Tereza Okava

I have heard local organic/permie figures talk about ant control using the mold that grows on oranges.
It so happens that I have some leafcutter ants in my garden that are eating only my beloved winged beans (not cool, ants: last year wasn't warm enough for the winged beans and I really want them this year).
I also have a husband who eats 3+ oranges every day, so I buy large quantities and there's usually a moldy one or two.

The general line is to take a moldy orange or two and blend it in a blender with a liter of water.
Leave that ferment for a few days, then mix it with rice grits (used to make porridge here) and let it dry in the sun, this can then be stored and used over time.

I missed the part about the fermentation, and had no rice grits so used cornmeal instead (which I do have and the ants tend to enjoy). I mixed it up with about half a kg of cornmeal, it is currently a paste type situation and is out on the back porch drying out to crumble up and store.

Once it's dry, the idea is to put it near the plants and the ants carry it back to their home, where it outcompetes the fungus that grows on their cut leaves and forms their main food source. The suggestion is to usually put it in a bamboo tube so it stays dry, i don't have any bamboo so we'll just sprinkle it around the base of the plants during dry spells.

I will report back as the process continues.
Anyone else try this?

I also freeze cubes of lemon juice when i have too many lemons, and cubes of ginger juice when my husband makes his candied ginger (there are lots of peels left over, I run them through the juicer and freeze the juice for later use, usually in Japanese cooking). I also have some turmeric-lemon-pepper cubes for tea, some small-cupcake sized cubes of curry paste (size right for one batch of curry) and tomato paste, and large one-cup cubes of caramelized onions, mashed banana, and usually anko (red bean paste), although I recently used my stock of this latter to make holiday treats.
I think i also have cubes of canned chipotle chilis in adobo, they are something i can only find when i travel abroad and I stretch them out over years, a little in salsa here and there.

I honestly have so much in my freezer that most of the time it's a losing proposition trying to fit anything else in there.

if your yard is fenced, i'd wonder if you could borrow a dog (or a friend with a dog) for a few days. even if the fence is not conducive or the dog not trustworthy to just scare and not kill the chickens, you could just "happen to be walking" the dog at typical chicken time, which might change their mind about your yard being fair game.

thanks for sharing!!
fruit crate is a very interesting idea and one that is accessible at this time of year (I was just at the wholesale market last week and saw a bunch of them). bonus i would get to involve Mr Okava, who has a box full of tools itching to play.... we have a similar situation out on the porch, maybe this can become a group effort/competition?

Nathanael Szobody wrote:Onion kraut

that sounds superb!! never too many ferments in this house....

i found myself in a Situation last week where I bought myself 15 pounds of onions that were practically free but not the best quality, so I have a challenge ahead of me now (and some interesting smells coming from the pantry).
Over the weekend, I caramelized a crockpot full, which then became onion/tomato jam (which was lovely, another batch will get made this weekend). Some more were caramelized and went into the freezer for future culinary me.

But I still have a crapton left!
I'm going to pickle some (Jay's delightful quick pickle recipe here, I think https://permies.com/t/184278/pickling-recipe#1457496 ), and today I'm going to make onion bhajis and onion curry for my dinner.
Usually the rule in my kitchen is "throw an egg on it" but this week everything is "throw an extra onion in it"...

(there is a great onion soup recipe, maybe from Alice Waters, that is basically "roast a truckload of onions for a full day and blend them and voilá". It does make the best onion soup I've ever had, but it caused the most amazing gastric distress afterward, to the extent that I've never dared to make that recipe --or any other onion soup-- again! so onion soup is out, LOL)

Jay Angler wrote: 3 or 4 cup hooks in the ceiling that you gently wiggle the finished shade onto, would be what I would try. T

I keep thinking about this, which makes me think there's something promising here. The ceiling is poured concrete, and the fixture is one of those standard socket things shown below, but it's not porcelain so I think it would be easier for me to modify it than to get hooks into the concrete. In fact maybe the frame, if I could find myself some sheet metal, could go underneath the socket (which is screwed flush to the ceiling)?
going to chew this over all day today...

So far my limitation is a frame (making or finding), and then I think the form will follow.
We don't have charity shops for housewares like in north America, unfortunately, only for used clothes, otherwise I'd go looking for a lamp.
I have been looking at paper lanterns, which are something I could mail order if nothing else works out.
But walking some serious mileage with the dog lately I do come across lots of weird trash on the side of the road. It's storm season and I'm seeing lots of junked umbrellas.... I'm thinking that may offer a frame solution. Will report back once I find a starting point!!
Thanks for brainstorming with me!!!

I am not a fan of drip coffee maker coffee (tastes nasty), nor keurigs (like you say, great for one cup or for folks who need assistance, but i find it wasteful and also no space on my counters for another device).
my husband and daughter do pour-over every day for themselves (we have big and small fabric filters for a whole pot or just a cup) but I have gotten attached to my tiny moka pot when I want a cup (maybe once a week, I'm more of a tea person) or make cold brew (in the fridge, pour it through a strainer like tea).

In a hallway i have a bare lamp in a standard light bulb socket fixture on my ceiling, the kind where the light bulb points straight down toward the floor.

I've seen a wooden lampshade or cover type thing for sale that just goes over the bulb, but the cheapest one is 30$ plus shipping so I'm thinking of making one of my own.  Crochet seems like a good possibility.
I'm thinking I might be able to rig up some sort of wire collar/frame around the light bulb that extends outward where yarn could go, or maybe some type of frame that I might be able to attach to the fixture on the ceiling (?)?
I wonder if anyone's done anything similar or has any great ideas?