marie-helene kutek

Greetings,
I’d willingly share my delicious cup of jo or is it joy, freshly ground with cardamom and pepper; no chili this morning.
Favourite?
The one that is available and currently being consumed.
One wall in the kitchen is a shelving unit with tens of jars of seeds, sticks, stems, pungent materials waiting to be used, freshly ground, and as suggested, sometimes warmed before use to bring out the heavenly scents.

I get herbs and spices either fresh from the garden, lacto-fermented to prolong shelf life and accentuate flavour, carefully dried, and of course there are the exotics- hmm. Lemon grass and ginger are on the go in pots, as is turmeric.
I’m glad somebody mentioned caraway which I consider like a European equivalent to cumin sort of thing.

And what about asafoetida reminiscent of gymnasia after hours, so stinky that it comes double-wrapped? The flavour is delicious when added to stews, soups or sauces.

A single favourite? Not possible.
A wonderful question thank you to dream of flavours and perfumes and no, I’m not going to prepare food just yet.
A lingering cough and cold call for a steam with eucalyptus, or thyme

Springy blessings from

Helloooo,
A couple of days ago, lots of rain, then, is it snowing? No. It was a major hail storm. A white out around the house.
Why talk weather when hair is the subject?
Well, therr has been no winter to speak of for several years. My Japanese mustard plants are  a treat for December, January and now February slugs.
In another post we shared our solutions for gastropod attack. Some say that they only eat damaged and weak plants, haha.
A possible means of protection is hair, not fleece, tried it.
Longer hair can be wound around stems to deter slugs and co. Hair smell could also discourage rabbits.
There’s fleece around fruit trees, as mulch, maybe keeps deer at bay, I see less damage on the trunks.it disappears with the passage of time, not my concern. I expect someone finds it useful.
I have wound hair on fruit trees, a labour of love and a game with the wind to see how q uickly the hair is sent on its way.
Have a good Sunday, I’m still coppicing with hedge laying to follow after a good strong coffee the sun is shining and blessings to us all
M-H

Hellooo,
Hosiery, pantyhose, tights, whatever, great insulation under trousers for boys and girls.
Many years of experience riding motorcycles in all weathers, with colleagues from all walks of life keen to be as comfortable as possible, get over the man thing!!!

I wear flip flops, sandal type things, nearly bare foot, pretty much all year, in rain and snow.

Socks: had an amazing pair of socks and mittens, gift from a Kiwi friend. They seduced me into wearing my ankle boots.
They are made of merino wool and possum fur. The ecowool.com site sings the praises of being nature friendly etc, don’t know if there is man made fabric in their construction.
They are still somewhere and it would be great to locate them.
It goes beyond the one sock that disappears in the washing machine.

I am observing the mountain opposite as the snow level is descending.
Warm blessings
M-H

Hello,
Great read thank you and sooo pleased that Ben, blade person, mentioned spit!!!
I thought that it a rare practice.
When  I’m out and about, harvesting candidates for grafting, using a scythe, I might give a blade a little edge and yes, I spit.
The whesstones  I use are in a box, different abrasion from frough to smooth. The box has cyrillic, Russian I believe, writing on it.
I also use an oil stone when at home.
For the chainsaws, I invested in a chepa and rather efficient gadget.
It’s all done by intuition and a blacksmith/cutlery friend does impart wise sharpening counsel.
Thank you all
For those in cold climes, let’s keep warm
Blessings with utmost immoderation, spelling mistakes and atray consonants
M-H

Hello there,

Sprinkling of snow  a couple of days ago and now sitting on terrace for coffee break, in the sun.

Potential material for FAQs, maybe.

Worst nightmare, having damp wood in winter. Follow all best practice for drying storing wood, yet with the monsoon type rain we have had, the split logs appear to absorb moisture.
I have a rolling system of having at least one or two days supply of wood on the rmh bench. It helps a bit.
Kindling is treated with extra respect.
Old timers do mention storing firewood in an upright position.

The bench  has never been warm; the sides yes but not the top? Possible why?
When the barrel was taken off last year, the chimney was covered in very very very fine ash.
The rmh pipes get regular vacuuming.
There was help with the cob during building the rmh and I suspect that more sand and water were in the mix to make the job easier.
I did show a sample of my cob mix which was certainly trickier to work with than what my mates produced.
They couldn’t understand why I was slower than them. Ah well.

Would an excess of sand affect heat capture and storage?

I am going to make a channel in the bench to replace some of the cob with my clay rich mix.
A Peter panel may also be on the cards.

I have read, with bulemic tendencies, loads of artcles about rmhs looking for solutions.
I have already increased the height of the’internal’ chimney in the barrel and will probably do so again.
(Will definitely use a barrel with a lid or a 2 barrel arrangement to facilitate access for cleaning and inspection, without having to disturb the masonry.)
It seems to have improved efficiency slightly.
It’s still a ways away from the performance expected.
Otherwise, The proportions, surface areas etc have all been respected as per the Wisner book.

A mate informed me that a couple of households reverted to using non rmh heating after mega disappointing experiences. Don’t know the why’s and wherefore’s. Surprising.

Forward and onward, with hope and courage to us all, and thank you,
Blessings from sunny and increasingly windy over here.

Hello,
Thank you for the inspiration.
Made a nest box a couple weekends ago. Will it join the bat boxes that are waiting to be placed in the right location.
It’s a long wait, I confess.
In the meantime, wrens constructed moss nests in nets hanging from the terrace ceiling( ceiling downstairs, floor upstairs). Whatever!
And members of the tit family, installed themselves in a silencer + exhaust that are resting whilst I decide what they might be used for other than feathered accommodation.

It’s t-shirt and shorts weather during the day, with eerie mists at dusk.
Skies are wonderfully clear, caught some shooting stars a couple of bights ago.

Not fun, rat squatters too close to the door. Hmm urgent action needed.
They are toofamiliar with traps and have been invited to leave.

Blessings to us all
M-H

Salut,

Here it’s horseradish - original plant decimated by slug attacks, I noticed a new plant in the woodpile, growing out between the slats of a palette.

It is a clear case of self preservation, perhaps learnt from reading in a previous existence.

I have had several experiences of careful planting with plants appearing somewhere quite different!?!

Blessings from here with weirdly changeable weather
M-H

Hello hello,

First, good thoughts and blessings to anyone feeling under the weather.
Amazing volume of wonderful advice, great choice, easier to find what is readily available.

Sambucus nigra, elder, is not the same as ground elder. Best to check to be sure if one is foraging.
Here, one is tall, the one to use, and ground elder is, yes, much shorter, closer to the ground.

Whilst in intensive care a couple of years ago with pulmonary embolism and very persistent cough, friends managed to smuggle in a bottle of peppermint essential oil.
This is a life saver for spasms, in my experience, once I started coughing, I coughed and coughed, until I started sniffing the oil. The relief was very quick, the coughing stopped.
Sniffed in each nostril, breathing in as deeply as possible.

I believe it is equally effective for gastric discomfort.

As a therapy, a steam bath might be helpful.

Thanks to al, for this valuable thread.
M-H

Hello, hooray, it’s raining and thunder is thundering and there is a sheet of whiteness in front of me.
It’s like a blank cinema screen with additional rain percussion.

Before the rain, I was harvesting scrofulous and agrimony. They deserve a mention because their names are simply wonderful.

The recalcitrant raspberries have already featured on permies.
They travel, they grow where theoretically they should not and can’t.
I have just picked a very reasonable amount of fruit from the canes that have installed themselves right next to a walnut tree which isn’t supposed to like company!?!
The raspberries have a carpet of wild strawberries which I picked a while ago.

What should one do with whatever?
Sometimes the answer is ‘not a lot’.
Most parts of the land under my stewardship get loving visits with comments like’well that’s interesting’.
There are moments of frenetic activity when someone’s wise words inspire action.

This year’s mad rains in spring, followed by heatwaves means that little housekeeping was possible.
Usually, I thin out the dried canes, shred them and put the shred back on the canes.
No watering, just compliments as I walk past. Not this year apart from the compliments.
The canes are surrounded by very tall grass.  
There appears to be no competition, everyone is doing nicely and the raspberry harvest will continue, more buds and flowers.

I wish us all well. I will enjoy the coolness with apricots and raspberries this evening.

There are many times when I just can’t help myself!!
Hello, salut,
Jalapenos - this ought to be on the recently publicised recipe forum but what the, no, what the heck.

Reading about chili coffee spoke to me. It’s a rotating staple here.
Sometimes it’s chili and sometimes it’s other spices as well.

A winter variation after hard graft outside, when we had cold winters, would be a hot hot cocoa:
Proper dark cocoa powder,
cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardamom, maybe star anise,
ground flaxseed whatever else you might fancy for super nourishment
liquorice root for a hint of sweetness,
all ground together with a very generous addition of chili,  from my whole dried stash,
then add boiling water and stir, maybe with a cordless paint mixer to avoid lumps.

It’s seriously filling, warming and can give you the pep to go back outside.

Jalapenos in cider vinegar; all the posts suggest delicious options, thank you.
All I need now is the peppers.
M-H