Amanda Barteck

Hey look at that!!  I'm pretty sure I have a random volunteer of these in my backyard!  Hopefully later this fall I'll be eating GOOD.  They're not ripe yet, but when they are, I'm saving the seeds and keeping them with me for when I get a house.

I'm in the process of harvesting yucca leaves and processing them down into raw fiber right now. I have a full time job so it's a "what I can, when I can" type of situation.

Goals for this project:

*Find out how finely I can separate each fiber bundle without breaking the fiber (four groups, plain water boiling, laundry soda water boiling, raw, and retting)
---data on raw: not very fine. About a coarse horsehair consistency, after beating and twisting wet
---no data on boiled yet
---not enough significant data on retting yet

*Finding out how fine a thread i can spin with the yucca while having it still be average sewing thread strength
--no data at all yet

*Weaving a fine plain weave cloth from 100% yucca fiber
--no data yet, but should be possible

I'm not ready to be a fully feral wild human, there are creature comforts of the modern age I love, like Internet and medical care.  I'm not even that "crunchy", but I am moderately monetarily disadvantaged and I would like to pull as much underrated free stuff out of the ground as possible.

My yucca species is Yucca filamentosa, which is so, so good at making fiber. Lots of tow too. I could make a mattress next 🤔 but not yet.

I will drop updates here when applicable but don't hold your breath as it will be very very slow.

Christopher Weeks wrote:

Amanda Barteck wrote:would it be beneficial to put redcedar berries and pine needles in for a little time

When I want to do that, I collect likely yeast sources such as those described, and put them in a sugar-water and stir them up twice a day until it gets foamy and then use that in my bread (or soda, or wine, or vinegar).

Aye that's useful information!  Thanks!

Benjamin Dinkel wrote:I wrote down my "guidelines" for german style rye sourdough bread. Maybe that's something for you to start from. You could easily add your quinoa to the soaking grain part.
https://permies.com/t/40/66366/vollkornbrot#2435437

when it says use a wild yeast, would it be beneficial to put redcedar berries and pine needles in for a little time and of course take them out to kickstart it?  I know just enough about wild yeasts to know they're on those and the reason the redcedar berries are coated in a cloudy bloom early in their development.

My brother took up the hobby of baking years ago and made bread for us when he came home for christmas.  It was fantastic, and I clocked it as really good adventuring bread. Ofc, I may have to slice and fully dehydrate the finished bread if I want to take it on "long voyages" (aka camping/bushcraft/multiday LARP events and possibly buggin' out if I have to) but dehydrating things is already in my skillset.

I'm planning on growing amaranth this year, I hope I can get a decent crop going (in my backyard, not a field) so that I can process the grains, or attempt to, for bread. It won't be all of the mix, I want to see if I can use a rye/amaranth blend.  I don't know what I'll be expecting, so I'll expect nothing and see how it goes.  And then write the results down. But mostly, I want to make a nice dense loaf that's got some oomph to it, and of course I should start practicing soon if I'm going to have the exp to not waste the harvest if it's good.

Can anybody give me a good explanation of hydration levels and what it does?   Also how many fold/turns would I need for that dense heartiness I'm looking for? I don't care /too/ much about how the crust turns out, as long as it's not rock hard I'll be ok. End goal is a bread that doesn't immediately go moldy and is filling and maybe slightly chewy.  thanks!

I just found an ENORMOUS patch of spotted beebalm. It's native to my area, and I was wondering if anybody has uses for it, whether conventional or unconventional.

I will be saving seed from them also. I have at least two friends who want the seeds, the rest will go into my collection. I may be able to share them with others later.  Thanks!

How would somebody know if the cream becomes dangerous while culturing?

Also, crazy idea (probably needs iteration and testing) what would pine needle, spruce tip, juniper berry cultured cream/butter be like and would it be safe? What about lavender?

Ah, finally something I can help with!

You've got two options for air freshener. You can get a steam distiller of Amazon for pretty cheap, and cram as many plants in as you can with some water slightly covering while still allowing airflow. Reuse the resulting liquid with more plants as many times as you want.

Or you could use a filtered, very distilled vodka or perfumers alcohol (not the same thing) and step a sizable jar mostly full of plants, covered with the alcohol. Let step for a couple months.

I've been following that guy that travels in the southwest on horseback with pack horses. I've been interested in primitive skills and crafts for /quite/ a while, and I've processed plant fiber before, as well as I have extensive experience camping.

I'm about to buy a general use 20ga shotgun, and I'm interested in hunting deer, but haven't done it.  I have friends who hunt, and I'm looking forward to asking them for their hides while I learn how to shoot.

Naturally, if I'm able to successfully make buckskin, I would be able to expand that into other things as well. I am already a serial crafter (it's a common freebie in the neurodiverse package) and on the days I'm not working at a soul crushing job I want to work on soul feeding projects.

I'd love your favorite techniques that don't involve the brain (mother has Parkinson's, I don't want to potentially endanger her) thanks and props.

Cordage picture I took days ago: