Mk Neal

Interesting! I have seen this as an ornamental but never knew it was edible.

If you’re trying to make grits like the kind you can buy in the store, those are hominy grits. So the corn kernels are soaked in lye, boiled, and the skins rubbed off. That removes the chewy bits. Then the bare hominy kernels are dried and ground to grits.

I have had good luck just freezing sliced fresh turmeric. Lay the slices flat on a tray to freeze solid, then put in bags or jar for long term.  Use just like fresh in tea/smoothie/stir fry.

Last year I stored canna roots in box of loose straw  over winter. It worked well enough for that purpose.

At end of growing season (usually around Halloween), I pull or cut down the annual vegetables, plant garlic, and spread a layer of compost, then a layer of fallen leaves and garden prunings

Not a great garden year for me. :( .

I think the land was telling me once and for all “This is not Europe, stop trying to grow European vegetables!”  Carrots and celery and parsnips start out ok, then we get horrid June heat wave and they just sulk. Pawpaws also drop due to early hot dry spell.

Good old North American beans, sunflowers, and amaranths then grow gangbusters and shade out everything else. Looks to be a good year for beans anyway, until a windstorm breaks my bean trellis and uproots half the vines.

Tomatoes really get going in September only to be pecked at by birds and nibbled by rodents before the first blush of ripeness. I draped netting over some plants and hope to harvest at least some unspoiled.

Squash and cucumbers I started too late and probably won’t produce.

The three sisters garden I planted with community in local park did much better. Sky-high stalks of corn, some with three ears per stalk. Lots of tomatoes and amaranth.

Traditional method was to make the young folks sit out and watch the corn. Not economical these days. Maybe a dog that’s a good ratter could be encouraged to hunt around the corn?

Or maybe if it a small bed, some substance unpleasant to rats could be smeared on the stalks to discourage rodents from climbing?

We have soapstone countertops. It’s a slab of natural stone. Essentially non-stick, easy to clean, burn proof, but softer than marble or granite.

I guess I go “against the grain” in this regard, because I just don’t oil my cutting boards. Mostly just spray them down with water, wipe them down, and leave to dry vertically so water doesn’t pool up. Only use cleaning products if they got particularly funky.

They still last decades and don’t crack.

As a vegetarian, I’m just dealing with juices from fresh fruits and vegetables, thought, not raw meat!

For local oil sources, I have bought from https://www.americanhazelnutcompany.com/growers.html

More regional than local, but most of the growers are between where I grew up and where I live now.