Emily Spring

If you still need someone, let me know! I majored in English and my day job is creating online education.

When I freeze things with wax/parchment paper between, I use 2 layers so the layers don’t stick together. Using square sheets in a round container would leave corners poking up that you could grab. But tbh I like the silicone muffin cup idea best.

Dave Burton wrote:While reading [url=https://permies.com/wiki/118777/Grocery-Story-Jon-Steinman]Grocery Story

What are some ways that people can get good food that's local and organic or better without getting completely exhausted and having to spend all their time on food?

I think we ignore this point to our collective peril. Food is easy and cheap inthis country, and it’s a huge deal to ask people to change all of their life habits around food.

We need to think systemically about this. One model I love is the Farm Stop. This is shaped like a small grocery store, with a good balance of produce, dairy, meat, dry goods, baked goods, and semi-processed goods like tofu, kraut, etc. All sources from local farmers. The difference is, it’s basically selling on consignment, or like a 7 day a week farmers market with one till. Farmers set their own prices and get about 80% of the sales price, and never need to man a stall. See https://www.agricolefarmstop.com for one example. The convenience of a one-stop-shop open from 7-7 every day immediately makes access easier. Caveat: these need a functioning cafe to stay afloat, and a populace who will pay stupid money for coffee and sandwiches. Produce pays the farmers but coffe pays the rent. But that’s ok; now you’ve got an outlet for a local toaster, a baker, and 3-4 restaurants that also use local ingredients.

Bonus points if the place has a kitchen that can be used for community food preservation events. But a “salsa pack” from the farmer, show up one day in August and have store staff guide you and five others through canning an entire years worth of salsa in half a day.

Partial processing also helps. Think chicken cuts vs whole birds, or ready to eat carrots (“baby” size, or washed/sliced “chips.”)

You get the idea. We need a middle step (or three) between Costco and homesteading or it just won’t be attainable.

In zone 5, I milch our school garden with leaves or straw rather than cover crop, because it's easier to deal with in the spring. For actual cover crops, I favor buckwheat for the same reason.

Interesting thought on daylilies above; they have taken over parts of my yard and are almost impossible to kill. I'd plant them in a separate contained bed if you go that route.

If you are looking for some garden ideas, see https://helpyourselfgarden.wordpress.com or search #dentgarden on Facebook or instagram.

Animal feed CORN tastes terrible (zero flavor, not sweet), so I doubt you'd want to eat it. I don't know if there is such a big difference among varieties of other grains that are destined for animals vs. humans. I'd not buy a lot until I'd tasted it.

Hi, Curt! Thanks for the info - I will have to look into those backdraft dampers and thermostats.

Emily

Do you know of any fans that can truly be sealed off when not in use? The ones I've seen for greenhouse ventilation let the wind blow right through, even if they have louvers.

Hi -

We have a passive solar house with a sunroom built on the entire south face of the house. (Plans are at http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?view=image;size=100;id=umn.31951p007429573;page=root;seq=156;num=147 if you're curious.) Between the sunroom and the main living space are three sets of French doors.

On the (admittedly rare) sunny days in a Michigan winter, the sunroom does get to a nice 65-75 degrees. Temps peak around 3pm then drop off pretty rapidly, especially in winters like this one where the thermal mass is quite cold. What would be awesome is if there were a way to open a door/vent/window into the living space when temps get over, say, 65, and then close it when it dropped back below 65.

Anyone have any ideas?

Major requirement: this can't let a ton of air through when it's theoretically closed. That's the problem I've seen with most greenhouse-type vents; they just don't really get airtight (or anywhere close) when they are closed. And, of course, you have to be able to shut off the auto venting in the summer when you're trying to keep the house interior cool.

Things that can change: The French doors could be replaced with some combination of operable windows/doors. I'd like to keep a similar amount of glass, though; the house is fairly dark to begin with and all the glazing is on the south side (into the sunroom), so I don't want to lose much of it.

Thanks for your ideas!
Emily