIs, lions, tigers, bears) the surgeon finally pronounced that I don't have to operate on the wrist for a while, just wear a doofy splint and go about my business (the best news I could possibly have expected). One less thing to keep me up at night!!!
Happy 2023 to you Rufaro!! I'm always so glad to see your posts.
There is a saying here that nobody is made of iron; we usually use it to remind ourselves that we have to eat, take rests, etc, but i think it suits here too- you are not just working on farming and sustainable development, circular economy, etc, you are also inspiring young people and creating connections, and you are a person with your own needs for rest, satisfaction, and self-care. I think it's really easy to feel like we "don't deserve" things but in fact they're essential to keep our motivation up. Sometimes timing can be rough, and make us feel bad, but that unfortunately comes with having limited funds (I'm in a very similar situation right now, had big plans to purchase some things for my business this month but I have to spend money on some emergencies that happened, and it's easy to think maybe I am stupid to think about buying things. But there will eventually be more money, one thing at a time.).
I hope this year brings you fair weather, friendship, health and joy.
Sorry for the late update.
Saturday we took half and made french toast. They crumbled and the texture became really weird (think stuffing inside a turkey, not French toast pieces), it stuck to my nonstick pan, and despite doctoring they tasted nasty (i could still taste baking soda). We ate it but it took lots of butter and salt and molasses.
The other half got put out for the street dogs and birds. I saw one dog chewing on one and looking at me like "this is inhumane"; we've had some crazy storms and by now I imagine they've been washed down the hill or else the slugs and worms are eating them (and also complaining).
Thanks for all the ideas. I'm used to doing magical transformations in the kitchen but this was more like putting lipstick on a pig, in the end it was still the pig.
Moral of the story: next time just donate the money and tell them to keep the cookies.
i have tried all kinds of aprons and ultimately my solution is to buy a pair of pants specifically for garden work that has all the pockets and hammer loop and all that. If I just have 5 minutes to run out and do something quick I'll bring a basket or wear an apron, but anything more than 5 min i put on those pants (with a belt, since it gets heavy with all the crap i stuff in those pockets).
They used to be Carhartt carpenter pants, I recently replaced them with a pair of pants from Job Lot that had the same number of pockets and loops and reinforced knees (and cost about 50 bucks less).
Nikki Roche wrote:
Spilanthes didn't sprout. I've bought new seed to try again since it seems like such a neat plant.
hey, I bought a start of that this year that's been doing okay! It's a bit of a sparse, raggedy plant, doesn't get bushy where I live, but it's a fun novelty plant (for me, like stevia). My daughter recently went to a place where they made fancy cocktails involving it, so I guess that's a possibility too...
We have, like so many others, had a bizarre year. Summer has barely started (we should have had a good month and a half by now)... i did have amazing winter and spring peas and the garden didn't dry out and die when i was away in the winter like it usually does. But the early corn failed (got knee high and put out tiny ears), the mulberries simply didn't fruit, and i have at least 6 different batches of okra starts in the ground that refuse to grow, they've been stalled for up to 3 months now.
On the other hand beans and long beans are going great, passionfruit are having a good year, chinese greens did well, and I'm having success growing bottle gourds, which I've never been able to do here. I also have gorgeous cherry tomatoes (usually they're a winter thing here, by this time of year bugs are so bad I've ripped them out). Go figure. Second batch corn also looks more promising.
The extra garden time i was hoping to have didn't materialize this year. Next year isn't looking much better in this regard.... but one thing at a time.
Megan Palmer wrote:
The ultimate in repurposing/ regifting😉
Ha, I like the way you think.
Most everyone is at the beach this week and our shop is closed til after the new year, otherwise I'd just pass on the problem and send them to my husband's shop: those guys will eat anything (although to be fair I usually send them good, lovely, delicious things, not our rejects!).
Douglas Alpenstock wrote:Could you fry them in a pan with oil and eat them like pancakes with toppings?
This was one of two things we tried- and they are just so dry and crumbly that.... phphphphphphttt like eating sand! (the other thing was covering them with a nice icing, since I just made fresh peach jam..... it was a waste of peach jam).
I was thinking afterwards about soaking them in milk to eat like some sort of soggy breakfast cereal when I realized maybe I was in over my head and should ask for help......
