Julia Winter

A 3-pronged hand tool is good for raking/grabbing bermuda grass off of mulch. Just keep at it. In the rainy season you will need to toss the grass (and bits of clinging mulch) into a bin, but in the summer you can just rip it free from the soil and let it dry out. Instead of chop and drop, sort of rip and drop.

Don't try to do the whole yard, just protect your favored plants. Think of the guys that paint the Golden Gate Bridge - just keep repeating. That grass is pulling carbon from the air, so thank you grass, we just don't want you here.

I use fresh grape leaves in between the cucumbers and the weights that push them under the surface of the brine. If you don't have weights designed for your container (I have a few that fit in a wide mouth quart mason jar and then I have a 2 gallon fermenting crock with a three piece weight set) you can use a ziplock bag full of water.

You can use tap water to remove soil, but don't work too hard on cleaning. You want to use dechlorinated water for the brine.
If you are making chunky pickles (whole roots if they are small, sticks like carrot sticks would be my recommendation) you want to make a brine and then you just need to figure out how to keep the veggie chunks submerged.

Stretch goal unlocked!

I'll see what I can rustle up, if I have a code...

A new thing I do with figs, is that I scoop out the red part (I have a Desert King, the skin is green and there's tasteless white pith in between the skin and the good part) and I fill a bowl with just the best part of the figs.

Then, I make popsicles! Fig pulp makes a perfect popsicle (watermelon does as well).

Someone asked about Fig Newtons. I just don't like those. I made fig ice cream - that was good.

That's great, Timothy! I'm glad you've made an account, you might want to try poking around topics that interest you.

Yes! please send me a Purple Moosage and I will give you directions to the farm.
I don't want to post our address here.

If there is interest I can bring perennial kale cuttings. The one I have a lot of, the leaves are green with white edges and fairly ornamental, also delicious.
They live through a Portland winter (should live in your truly passive greenhouse, Paul).

One of the things that took me a while to grok is chop and drop.
Instead of

"die, die, die!!"

you think

"thanks for pulling some carbon dioxide out of the air and bringing minerals up from the subsoil - now you are going to feed my favored plants!"

and then when it comes back up - "great! more food for my apple tree" (or whatever)