Paul Krum

It will all depend upon the source of your birds. Genetics and responsible breeding will most likely be more important than historic norms for the breed. If you mail order, you will need to find out for yourself. If you have a local source, they will know better than me.

Was it already down when you saw it gasping? Or did it start gasping, lose strength and then die?

When they are in the process of dying, I see gasping a lot.

I'd suggest trying cooked mushrooms. My chooks won't eat things raw like carrots and squash. I throw them some table scraps and it is like chicken candy.

I'll build a solar oven for next summer.

The substrate mentioned earlier probably contains mycelium rather than the fruiting bodies. I believe they eat mycelium all the time when scratching on healthy pasture.

My experience growing tomatoes in containers always pointed to the size of container being the limiting factor, not the vine.

When I've looked at "copper" tools, they have been bronze. Which is of course a copper/tin alloy.

I believe a froe and mallet is another traditional method. Your log will need to be straight grained. Also something like the crotch of a tree was used to hold the log. Best done when wood is still green and full of moisture. Good luck with that.

http://www.claringtonforge.com/

Haha! just followed Tyler's link. The sugar beets I've seen are about the size and shape of an NFL football. Those are different!

My father grows sugar beets in Michigan. The hybrid field varieties he grows are nearly indestructible, I've helped through the mechanical harvest. They'll roll off a the top of a pile on a dump truck, off the side, drop 10 feet onto pavement and be no worse. Their size prevents more then one in a standard kitchen pot. They would be hard to process without special equipment.

He has also mentioned the seed thing this year. He says there are 3 big providers. 1 failed for whatever reason, 2nd scrambling to cover increased demand, 3 nobody likes because you don't get enough sugar content in the beets. I assume he uses GMO when he can, but such topics are off limits for the sake of family harmony.

Anyway be great to know what heirloom varieties have worked. Sounds they may be more practical then then the modern monsters. I assume they are both smaller and more tender. The drawback is they will have less sugar content and probably be "beetier."