Nicole Alderman

Lots of great books here! I loved The Resilient Gardener by Carol Deppe, Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway, and Sepp Holzer's Permaculture by Sepp Holzer.

But, the book that really made everything "click" for me was The Farmer's Handbooks series. They're FREE and full of great how-to information.

A lot of books seemed to focus on the "why" and philosophy, and I got kind of lost in that. The Farmers Handbook grounded the philosophy is skills that I needed.

Jay Angler wrote:

Joao Winckler wrote: Garlic works but you're right that it needs spacing to do anything useful, otherwise you just get a mat of thin stems.

There are recipes that use "green garlic", referring to those thin stems. The lady who was looking to buy them is Iranian by birth, so it recipes may be in Middle Eastern culture, but she used them as a cooked vegetable.

Oh, I use the green tops far more often than I ever dig up the bulbs and eat them--and that applies to all of my garlic (even the ones well spaced). I just cut up the leaves and use them like chives in soups and salads. I also munch on them when I'm walking around the garden, and my son LOVES to eat them (he makes a "kale-sorrel-leek sandwich" with all three leaves, as well as just eating the leaves by themselves).

I don't usually bother with the bulbs, because I like to just go out and harvest food for dinner....and a lot of the times its not the right time of year to harvest bulbs (they're woody). I've never harvested and dried garlic bulbs. The leaves impart garlic flavor, and I can get them all year round!

I wonder if you could make the chest with a cardboard foundation? That might be easier to build with? When I made my paper clay castle, I used paper packaging tape to hold the cardboard together while applying the paper mache. I also used it to reinforce the "hinge" on the drawbridge door. We didn't use that door too often, but it was opened and shut at least 20 or 30 times, and never broke. I think the fiberglass in the paper packaging tape helped give it strength. This is the paper packaging tape I used.

Packaging tape applied to cardboard for extra stability

 

Interestingly enough, walking onions don't seem to compete as well on my property as do leeks and garlic, or even chives. I think the softer stems of walking onions are more prone to destruction from slugs than leeks or even chives.

Honestly, the alliums (as well as the daffodils) really don't do much to suppress grass or weeds. The grass on my property grows by runners...so it just reaches between the alliums to grow near the tree. Buttercup does the same thing. BUT, the alliums do survive and grow there. So, even though they're not being a barrier or a suppressant, they are doing a good job of providing food in a place that doesn't grow much other foods.

What I do every year or three is go along and dig up the leeks, chives, or elephant garlic around a tree and replant them with better spacing around the tree. Then they flourish even more and create even more alliums.

Kids generally enjoy this activity. The mixing of the soap is goopy, so some liked using gloves. But, they like using the mortar and pestle, and it's a fun way for them to make soap when learning about the popularity of soap in the 1600-1800s.

The soap itself is nice. The herbs help it be extra scrubby--nice for stains on hands or clothes. They do wash off and land in the sink, though.

The soap balls also turn brown from the tannins in the plants. You could add food coloring or cochineal to change the color... but it might come off when washing. I'd be wary of using turmeric because it likes to stain, and beets tend to discolor over time (at least they did when I colored playdough with beets).

You don't have to make them into balls--they could be in hearts or other shapes. If you're making them for yourself, you might want castile soap for a nicer smell.

All in all, it's a fun craft, a great way to learn about history, and you get something useful out of it!

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:

The roses are pretty, and petals and hips are yummy. I also like drying the wild rose petals for use in historical crafts (super handy for making 17-18th century soap balls!)

Alright Nicole, where is your thread about those?

Ha! There apparently wasn't one, but there is now!

In the How many rose bushes do you have? thread, I mentioned how I use rose petals in historical crafts, like making soap washballs. Joylynn replied saying, "Alright Nicole, where is your thread about those? "

Come to find out, I don't have a thread on them! I've mentioned them in some of my kids-craft thread (Winter Nature Crafts and Historical Disney Princess activities), but there isn't a thread with more info on them...until now!

I learned about soap washballs from Sally Pointer's video:



The ingredients you need are:

• A liquid (rose water and orange water are historical, but you can use normal water). I bought this set of rose and orange blossum water. Most kids likes the rose water and disliked the orange. So, if you get one, get rose water.
• Grated soap. You can grate your own, or buy pre-grated soap. I used these tallow soap flakes, because they were affordable and historical. The tallow helps kids realize one of the reasons why people added herbs.
• Ground herbs--or herbs and a mortar and pestle. Kids love grinding things in mortar and pestles. Make sure your herbs are really dry!

The herbs and flowers I've used were:

• Lilac -- Mine dried smelling a bit off. Use a dehydrator to dry them if you have a humid house!
• Mint -- This is generally a hit
• Lavendar -- Kids like the lavender!
• Rose -- Another well-liked scent
• Lemonbalm -- Some kids picked this, others did not
• Elderflower -- Red elderflower doesn't smell delightful, but black/blue elderflower does
• Sweet cicely -- Not chose frequently
• Calendula -- Does not stay dry and is hard to grind

I'm not even sure how to answer this. I have two rose bushes that I puchased....and a crazy amount of native nootka roses that spread and grow. There's two main "clumps" of the wild rose. So, I think that means we have 4 bushes?

The roses are pretty, and petals and hips are yummy. I also like drying the wild rose petals for use in historical crafts (super handy for making 17-18th century soap balls!)

And if you can't afford to buy pie or awesome permies stuff, you can keep this site thriving by extending Step 1 (be nice) to:

• Making helpful threads! Learn something cool? Share it here on permies! Experimenting with something permaculture related? Post about it here! Share what you're learning and doing...and you might just learn more helpful stuff!
• Ask your questions here on permies! This doesn't just help you find answers, it helps other permies, and it might bring someone else to permies when they search Google for the same thing you just asked.
• Help others! If someone has a question and you have some related knowledge, or want to research to help them, reply to their thread
• You could even sell your stuff in our Digital Market! This helps you, and helps permies!

Looking at that list, I notice that a lot of stuff you can do to help permies also helps you. That's pretty cool!

Rez Zircon wrote:Dang, And here the rest of us go out of our way trying to find unicorn poop!

Hmm.  It's probably a protein stain. Try one of the urine-odor removers.

Any idea how to make one? I don't have any urine odor removers on hand.

It makes me wonder: What is in a urine remover?