Ra Kenworth

Note: watered 2 gallons yesterday, once a week on average, 71F/22C it had an hour of sun this morning... I seem to growing those 2nd year seedlings as a shade plant on top of 4' of 2yr old compost in shade against the forest to the west up near the road where it's collecting the snow in the winter

I don't get nearly enough volunteers, but know a farmer who gets enough volunteers! I envy those that do -- perhaps if I had no dogs! I have been protecting them with wire cages.

This farmer had them growing for decades along an old railway trail, longtime abandoned, down near Windsor, Ontario, and all he does is pick a few when passing his hundreds of feet of asparagus, and throw the handfuls farther, resulting in enough to keep them expanding. He has plenty of other things to eat, and has friends helping themselves, but he has tons of other things to eat, particularly bbq Cornish hen! So he's not concerned about contamination! He's in his 60s so I'd say this is an excellent way to restore the ecology! Farmers always seem to know best.

Coriander
Well I haven't grown it in a while, but in anticipation of growing some, I picked up a 5kg bag of food grade coriander seeds (cilantro), and I am very pleased at the germination rate!
Here are some accidentally spilled beside the pigeon watering station, protected by two small wire cages, needing some good rain!
I have another spill beside a compost spot with westside shade, cage lifted, and patches of the stuff beside that on a little compost plateaux, and I will hold back some until I can grab a second bag.
It's going in as cover crop around my surprise grocery winter squash volunteers

I never needed to upgrade from a low tech design of barrels under the eves and additional barrels approximately 50 feet away, and 50 feet further away, and use the 120v 12v and hand pumps to pump the water from the eves relay style along towards growing areas getting established or otherwise requiring some watering.
None of the barrels use gravity flow, and some of the barrels are not open one end, so these ones have a roadside kitchen sink as a collector to funnel the water caught from the eves into the hole where the stopper twists out. I use watering cans to distribute. Very low tech and not beyond my abilities!

Edit: over a few hours we had over 2" of rain. That's why I put barrels under the eves and not buckets!

I cruise the 30-50% last day items and select from this almost exclusively, but I have several freezers. I also visit an outlet for restaurants for bulk dry pulses and cans. That's about the only thing I buy. It's always a surprise what will be for supper! It's a once monthly activity usually right before the end of the month when the stores are quiet and there is a larger selection of discount items

13 years ago, I was container gardening and learning about tomato blossom end rot and a duckduckgo internet search led me to permies. It was years later that I actually registered and started participating, but then I was mostly offline.

I'm also a barometer. Not really surprising as we are mostly water, but I get a sinus headache when the air is pregnant, that sweeps away within 30 seconds to 3-5 minutes before a downpour is going to start.

I have a large flock of free range mixed pigeons, mostly 1/4-3/4 giant runt crossed with homer for intelligence and speed. Their moveable residence is a 70s running GMC motorhome that has all openings protected with 1/4" mesh to prevent weasels because they will even chew through wood framing once they've decided to break in.. Great for free range birds for overnight protection and their raising of chicks. Edit: I do empty out the pigeons when I want to move it -- I have a winter location downwind from a shipping container. (Exhaust fumes).

My staple crops in a humid 4a are typically Swiss chard, garlic, summer and winter squash, stinging nettles, lambs quarters, rhubarb, radishes, turnip, radish and carrot greens, buckwheat greens, sorrel and chicory, asparagus, tomatos and peppers, beans, and lots of peas, from field pea sprouts to podded peas, turnips and carrots, onions when I'm lucky, and a wide variety of berries. Radishes, turnips and carrots are excellent for holding up the slopes on compost hills. I experiment with other crops but those are my standbys.

I am not self sufficient but I don't buy vegetables. I do buy a lot of lentils and some rice, and arctic char and occasional red meat, preferably grass fed beef liver, tongue, and bones.

Yes Judith a summer kitchen is the answer: mine is simply an apartment sized upright freezer directly outside the door that doubles as a countertop, where single burners and crockpots can be used without heating up the house.

Acer negundo, also known as the box elder, boxelder maple, Manitoba maple or ash-leaved maple, is a species of maple native to North America from Canada to Honduras.People call them parking lot maples or just weeds, because they grow super fast.

They produce a firewood that is closer to soft wood than hardwood, but can be tapped for syrup and require about twice the sap for syrup (but if you rely on scooping the ice off the top early morning you can save a lot of energy on reducing).

They are also super for starting a tree windbreaker -- they get severely pruned or topped quite young as they have a habit of rotting out in the middle, and becoming a danger to rooftops in a storm. One plants Birch downwind from the Manitoba maple, and conifers. The Manitoba maple protects the other trees until they are established -- a common prairie technique. They are really hard to kill so tapping a young Manitoba maple is fine. And of course it's a maple so any advice about eating young leaves applies.