craig howard

First, congrats on writing a book.
Huge accomplishment.

I'm finding it's often the case that people who like to control others are covering for their lack of self control.
They lack the actual ability to control themselves.

They don't have the self-control required to write their own book.
And you do.
"You should" write a book about that haha, kidding.

I light my gas stove burners with a bic sparker, along with my propane torch.
I see ewetube videos where they screw fill nozzles from paintball guns into the lighter to make it a refillable lighter.

Just want to add that you might want to plant some scallion seeds too.
They come up earlier, they produce bunches and can be picked all summer.
And they can handle the cold so I still have some in the ground, growing well.
You can even put some in dirt, take them in the house, set them next to a cold window and cut tops from them in winter

I just put them in a cup of dirt. They grow like grass and I separate them to plant them.
I thought; plant one scallion and you get one scallion.
But one scallion plant will turn into a bunch of scallions.

I didn't even plant onions this year, just scallions.
But next spring I will probably start onion seeds in a cup of dirt too.
Onions and scallions take a while to get big enough to plant so are one of the early things, they grow slow and can be started in January.

My buddy called it sweet cider and said if I keep it going longer it will become hard cider.
It is still sweet tasting, though not as sweet as the apple juice was.

There is enough fizz that I can't just open the bottle.
If I did it would fizz over.
Have to let some air out then let the foam settle.

So Nancy, you got some use out of the pulp too?
To make apple cider vinegar?
A sugar brine is probably just what it sounds like, a salt and sugar water mix.
What are the proportions or how do you make it?
There is quite a bit of pulp, it's still very wet even after being pressed for hours.
I would like to use it for apple cider vinegar.
Someone told me they made apple cider vinegar from peelings but didn't mention a brine sugar solution.

Apple cider vinegar sounds like another step down this road, I don't drink alcohol so hard cider isn't part of the plan.

The county gave our town a bunch of apple trees, about 20.
Most of them made it and they were full of apples this year.
Cortland, Braeburn and honey crisp.
Braeburns didn't produce much and many were picked before they were ready
The honey crisp got destroyed by japanese beatles and other bugs.
That kept them away from the cortlands. Which turned out great.
There was a bunch of apples left over at the end of the season.
Another friend had too many grany smiths and a mystery tree had a bunch of sweet/tart fruit that made great apple crisp.

Many were sliced/frozen but there were too many for that, so I made apple juice for the first time.

My buddy had a 3 gallon Juicy Fruit apple press that had sat for 10 years, he lent me.
Another buddy had a small electric meat grinder that he hadn't used in 10 years.
I spent a few hours chopping them up pretty small and running them through the meat grinder.

Then pressed the juice out and put it in bottles.
Had to just press a little, then go back and give it another twist every 15 minutes or 1/2 hour.
Out of about 1 1/2,  5 gallon buckets. I got a little over 1 gallon.
Left a couple bottle out on the counter for about 9 days in the semi cold kitchen.
And we tried some today.  It was fizzy and sooo nice.
I thought the apple juice was great, but the cider really is a nice drink.

Working on a second batch, ran out of Cortlands but found some big sweet yellow apples.
That one has another tree growing from the root, with small, red tart, hard apples.
And I can still get some more granny smith apples.
I go through some fresh ginger and trim the tough parts off. Made some tea with the ends and added that.
It's not as good as juice from the first batch but the added ginger makes it nice.
I think it will make good cider to share with my friends.

I'll take some pictures to add to this post.
I can get more grannys, yellows and little hard reds, might make another batch.

This is a first for me. Permies is a good place to share this first.

This year I accomplished my dream of a hazelnut butter and jelly sandwich on toast, with a glass of milk.
Made with hazelnuts I grew and fruit I harvested.
I toast my nuts first and add some walnuts for more oil because I have them.
While still hot, I use a food processor and go until they start to roll around the inside in a ball.
Hadn't thought about plastic but I am thinking about that more and might have to find a glass food processor.

And a search shows another one on the other end of the country:
https://permies.com/t/264365/Original-Cinva-Ram-sale
Not sure where you are.
Shipping costs will be strong with this one.

There used to be a cabinet place around here, their dumpster was sometimes full of 1x4s.
Oak, cherry, hickory or maple.
I set them on edge stacked up against each other like one log.
End grain to the sides.
Started the fire on one end, in my case the woodburner loaded from the narrow front so I started the fire and pushed it back.
Thinking they would each fall into the fire and burn.
Nope it went out.
I had to put another stack of short 1x4s lengthwise on top of the "log".
It acted like a wick and fell into the fire pulling the leading edge of the stack with it.

Burned from one end to the other. Open the door in the morning and there is a little burnt stack of wood, with some coals, by the door.

I have them on my front porch too. With the same don't cause drama on my porch attitude.
I walk in and out of a door under them all summer.
They have a rain barrel right there, with a screen on top to stand on while they drink.
Resembling a (term I learned on here) "butterfly bath".

I can usually scoop my finger under them, coaxing them to climb on and escort them outside in the spring.
I get stung sometimes, usually if I set my hand on them.
One super aggressive one dive-bombed me last year, hit and run. Got away.
But I don't hold that against the others.

Found a nest in a metal funnel and moved it out by the broccoli.
Which was next to the grapes.
Big mistake, they covered the grapes when ripe.
I never got stung stealing their grapes, but I wouldn't do that again.

They seems to go into retirement toward the end of the season around here and just hang out and eat sweets,
instead of catching worms for the nest.