Anthony Powell

Ac Baker wrote:I have another cherry-plum question.  Apparently a neighbour has a mature cherry-plum tree in their garden.  They gave me about half a pound of partially ripe fruit a couple of weeks ago.

Turns out, they have ripened in my fridge.  I thought stone fruit didn't ripen off the tree?

Is this a misID? But they have little plum stones in them!

The fruit are still alive, just things slow down in the fridge

Nina Surya wrote:Looking good, clear and informative!

My only remark is for the title/tagline, "A better way to go".
I get the double meaning of it, but my wicked mind comes first and foremost with the third meaning, as in exiting Life itself. I hope I'm the only one with a strange mind, but just in case... maybe think it over.

Other than that, all thumbs-up!

That's been thought of, Nina! Terramation has apparently been taking off in the US. Here's Kristoffer Hughes enthusing on BBC's 'Radical': BBC Radical (50 mins)
More description here - terramation
Campaign to make it legal in the UK: https://terramation.uk/ . Scotland's legalised alkaline hydrolysis.
Or you could opt for a hole in the ground (green burials can go into fields), or being thrown overboard which I understand is nautical practice.

No car-pool lanes in the UK that I know of.
We have websites where you can offer/request lifts, eg https://liftshare.com/uk . Works for one-offs and regular journeys.
Otherwise, I'm happy to offer lifts, just as I accepted them in my youth. And I have tried hitching since, when I was trying to get to a medical appointment and the buses had been re-routed - ended up calling a friend.
The latest people I picked up were a couple of French, who'd hoped for a ferry on a Sunday. They now needed to use the much longer road route.

I was once involved in planning an eco event. Toilets! How to deal with the waste? We needed something mobile to deal with the sewage. So I did a search "mobile sewage treatment". The results? Lots of people being toured around sewage treatment works, phones in breast pockets, peering into treatment tanks - woops! That'll be that f****d!

Yes, received.

M Ljin wrote:I had some peach pits sitting in a jar of soil and they haven’t germinated. I am trying cracking the pits, taking out the kernel, and soaking in cold refrigerated water for maybe a week. This technique worked very well for some out-of-season medicinal herb seeds so why not try fruit trees? Supposed to get the germination inhibitors out more easily.

Yet peaches will come up, as volunteers, all over the place if you don't try!

A loquat tree, eaves-height and providing valuable shade for the house in the hot weather we're currently enduring. Maybe this coming winter it will flower - takes a hot summer - and if it times it right, get pollinated and fruit. Flowers are inconspicuous, but have an almond scent, ideal for Christmas!
Ideally, and this is old homesteading practice, one plants deciduous trees on the sunny side, to let light in in Winter. And evergreens on the north, to protect against polar winds

I've a couple of small supermarkets in nice walking distance, so a visit is exercise, whether I buy or not. Usually checking for last minute reductions. Many items will last way beyond their 'best before', so I keep a stock, aware that some may lose vitamins, or lose bits to decay.
Lots of improvisation in the kitchen: naans can be pizza bases, egg mayonnaise for the sauce, a stir-fry of assorted veg, greens and weeds from the garden, then fresh marjoram and cheese due 4 years ago... all depends what comes!
So no, I don't plan meals, and I don't make shopping lists. Although there is a short mental list of any staples needed when I go into town.
I'm a volunteer for "Love Food Hate Waste", and we suggest, if you're out for the weekly shop, buy for 6 days. On the 7th you use up leftovers.

Just because you can do, doesn't mean you should do

Money is a curse - spending it ethically is difficult

We were never cast out of the Garden of Eden - we got too wrapped up in our power, so we couldn't see its wonder

Learnt at the Centre for Alternative Technology - "Failures are the compost of success"

Flying - missing lots of interesting places, fascinating people, while sardined in a flying can

Cars - a ton of tin to shift a hundredweight of human (or maybe now 2 tons and 2 cwt). That's an efficiency a snail can laugh at!

If you can't afford it, maybe it was intended to kill someone else

Peeling isn't an option, when the tubers are no bigger than walnuts! I think there's only one variety circulating in the UK, and it's sterile - possibly to prevent it spreading aerially! The flowers appear late, and seem to remain sealed to pollinators. Then they die. I've only ever boiled the tubers, taste like baked potatoes. I've a theory that tubers that grow in reliably damp soil don't need to swell with water, so the food value is more concentrated, unlike spuds, sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes), dahlias and yacon.
I've grown them on a large pot, climbing up sunchokes.
I've heard they can become a nuisance in blueberry fields. Attempts at weeding those chains of tubers leaves tubers lodged between blueberry roots, so be warned!