Michael Heath

What I would like to see and is something that I've kicked around creating, is, for lack of better words, a key-word index.  Basically, I have chicken, what are my chicken recipes, I have basil, what are my basil recipes.  I have tomatoes, what are my recipes that use tomatoes, and etc.  Especially helpful around harvesting time - I have an abundance of X, what can I make or do with that?  Possibly use it as a stretch goal?  Make it apply to the digital copies with links?  Example: I have chicken, look up chicken in the index, see all the recipes that use chicken, select one and click on the link to go to that recipe in the digital copy.

In addition, this sounds a lot like Carla Emery's book, but updated with pictures.  You might check in her old book to see if there are any things you might also like to include in yours.

Hello, Owen.
I am interested in finding about how to combat the mow every week mind-set.
Thanks,
Michael Heath

Elderberry.  This may be more of a bush, but they grow true from seed.  The birds help us plant them along the fence rows. (c8
 

Grow shrimp commercially, Grow flowers commercially, Solar batteries for a greenhouse, quick composting, Building a forest for beauty and wood products, growing grapes for juice and wine, sheep raising, sheep shearing, the list goes on and on...

Welcome John.  With regards to the person who asked about pruning elderberries.  They are almost like a weed here.  I cut them down yearly and they keep coming back.  The harvesting is where I need help.  Do you have to get all of the stem off?  That seems pretty tedious.  I have heard about using a comb to pull the berries off of the stems, but don't have any personal experience with that.  Can you eat them off the bush?
I have it in my mind that Elderberry stems/stalks are poisonous?  I make my elderberry syrup with dried elderberries, rose hips, cinnamon, echinacea powder, ginger and anise.  I take doses every hour or two (when I remember) when I feel the onset of a cold.  I timed it and it seems to cut down the course of a cold from 10 days to 7.  It doesn't seem like much, but I'd rather have those three days without a cold than with.  Also, elderflower sounds interesting, but I hate to pick the flowers because each flower picked will not produce a berry.

Grape vines.  

Get you some red wigglers and toss in there. (beasties also known as manure worms).  They'll help move that manure into compost quicker.
Michael

Don't know much about this personally, but I do remember concrete/cement roofs on my last visit to Bermuda.  At least it's a place to start.

I've gotta ask.  What do you do with mulberries?  Because they are so delicate, I assume they don't freeze, store or travel well and that's also why they don't join straw, black and rasp as the berries found in the local WallyMart.  I assume you juice them, but they seem sweet enough, that they wouldn't need much sugar and therefore not a candidate for jelly/jam/preserves unless you mix other berries with them (Traffic jam?).  Wine, perhaps?  At the risk of subverting this forum subject by turning it from harvesting to preserving, what do YOU do with them?

We have many mulberry trees.  The birds enjoy the fruit and sit on fences, and "deposit" the seeds, often with a bit of fertilizer to help it get started (c8.  Because they are so delicate, we harvest along with the majority by popping them in our mouths.  It helps keep the mowing moving along when you can get a treat every round.  We have a rather rare white mulberry tree (more like pink), I would think these berries would stain any white sheets much less.  Many's the mowing session I come in with purple fingers after passing under the standard mulberry trees.  That also means that shoes come off at the door to prevent carpet staining also.