Judith Browning

hours of cooking!
we gave up too soon ...just ate a small amount and composted the rest.
We thought the flavor similar to asparagus...and lovely texture but definitely a lasting astringency in my mouth.

Will look forward to next winters new growth!

There are piles of dead canes and standing dead but no where we would be comfortable burning for biochar....will try to suggest to anyone who can put more effort in the clean up.

For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth.
What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you.
Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave.
They show us what community and friendship mean;
they show us how to live and die.

Anne Lamott,
Bird by Bird

Rez,
Mine spread by tip rooting because I rarely get them pruned well.
Ours only bear fruit on the previous years new growth.  I cut out any canes that have already fruited.
Sometimes the canes are almost horizontal and they tip root 6'-8' away...so they are popping up everywhere.  They bear better with more moisture but survive our hot droughty summers.

 I have a thornless blackberry. It makes big canes (6 feet tall), tho rarely grows new leaves from old canes, and makes occasional fruit (so sweet you really have to mix it with something sour) but it is still coming off the same base that I planted five or six years ago. The thornless raspberries have spread out a bit (they are easy to control, just yank up what I don't want), but not the blackberry. That end of the garden tends hot and dry, so maybe that's the secret.
 

George and Nynke,
Thank you for lightening my mood😊
I don't watch youtube anymore so have missed those videos.

I think part of the problem is that we put up a fence, a really nice friendly board fence to keep dogs (and lawnmowers) out of our yard.....it worked!
Now, though, it might appear that outside the fence is fair game?

Steve Zoma,
I gladly give my neighbors things from the garden and in one instance Steve and I hooked up our hoses and kept our neighbor's house fire from a complete burn while the volunteer fire department had to stand around until the electric company came and turned off the power.
There are many things to do unasked.
We did yardwork for a housebound friend here in town and the choices were hers even though we might have looked at things differently.
I would never do any sort of yard maintenance for someone else without asking.  
The 'just trying to help' mowers have mowed down young trees, an area we were planning to scythe, blooming clovers for the bees and roses...and they mow so short and raise clouds of dust!

Once our immediate neighbors understood there was no problem and as I've said we have the city's blessing to do as we like on the verge.
It is not even shaggy...just not scalped.

The issue comes up again when we have new neighbors or someone mowing for someone else who once again thinks they are ' helping'.

I would never assume....why is it so hard to ask first?
It is not a help unless someone wants the work done.
I know many would be happy to have someone mow for them.

There will be a time when we need help so have been making plantings and paths and things more clear....likely it will be our son and grandson doing the job though and they are both aware of our landscape.

just had a tiny taste....No bitter taste at all but astringent even after one change of water and a 45 minutes boiling.
...putting back on to boil.

thanks for the inspiration and encouragement!
We walked over to the grove and found a few still small enough from the area we had cleared.
Have them on to boil now...

Is there a minimum length of time to boil?
all determined by the level of bitter?

I'm enjoying this thread as a thought experiment.....

  "what if the cost of food goes up 10x?"

Taking the '10X' literally and not as an exaggeration means most everything we buy more regularly becomes unaffordable ........
25# organic oatmeal 29 x 10=290
5# black beans $10 x10= 100
32 oz. ground coffee $15 x 10= $150
cabbage .50 per # x 10= $5 per #
5# organic brown rice $10 x 10= $100
local raw milk $6 a gallon x10=$60
local eggs $5 a dozen  x 10=$50

I think the milk and eggs we buy might not increase ten fold though...depends on the price of their feed and winter hay.

For us, the 'backyard food pump' would be root crops of all kinds along with foraged (within walking distance) fruits and greens and fungi.
Sweet potatoes are our big hope...both greens and roots.
They easily store for more than a year without much effort and are easy to propogate from slips. I grow both purple and orange for more nutrition.
..plus turnips and beets for roots and greens.
We love parsnips and have a few of them volunteering but I want to try salsify as a root where the greens are also edible and more likely to reseed abundantly.
I'm weeding sunchokes. They will never be gone and we enjoy them as a ferment but they will never be a reliable main food crop for us and the space is more valuable for other things.
We grow beans of all sorts, both green and dry
have a large variety of wild greens, mushrooms, persimmons within walking distance.

I think an abundance of saved seed will make all of the difference....that and hand tools.

This year, again, I packaged our extra seed and gave our library's free seed table a big boost.

I'm seeing more worked up dirt for gardens in yards here around town on our walks....lots of empty lots that could be used to grow food.
lots of room for small livestock within the town limits.

people here do help each other in spite of lifestyle, political and religious differences although in extreme circumstances as the price of food and fuel increases, I wonder?

Loving kindness protects us
from our fears that come up.
When you go into the jungle, watch the news,
or whatever wild thing you do,
loving kindness is a basis
to tend and care for your own heart.
The practice is to hold
the tainted glory of your humanity
in loving kindness,
all of it, all the difficult, beautiful, amazing,
and horrifying parts we have as humans.

Jack Kornfield
(1945 to pres., clinical psychologist and Buddhist teacher)

adding this link to read later https://permies.com/t/15627/Comfrey-Varieties