Ted Scott

Exactly! very confusing, I should also mention, this has not happened in the past 5 years with this plant, and no mushrooms grew in the other 5 planters sitting in a row next to the avocado. (1 is another older avocado, a Peace Plant and a few others my wife likes).

I bought some Reishi mushrooms from EBay 6 months ago, and made a tea from a few pieces. I simmered the strips for SEVERAL hours. Instead of throwing them away, I placed them, (did not mix into soil) on top of the large indoor pot I have with a 1" thick Avocado tree. They have been sitting on top of the soil for at least 2 months now, I didn't get around to mixing them into the soil when they didn't degrade. Yesterday I walked by the plant and found 4 new mushrooms growing from the soil, and 2 at the bottom/ outside of the clay pot. They appeared to be Reishi mushrooms, I threw them away, unsure how this could happen, I didn't just heat them, I had them at a low boil for hours, and yet I am guessing they still have spores? Has this ever happened to anyone else?

I'm in North Central Massachusetts, so the frost line is almost 4' deep, so that would mean covering the whole inner wall. Unless there is another opinion that I hadn't considered yet.

I just finished building a pit greenhouse frame , the front however is exposed and has a door and a stone wall covering it. I have some 4" poly iso insulation, and placed that in the front to add to the minimal insulation value of the stone wall. My question is do I place insulation on the other 3 walls, the back is aprox 4' deep, and it tapers on the sides to the front where it is aprox 40" buried? I know I want the benefit of the Earth tempering, should I only place the insulation along the walls, just below the windows, to down aprox 1' or further into the soil? Or go to the bottom of the interior wall?

When I read the title, my first thought was the branches I trim every late winter from my apple trees. I bundle them up, into groups of about 20 each, and my wife trims them to size for flowering in a pot in the house. It would seem to me for about every 10 apple trees, I would trim down about a hundred or so water shoots. They are long, thin, and maybe smell good when burning. They wouldn't take up much space while they dry out, and seems they wouldn't require any trimming beyond length, so, ready to burn when aged.
Or maybe they won't burn, and just look like a perfect fuel size?

I ran into a whole group of medical issues at the beginning of the year, mostly around my Rheumatoid arthritis, so made wholesale life style changes.
After dropping grains and legumes, I looked to WAP and decided to try raw milk. I looked around at the local dairy farms that were available to choose from, and decided after finding my Jersey cow farm, that I liked what I saw, and heard from the owners. They only have 15 cows, well, now 4 new wee ones this summer,and when I asked about how many they were milking back then, I was told only 5 were being milked, and that 4 were pregnant. They have quite an age range, up into the 20's if I heard correctly. In the factory farms, as I understand it, they keep the cows pregnant, and when they wear out at about 2 to 3 years old, they become hamburger.
I also can go anytime to watch the milking process, with limited cows, they do a good job of cleaning, and drying the teats off before attaching the milking equiptment. They also have a great older cooler, so safety is a high priority. The owners have about a dozen grandchildren, and I am one of less than 2 dozen customers, so it is a small scale farm, just what I was looking for.
After I lost 20 pounds, my wife suddenly became interested in my new diet/life style, and agreed to come to the farm and check it out. She is a city girl, and although she doesn't join me in scratching the cow and goats heads, she did start drinking raw milk, and eating my home made raw milk kefir, ice cream and yogurt.
I hope my story gives some tips on finding the right farm for you, I would not want to even consider buying milk again from a retail store.

Sasha Baxter wrote:Using raw milk kefir to make ice cream?! That sounds so incredibly good - not entirely sure why I never thought to try that. Definitely jotting that down on my to-do list w/ my brand new ice cream maker!

Anyone have suggestions on where to buy high quality kefir grains/cultures? I've never fermented food before, and I've been a bit hesitant of buying just any kind of kefir grains.

I am not a huge fan of it, but my wife loved my last batch of Kefir/Pumpkin ice cream, used 2 cups raw (Jersey cow ) cream, a cup of Kefir, and a can of regular pumpkin. Didn't use the pumpkin pie (can) mix, so I did use a combination of honbey and brown sugar to sweeten it a little. Also forgot, I added Pumpkin Pie spice.
Like you, we just got an ice cream maker, every trip to the dairy, I bring home a quart of cream.
As far as finding Kefir grains, I have a surplus at this moment, and ran an ad on Craigs List, got two responses within and hour, giving away those next week. If you are near Massachusetts, I can help, if not, keep an eye on CraigsList for kefir. You can also buy them on line, I got them from a vendor at Etsy.com.

Hello, first post, long time Permies reader. For Sarah: I have been making and using raw milk kefir into smoothies, ice cream and cheese over the past year, wondered if I could take completed Kefir, and then use it (instead of straight raw milk) to make yogurt. I was thinking it would add another 3 to 6 live cultures that may not be in the kefir grains. Also do you use colostrum? I have been either making it into Kefir or drinking it in an AM smoothie. Thanks, love your emails and you tube videos.
Also, I am in New England, would love to make the trek to Buffalo, NY.