Marilyn Paris

I bought the electric Patriot shredder/chipper mentioned in that article. I bought it to shred leaves although it does do tree branches. I needed something to handle vast quantities of leaves. I put the leaves through twice and get confetti. The smaller the particle the quicker the leaves turn to compost. Less than one year instead of 3+ years. I got to plant in pure leaf mold this year. The beds were 18" deep of pure leaf mold. I'm telling you pure leaf compost (leaf mold) is the best compost.  It is better than barn litter, better than any compost I have ever made. You know how I know? I asked the plants. The health of the plants is amazing. Even my zucchini got no powdery mildew this year where they were planted in the leaf compost. All the other zucchiniplants did, even though I pruned all the lower leaves for better air circulation. It is as if they have a strong immune system when they are planted in the right environment.

It's almost that time of year when I will be going to town picking up hundreds of gallons of leaves left at the side of the road. I have to stay on it because the town has five trucks picking up leaves every day. I got 600 gallons last year. I'm going for 1000 gallons this year.

I bought the Fellowes Powershred 125Ci 100% Jam Proof 18-Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder (3312501)
It does not jam, it handles cardboard marvelously. I've used it a lot and had it for years. I am a diehard composter and worm farmer, and I needed something to handle big jobs. I paid $400. I see it is $583 now.

I also bought the  Fellowes 62MC 10-Sheet Micro-Cut Home and Office Paper Shredder with Safety Lock for Added Protection (4685101)
This one makes confetti. It handles cardboard but not the real thick stuff. I was delighted when I discovered it could handle cardboard. Thin cardboard like toilet rolls and paper towel rolls are a cinch. I paid $100, now it is $150.

Has anyone tried the vacuum sealer bag method? I discovered it just in time for all my cherry tomatoes turning ripe right now. What a time saver and absolutely delicious. No jars are needed until it is done. Then you pack it into jars, seal and refrigerate for up to a year they tell me on youtube. Extra juice that doesn't fit into the jar can go into a bean stew or something that needs salt. Here is the method.
Cut tomatoes in half. Add 2.5% salt and mix well. You need a gram scale for this. I fill vacuum sealer bags half full and vacuum seal just before the juice starts coming up that would interfere with the seal. You can stack the bags on shelves. In four or five days, the bags blow up like a balloon. It is done. Strain, pack into jars, and top off the jars with the brine you strained out. Refrigerate. Oh, and don't forget to chop up a clove or two of garlic for each bag.
I've done with this zucchini plain and also adding in onions, peppers and spices. It's all good.
I've had no failures so far. So yesterday I got confident and processed five gallons of beets. The recipe was a pound of beets cut into small cubes, two cloves of garlic, a candy onion, bay leaf, six peppercorns, and a chopped green pepper. I suspect it will take closer to a month for it to be done, as it does for the zucchini. We shall see.
The wild fermentation discussion forum says this works for anything. So you simply weigh your vegetables in grams and multiply by .025 for the salt. Or somewhere between 2 and 3 percent. I never knew the correct amount of salt to add when I was doing the jar method with air locks. This takes the guesswork out of it.

I have wormed my goats with Basic H for decades. I have seen live tapeworms pass the next day. I don't always see worms pass. Within a week everyone has a glossy coat. If I remember to give it to them once per month all summer, they stay in excellent physical condition with beautiful coats. It is good to give the mother Basic H water the day she freshens. I give my goats 1 teaspoon per gallon of water. This is the only water they get to drink for 24 hours. I use it any time. I don't have to dump milk. It works mechanically, not chemically, so worms are never resistant. I copied the dosage below off the internet in case you have a large herd.

"Measure out Classic Basic H for the animal you are trying help eliminate worms. For cows, use 1 cup per 100 gallons of water or 1/8 cup per 20 gallons of water. For smaller animals like goats and sheep the dosage needs to be smaller. Measure out 6cc. or use 2 drops per 10# of animal weight."

I have never used the small dose. I give the dose Joel Salatin gives his cattle once per month. Classic Basic H (the blue one) is still available. I mix one teaspoon per gallon of water.

I have never given my goats a chemical wormer. I tried herbal wormers in the past and also DE. Neither worked like I hoped. Basic H works every time. When people visit my farm they always comment how healthy the goats look. Keeping their worm load down is a big part of it.

I've been popping sections out of the paper of my black garlic and munching on them for snacks. I never thought I'd be eating garlic like this.

My black garlic is done! I vacuum sealed every bulb and my house did not smell like garlic at all the whole time it has been in my Excalibur these last three weeks. It tastes very sweet and chews like a gummy bear.

Mike--I read the Dr. Axe article. He says you can use a rice cooker. I suppose I could use my Instant Pot and when I want to use the Instant pot remove the garlic for a couple hours while my beans cook. What are the details how you are making your black garlic? Are you peeling it first? Are you using a rice cooker? How are you keeping the humidity high?

thanks. Marilyn, who is going to have more than a hundred pounds of garlic for sale for the market starting in August. I've been thinking of ways to preserve it in case it doesn't all sell as fresh cloves. Powdered black garlic is one idea. I wonder what anyone else here would do with a hundred pounds of garlic that didn't sell. So far I only thought of making garlic powder. Black garlic powder sounds very exotic.

They lost their growth factor. It doesn't take very much neglect for this to happen. All it takes is for them to stay in the same solution for a day or two longer than they can stand and then boom, they are pickled and you're done. They may continue to make water kefir but don't grow.

Another thing is that just like kombucha, the scoby grows the most toward the end of the cycle. So you will not see growth if they are not completing their cycle. That said, you cannot restore growth if the growth factor is already fried as you found out.

This is supposed to be a one time purchase but I replace them all the time. People go on vacation and want to know how to store them. Well that's like storing a dog. Don't feed the dog while he is in the refrigerator for a week and guess what? No, you take the dog with you or find a sitter. People aren't going to do that with something like kefir grains. It is easier for them to reorder.

I just thought of two other reasons water grains can lose their growth factor. One is in your control and the other one out of your control. Soap residue. Not everyone uses Dawn dish soap. You are asking for trouble if you change what you use to wash the dishes. Dawn is safe. The other reason could be cross contamination with other brews you have going in the same area. Yeast can coat the scoby and you are done. Different yeasts abound from kitchen to kitchen whether you are brewing or not. I'm guessing it was not your fault. But there is definitely a reason.  I only try to trouble shoot putting the customer through the inquisition when he wants to try it again. This is supposed to be a one time purchase.

This shelf changes from week to week according to what micro greens I am growing and have already eaten. What I want you to notice is how big the lettuce got in the back in just two weeks. This is Kratky hydroponics, no pumps or electricity needed.

Also notice the small two ounce cups in front. The small cup on the right has cress micro greens, which is a bit spicy. The small cup with the pink stems is radish. Radish micro greens are very spice. Think a radish X 10. I do not want so much radish flavor in my salad but I want some. I do not need a whole big tray of radish micros because I do not want to harvest a partial container. I want to harvest the whole tray every time. With this method, the container can be any size.

Here is the experiment that inspired the bread recipe trial.

This is what happens when you don't leave enough headspace in a soy milk water kefir grain recipe. This takes the expression "Your water kefir grains recipes will come alive" to a new level. So funny. Here is what I did the night before.

I blended 1/4 cup water kefir grains with 2 cups of soy milk and 2 tablespoons of sugar. That's it. The idea was to get a smooth pudding. In the past I left the water grains in there whole for something to chew. It got fermented but it didn't do this! The taste is lovely. Not too sour, not too sweet.

The container on the left was made the same way but with home-made peanut milk. I made savory oat muffins with the pulp.

The last time I blended soy milk with water grains I put it into a container that holds 8 cups. Two cups rose up past five cups overnight! At least it didn't go over. I'm having way too much fun experimenting with my oodles of extra water kefir grains.