Su Ba

I wanted to let you know that you inspired me to try eating pumpkin leaves. So we tried them today, and they were just fine. Thank you for opening my eyes to another food source!  

My favorite meals? Hummmm.

If I don’t mind spending a fortune, I’d say prime rib with baked potato. Or lobster stew. But that’s just an infrequent treat for us. And these are not something I make at home.

If I don’t mind eating commercial food, then I guess it’s orange chicken — breaded chicken nuggets baked then slathered in Chinese orange sauce. Totally unhealthy and only indulged in a couple times a year.

Now for healthy, homegrown food—- it’s got to be our breakfast smoothies. We’ve been eating them for years and haven’t tired of them, maybe because they are always different.  I blend up a variety of fruits and veggies. No set recipe, just what’s in season. For example, this morning was guavas, a banana, steamed greens (Chinese cabbage, lettuces, pipinola (chayote) shoots, cholesterol spinach leaves, and (for the first time to try them) pumpkin leaves, cooked soybeans, a small piece of cooked pumpkin, one hard boiled egg, and enough homemade pineapple/sugar cane juice to make the ingredients blendable. As I’ve said, every day is different ingredients, but I aim to include fruit, greens, a protein source, and other veggies. The liquid might be fruit juice, veggie juice, or milk (sheep, goat, or cow depending upon what’s available).  Breakfast is normally our main meal. Lunch and dinner are usually just snack or small sized meals. So breakfast is a hot cup of coffee and a jumbo smoothie.

Get me into a good restaurant, and it’s prime rib, steak, or lobster for sure. My hubby opts for pork chops.

Do I love comfort meals? Of course! But they are not our normal fare. So anytime I wrap myself around a plate of French toast or gravy over rice, hubby knows that I’m stressed out.

I hadn’t answered this survey before, because although we use wild game, we don’t technically hunt it.  We use traps for feral pigs, feral turkeys, doves, pheasants.  The pigs are my primary target. The rest is by-catch, but we surely don’t turn down the fresh meat.

Due to our trading network, I don’t need to hunt mouflan or go fishing.  We get plenty via trades.

John, that’s a great strategy.   My own method—— determine what I want before stopping at the dealer. And I always go on my birthday. I tell them up front that I’m buying a new truck that day for my own birthday present to myself and they know that’s true when they look at my drivers license. I tell them that they are my first stop and if I can’t find what I want, I’ll be going to another dealer down the road. To add a bit more credibility, I show them the title of the truck I’m trading in and they see that it was purchased on my birthday a few years ago.        That’s the set up. Now the pressure is on them to make a deal that will entice me to buy a truck from them and not their competitor. And the beauty of the set up is that it’s all true.  The result is that I usually get the truck I intended to buy at a fair deal. I have no objection to them making money on the sale. I just don’t want to be fleeced.

Thekia, yup!!!  I was raised on them.

Funny story…… as a little girl, my father would take me out for trips...—-to the local bar. He’d promise me a kosher pickle, which I would then sit on the furthest barstool and eat it. Those pickles were as huge as a full grown cucumber. It kept me occupied long enough for him to have a drink or two with his friends. I always looked forward to going out with my dad, something that was special.

Living rural and where everybody drives on the roads, I cannot forego a vehicle. I’d rather be able to use a bicycle or horse, but that’s not doable where I live. I’d last less than 5 minutes on our roadways here. Sooooo, I drive a vehicle.

4 wheel drive truck.  Being a homestead farmer, it’s the only way to go.

Truthfully, not a day goes by that this truck isn’t justifying its existence. Every, and I mean EVERY, trip I make, there is something being hauled in the bed. And these are things that I’m not gonna put into a cute, clean, pretty sedan or SUV. ……….
… manure to the gardens
… compost being delivered to the second farm location
… firewood
… produce to the farmers market or local soup kitchen
… dead feral hogs going home to be butchered
… live sheep or piglets or chickens
… equipment having been purchased or being taken for servicing/repairs
… supplies for the homestead such as lumber, roofing, piping, etc
… greenhouse supplies such as potting soil, pots, etc
… our farm dogs
… trash/debris/recycling materials  heading to the dump
… large items being hauled for friends or neighbors
… pig traps
… water (330 gallons at a time) during dry spells
… several trapped feral cats heading to the local spay/neuter clinic

Every 3 months or so we make the 2 hour (one way)  trip into either Kona or Hilo where we take care of chores/services we can only do there, such as doctor or dentist trips or dropping off packages at UPS. So we will stop at Costco and other stores to load up on supplies.  Not just for ourselves, but also for friends who cannot or should not drive that far. The truck bed and back seat gets fully loaded, so as not to have to go shopping again for a few months. While we could stuff a nice car with such items, we can load 3 or 4 times as much into a truck. Small things going into the bed get stuffed into black trash bags to protect them from the rain we almost always encounter on our way home. Makes us look like we are making one humongous trip to the trash transfer station! And before anyone has a spasm over the use of black trash bags, we reuse them over and over until they finally get too many holes in them. Then they get one last use when we deliver compost/mulch/maure to home gardeners.

The one concession I make is that the truck is a small one. Right now it’s a Nissan Frontier. At my age, it’s just too difficult dealing with a big truck. And sorry guys, bigger is not always better!

The Way Home, Tales from a Life Without Technology, by Mark Boyle

Just got done reading this , well actually I listened to it via Audible. (I listen to books or music while I work on the farm.)

It’s well worth the read. The author brings up some good discussion not just about things he has done while avoiding technology, but he thoughts and struggles while attempting to live sans modern day technology.

Folks in my town know that I love dill pickles, so as a result, I get gifted jars of store bought pickles. After consuming the pickles, I’ll soak parboiled veggies in the leftover brine to create new refrigerator pickles. Green beans, carrots, asparagus, bell peppers, chayote, daikon/radishes, etc. It takes a couple of weeks in the frig for the veggies to take on the full flavor. When this batch of veggies are all consumed, then I’ll use the leftover brine to cook diced potatoes in, and make a hot potato salad.  ….  And rather than drinking any leftover juice if there is any , I’ll use it to dip squares of bread and eat them as my evening snack.  Waste not, want not.

I agree with Carla (My usual criteria are:
Will we eat it?
Do we want to try it?
Is it too expensive to buy?
Will it grow in a container?
How difficult is it to grow?
How difficult is it to process for storage?)

But add one more criteria ……can I sell or trade the excess.

I use raised beds—-actually container boxes since they are not up on legs. I make them out of pallets. I find that they last about 3 to 5 years in my environment. Lining them makes them last longest, but I’ve never really recorded how long each individual container lasts. I just replace them as they start to crumble. Eventually the pallet woods rots and the sides start falling apart. Just to give you an idea, each box is 1/2 pallet high, and the width is one pallet long. So each box uses two pallets, and since I line the box, I don’t go to the hassle of filling in the gaps in the pallets.

Although I initially used discarded commercial grade weedblock material to line the sides of the boxes (the box sits upon the dirt, so no need to line the bottom), I switched to metal. I intercept broken clothes washers and dryers heading to the dump. I remove the outer casing/skin and use that. The rest of the machine goes to another person who salvages the drums and whatever else, before the leftovers go to metal recycling.

Using a circular saw with the blade mounted backwards (or I’ll use a metal cutting blade if I have one) I’ll cut the metal to the height I need before removing the skin from the machine. I find it generally easier that way. I’ll also make cuts for the lengths if the metal skin is stable enough to make the cuts. Usually it is. Then I remove the metal skin from the machine. The pieces with bends in the wrong place I will flatten by running over them with the ATV or truck. They don’t flatten perfectly but that doesn’t really matter.

I usually just set the metal liner in place without bothering the nail or screw them in place. The soil holds them in place. Without them being attached to the pallet, I can replace the pallet with little hassle when it eventually rots. Replacing the deteriorated pallet side needs to be done before the soil starts pushing the sides out. I let things go too long once and had to end up shoveling dirt out in order to rebuild the box.

Of course the trick is not to cut oneself on the metal when you’re working in the garden. I solved this in two ways….. 1- by putting the cut edge down. And 2 , if that isn’t an option, by folding a length of cardboard or a doubled stripe of old blue jeans overtop the top edge of the metal. Plus I don’t mount the metal to the very top of the box. The top edge of the metal is an inch lower than the pallet, helping to keep the sharp edge from contacting my hands (because I always find myself leaning on the top edges of the boxes). Suuurrre I could grind down the sharp edges so they don’t pose a danger, but then I’d have to go buy a grinder, a face shield, leather gloves, and take the time to do it. For me, using cardboard and old blue jeans works just fine.

Hope this gives you some ideas.