Melissa Ferrin

I have a place in my house that is a high ledge, and my husband is fairly insistent on the idea of having trailing plants up there that hang down. I admit they'll look great. But we live in Mexico and have our house cleaned by a cleaner. Part of her duties is watering the house plants. I do not want to make her get a ladder out and climb up there to water plants. I'd be willing to take on the watering duties or assign them to one of my teens but no more than once a week because of the aforementioned need for a ladder.

I remember seeing ads for self-watering pots, are they any good? can I make something along those lines? I live in a semi-rural area so we don't have a big modern garden center to buy all kinds of pots/planters, I can of course order something online, but if I can make it myself, I'd prefer to do that.

The plants would likely be pothos or possibly a trailing succulent to minimize watering?

Melissa Ferrin wrote:
I was thinking about that too, if he could get onto some channel that was hosting an event. I also suggested him as an interviewee I'd like to hear on a couple of long format interview podcasts I listen to. I would be great if a bunch of permies could do the same.

For example:
Armchair Expert
On Being (a stretch but it would be so awesome!)
WTF with Marc Maron
Diary of a CEO
Vox Conversations
The David Chang Show
Here's the Thing with  Alec Baldwin
The Jordan Harbinger Show
Without Fail with Alex Blumberg
And I often see people mention Joe Rogan (I can't stand him so I don't listen to that--but I know many people do so it's worth a shot.

Actually, if someone with some money to spend could send the Better World book to the hosts of these podcasts that would probably also be helpful.

Monica Truong wrote:Reading this thread and having just listened to podcast 645 - The Big Spend, an idea occurred to me....Maybe Paul could use the hypothetical $500 000 to spread more info about permaculture during Earth Day. He is, of course always spreading info, infecting brains, but how about a more concerted effort in his local area, during an internationally recognized event, to bring real nubes in on the possibilities of permaculture to revolutionize the world.

I was thinking about that too, if he could get onto some channel that was hosting an event. I also suggested him as an interviewee I'd like to hear on a couple of long format interview podcasts I listen to. I would be great if a bunch of permies could do the same.

For example:
Armchair Expert
On Being (a stretch but it would be so awesome!)
WTF with Marc Maron
Diary of a CEO
Vox Conversations
The David Chang Show
Here's the Thing with  Alec Baldwin
The Jordan Harbinger Show
Without Fail with Alex Blumberg
And I often see people mention Joe Rogan (I can't stand him so I don't listen to that--but I know many people do so it's worth a shot.

These are all non-permaculture podcasts where the host really digs into the projects and thoughts of the guest. They would get ideas heard to a much much wider audience. In my experience, things slowly stop being "radical impossible ideas" when you start hearing about them in all kinds of places.

Thank you you are brilliant!
I think I will try the shot glass--narrow jar--I have a few rather narrow jars olives came in that I think I can fit inside the mouth of the other jars. and I can put a stone inside if it seems like it needs a bit more weight.

I want to try my hand at fermenting.
I live in a small town in southern Mexico and of course, there's delivery nearly everywhere on the planet now--but I'd like to use something local as my weight to hold the ferment below the brine rather than order online because 1) because that's the green thing to do and 2) this is my first foray into fermenting and I'm notorious at abandoning hobbies so it could also be my last.

If it depends on what I'm fermenting. There's a local red onion plus habanero pepper that is usually preserved in vinegar. My husband loves this so I thought I'd try a fermented version because we currently only rarely eat anything fermented and I'm looking to add some fermented foods into the family diet.

Can I use a rock? I assume it has to be something non-reactive, so not metal, and maybe not just any old kind of rock. I can find chunks of marble where I live that are about the size of the glass fermenting weights I saw on YouTube.  Would that work? I have a couple of very very small ceramic plates from Japan that will probably fit inside the mouth of a wide-mouth jar? But is that heavy enough? A shot glass? Is that wide enough to hold down the onion and pepper slices?

Feel free to jump in with any other bits of advice as well.

My kids used the Dragonbox apps, I just went to look them up and they are know a Kahoots company.
https://dragonbox.com/

Back when my kids were small (they are now 19,19 and 14) they used Big Numbers, Algebra 5+, Algebra 12+, and Elements which were at that time the only ones developed. They are excellent. My husband is a mathematician and he agreed with me at the time.
The 19-year-olds are now in uni, one is studying applied mathematics, and the other design engineering.  At this point the 14-year-old is interested in math and electrical engineering, he is also an accomplished musician, and math and musical understanding go hand in hand.

Freezing is probably the least time-intensive food preparation method. So if you have time to can, dehydrate, or whatever your harvest then good on you! don't get a freezer. But if you have electricity, and you are short on time--maybe you do a worky job like I do, or maybe you are busy establishing your homestead, or just doing a lot of other things. Freezing food can seriously save you time. Some people are time rich and others are time poor. Decide which you are.

greg mosser wrote:melissa, just to be clear, when you go from the soaking/cleaning to the rolling pin, are the seeds still wet from soaking?

Yes, and you are not pushing hard with the rolling pin so as to crush the seeds. Though mostly this is done to eventually grind the seeds so many people don't worry about that. But if you want to roast shelled seeds for a snack the rolling pin should crack the shells without crushing the seeds.

It's well-known in Mexico that they are antiparasitic and in fact, most people around where I live grow winter squash, especially for the seeds. They cut them open remove the seeds, then toss the flesh to the cows. The kind like you pictured you can easily eat the shells, it helps get some extra fiber in you too to help move those intestinal parasites out. One trick for mas shelling them--before roasting (for example there is a lovely green sauce called pipian made with ground pumpkin seed, is the following.
1, soak in water to wash and remove pumpkin pulp.
2, crush them gently with a rolling pin--not hard enough to crush the insides.
3, boil for just a minute or two
4, cool and strain
5, peel and leave to dry

You can also toast them this way, you will often find them peeled in Mexican peanut snack mixes.

Phil Stevens wrote:The hand cranked mills like the Victoria and the Corona are for wet nixtamalized corn. They are almost identical to a meat grinder. Trying to do dry flint corn in one of these would be torture for the contraption and the person doing the work.

I put a small amount of flint corn in with my wheat when I'm using the stone mill to make flour. This works OK as long as the ratio is at least 20:1, but trying to grind corn alone really punishes the machine so I don't do it.

Every year for the last ten I have ground a couple of kilos of dried corn in my grinder like the one pictured above. It comes completely apart for cleaning and I have not noticed it becoming any worse for the wear--of course a couple of kilos, so not more than 5 pounds of corn meal. I'm actually better for the grinding--arms of steel!