Sarah Joubert

Thanks Jay, sounds like a winner! Looking forward ro trying it once I''ve mot my rye starter up and running.

I've had panel arch envy for ages! Unfortunately I am still trying to figure out how to get the 2m x 4m reinforcing units supplied here home. I only have a 1.8m trailer. Have thought of rolling them up and tying the roll onto the trailer but the diameter of the rebar may prevent rolling up.
I have erected a salvaged marquee frame (4m x 6m) over my beds to which I hope to attach the panels. This will provide valuable shade in the summer-if I can encourage something to grow on it! Wind is my enemy, hot and desicating in the summer, cold and fierce in the winter. After trying , with limited success, to grow various varieties of peas, beans, sweet peas on the trellis surronding our veranda, I erected the marquee in the most shelterd part of our acre. Unfortunately it is also the lowest point so will get cold in winter but I am hoping to be able to insulate it in winter - the panels provide support for insulation material. This way I get a shade house and a green house from 1 structure, extending my growing season at both ends.
As an aside, I am going to try malabar spinach around the veranda this year. Apparently it loves heat and is a tough and vigorous climber. Watch the windy threads for updates!

Just this past winter I have learned that rebar makes a fine arch. My mum's hollow metal arch blew over and broke in the strong winds. We bought four 3m lengths of 12mm rebar and bent them into an "L" shape . We already had 4 hollow steel pipes knocked into the ground (2 each side of the path) so we hammered the long ends of the rebar "Ls" into them. We wired them together in pairs where they met at the middle. We bent 8mm rebar into a zig zag pattern and wired it between the 2 "L's" either side of the path and one over the top. No tools other than a pair of pliers and a hammer required and we used a fence post to bend the rebar.
I was originally going to do a rounded arch - saw a video on Utube about how to bend it around stakes driven into the ground but, as we couldn't get 6m lengths, the square arch worked better and I think the zig zagged support is much more effective at keeping it's shape in the wind as its a solid length as opposed to lengths cut and bent into squares. As usual, I wish I'd taken photos but didn't think it was of interest to anyone but mum and me! I shall have to ask her to take a photo....

Jay Angler wrote:My sourdough starter is rye flour only, which doesn't make great bread, as there's not as much gluten.

My solution is to have a jar just for the starter which we store in the fridge between uses. It is large enough to be able to pour off 1 1/2 cups of starter for a loaf of no-knead bread, and still be viable if we feed it a couple of times over the next 24 hours. (1/4 to 1/2 cup of rye flour and same amount of water for each feeding)

I add another 1 1/2 cups of water to the starter I've removed, and stir that into the dry ingredients which are a mix of unbleached flour, whole wheat flour, rye flour, wheat germ and salt. After it's risen on the counter for 8-12 hours, we pre-heat a glazed cast iron Dutch oven, pour the mix in, and bake.

It's an amazingly easy, no-fuss bread!

Ooh! I must try this when I get back home! What's your total measurement of mixed flours? Pour in, so it's more a stiff batter? Oven temp?

It's good to come back to the scale every now and then to see how things have changed and how people have grown. I know I have, but I do get ahead of myself sometimes! This brings me down to earth with a bump. There is so much more to do!
Then I get frustrated when life ( and occasionally a husband)  stops me acheiving all these goals. The biggest issues are beyond my control; buying organic (expensive), reduce waste (forced to buy food packaged in plastic), growing my own (water a serious issue).

Those frustrations do have upsides though, expensive, local organic food encourages me to strive to grow more of my own food which forces me to be more water wise, changing my diet to become more C02 neutral- which ultimately results in less plastic use. Being cash poor also means we buy less- less to recycle and more upcycling/repairing of what we have.
Water shortages mean that I can sell the idea of a waterless loo - achieved, but still working on re-usable loo wipes!
It also makes me think very carefully about what, where and how I plant. Quietly reading the landscape and implementing little changes that show their benefits has visually inspired my neat freak spouse - more than my enthusiastic permie rhetoric ever did- to leave the weeds, use mulch and stop raking up the "mess". He has eaten the fruits of my labour and is starting to garden "his side" more like mine. He doesn't really need to know about the permaculture idea behind capturing and holding the water which I find so fascinating and clever. So we use much less water than a lot of folks.
Off grid on a limited budget means we have to be careful about energy consumption so, because he doesn't see it as a permie solution but a necessity, he's onboard.

Reflecting on my journey I realise that trying to drag him along with my enthusiasm and  my  "duh, its common sense if you would just stop fighting the Permaculture idea" wasted time and energy, probably set him back a few years in his journey and certaintly made mine a lot harder.
He's come so far that he's actually eating radishes grown in humanure! Which is more than I will do currently.........

Thank you Dessa, I had a wonderful sqaush crop last summer and for the second time we feasted on brassicas and chard this winter. I have just planted the squash again and they are germinating well. I plan to add beans once the last of the broccoli is harvested.
Great re-use of materials, those cattle tubs make wonderful planting tubs. I'd love to see what you've done with yours.
No advice on the poison ivy- that's one problem I am glad I don't have to deal with! Hopefully someone will help you with your dilema. It may be worth mentioning in a thread more weed control related than this one. Good luck!

My 1 acre property has a magnificent view overlooking a valley and stretching to the hills in the distance. Absolutely beautiful! But I stuggle to get hedges to establish as it's so hot in summer, the wind is dessicating, and in winter it roars in from the other side and nothing grows in between!. I've currently got a row of citrus I am hoping will eventually bush out to form a wind break to the north and I've got prickly pears to the south but it's slow going. As I only have an acre, I would prefer most of my trees to be food trees. Is there something fast growing that loves heat and dry conditions I can be planting as a nurse plant/temporary barrier?

Slightly off topic, but I thought I would share my trial of Ben Starr's method of using discard to make his bread.

My starter was a week old. I halved his recipe as I keep a very small amount in the fridge. I'm unsure of my hydration level as I eyeball additions and go more on texture. I followed the recipe weights exactly. My dough was slightly slacker than his but still workable. (in hindsight I should have taken photos as I went along.)
I put it in a bag at room temp for 12 hours, unfortunately mine leaked so I couldn't measure carbon dioxide build up.
I don't have any form of ovenware to create the dutch oven effect and because my dough was slighly more slack I didn't put it in the oven and then turn on the temp. I did the folding and pinching and 1/4 turn shaping. I used a mould, rested 40 min, tipped it onto a tray, slashed and baked at 220Cfor 20 min.
I'm happy with the results, tastes a bit salty on it's own, but I am a very light salter. I would be fine with unsalted butter to accompany a stew, soup or as toast.
I shall definitely be keeping a separate container in the fridge with my discards from my active starter to use in this way. Although still a long process, it is a simpler method to make a daily loaf, spur of the moment next day bread if you haven't thought to prep a levain and you don't need to do stretch and folds late at night!

Sandy Kemp wrote:I do it this way. Discard is available for cooking, but no waste.

Thanks for the link, very interesting video and I am keen to try this for everyday sourdough when I don't want a "holey" artisan loaf. I don't know why I like the holes, but I find the whole structure and mouth feel of a classic sourdough is different to my previously normal, spongy, heavier (failed) sourdough. Maybe this recipe will be a happy medium between lots of effort for a "poor" loaf and give a lighter result. I think I will try it tomorrow and share my results. It might not be as perfect as his as I know my hydration levels are lower than standard 100% it sounds like higher hydration levels are actually the problem-too much liquid to flour ratio.

I have been trying to bake a decent, airy sourdough for years. I usually get an edible loaf, but without the big holes I associate with sourdough. This year I did a lot of reading and found out that a lot of people don't let their starter mature enough before using it. One source said that the bacteria (responsible for ferment = tangy taste) develops quicker than the yeasts( responsible for rise) and you have to allow time for it to catch up otherwise you get a tangy loaf with limited rise. When I arrived in the UK in January, I collected my frozen starter from my mother and started feeding it. I must have fed it twice a day for at least 7 days! Halving every day before feeding, but it stayed flat with the brown liquid on top. Eventually I gave up and it languished on my worktop for a few days more. I happened to glance at it in passing and it was blooming. I divided and fed again and it doubled in 2 hours. It had never grown that quick before. Since then every loaf I have made has big holes! I don't bake all that often so I keep it in the fridge and halve and refresh once a week. If I am going to bake, depending on my schedule (I work nights), I will feed it at a rough ratio of 1;2;2 starter, flour, water and put it back in the fridge and go to bed. I don't weigh, I eyeball, my reasoning being sourdough was around before scales.... It's not runny batter, more like dropping consistency but does sink back to a level slowly. When I get up 8 hours later, I take it out and leave it at room temp for 2 hours to double in size. I remove most of it and refresh the bit left to a thickish batter which is somewhere between 1:1:1 and 1:2:2 and put it back in the fridge.

While in another feed I found a youtube channel all about plant propogation and care using things we all have on hand, not permies per se, but really helped me understand the needs of cuttings after rooting and getting them to establish properly. Lots of  knowledge there.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/@Miradasbiologicas[/youtube]