Christopher Weeks

master gardener

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since Jun 24, 2018

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Biography

I steward 20 acres of Cromwell Sandy Loam in the north woods of Minnesota. I clear birch and aspen as needed to plant food sources.

I always have more projects going than I can keep up with which isn't really awesome but I don't know what to change.

I vote for Libertarians and Socialists because they know what it means to have principles and that matters more to me than the exact details of what they believe in. I'm a gun-toting vegetarian. I write code for cash and grow food because no amount of cash will buy real food these days.

I have a wife, two kids, two grandkids, and three cats. I've never had a dog, but I'm thinking about changing that. I hike, garden, read, play games, code, cook, spin and knit, putter, and play at arting.

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Carlton County, Minnesota, USA: 3b; Dfb; sandy loam; in the woods

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Recent posts by Christopher Weeks

Making a traditional wool-stuffed mattress - first catch your sheep!

I'm going to come back and watch it more carefully when I have more time, but even giving it 15 minutes and skipping around was great. (I do wish the translation were better -- I noticed lots of places where it just left words off.) We just bought an industrial mattress for our guest room and I considered making one, but decided that I didn't really have the time and couldn't half-ass it the way I could if I was the only one using it. Does it talk about how long a mattress like that will last?

3 hours ago

iberia

What's for Dinner?

Roasted sesame green beans, mashed potatoes with portobello gravy, two vegan roasts, cranberry conserve. Apple pie and ice cream is waiting till later and maybe till breakfast.

14 hours ago

meaningless drivel

The great big thread of sunchoke info - growing, storing, eating/recipes, science facts

Gordon Blair wrote:From what I've read, humans can't digest inulin, period. Would building up a tolerance just mean happier and more gastric bugs, but not calories for the human..

That’s a trillion-dollar crop, if so! Tastes good, satisfies your hunger, and doesn’t cause weight-gain?!? Maybe it just hasn’t been marketed right.

18 hours ago

perennial vegetables

The great big thread of sunchoke info - growing, storing, eating/recipes, science facts

Gordon Blair wrote:If I have a good source of acid (lemon juice is generally said to be ideal) to cook the sunchokes in, that can help, but in a survival situation, I would need to come up with a LOT of it if sunchokes are my main staple?

Paul says they don’t bother his gut anymore. I haven’t ever eaten enough to reach that, but I also don’t mind farting. As for acid, I think you can generate bulk vinegar low-tech about anywhere.

1 day ago

perennial vegetables

Happy Thanksgiving! Best Wishes!

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow UScians!

I’m thankful that the snow finally came — three weeks late, but it made up for it with volume!

1 day ago

meaningless drivel

Preventing Wear and Tears in Clothes

I don't wear socks around the house. I go barefoot when it's not icy or wear slippers. I used to wear through my socks all the time. I also roll up or hem my pants so that I don't tread on the cuffs. I'm not sure that one really matters, but it seems like the right thing to do.

I wonder if you could paint the particle board with molten beeswax or something to fill all the declivities in the rough surface.

1 day ago

repair

What makes a village a village?

I think a village is a place where you know everyone else who lives there.

(Even if you're as socially awkward as I am.)

1 day ago

village

Help me make my first good pickle - with Rutabaga

Bubbles and froth are fine, but if some produce floats up or a waxy pelicle forms, mold is a likelihood, so I’d suggest spooning it off the top.

Also, if you’re comfortable disrupting the top, I always suggest to new fermenters that they should taste their produce every couple of days as it ferments, just to get a sense of how it’s developing.

2 days ago

fermentation

Planting my first flax bed!

I've pulled and sorted about 2/3 of the planted bed. I guess I'm going to test how flax does left in the ground under the snow -- maybe that's how Minnesota retting works.

I didn't count, so this is just impression, but I think that more than 80% of the plants (roots, not stalks) that I pulled went into the straight pile and only 20% or so went into the bushy pile. But if I harvest and mix seeds from all of them together, I bet the bushy pile would account for 60% or more of the seeds. Though I'm only basing that on done-looking bolls. I've noticed that when I open some of them I don't find any seeds.

3 days ago

projects

Obsessed with these beautiful English hedges (1940s England)

Burra Maluca,
I have merged your topic into this topic. I hope that helps.

3 days ago

plants