Alder Burns

For several years I grew and used favas as a staple when I lived in California (where they thrive overwintered and take advantage of the wetter period of the year there).  I let them dry fully and stored them as a dry bean.  They are tedious in that they really need to be first soaked and then have the tough skin popped off of each bean before cooking.  I got to where I could sit around in the evenings and do this mindlessly while reading, watching a show, or surfing the web (as well as parsing acorns from their shells, another Cali staple food thing!)  But once this is done, they have the advantage of only needing a comparatively brief cooking compared to other dry beans.  I would make them into whatever kind of things I would use other beans for, like refried beans or chili, etc.

Here's what I did in a very clayey, poorly drained back yard recently....I made swales and berms or raised beds right next to each other, the yard was relatively flat so I oriented them north-south for light distribution. I started by digging out the swales and turning the sods upside down over the adjacent strip of undug ground, thus doubling the thickness of the topsoil layer...these became a set of raised beds.  I then filled the trenches with every imaginable free organic matter source...branches and sticks, leaves, paper and cardboard, wood chips, etc. Any weeds that were pulled or garden debris that was generated was simply thrown in all summer and fall.  Thereafter, every year I would shift the soil from one or more of the beds on top of the stuff in the adjacent swale, thus creating a sort of hugel-bed.  At the same time I would bury any half-finished compost, humanure compost, and anything else both useful and also needing sequestration for a few years.  The end result after several years is that the entire area consists of a set of raised beds with coarse organic matter under them, with the beds above background grade, but with ready access to moisture accumulating in the swales. Given the quick breakdown of organic matter in this climate this process could probably continue indefinitely.  In a climate like California, a policy like this also gets along very well with fire suppression, since one is continuously burying organic matter under the soil, rather than leaving it on top where it can burn.

It's been a few years since I've lived in the region, but years ago there used to be a Chico Permaculture Guild, and it had a website and facebook page.  Maybe it's still there?  It used to have meetings several times a year.

you've already named several excellent winter forages....bamboo, privet, and honeysuckle.  There is a cadre of common landscaping shrubs popular in the trade that are common in suburbia....they are easily propagated, vigorous, and often evergreen.  Several of them have escaped and are considered "invasive".  These are among the best resources around for winter browse.  Eleagnus, euonymus, photinia, loropetalum come to mind in addition to what you've already mentioned.  The only ones I know are to be strictly avoided are anything in the rhododendrom family (including azalea and mountain laurel) and oleander...these are notoriously poisonous.

For something the size of a chicken, an active black soldier fly bin is the handiest, quickest, and most productive solution.  Even the feathers and many of the bones are eventually largely digested.

I remember dealing with an old upright once years ago.  Not being aware of other options, and not wanting to spend $ to have it hauled off, two of us decided to take on the challenge of breaking it up for firewood.  What I thought might take an hour took us most of a day because of the joinery and glue in that thing!!  There was a heavy bronze plate embedded in the wood in one place, which took forever to extract.  But it was great firewood!

I've made many a meal from roadkill..mostly deer and also wild pigs when I lived in California, plus other occasional odd bits like a wild turkey once.  Also, when I lived in Georgia, local hunters would often take only the prime bits of a deer, like the back straps and the hind legs, and throw the rest of the animal out along our dirt road...this happened so frequently that I would listen for the sound of shots in the morning on the timber company land across the way, and then take a ride out up and down the road a few hours later...this yielded fresh meat more than once.  

I had good results a few times making granola out of sweet potatoes.  Basically I grated the raw potatoes and dried the gratings down snap dry in an otherwise unused greenhouse with fans running on them, and then stored this in sealed jugs.  When I wanted to make a "batch" for use, I'd get some out, drizzle them with some kind of oil or fat, and toast this in a solar cooker till lightly browned.  This then became the starchy base of the granola, the substitute for oats.  The fat toasted into them keeps them somewhat crunchy after milk is put on them, and then fruit, nuts, etc. can also be added.  I ate off of one year's harvest for two or three years this way, on an almost daily basis.

This is called intumescence.  I have sometimes gotten it trying to keep sweet potatoes growing as vines through the winter.  I did a bunch of deep research to find out what it might be.  It turns out that sweet potato plants need UV light to thrive, and this is a response to its deficiency.  Most windows block the UV.  I found that it helped to put the plants outside on any warm sunny day to get the direct sun when possible....this would be more difficult the further north one goes. Now I mostly have varieties that store well as tubers and sprout easily so I don't need to keep plants growing.

I have been in it for a few months now, but in the last few days it's really taken off.  I'm at adiantum.bsky.social