C. Letellier

None of my preferred answers probably fit your rules.

Here is my favorite powdered cheese answer.  Notice instead of artificial color it uses spices for color and the added chemistry answers are minimal.  It is the box without a box.  In small batches mix with the butter first before adding the milk helps keep it from clumping.

favorite powdered cheese

Melted processed cheese is another preferred answer.  Velveeta or American typically but others too.  A bit of cream added to smooth consistency.

strawberry plants are really only good for 3 years.  First year is establishing and the plant produces little or nothing.  Second year is most productive.  Third year is also very good.  4th year on the plant productivity falls.  So the runners are the source of new plants.  Best system we found growing up looked like this.  It amounted to a (5) roughly 6 inch wide strips that slowly moved from one to the other.  Tillage was one shovel wide with a board serving as a walk way.  with multiple rows of this system side by side it was like the strawberries travel 6 inches each year sort of like a conveyor belt.  There was one edge where instead of transplanting by runners still attached they were cut off and moved to start a new edge but most were transplanted just as far as the runners would reach.  Could nearly always create more new plants than needed simply jumping the runners sideways as far as they would reach.  Max travel distance was a bit over 18 inches typically and runners were typically only a foot so some plants ended up planted outside their year.

Current                                                                                                              Next year

Board for walk way with serious compost added under board                 board removed so this becomes forth year fallow planting location for runners
forth year fallow/planting location for runners for first                             1st year runners with low or no productivity  
1st year runners with low or no productivity                                               2nd year harvest fold all runners to 4th year or as close as possible
2nd year harvest fold all runners to 4th year or as close as possible       3rd year harvest fold all runners to 4th year or as close as possible
3rd year harvest fold all runners to 4th year or as close as possible        Board covering compost while killing off plants

Now given my age the goal is now to create raised beds instead of bending clear over and balancing on the single board width.

Robert Ray wrote:I purchased Kernza whole grain from Perennial Pantry. The grain is quite small as compared to wheat. Germination rate high.  Look for Thinopyrum intermedium at vendors like Great Basin Seeds. Anyone can grow it as long as they don't call it Kernza without permission.

But is it the grain version of Kernza?  Thinopyrum intermedium has many crosses and only some are being bred for grain production.

One reason for raised beds it to as completely as possible getting your plants out of your soil.  My soil is pure clay with shale rock down as little as 6 inches.  It is high pH (8.5 to 8.7) with a high salt content.  It is also nearly waterproof without organic matter.  If I go only up, only my bottom is connected with my soil instead of bottom and 4 sides.  Because of how waterproof the soil is any other soil I put in it fills the pores with water and builds an in ground pool that takes time to dry out which kills by over water.

Then adding an aging one.  It gets harder and harder to get up and down to weed and harvest.  My ideal raised bed height at this point is at least 18 inches and ideally 20 or 22 inches.  This is so I can get up and down easier and can sit on the edge while working.  Because of back trouble maximum width is 4 feet inside edge to inside edge.

First picture is the results from last winters efforts.  Catalpa on both sides and white lilac plants in the middle.

Second picture is 2 year old plants ready to go in the ground next year mostly.  Green ash. common lilac, catalpa, narrow leaf cottonwood all from seed and 2 years old.  One cutting unknown 2 years old  and 2 Bocking 4 comfrey cuttings started this year in pots where seedlings had died.  Most of my loss is my fault for not staying on top of watering like I should.  And 2 out of 6 American lindens purchased bare root from SCS and potted instead of planted because this was going to be a drought year and not a good year for starting bare root plants.

Need to understand the difference between earth worms and compost worms.  The question you should be asking is where to they primarily exist?  Earth worms live primarily in the soil and occasionally surface for various reasons.  Compost worms live and eat primarily in the surface organic detritis and retreat for protection into the soil.

The single biggest mistake I made starting out with a bunch of this was not planning far enough into the future.  (a bunch of it I didn't know then was part of the problem)  The rest was simply the get it working attitude.  2x effort back then might have meant more of it would be still running now.

For example about 6 years ago I killed most of the trees when health problems and finances meant I couldn't replace the pump that summer.  destroyed nearly 30 years of effort.

I could have reduce the long term effort by more soil prep.  More soil prep might have kept the tree alive or at least reduced loss rate.  Problem is I only had about 1/4 of the knowledge I needed then to do it.  Swales and water capture should have been part of the thinking better and earlier.  Should have eliminated a bunch of tillage as I was destroying the soil carbon structure I needed to be maintaining.  There again lack of knowledge

So my goals would be to make every system as bullet proof as possible while making it as durable as possible with the goal of minimizing long term labor.  Another piece would be designing for multi use tools.

There is too much to do for any one person or one family to do everything.  Pick your priorities.  If your goals are long term build for durability so you only do the work once in your lifetime where possible.

John C Daley wrote:

Glass bottle bricks often have tinfoil wrapped around them before being built into cob walls.

I have never seen that and wonder why it would be done?

It is done to create a mirrored tunnel to reflect light in.  Guessing over time it leads to no gain though as the aluminum foil oxidizes.

No idea.

If one just went out. I don't have it.  refreshed several times.  My most recent dailyish was 6:49 am this morning.  Parasols,good guys,tiny worlds  Looks very normal.

Personally I date when it, when I put on the shelf, month and year.  And put it on the shelf in order so the oldest is always in front.(tried pulling stuff by dates and found I don't do it.  It has to be in order on the shelf so I can just grab and go.)  This lets me track use rate by a simple glance at the shelf.  Depending on product the goal is 1 to 5 year rotations on most stuff.   Since nearly everything is purchased on special this also automatically shows me when I last purchased it on special.  Also put the price on it to aid in tracking best special price.  One other thing.  I love oval cross section big markers for doing dating because they don't roll off the shelf or stairs etc when put down.  Sharpie makes on of my favorites but several makers have them.

So for example I know I use 1 to 2 cases of pineapple a year.  Most years it specials once a year(rarely twice) on the super special.  But once in a while it goes 2 years between specials.  For the most part I have never had a can fail in less than 3 years so the goal is to stock back to 3 cases each time it specials.  Best bet is the spring case lot sale but sometimes the fall case lot sale.  I know pre covid the goal was $0.99 a can.  Post Covid $1.33 a can and most recently $1.67 a can.

Ketchup specials good typically 3 times a year.  Just before Memorial day, 4th and Labor day.  I know from decades there that I use roughly 18 20oz bottles in a year so when it specials I will bring it back to that count each time it specials.  I prefer bigger bottles but usually best price is on the 20 oz bottles.

Use of markers teaches me each time I get stuff off the shelf.