Richard Gorny

If I had to choose one plant that produces spice, that would definitely be hot pepper.
Just one plant can produce enough of heat for a family, for a year.
Turned into powder, into hot sauce or just added to a dish, it makesthe most boring food interesting ;)
Good sea salt infused with hot chili sauce is great on the road and might ignite some interesting conversations if you always carry it in a small ziploc bag and use in public ;)

I like everything on this page except fonts.

Across the page, they look inconsistent to me. Amatic SC is quite extravagant, does not look well combined with traditional fonts, like Times New Roman.  

I would not write in all caps such a long parts of the text as they are at the beginning, caps are rather for emphasizing main points, as it is done properly later.

Nancy Reading wrote:

Richard Gorny wrote:Raised bed filled mostly with compost, built on sandy soil.

May be a bit dry perhaps? What is your summer temperature and rainfall like? It seems to like it with me, and my summer is very cool and fairly damp.

There is potential to improve the yield through selection, if you get seed set. The biggest effort is in digging it up - that is the downside of root crops!

Your rainfall is three times biggger than mine, and recently we have extremely hot and dry summers on top of that.
Advantage of raised bed is that digging root crops is very easy.

Randy Bachman wrote:

Richard Gorny wrote:I have tried to grow skirret and under my conditions roots are small and thin, under lush greenery above ground. I let it self-seed, but I no longer try to eat it these days, too much work compared to yield.

What kind of conditions do you grow in?

Raised bed filled mostly with compost, built on sandy soil.

I have tried to grow skirret and under my conditions roots are small and thin, under lush greenery above ground. I let it self-seed, but I no longer try to eat it these days, too much work compared to yield.

I have tested it occasionally and it was not a problem.
But, since I work online as well, I was using small portable off-grid solar setup to power my laptop and to stay online. I also have solar lamps, and a small solar water pump for rainwater tanks. Other than that, as long as no other people are present, I am perfectly fine without electricity. I use solar cooker, I have a very efficient wood stove and plenty of hand tools.
Also, normally I use my solar kit to charge some Bosch power tools and I use refrigerator, but I can live without it.
Unfortunately it is not the case for the family and friends, so power is on when anyone else is on site.

Where have you been when I was 20?
I am 60 now, so all I need is a cosy place on a rocket mass heater bench
Seriously though, it is a great opportunity for young permies, not because of a chance to get the land, but to become a member of the unique community that creates and surrounds it.
Being the Gert'ish kind of person I do not care what the value of the property is, but I am sure that if only I would fit that community, and if the community would fit me (you never know that until you try), that would have been freaking priceless.
Nevertheless, this is awesome initiative and I envy in positve way anyone who qualifies, and I wish all the best to this project.

This is aerial view of our cabin. Upper picture is 2013 (Google Earth historic image), lower picture is 2022 (taken with a drone).
During this time we have added:
- herb spiral
- two kitchen gardens
- main crop garden
- three mini food forests
- apiary
- woodshed
- sauna
- summer kitchen
- Kuznetsov mass heater in the cabin
- plenty of trees
- many, many other elements, including a pond and bigger food forest out of the range of these pictures.
It has all been done while living 70 km away and visiting for 1-2 days a week, plus 1-2 weeks of holidays.

A quote in my garden :)

I have built one almost 10 years ago, in May 2014.  I removed the sod and some soil, put birch logs into the hole and built upwards. The hugel was approximately 5 feet above the ground when finished. I have mulched it and I have planted it immediately. It did not hold water, literally and figuratively. It required watering, without that nothing wanted to grow on it. I might have made a mistake using too much wood inside, that's for sure. My soil is almost pure sand, so it did not hold on the wood well. Also, water was draining fast. With years, this hugel was a home for many generations of snakes who just loved overwintering inside, lay eggs and have their pencil-like babies. It has collapsed into one third of its height over those 10 years. Last year I have simply covered it with strawbales and I have grown squash on such mound, which hardly is still a hugel I guess. In those strawbales that hold water from winter and spring rains, it performs well finally. I suspect it will turn into a raised bed over time.