Stacy Witscher

Whether or not your economic activity is profitable depends largely on your government tax structure. It's looks like you are in Peru, I would think that the tax structure varies from the US. Personally I avoid taxable income, I prefer side jobs, barter, etc. Given that, I don't like to get into details online. I prefer to look at economic success as what works for you as opposed to a dollar yearly income. To my mind if you are valuing things in a traditional capitalist mindset, you might be in the wrong place, but that's just me. It seems that others here feel differently, maybe their advice would suit you better. Best wishes.

I had a baby that wouldn't take a bottle as did a friend. We nursed each others children when needed. I thought that it would be weird, but it wasn't. A baby was hungry and needed feeding. It felt completely natural. My grandson wouldn't take a bottle, even if it was breast milk. I fed him food until his mother came home. He was over 6 months at this point though. Sometimes I would dribble water into his mouth if necessary.

That being said, I've always heard that goats milk or ewes milk was much better for babies than cows milk, and the less processed the better.

My cousin has purchased farmland in Vermont via some kind of deal for future farmers. It's lovely because they probably wouldn't have been able to otherwise, previously they had just leased. There are options available for those who look.

Jeff - I completely agree with you. As I think I've mentioned elsewhere, most permies singles ads seem to be people who have land and want another to join them. It's like the opposite of a gold digger. Or it's people who aren't currently living a permies lifestyle but have some idyllic view of it. It's lovely when that works out but seems improbable. For me, I put myself out there just in case it works out, but I'm fine either way.

I think that organizing a cookbook based on cooking techniques, e.g. haybox, sunoven, pit, cob oven, etc. would be great. And adding in preservation techniques works.

To be honest, I haven't looked into PEP stuff too much. I'm kinda OCD and I can see it ending badly for me. Harkens back to compulsive Girl Scout stuff for me. But I look into it more.

I classify beet greens, chard and spinach as mild and tender. Typically I steam them lightly, then toss with butter. Whereas kale, brassica greens and collards I classify as bitter and tough. They get braised for about 1/2 hour with some fat, liquid and acid.

While I have no problem with land that has been burned, to my mind the American south and especially the SW is going to become largely uninhapitable. Where I live in the PNW, previously burned land won't burn again in the near future, making it prime real estate. Others may disagree but such is life.

Goats, goats, goats. Every discussion I've ever been involved with, the best solution to invasive blackberries has been goats. Yearly intervention with goats.

Catie - I lived in an area with a strict HOA. It wasn't strict when we moved there, but new people got involved and cracked down on things and added new restrictions including no fruit trees in the front yard. Thankfully they couldn't make you remove existing fruit trees. I hid all kinds of edibles in my front yard, lots of herbs, 4 fruit trees, sorrel. Most people had no idea that it was food. Many people in the area had fruit trees that they didn't harvest from at all and appreciated strangers "cleaning up" the fruit. So glad to have left there, no one should be forbidden to grow food.

Jenny - Camassia are bulbs. They likely produce seed, but it will take years to get a flower from them. You can purchase bulbs from bulb companies like Scheepers.