Mark Brunnr

paul wheaton wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:I have not grown sunchokes because some folks say they cause gas.

I have heard the same thing.  And I have learned three very important things:

THING-1:   I have eaten sunchokes about 50 times and had gas only once.  But it was sooooo good, I ate way, way, way more than i should have.  

THING-2:  my understanding is that you need to build up the ability to thoroughly digest sunchokes.  Start small.

THING-3:  apparently, if you harvest after the first hard frost, there will be less digestive issues.

Thing 2 is true for a variety of veggies with fiber, our guts need to build up the proper bacteria with regular feeding to better digest said veggies.
Thing 3 is true with other starchy foods, for example if you cook up potatoes and then chill them in the fridge, some of the starches become resistant starches with a significantly lower glycemic index (yay for those with diabetes!), which could also be the mechanism that benefits sunchokes. Chilling and/or reheating helps potatoes, perhaps sunchokes too:


For warmer climates I'd vote for sweet potato, otherwise regular potatoes if colder. There are varieties which have more vibrant flesh colors like purple, which provide more antioxidants too, but I'm not sure how they compare for planting and forgetting. But a person could visit their site once to plant several crops with a similar harvest date, then  come back months later to harvest what they want to store in a root cellar for example.

John C Daley wrote:

I would be guessing the douglas fir are around 40 feet tall, maybe a little more, and were at 12-14" DBH.

What does this mean please?

DBH means diameter at breast height, usually the spot where you determine the thickness.

I've used several Willow Feeders (WF) over several months living on the lab, as well as various events over several years. Most of the time there was no unpleasant smells, I think once or twice I could smell an odor out of 100+ uses. In those cases, either someone didn't use enough cover or the pile of poo in the can became steep and required a little jostle of the can to get things to settle, so the cover material can cover it all. Otherwise the cover material slides down the steep sides, leaving the poo there a bit exposed. A solar powered fan was added which addressed that while the sun is out, as well as a flag that pops out when the door latch is closed, so others can see if it's occupied without walking up the slope to call out. I found the instructions in the WFs understandable, and the lights on a timer made it easy to use when it was dark outside.

Fence Pro Las Cruces wrote:This is such a neat idea...I'm a fence contractor and I wouldn't have thought of it. Everyone had great suggestions to add. Makes me want to go back and do a few things differently for some customers whose fences I've built and repaired at my fence company. Keep the great ideas coming!

What changes would you make?

I grew up with Skyline Chili, which is normally poured over spaghetti and topped with cheese. It has a little cinnamon and cocoa powder in it, and I made my own vegan version:

1 cup TSP (textured soy protein) crumbles, pre-soaked  in 1 cup hot water for 5 min;

1 chopped onion

1 can tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

1 cup dry kidney beans, soaked overnight

1 Tbsp chili powder or taco seasoning

1/2 Tbsp Cumin

1 Tbsp minced garlic

1/4 Tsp cayenne

~2 cups water

1/4 - 1/2 Tsp cinnamon

1/4 - 1/2 Tsp cocoa powder


I cook the beans in the Instapot first, usually 8 min on high pressure and then let it release, and drain. Then add the beans and everything else back and saute in the Instapot for 5-6 min. During all that, I'll cook up 8 ounces of fusilli to the side, and mix it in when it's all done, then dish that out into multiple servings.

I'm of the opinion that there are already too many of us, and while I expect there will be massive bad things which will happen as a result, I also believe we can do our best to soften the landing. Most people on the planet don't have clean drinking water, and yet most who do are used to wasting it watering grass and flushing poo. We currently use 10 calories of energy for each food calorie which will eventually end. Will we have a Mr Fusion strapped to each car by then? Many depend on that to avoid personal responsibility.

It would be handy in my mind to document how much food in pounds comes out of each hugel. Perhaps the hugels can be named/numbered with a location map? David the Good has a system with a chalk board, all the harvested food is brought to a weight scale and the pounds totaled throughout the year. Maybe a produce scale in the library/pantry area? There are plenty of online list giving calories per pound, so this would make it easier in my mind to keep track of the GAMCOD objectives. It would also help to compare say the sun chokes/squash that are harvested this year, vs what regrows in the same bed next year.

Here's something I just found which shows that at work.
(below is a copy/paste)

These samples belong to the same soil type and have been in corn-bean rotation for over 20 years, but their treatment was very different!!!.
The land on the left has not been plowed or fertilized with anhydrous ammonia for more than 20 years and has benefited from a rye cover crop.
The land on the right was plowed annually and fertilized with anhydrous ammonia in the fall.
This photo was taken about 2 minutes after the samples were immersed in water.
The plowed land practically “exploded” as soon as it hit the water. Repeated plowing of the soil has destroyed its structure, removing interstitial space and the biological “glue” that helps hold the soil together, leading to its disintegration.
In contrast, with minimal soil disturbance, the no-tilled soil had excellent porosity and high biological activity, giving it a healthy structure that could withstand water shock.
In less than five minutes, the plowed land disappeared completely, while the unplowed land remained almost intact.
We wanted to see how long it would last and continued adding water (to compensate for evaporation) for several weeks.
We stopped after 6 weeks, during which time the no-till soil sample was still 95% intact.

Definitely within the general asset system, FYI not sure if it's still there or needed, but I did leave a glass replacement stove cooktop in Dogstar under the bed when I was staying there.

Coydon Wallham wrote:

Stephen B. Thomas wrote:

What is this device called?

That's a log dolly, I bought one (assuming that's it) to use up on the lab but found it didn't work as I had planned to use it, so I just chained logs to the truck hitch to drag instead. Even on a dirt/gravel road, an inch or two of wood would be ground off hauling it back to peel, in just 1/4 or 1/2 mile. so where you can load logs on to it to absorb weight, and chain it on tight so it'll rotate during turns, it can be very handy.