Rocket Oven Pizza Party - Oct. 5th, 6th, 7th 2018 at wheaton labs

Hi Jocelyn and Paul,

Thanks again for sharing your home and your work with us this weekend. We enjoyed everything immensely and hope to be able to return someday.


Warm regards,
Matt and Pat

Jocelyn and Paul,

I heartily second Matthew's thanks.

During the garden tour, we were all trying to identify the red plant on the hugel in zone 1. Google Lens believes it to be red valerian. Paul asked me to email this to him, but I did not know his email address. It may be somewhere on the site.

Pat

Thank you both, Matt and Pat - we sure enjoyed having you here and appreciate all your help setting up for the pizza!

Ah, yes, we do have what some call red valerian, though I've always called it Jupiter's beard or Centranthus ruber (Wikipedia link here) in the hugel berms.

(picture source)
It's not a true valerian, which is an herb that most know for it's medicinal properties; so this plant, which today I learned is edible, does not share true valerian properties.

The other (more prolific) red blossom in the hugel berms is from the "Ice Plant" Sedum spectabile - Boreau. (Plants For A Future link here).

(picture from pfaf.org link)
I knew this plant was a sedum and probably edible, but since the great folks in the tour identified it as such, I tried a leaf and was "meh" about the flavor and texture. The pollinators LOVE these blossoms and they can be covered in all kinds of insects in late summer. And this plant has survived several drought condition summers like a champ!

I forgot that some folks asked about how to make the Switchel! See this post for a link to the Switchel (that drink) I served at the pizza party, and for a link to the dough recipe we used for the pizza crust.

I was listening to podcast 415 - Fall events follow up. There was a discussion of the pizza party, which my son Matthew and I attended. We stayed in the tepee.

During the podcast, Paul and Jocelyn mentioned that the occupants of the tepee (Matthew and I) had smoke back the first night and an ahah moment the next day, but they did not know if we had then figured it out. We did. I think the first night struggles were necessary for us to understand what we did not understand. The next day's discussions and demonstrations were very helpful and we were successful in our subsequent attempts at starting and maintaining the tepee stove. We left with a reasonable shot at operating a rocket mass heater. The whole experience was awesome. Thank you for the opportunity to learn from and participate in an great group.