Jane Mulberry

Praying you stay safe.

Back to normal now for me too. While it was weird (Chrome on Android tablet), I wasn't able to log in at all.

Congratulations! What a fab achievement!

Anthony Powell wrote:Dahlias are also perennial edibles, originally grown for their tubers before Europeans became besotted by the flowers. Nice fried or roast, slices keep their crispness in stir-fries. Ray florets also goodin salads.

I'd like to try dahlias. I read that there's quite a range of flavours depending on the variety, some taste good, others don't. Are there any you recommend?

Chayote/ choko plants can get huge and very heavy when covered with fruit. They can pull down fences and structures! Make sure you give it something sturdy and strong to grown on.

Following, as I'm interested to hear the replies.

I have a similar situation in a couple of rooms in my house.

Two have sawn floorboards, but I think just butted together not T&G. No access to under the floor. I doubt there's any subfloor, and I'd rather not take up the floorboards.  

There are two other rooms with flooring issues, too, but they have different challenges!

Anna Platte wrote:Nettles are way too high in carotenoids. Carotenoids are toxic. In stories from the past about people surviving on nettles and other similar wild foods it worked for them because they had some toxin storage capacity left in their livers. Beware survivor bias. What we don’t have are all the stories from the ones that didn’t make it. And even if we do, it’s never recorded as “nettle poisoning” because the outcome will just look like they died of dysentery or cholera.

"Provitamin A carotenoids, such as beta-carotene, are plant pigments that the body converts into active vitamin A. These carotenoids are plentiful in leafy greens and vibrantly colored vegetables and fruits, including carrots, sweet potatoes, and papayas. The absorption of provitamin A is variable and subject to feedback regulation, making it unlikely to lead to toxicity with excessive intake." Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK532916/

Vitamin A toxicity can happen from taking supplements or eating too much animal-sourced foods rich in preformed vitamin A. This form is rare in plant foods. It's produced when animals eat carotenoid-rich foods, convert it to vitamin A, and store it in their fatty tissues.

My best (worst?) one was my wedding cake. I don't like traditional wedding cakes, fruitcake with marzipan icing, I wanted three layers of different sized chocolate cake with white chocolate frosting, to be served as desert at the reception. The quote I got to make one was way outside our limited budget, so I decided to DIY. The cakes were fine, so time to make the white chocolate ganache. The photo in the cookbook showed it being used for just what I wanted, a stiff textured frosting on a cake. I followed the recipe exactly, and ended up with a white chocolate pouring sauce. It would not thicken!

Back to the store to buy more white chocolate. Melted and added it. Still wouldn't thicken.

Back to the store for more white chocolate. Still wouldn't thicken.

In the end I used icing sugar to thicken it, and had a huge bowl of the most sickly sweet concoction imaginable. Even after finishing decorating the multi-layered cake with a thick layer of frosting (at midnight on my wedding eve!) I had pounds of the stuff left over.

My guess is that the recipe was really for a pouring sauce, even though that's not what they pictured. I never made a recipe from that cookbook again!

I'm not sure of my backer number, but yes, I think that would be me. Yay!

I backed at the ebook level because postage for the physical book would be $$$. It looks like just the book I need to start my sourdough adventures.

I hope you find what you want, Mariya.

Be open to opportunities, and perhaps also open to some small safe small pushbacks to what you see as your limitations. Maybe this was just me, but my experience has been that it was never the universe or other people who kept me stuck, I kept myself stuck.

Also sometimes, what I perceived as stuck was actually where I was supposed to be, there were good learning opportunities there that prepared me to the next step in the journey, that I might have missed if I'd stayed stuck in the sensation of being stuck and not looked at what was there. I pushed back and tried to unstick myself too forcefully sometimes and made some mistakes, but I learned and grew from them all.

Actually, I'm "stuck" where I don't want to be right now, for another 479 days, unless a miracle happens. I can focus on being stuck, or I can focus on getting ready for when I can move. Learning, gathering physical and emotional tools. making sure I'll be ready when the way opens.

Praying the way opens for you too, and that you're ready for it when it happens!