Emi Oakes

Jean shorts!

My husband constantly wears jeans at the knees, and over the years I've put in some fun-colored patches. When those keep failing, he handed them to me for crafting. I spent lots of time looking up all kinds of cutesy ideas on the internet (before I knew of Permies, I could have just come here hehe), and I was planning a rug once I got many more pairs... One day he just grabbed the jeans and scissors, and immediately made jean shorts. He had been wanting more work shorts that could dirty up. I have to say, I was stupefied at the simplicity and elegance : )

Autumn olives are out!
We went to a local park where they line a sunny edge, placed a bucket (more like a trough) on the ground and stripped off probably 10-12 cups. My husband wanted them as a vegan birthday pie. I don't particularly recommend what I did (didn't even have a pie dish ha), but sharing for those hobbling together some data pieces:
- whole wheat crust (per preference, with vegan butter)
- 5 cups autumn olives
- ~ 1.5 cups sugar (to taste)
- ~8 tablespoons corn starch (to consistency, careful to avoid clumping when adding it)
- 1 pack silken tofu (10 ounce, blended in at the end when I realized I just made jam ha)

We wanted to leave the seeds in (lots of omegas! some texture! and no need to cook the filling first if you are confident in the plan), but in the end we ran it through a strainer since the rest of the family wouldn't enjoy seeds. Boiled the autumn olives with sugar to taste. After straining it was basically jam, so I kept adding more corn starch.

It would have worked better as a small tart. Nice tangy taste like rhubarb, bet you could add some other fruits (strawberry, apple, etc) to help give more consistency. I would have added more silken tofu to cut the flavor, but didn't want to experiment too much haha.   We served small slices with ice cream and it was delicious : )

Inspiration:
Someone suggested adjusting the rasberry pie recipe (though no recipe provided): http://foragingfamily.blogspot.com/2010/10/autunm-olive-pie.html
A meringue pie recipe (eggs give lots of the structure): https://tracksandroots.com/2021/02/05/autumn-olive-meringue-pie/
Lemon and autumn olive tart recipe: https://www.ediblewildfood.com/lemon-autumn-olive-tart.aspx

Happy acorn season! And thanks for posting all your experiments and learnings here (and apologies if I missed some of these details, or it's in a different thread).
-->I found some likely white acorns in a forest and about half were already sprouted. I picked in tact, unsprouted ones, and the testas were most all attached to shells (supporting my suspicion of white acorn, based on leaf shape). Ground in a blender with water and set in the fridge to cold leach.
-->First day the water was reddish before I discarded it, and honestly I'm not sure I even tasted bitterness.
--> From day 2-4 it's looked like this, and honestly the solids are not really bitter at all to me or my husband so thinking I'm about done...

What's in each layer here? I'm pouring off A and B with water changes. B has much suspended (is this starch in the water with tannins?) that slowly settles into C (which is hard to save during changes). E is like cement haha.

After the change,  I'm thinking to just resuspend all and press it through a clean, fine-knit cloth. Beyond saving the solid, do people ever save/use the liquid squeezed out?

Awesome idea! With the cold I'm starting to dream up RMH ideas for my little conventional house. I arrive Oct 17 for 2.5 weeks in the SEPPer program, and would be thrilled to help if some projects went later in the month too : )!!

Hello! Would love to visit via the Seppers program- I'm new to permies.com and amazed what Wheaton Labs is doing : ) Exactly what I want to be learning.

I'm thinking about potentially two weeks in the coming months (maybe late Sept - mid Nov) in some private space that would be comfortably heated with a RMH, perhaps wofati style. Are things available then and functional for the fall weather? Also curious if this overlaps with other scheduled projects or events I should take into consideration. Thank you! Happy to pm or email to coordinate - Emi