Ra Kenworth

There is a saying that a good soup is inherited.

In winter, I buy food once monthly so the fresh vegetables go into a soup or stew within days. I keep it vegetarian to ensure it's safe when boiled up daily on a rapid boil.

Once I'm sick of it, I will pile it into used containers and lock it away outdoors where animals can't get at it, and it doesn't need a freezer because it's cold enough outdoors in winter. All those containers go together labeled and dated.

So I tend to have a cruciferous based soup, a root veg soups, squash based soups, and I can pick and choose from these assorted popsicles and make a stew out of the soup bases, adding lentils or peas without having to go through the soaking required with beans, or, I add cooked frozen beans. Cooked meat gets added last if any.

I really enjoy salsa based food as well, so a favorite thing I do is slow cook meat in salsa before freezing which helps prevent freezer burn.

Before springtime I start sorting out what is going in the freezers.

I have discovered frozen baked peas in bone broth and beans baked in salsa that were 18 months old and still as good as the day they were frozen.

Nate Magee wrote:
When backpacking with shower access, would wash once with clothes on than take off, wash the body and then rinse and twist and spin clothes and hang overnight to dry.

I use my gym showers more than the equipment especially when my hair needs pressure washing and I do the same with clothes washing but I get two complimentary towels and once I'm done with them, I place the wringed out clothes inside the towels then twist and twist until I have a tight pretzel which rings out a lot more water. Then if I have time, the clothes sit in the sauna too while I take a class or two. The socks and undies dry on the dash afterwards!

I still wash most of my clothes by hand and when on vacation I hand wash and drip dry over the tub. I bring along extra bungee cords I suspend over the tub, and leave them for cleaning staff with the tip and extra flashlights and batteries when I pack up. (My son takes me to Cuba)

When we lived up north and walked everywhere and no laundry in the building, I used an expandable rack in the tub and didn't bother wringing too much.

I make use of a laundromat 2-6 times yearly and have done this for decades: go when it's quiet and practically fill all the machines with blankets and thicker clothing.

Edit: I still use the tub for soaking clothes after a bath (when the water is still clean, agitating with squeaky clean feet!) and also for hand washing any large items, then collect the gray water for flushing down the septic tank, then hang the items to drip dry on the clothes rack right in the bath, then do a couple of rinses, reusing that water as a prewash for soiled items like floor rags / dirty socks. I've been hand washing for over 40 years -- even hand washed the diapers way back.

Last year by accident I grew a whole patch of summer squash that was supposed to be winter squash, but it was scallop squash and it endured all winter and it's still good. This has amazed me. I grate the exterior and cook it up with the homemade dog food before using up the innards, freezing the seeds and flesh together in a used paper envelope and placed in the freezer door with almost all my other seeds I save.

I hope this tip is helpful for those like me who rely heavily on squash to bulk up homegrown food.

I am guessing skirrit might grow well on my partially decomposed used hay bales? I am going to give them a try.

I sprout brown and yellow domestic mustard, daikon radish, peas, and buckwheat. The yellow mustard I can buy in the bulk food store in the spice section, the brown at the Indian market store, yellow peas at a commercial outlet for about twice what John pays, or, field peas at the feed store (they make better sprouts), and buckwheat in the sprouting section at the organic store if I can't find them at the feed store. Daikon radish I can usually get from the feed store that's a little further away and stocks cover crops -- by far the cheapest option other than growing my own seeds. Typically I keep back some seeds to plant each spring (and some of my sunflower and corn seeds) and buy them. But if they get too hard to find, I can grow my own, however, a little goes a long way, so I haven't grown from seed since I had trouble finding buckwheat which incidentally is super easy to grow, and I don't bother with groats at all -- I eat the sprouts and greens.
I have also sprouted wild carrots. Both them and buckwheat are best grown in peat moss.
My yellow pea sprouts taste fine.
I've tried to increase my yield of nasturtium seeds but never succeed and they are very expensive -- I'm in Quebec just an hour north of the capital.

I typically peel any tough parts and freeze as 3/8" disks and wait until the berries appear to process it. In order to get a longer season, I planted more in the shade a few years ago.

I usually add mine cooked up to apple crumble and directly with yogurt or solid kefir. Also as rice pudding and occasionally in bread pudding (usually made in a spring form pan) or fill a crêpe with some for breakfast and anything else that might be worth experimenting with. I have some jars of Christmas"mincemeat" to use up (a syrupy raisin mix for tarts).

I have copied the fermentation and chutney recipes and will certainly try the ferment with my airlock mason jar lids that aren't being used currently! I love ginger! Being a zero waste fanatic, I steep the ginger peelings in a crock pot for tisane, often with peeled limes or lemons, and often with rhubarb.

I just had my first raw leaf of rhubarb today -- the leaf end was super sweet and the butt end beside the cap was excruciating!! I usually eat a raw leaf every day.

-- things are only just sprouting out of the ground and asparagus is under 3" (my 2 year old asparagus from berries is only 1/2"-1" ) so I am probably behind the rest of you in Quebec, but we are enjoying an almost bug free Spring, and I saw my first bumblebee today!

I used to be a type 1, but really it was my state of mind. But now I have reached a higher level of tranquility, I think I'm a type zero: quite happy to plod along at my own pace, making the world a better place in my own small way.

It's okay Bob you have come to the right place to do a bit of moaning. It must be awfully depressing right about now. Really depressing actually.

Burra! That's amazing! Thank you so much! It really does look like the image shown from the Phillipines, and being native to Africa, makes perfect sense!

Have some wonderful Permies "phoenix" pie on me (a renewable resource)!!

Excerpt from wikipedia:
"Calabash (/ˈkæləbæʃ/;[2] Lagenaria siceraria), also known as bottle gourd,[3] white-flowered gourd,[4] long melon, birdhouse gourd,[5] New Guinea bean, New Guinea butter bean, Tasmania bean,[6] zucca melon and opo squash, is a vine which is grown for its fruit. It belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae, is native to tropical Africa, and cultivated across the tropics.[1] It can be either harvested young to be consumed as a vegetable, or harvested mature to be dried and used as a kitchen utensil (typically as a ladle or bowl), beverage container or a musical instrument. When it is fresh, the fruit has a light green smooth skin and white flesh."