r ranson

steward & author
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since Feb 05, 2015
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an insomniac misanthrope who enjoys cooking, textile arts, farming and eating delicious food.
and who almost never replies to pm's or emails.
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Recent posts by r ranson

I looked at "cooking spray" in the grocery store.  There seems to be four main types (i never knew it was so popular), all presented in a pressurized spray container.

The most common was a mixture of fat and oil.  A close second is an oil based spray, usually olive oil.  These two styles seem to be all purposes for greasing baking trays, fry pans, griddles, et .  Or even using as salad dressing according to the back of the tin.

All of those uses could be replaced with a cooking oil like olive or sunflower (quite a few were specifically oilve oil cooking sprays) or with greases like butter or lard (lard being another common ingredient), depending on the situation.

The other two types seem to be baking specific (but still called cooking spray).  These included a grease and/or oil.  One type included flour and the other type a "sticking agent" to stop it sliding down the edge of the baking pan.  Sticking agent was not identified, but I'm guessing from the description, a starch?

The situations described on the back of these cooking sprays are all situations were I use butter (often leftover from the wrappers described above).  But cooking oils like olive and sunflower also work in these situations.

One of the cooking cooking sprays specifically advised against using their spray in high heat, specifically avoiding the air fryer.  None of the others mentioned the air fryer.


It was fun to learn more about this product.  I had intended to buy some to try, but my frugality won as it's appears most of the money goes to the convince of the spray system and there is very little grease or oil in the tin for the price.  

I can see why the refillable spray bottle would work as a replacement for most use.  Most of the cooking sprays are oil and persevering agents, so I imagine being able to choose our own oil would be a nice benifit.

Although I am still curious if the spray mechanism makes any difference to the flavour.  
1 day ago
I've been experimenting with tiny painting to see if it's for me.  I'm not sure it is.

These note books are usually 2 inches square, with ink and watercolour.



Here's the set up I'm playing with.



It would be truely pocket size if not needing a pencil, pen, and waterbrush.

This would be awesome for practicing composition and values.  The thing I like least is having to wait for the painting to dry before closing the book and putting everything back in my pencil case. That's often 40 min or longer.
3 days ago
art
They stopped using soy in the local small (under 10k) flock chicken feed production about 10 years ago due to "long term health issues".  When pushed, the unofficial stance of the feed company hinted at cancer, reproductive issues, and antinutrients in soy that blocked the absorbed of important nutrients. And suggested fermenting soy and limiting it to less than 5% of a chickens diet as filler, not nutrition, if we still wanted to use soy.

This is also the time we stopped getting cancer in our chickens.

Also, it's more profitable to sell soy overseas or use it in bioplastics industry than to sell it to a feed company.
3 days ago
The planting of the peas



24 min They talk about the quality of the soil to show it's ready for ploughing for peas (interesting it's more about moisture content than temperature).  

at 36:30 ish, they are finally ploughing the soil.  It looks like the later medieval system rather than the early, anglo-saxon style that left the deep, permanent ridges.  They eventually harrow the soil, once the oxen are agreeable to helping.  

47 min in, they are broadcasting the seeds.  

I forgot how much I enjoy this series.
4 days ago
Respectful promotion is encouraged. If it gets spammy, posts might be removed and accounts locked.

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I live with glacial tilth which is basically 400plus feet of sandy rocks.  It's terrible for building soil as the orgaics break down and wash away.  

I would like to try clay as I hear it keeps a shape well enough I could make a raised area for a garden and alter the drainage by shaping the land.  
4 days ago
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjgZr0v9DXyK9Cc8PG0ZhDt2i2eQ_PEvg

I seem to remember there being a field pea crop in the Tudor farm show.  But I haven't watched it lately, so I'm not sure.
4 days ago
Depends on where and when in the medieval period as farming was adapted to local conditions.  In the southern half of England, 1100-1400 (and in parts a hundreds of years either way as this was still in practice in parts of east Anglia by at least the 1930s as my great grandfather and his generation were part of that farming system), it was a combination of market gardening and field monoculture.  The land owners would have several acres of monoculture crop and part of the rent of the farmers would be labour to help grow the field crops.

Likewise, the farmer might have half an acre or so (1/8th for widows for example, maybe 10 or more for the "boy", our equivalent would be farm manager, but more).  Most of that would be low labour staple crops. With maybe a small kitchen garden that needed high labour.

The spanish books I mention, some of them go into indepth explanations on the standard ridge and furrow system common in Europe at the time of al Andalusian conquest (circa 750ad).  The seed is broadcast uniformly, some landing on top of the ridges, some landing in the furrows.  This made agriculture more sustainable against poor weather as on dry years, the furrowed grain grew and on wet years the ridge grain grew best.  

The agriculturalist Jethrow Tull (like the music group) has some interesting insights into where farming in europe was at when he introduced changes to the system.

But again, it wasn't uniform across europe, or even in one country, or even in one village.  They adapted to the land and what it could provide.  

What was universal was the need for a staple crop for the village, considerably more for selling, and quite a bit to give to the monarch.  And a bunch to keep a reserve of at least three years of bad harvest so the population didn't starve if the weather turned.
4 days ago