Hal Schibel

Madison Mills wrote:Hi!

I've been trying to make my own bread for sometime now, however I am gluten free which always offers its own unique perspective toward cooking food. I've been working on some GF sourdough, and have not yet been successful.

I like this approach and have hope it may allow me to cook a bit more from scratch without the issues of rising sourdough that hasn't any sticky glutenous proteins.

Do you think this recipe will still work if I were to use brown rice flour in place of regular flour??

-Madds:)

Hey Madds!
I've adjusted this recipe to work with brown rice flour and I believe I posted it earlier in this thread (let me know if you can't find it).

Some things I've realized since then:
1) I made my recipe with freahly milled brown rice flour. If you try to use it with store bought rice flour you don't need as much.
2) My recipe uses fine ground pink salt. Salt may need to be adjusted if it is coarser table or kosher salt.
3) I made the recipe when I lived closer to sea level and you may not need as much flour at higher elevations. Add a half a cup of flour at a time until you get a batter that is a little bit thicker than pancake batter.
4) I like to leave my gluten free polydough in the fridge and it will expand after a couple days so make sure the container is big enough to accommodate. You can keep this stuff in your fridge for a couple weeks but it's best after like 3-5 days or so.

I love keeping a container in my fridge at all times! It became the base of many meals. Hope this helps!

Minimum requirements for this BB:
- restart a cast iron skillet, griddle or dutch oven

To show you've completed this Badge Bit, you must provide proof of the following as pictures or video (<2 mins):
  - original cast iron skillet
  - progress of restarting the cast iron skillet
  - completed restart of cast iron skillet


I got these skillets at an antique store. They are actually in really good shape compared to some cast irons I've done. We spent a few years accumulating pans from antique stores and resetting them for gifts for friends and family. They make good wedding presents, Christmas presents, graduation gifts, etc.

The new-to-me cast iron skillets.


I put them in the oven on self-clean.


I then scrubbed them with vinegar and then cleaned with some soap.


Dried them on the stove. It's hard to see how much rust and gunk is left when it's wet so I went back and scrubbed again until I was happy with them.


After drying, I rubbed them all over with olive oil.


Nice and clean and ready to use.

Requirements to complete:
- Can be any metal shovel (not metal edged plastic snow shovels)
- Protecting oil can't be petroleum derived

To get certified for this BB, post the following:

 - pic of dull or rusty shovel
 - action pic
 - pic of clean, sharp shovel
 - describe the oil used to protect the metal


Dirty shovel


First I used a metal brush on the angle grinder. It did a pretty good job. I did not get a picture of the brush in use as that would be unsafe.


Then I used the sander to get a finer polish.


I used sandpaper for the tough spots. You can see some of the rust coming off.


I had to hammer a dent in the tip back into place.


I ended up buying a tool file (technically called a "bastard file") for tool maintenance. This will be nice to have on hand and was pretty cheap.


I oiled the shovel with linseed oil.


A nice, clean shovel. I used it right away and compared it to my other shovel and it is a major improvement!

Thanks, all! Excited to be here.

I first got interested in permaculture back in high school but put off doing anything about it until I got my own property about three years ago. Last spring I started doing the SkIP program and that has been great for helping me come up with projects to (slowly) help me set up some food systems. It's been a lot of fun and I've been able to enjoy the fruits of my labors almost immediately. I'm not great at gardening yet but I love to cook and take care of animals (and that's what most of my days consist of).

I love hearing what people like about their jobs!

I went into hydrogeology and water resources. After I got into the field, I pivoted more toward data and records management (stuff that no one wants to deal with but needs to happen!) and ended up with a remote job as a data engineer. This job sounded promising at first but I found that they did not have a lot for me to do (which drove me crazy!) and then they decided to have everyone return to the office (after a bunch of us had been approved to move out of state) and I left.

I've been fortunate enough to have a husband that can support both of us especially since we started living below our means back when we had two incomes. I've been able to volunteer my time a lot within our local community and started pursuing SkIP soon after leaving my remote tech job. I actually just got offered a part-time job as a kitchen manager at the local senior center which I will start next week! I am super excited to grow my cooking and kitchen management skills while being useful to my community.

David Nightingale wrote:PNW coffee drinkers can be picky, we have great coffee.

I definitely miss the PNW coffee since I moved inland. I realized that it's not just about the coffee itself, coffee and coffee shops are a big part of the culture as well!

David Nightingale wrote:Yet, the Japanese have a Dark roasted (burned) barley when soaked in water makes exceptional iced coffee.  Mixed with Argentine mate for caffeine I drink it all summer long.

I've heard of mate but am not super familiar with it. What's the difference between yerba mate and Argentine mate?

David Nightingale wrote:Chicory is an excellent additive to lengthen a coffee supply but it can get out to control in most climates.  Cheers.

Have you tried chicory root in coffee before? How was it?

I was excited when I found out that chicory root would make a good substitute because last summer I saw fields and fields overrun with chicory when I go out for a drive. I have only found one chicory plant on my property but I hope to propagate more now that I know it grows well here. I would dig it up and try it if I didn't want to lose my one chicory plant! Perhaps I'll go foraging sometime this year for some.

Another coffee substitute I've heard about is sweet potato coffee. My sister-in-law told me she made some and she said it probably tastes like coffee, but she is not a coffee drinker so I think I will have to try it for myself to find out. Has anyone else tried sweet potato "coffee?"

I love the thought of making your own instruments out of what you have lying around!

I am not personally familiar with cigar boxes, but one thing I remember hearing about growing up was making a guitar out of a tissue box or a shoe box and some rubber bands or strings. I don't think I tried this myself, but this can be a fun project to do with kids.

Here is a useful video I found after a quick search that actually explains the different kinds of common stringed instruments and then shows you how to make a guitar out of a shoebox. I'm sure there are a lot of tutorials out there for this type of thing. Fun stuff!

The other day I was scrolling through Youtube and I thought I'd find some simple gardening videos to try and figure out why I always kill all of my plants when I feel like it should be something stupid simple. For years I've been resigned to saying that I just don't have a green thumb but after watching this simple video about pruning it was like a light bulb turned on. I had been trying to follow miscellaneous bits of advice like "use lots of mulch!" or "never prune your plants!" or "you need to have some sort of greenhouse effect to start seeds" without actually having a fundamental understanding of how plants work. I've done things like suffocating my seedlings, let things grow way out of hand so that they choke everything out, let my herbs bolt and die without a clue as to what I was doing wrong, etc. etc.

So for everyone else out there that does not have a green thumb or they have turned their thumb green through a lot of frustration and perseverance, I would like to know...

What was an "aha!" moment you had where you found a piece of information that was seemingly stupid simple but it made all the difference for you? This is likely something that the "experts" neglect to explain because it should be obvious (but obviously it wasn't for some of us).

For me, it was the fact that when you cut a plant it grows back. And you can control how it grows back. I guess I always knew this because things like grass grow back but for some reason it did not occur to me that an herb will grow back. i tried this on my sad sage and basil plants that I have growing in my kitchen window and the they are both putting out a million more little sprouts (branches? leaves?) and are no longer all leggy. Here's the simple video that I was watching:

I would like to rescind my previous submission as it was a duplicate of the foraging "make a tea" BB and I would rather use that cup of tea for the foraging BB. Apologies, I thought some BBs could be used as two-fers.

Anyway, here is a completely different dandelion infusion made from dried dandelion leaves.

Harvesting dandelions.


Cutting them up.


Dehydrating dandelions.


Stored dandelion leaves.


Getting ready for tea.



Pouring the hot water.


Completed infusion.