Cécile Stelzer Johnson

The honeycomb blinds work so much better than anything else. In zone 4b Central WI, we are going to get very cold weather, and in the summer it's going to be hot.
We have the double cell and I now wish we had spent the extra money for the triple cell.
So, the cost: yes, they are costly especially for larger windows, but consider that:
1- They will last a long time.
2- you can use them in all 4 seasons.
3- you can open them daily if you have a warm spell and would like to take advantage of the sun and also remove the gunk at the bottom of your window. (Yep. yuck, but it can be a concern)
4-removing the window cover all the time to suit the weather outside is annoying.
5-you won't need storage place for the off-season.
But because it is expensive, this is my suggestion: spend the money to do one window at a time as soon as you buy/build the house, budgeting  smartly, starting with the north windows (In the northern hemisphere, of course) then the East, West and South.
Also, make very sure, if you buy at Home Depot or similar outfit where you just give them the measurements and they make it to spec, to let them do the measuring: (If they don't fit, they will have to fix the mistake. If you make the mistake, well, you eat the loss!
There are times, though when we just don't have the money to buy the best and we have to make do.
In that case, I'd go to Goodwill or a thrift shop and get the biggest, thickest quilt that will cover the window past the wood frame. Use 2 pieces of wood, one at the top, one at the bottom and carefully screw the quilt to the top and the bottom of the window. It is amazing how a thick quilt, well extended will protect you from the cold, but you must go past the frame, because most of the heat loss happens at the window's edge.

Ann Galloway wrote:Thank you for your post. We the People need  to come together and support this kind of net working and community building. Are you getting groups together for alternative building methods, a community of helping and educating others. Ann 505 986-0568. I have been  researching  info requirements regarding moving to Montana. I am wanting to build 6 ft below the surface home and green house in a dome. There is a guy in Montana with an underground green house that was blind sided by  gov. with a tremendous  amount of requirements and expenses. Anyone have good deals on land and suggestions? I would love to hear from you.
Sincerely,
Ann

Welcome to Permies, Ann!
I wish I could help you with suggestions on where to buy...

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:When I dig sunroots, I immediately wash them and store in plastic. Due to that, the skin stays soft and tender when I eat them, so I don't  peel.

Neat trick for not having to peel them, but the skins don't really bother me.
I store them dirty and in the crisper of a fridge I have in the garage or in a plastic bucket. (I tried once washing them and sticking them in a plastic bag and they rotted. I must have had a compromised tuber. It was a liquefied mess. Yuck!).
Central WI is a big area for potatoes, which are stored fridge cold with 90% humidity in great big dark sheds. Sunroots store quite well that way.. They do carrots that way too. When you think of it, that's pretty much the ideal conditions of a good root cellar..

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:
To me, describing a cooked sunroot as "sharp" implies that cooking really brings out the flavor/aroma of sunflower resin. I don't much care for that flavor, so I prefer to eat them raw, lacto-fermented, or added in small amounts to roasts, stews, or stir-fries.

I never thought of sunchokes as tasting like resin (? you mean like pine pitch?)... My favorite way is boiled with a little mayo added. The inulin really comes out. Come to think of it, that's also the way I love my asparagus, which has a fair amount of inulin.
I think raw works for me too, but not too much the first couple of times I eat them raw in the spring. Do you peel them? I don't bother when I eat them raw or when I cook them,
When they are cooked, I grab them by the part that was closer to the mother, pinch a little with my teeth and pull all the good stuff through the growth bud: No peeling!
I'll have to try lacto-fermented. do you have a recipe?

Every jar goes in the dishwasher... and the lid and ring goes too. If the lid was lightly used, it will come back good as new on the first pass. Red rubber or grey rubber get the same treatment.
If not, it will go in again with the next batch.
By that time, any odor is gone... But can it be reused?
Sometimes, the canning process will really crush the rubber seal, but usually, repeating the treatment (as long as you have to wash dishes anyway), the rubber will eventually puff up. I don't reuse a lid unless it looks like new, and not one reused lid has failed me yet.
Some extra stubborn ones will need to get boiled to puff up again and be useable. I've never had the rubber separate from the metal or fall apart.
I can reuse about 85%-90% of my lids. A 12 pack of Anchor hocking lids at Fleet Farm costs about $3.00 and I probably can about 200 jars/year, depending on the year.
The savings is small, but done consistently, it adds up.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:Difficult to tell what was my best find. I don't 'dive' in dumpsters, but I always have a look at the larger things they put next to the garbage. I take (garden) chairs, baskets and (house)plants (still alive!) with me.

Most people I know (friends and family) don't just throw away stuff, if it's still in good shape. They first ask if others want to have it (mostly through app-groups). So I have curtains from friends who moved (to a house with different size/shape windows). And more.

Hi, Inge. I guess I should have been more precise: My town does the same thing: When there are some things that they think could be salvaged, they set them aside. (The things that are in the dumpsters themselves are usually not salvageable.)
(But if I saw something there, I'd have no qualms asking for it.)

William Bronson wrote:My favorite score  is probably the hundreds of dollars worth of live trees I snagged from home depot.
Not the most profitable, valuable thing, just the most satisfying.

2 years ago, my pumpkins/ squash crop failed miserably. But right after Halloween, Home Depot had big carts full of pumpkins and squashes they were about to get rid of. I took as many as I could (2 full carts, heaped up high), just before the hard frost that night. They were brought free and safe in my garage. It sure felt good to have something I didn't think I could enjoy at all due to crop failure.
Oh, otherwise, I religiously go dumpster diving every Wednesday and Saturday, when our dump is open.
I scored many stainless steel pots & pans and also some cast iron Lodge items.
We no longer buy any of these dangerous "no stick" items.

Someone suggested using a freeze drier (Harvest Right).
I'm pretty sure it would be great, but the prices gives me nosebleed: $2,000-$4,000 that's too rich for my blood.
They have one at Tractor Supply for $2,500 that I would love to have but... Yikes.
I saw that they were also selling large canisters (gallon sized) of freeze dried onions and freeze dried peas.
I think that if I were to buy that big unit, I would want to own it as part of a co-op, like if a number of gardeners would go in on one unit and then share.
That's the only way I could afford a nice unit like this. (I'm just afraid that we would all need it at the same time!)

I used to buy only good certified organic seeds, and, once in a while, something that just struck my fancy but wasn't organic.
But have you looked at the prices of seeds lately??? Once of these days, they will sell seeds by the UNIT!
Upon seeing that, I started scavenging the store shelves for seeds. For $1.50, you can get 1Lb. of soup beans: That will give you at least 10 varieties of beans to try for not much. Grow them one year and you'll be in beans to your armpits for a long time.
Buy any biennial, plop it in the garden and it will give you seeds the second year, so onions, garlic, leeks, carrots, beets, parsnips that you like will give you a bounty of seeds the second year. Save them and plant.
Just check if they are hybrids, because if they are, they may not come true to seed... But you will get something edible!
Of course, save all the seeds from the gourd and squash/pumpkin family that you like. Many will be hybrids, so they won't come true.  But hey, if you don't care for them, you chickens will love them!

Gilbert Fritz wrote:I'm looking into storing large amounts of dried vegetables. How can I do this without breaking the bank for mason jars? Will freezer bags work for a few months?

It has been said elsewhere in this thread but reuse every glass and plastic jar you purchase.
As far as putting things in freezer bags, sure, it will work for a while, but after spending all that effort to really dry fruit and vegetables, do you want to risk losing all of it to a leaky bag or a critter that gnaws the bag open?.
Plastic jars with a dehydrating sachet would work well. As long as you are most likely going to buy jars, make a plan to reuse them. Wash them and dry them well. Keep them matched to their own cover!
I prefer glass jars though. If, like me, you "dumpster dive" or roam thrift shops like "Goodwill" and others, or flea market, many cans be had for a song.
As far as Mason jars, I steam the lids once they are clean, and most of them can be reused, at least once. I have also found at Temu a little gadget that reseals containers. It's great for leftovers in Mason jars (regular and wide mouth)! You just place a lid (No ring!) on your full jar and press the button and it seals. Abracadabra!
Because it uses a vacuum, it's pretty safe. Just don't use them *instead* of canning if the food is to be canned. Many companies are selling them now:
https://www.floreviaboutique.com/product-p-308073.html