George Ingles

I have the notion that the typical Asparagus crowns sold in garden centers are only Male plants.
Planting from seed though, would make for males and females and the potential for spreading via more seeds.

Steve Solomon, the gardener, offers a brief but thorough explanation of how to raise Asparagus from seed in my climate.
In his method, the female plants are rogued out of the bed once it can be determined which is which.
That would solve worries of it spreading *invasively*, I think.

I cannot say how preindustrial folks managed their poultry, though I expect they were not giving the chickens any more inputs than they had to - I imagine people were considerably thriftier and more frugal.
The chickens at our place are totally free range (many have been gotten by predators over the years).
We feed them scratch-grains daily, all year- they habitually expect it.  However, it is really not very much - a little handful per bird.
I notice them busy scratching for their daily bread most of the day, and I think the vast bulk of their food comes from their own efforts.  Weeds and worms and grubs and bugs...
I have read (maybe from another thread on Permies?) that farm kids a long time ago would have a regular winter chore of trapping/hunting/finding small game - for the chickens to eat.

The only time I feed the chickens a sizeable portion of grain is when the ground is covered in snow or frozen hard, or if it is pouring rain and they won't come out of the woodshed.

I believe if we were careful and fed them more fancy grain they might give us more eggs, but they seem to do just fine on free-ranging with a tiny bit of grain.
Though, it is probably very dependent on your location and what is available to them from the ground.

Fine

Said

You know what they say, "Take care of a Cold and it'll be gone in six days - do nothing and you'll have it all week!"
But seriously, I appreciate the helpful wisdom and advice offered above.

I've come to appreciate 'getting sick' as a good way to reset my habits toward more wholesomeness.
If I feel a cold or flu coming on, I generally stop taking 'solid foods' for a few days - not a total fast though.

I drink plenty of hot beverages: lemon/honey/cayenne; ginger tea, apple cider vinegar, hot water with raw garlic and Miso paste...
I eat oranges or apples, but not much more than that for a few days at least.

I certainly avoid dairy during this time, as it seems to stuff up my nose and exacerbate the misery of my symptoms later.

Also, I'm a big fan of the Echinacea, Elderberry Syrup (Or Elder flower tea), Fire Cider, mullein, plantain-honey...  good stuff!
But the not bogging down my body with extra work of digesting heavy foods makes a huge difference - for me.

I hope anybody out there feeling under the weather feels better soon!

Tail

Wait

Berk

Making a base layer of rose petals stitched together somehow would indeed be saving wear and tear on the over-garments and also be soothing and supportive to the skin from the contact with the rose petals...
I think that is very clever if you have the rose petals and skill and time to make such garment-saving under-garments...
I'm putting that on my list of luxuries to aim for.

I'm also in Pacific North West, and I have one Self-Fertile Apricot tree.
It seems like I get a good crop of wonderful fruit maybe every fourth year.
I think the primary issue here where I am is that late frosts, or windy, rainy weather during blossom make the pollination difficult.

... I am pretty sure I have the variety, 'Puget Gold'... but it was one of my early plantings and I lost the tag and records long ago ...
I planted it more than fifteen years back probably... the tree gets damaged sometimes by winter weather and seems prone to disease and some insect troubles...
But its fruit is quite wonderful when fully ripe, which happens when we get a hot Summer...
Fresh apricots, fully ripened, are so tasty and soft and fragile.  It makes me understand why they can't have good fresh Apricots at the supermarkets.

This year was a good Apricot year - I got a lot of really tasty fruit, despite (because of?) some rough Winter weather.
I'll have to look into this Blenril variety!