Kelly Ravner

William Bronson wrote:
Kelly, how do the tuber fare, when the greens are harvested a lot?
Are they puny, or are their just fewer of them?
Do you ever feed the bunnies the tubers?
Have you fed them dried stalks or leaves?
I tried growing them in pots right in front of the porch, specifically as treats for the bunnies, but they struggled.
I haven't checked the yields yet but above ground, they were sad looking, I'm not sure why.

I live in quite a cold climate, with frost possible any time of year. I have never, under any circumstances, gotten a sunchoke to blossom. I have gotten a few to grow about 6 feet high before they froze. I've tried them in every microclimate on my property and they definitely prefer very protected, south facing spots with very nutrient rich soil (bunny poop for the win!) But even the plants that grow the best produce very little in the way of tubers - I think it's just a little too cold here for them to thrive that way. The plants that I cut early seem to spread out sideways and produce even better greens, with multiple tiny tubers. The plants that grow tall all summer produce a single very thick, tough stalk that the bunnies still eat, but they definitely prefer the more tender leaves.

I have never fed the tubers to the buns, as sunchokes notoriously produce a lot of gas - at least in humans - and rabbits are rather famous for dying from gas, so it wasn't worth trying. I have never fed dried stalks or leaves - in the fall here they freeze, then wilt and rot. And if I'm cutting them, I'm just feeding them to the buns right away - I don't want to go to the trouble of drying and storing. The nutritional analysis posted above re: dried vs fresh was very interesting though.

All of my sunchoke tops go to the bunnies while still green - they absolutely love them! (Unless the deer get them first.) I grow them for the tops much more than the tubers because they are such good bunny food.

I let my chooks free range where there's shade, and I run the hose to give them some water to wade in and wet dirt to scratch up.  I've never seen them get into a pool or big pan of water, but they get crazy excited to see water running on the ground, and a nice puddle to scratch around in. I have a short row of lilacs and chokecherry bushes, and I rotate which section of that I soak for the chickens, so there's always at least one bush that is damp and shady for them.

William Wallace wrote:"Regardless of the initial substrate composition, the starter culture itself provides the main microbial inoculum into the solution"

Pretty interesting article, but does the above quote suggest the mother is the starter?


https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6730531/

Living in a kombucha community sounds lovely.🥰 Can I be kombucha? 🥹🥰🤣

As to OP’s question, I add overly sour kombucha to soups and stews, usually add a splash to pies (I make a lot of rhubarb pie this time of year especially!) and baked goods, and to anything that I think needs a hint of sour - like liver pate or pesto.

My chickens love the SCOBY when I chop it up for them.

Maybe it was mentioned somewhere and I skimmed by too fast, but I didn’t see mention of rhubarb. My chickens love rhubarb leaves and will destroy any that they can reach through the fence. They are somewhat less interested if I cut the leaves off and toss them into their pen though.🤣 And for some reason, rhubarb root seems to be their most favorite delicacy. Especially in the spring they will dig until they’ve eaten every trace of rhubarb root - so be sure to fence off any plants you want to save.

Bella, just want to say it was fun looking through your thread - especially because I was at that RMH workshop so long ago where you were singing and digging up a storm on the mini excavator!!! Such good memories! Hope your adventures have continued.

Another consideration is that stainless steel will radiate a little less heat. That isn't good or bad - it's just something to consider. If you're building in a spot where the emphasis is on quick heat, a regular old barrel might serve a little better. But if you want to move a little more of the heat on down the line to the mass, then that's perfect. Also, I can change the amount of radiant heat on my manky old barrel by choosing to coat it with oil, or not.  Putting a layer of some kind of drying oil on the metal makes it radiate more heat - upping the radiant temperature about 10 degrees. So I only painted the side toward my living space, and the side facing the wall remains dry. (I used slightly rancid walnut oil that I wasn't going to cook with, but probably any drying oil will do.)  Most people seem to like the look of the stainless steel better, so there's that. If you're going to live with a big old barrel for years and years, you might as well like the look.

(BTW, I made a 4" metal J-tube RMH work as my primary heat source for 3 years. It burned through the burn tunnel during the second year and I had to patch it daily with clay. It worked, but fire brick works sooo much better!)

Growing up, everyone in the area had their water wells dowsed, usually by an old fella named Keith. No one questioned the practice. I have no idea how accurate he was.

When my dad and I were building my little cabin in my grandmother's backyard we were required to call the locator guy before digging, but dad dowsed for buried lines and objects first. The locator guy found a natural gas line and a sewer line and marked them.  Dad had found those, but also two other lines and something that seemed to be a large buried object that the official locator guy didn't pick up. As we dug, we were mindful of both the official markers and dad's markers. We soon found an old abandoned sewer line, parallel to the new one but 5 feet east, and an abandoned and rusted out fuel oil tank. More disturbingly, we found something that looked like a very old natural gas line. We called the gas company and they said, Oh yeah, there's an old network of gas lines that we haven't used for 10 years, but we haven't quite gotten around to capping and draining. Yup, dad found a live gas line that the locator dude missed.

I was curious and gave dowsing a try. Only my left hand works - I always put a bent wire in my right hand too and it waves around at random, but indicates nothing. My left hand is pretty accurate though, and only works if I also have a wire in my otherwise useless right hand. I have multiple sclerosis, so I wonder if that has an effect. I'm accurate to within half a foot or so for buried lines, and I can choose what I'm searching for - only sewer, only water, only fiber optic, etc.  My dad is astonishingly accurate, to the inch, but finds everything and can't tune anything out. He's really good at finding gold - likes to pan for gold and can find concentrations with his dowsing rods. He has been told that he probably has MS as well, and if he's tired or chilled he can't dowse anything.

Cara, how are your homestead plans coming along? I bought about 1/3 acre in Elk Bend and plan to build my little retirement homestead there. Hope to be settled in there 6 years from now, maybe sooner if I can afford it. (In Wyoming until then...) I’m planning a little cordwood cottage with a rocket mass heater, chickens & meat rabbits, and a “paradise lot” style mini food forest.

Looks like we’ll be about 40 miles from each other, I think...? Just good to check in with permie-minded neighbors.

Kani, a purple mooseage is ambling your way....