Dave Burton's Boot Adventures at Wheaton Labs and Basecamp

Good morning! This is a morning soundscape, a look at some of my ferments (and ones that are now under my care), and fermented sweet salsa that I recently made this morning!

Day 57



Most of these ferments are ones that I have made. The ones I have now adopted are the garlic ferments. I also have two bottles of sweet potato soda that I made that I am letting age.





The garbanzo beans I soaked have swelled up a lot!



This is the sweet salsa I made. It generally follows the salsa recipe from Nourishing Traditions, except I omit the herbs and add strawberries and bananas to it.



The left two jars are going to be a super short ferment (24 hours), and the far right jar is to be fermented for 30-180 days. This is so I can discover how the flavor changes over time.



We had two projects running today. We had work happening on the berm shed and on building rock jacks! I stuck with rock jacks all day, and there was some shifting of other people between the two projects. Josiah and Ron worked on berm shed all day, and I think Belle and Jen spent half the day on rock jacks and the other half on berm shed.

This is the berm shed work that I was able to observe and what I understand is going on. From what i was told, the berm shed is essentially being demolitioned to get rid of rotting and decomposing stuff, and then, new poles and plastic will be put into place. Eventually, all of the berm shed cells are said to become like the first few cells that have the nice facades on them.









And this is the work we did on the rock jacks today!









We made three rock jacks today!



I thought it was pretty nice day today!



I saw wild turkeys today when I went hiking on Volcano Road to get a couple more junkpole trees to work on the rose trellis at the Fisher Price House. The rose trellis work I'm doing is not bootcamp work; it's extra stuff for bounty, like building the cat boxes (houses) that I built earlier.





These are the two trees I cut down and peeled mostly.





I then screwed them into the rose trellis. It was pretty dark by the time I got to screwing them into the trellis. I haven't gotten around to taking photos of my rose trellis work in the daylight yet.

Dave Burton wrote:...

The left two jars are going to be a super short ferment (24 hours), and the far right jar is to be fermented for 30-180 days. This is so I can discover how the flavor changes over time.

Is it really possible to ferment in such a short time, only 24 hours? Isn't that too short to start the fermenting process?
I am curious to know. The shortest fermenting I did was 1 week.

Good morning! Hi Inge! I do not know if it is possible to ferment in such a short period of time; I like to do experiments in the kitchen, and this is one of them. The things I have gotten to ferment in a short period of time are fruit ferments, and those were 48-hours instead of 24-hours. So, it will probably taste only extremely mildly fermented, or just taste like fruity salsa.

Day 58







I had not noticed this before, but I saw this in the berm shed, and I think the design on the front of it is pretty cool!



We split into two groups today- one group on the berm shed and one group at Allerton Abbey. Josiah, Ron, and Travis worked on the berm shed. Fred, Jaqi, Jen, Belle, Austin, and I worked at Allerton Abbey. Then, we peeled logs that will be later used at the berm shed. This is an update at what the inside of Allerton Abbey looks like inside; Jen has moved into the Abbey to live inside of it!



This is Fed burnishing the floor that has a finish layer of cobb on it!



I think the floor looks very beautiful!



Jen oiled the dirt oil linseed floor!





I think the oiled floor looks great, as well!



We made some cobb to bed used for the one-inch layer of cobb in the room with the rocket cooktop!







Jaqi applied the cobb that we made, and the floor she is making looks quite nice!



Here's a daylight  picture of the rose trellis I am working on after hours!



I recently realized I had not yet posted any pictures about Taco Tuesdays! Essentially, Taco Tuesday is a kind of community meal where we all eat and hang out together and can talk community stuff.

Experimenting is fun! So now you can tell how it tasted, and if it showed any sign of being fermented.

Good morning! The sweet salsa I made didn't seem to show signs of being fermented after 24-hours, but I think it still tasted great!

Day 59

Here's a look at a beanie hat that I am crocheting.





Last night, Jocelyn made a delicious Lemon Lavendar Shortbread, and I thought it was awesome!



I made fermented humus with the garbanzo beans that I had soaked and then cooked. I used some Taco Tuesday leftovers to add spice and flavor to the humus (e.g. jalepenos, peppers). To make the right conditions for fermenting, I added sea salt.  As my starter, I used cortido and sauerkraut juice.



I packed three jars of the humus. The large far-left jar is for eating right away as an unfermented humus. The middle jar is to ferment for 3-7 days, and the far right jar is to ferment for 30-180 days.



We collected logs for the bermshed at Basecamp, felled trees of the right size, and we peeled the logs. This is Austin peeling a sawing a log.





This is Josiah using the tractor to take a log back to Basecamp fr use on the bermshed.





Travis felled a tree at Wheaton Labs for use on the bermshed at Basecamp.This is video and pictures from working on the wedge cut.







This is Travis working on the hinge cut and pushing the tree over. From what I understand, the wedge cut and hunge cuts combined with the pushing over of the tree make for a safer and more methodical way of felling trees.







I was busy peeling trees, so I didn't get many pictures of Bella felling her tree. Here is one picture I got after walking over to see how things are going.



Jen and Jaqi did some wonderful work at Allerton Abbey today!



Jen and Jaqi told us about how Cloud (Jeremy's cat) came to visit them at Allerton Abbey!



I am guessing Jaqi found this cool looking mushroom that I saw at Allerton Abbey!



This is a look at the floors in Allerton Abbey.



We did a lot of log peeling, and I thought that was pretty good work!





I had a hankering for a nice fermented beverage, because I think that would be wonderful after a day of log peeling. We have lots more logs to fell and peel for the bermshed work! So, I am making some more Haymaker's Oat Water. It's just oats, water, and lemon/lime juice (or apple cider vinegar). The left container is made with lemon and lime juice, and the right container is made with apple cider vinegar. I am letting these containers of Haymaker's Oat Water ferment for 48 hours before I out them in the fridge for drinking.

Good morning! Here is a listen to a morning soundscape at Basecamp.

Day 60







We went out to the Lab this morning, and we felled trees, cut trees, and peeled trees! Jen cut down a tree!



Here's a video of Jen sawing a tree!



I peeled a lot of logs, and I enjoyed it a lot! I think it feels good to get a tree peeled and enjoy being outdoors! This is one of my nicer logs I peeled.





4

Fred showed us the arugula blossoms on the berms at Basecamp!



For the second half of the day, we planted seeds on Fred's plot at Wheaton Labs! We planted plums, apricots, peaches, and more!



I saw a whole lot of neat things growing around at Fred's plot!







We also learned, recently, from the pack rats and wildlife at Wheaton Labs that dehydrators already exist without any construction- trees! It appears that some animals are hanging mushrooms in trees, and those mushrooms are drying out!



Austin and Josiah worked on the bermshed today!





I think it's quite impressive the work that is happening at the bermshed! I like how pretty the wood and joinery looks!





And I think it was beautiful outside, even with some of the smoke.