Lesley Verbrugge

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I hiked up a narrow trail to reach a high
school. Imagine! Teenagers learning permaculture principles, and I was their
lunch lady.  At first I served food from a box
but then they started clamoring for stinging nettle soup and
I had to warn them that the nettles don't go
anywhere tender, unless they've been cooked first. Their first assignment
was making nettle pie for principal Wheaton, but prankster Johnny
chanted "wheaton, sweet'n" and dumped a bunch of sugar in
a nearby wasps nest. Well, you can imagine the sheer
negligee the lunch lady was wearing, which made the wasps
giggle and titter, then go into swarming mode. They surrounded
the music teacher, huddled, then broke out into a rousing
, if a little buzzy and not well enunciated, round of
frisbee golf. They all could fly so they all won
the game. The students and scantily-clad lunch lady secretly
planned a surprise party for principal Wheaton with lots of
pie. Wheaton's love for pie was a mathematical constant, an
incredible 3.14--that's 3.14 pies per week--constantly. Never before
in the life of pie, was so much sliced by
a narcoleptic lunch lady and passel of permaculture students who
a text demanded my attention so I turned to look
at the view, while ignoring my phone. "This is the

dawning of the age of aquarius, the age of aquarius”

Received this as a Kickstarter reward.
Just wanted to say thank you for your generosity, it's much appreciated
Regards
Lesley and René
Sat on a rocket in Macronistan

Hi,
May I have a link please
Ta Muchly

Marisa Lee wrote:This is the year I'll ... And maybe I'll make capers from ox-eye daisy buds. Once I learn how to use a 'problem' plant, it bothers me less.

This thread and the one about the oxeye daisy has made me rethink both hostas and Daisies. I love the daisies, but they were taking over. Now I can't wait for the buds!! I posted a link in another thread, but here's a caper recipe for anyone who's interested!

eatweeds.co.uk oxeye daisy page

Short answer, yes you can make capers from Ox-eye daisies

Longer answer: How interesting to see this post, Last week I received my newsletter from Robin Harwood famous British forager of Eatweeds fame and it was all about Ox-eye Daisy
here's the link from the newsletter Eatweeds.co.uk with recipes!

Hi Anthony,

From Vid 2 of that series it seems you just need to know your sample size and your dilution rate then methodically track the objective over the slide log the life then extrapolate back. I found a science project worksheet but that only relates to bacteria. Once again, thanks, your question brought this up higher on my wishlist!

Regards
Lesley

Hi Anthony,

For some reason my post posted twice but here's that link for bacteria counting https://www.tmcc.edu/microbiology-resource-center/lab-protocols/soil-macromorphology

Best of luck!

I used your question as a web search and found this webpage (amongst other stuff which need a lab and agar agar plates!) and the first of four youtube vids

So what I've learned if I understood correctly is that if you want to count your bacteria, you need specialist equipment to sample, culture, count and then mathematically extrapolate from your results, which is not 'basic'! I have done it, years ago. If you know how to do the maths, you can count the life in a given sample size and extrapolate that.  If you want to observe the range of life in your soil, which will tell you quite a bit, that's easier and those videos will help.

Thanks for posting the question instead of just doing your own search, as this is something I've been meaning to explore for myself for a while.

paul wheaton wrote:

Lesley Verbrugge wrote:Hi Paul,

I backed the kickstarter and opted to donate physical books as I'm in europe, but seem to have missed the email where I could ask for a couple of ebooks for myself, is it too late?

Thanks
Lesley

pop over to the kickstarter support forum and we will make sure that you get exactly what you want

https://permies.com/f/441/skip-kickstarter

Many thanks Paul, I found them all in "Gifts I manage", wow I have a load of goodies, had no idea there was so much there. I must have missed the Skip book questionnaire as I wanted the printed copies to go to a good cause, as the shipping to Europe is so onerous. Not been well, so have an excuse for being dumb!  Thanks for another great kickstarter.