Lif Strand

r ranson wrote:

What the heck does "sound real" mean, anyway?

It's very well explained upthread.  Perhaps you missed it?

Never mind. It's just one more rule that I don't understand the logic for (I went to the very first post in this thread and immediately didn't get it). I often don't understand the reason for rules or the logic in how they're set up - this is obviously a me-problem and not a Permie problem. I will shut up.

Nancy Reading wrote:Real staff review the names here.
Picking another 'edge case' name after your first choice is rejected often doesn't go down well. Sometimes people are lovely and have no trouble with the name policy here though.

I am an unlovely person I guess. I think one big issue is that "edge case" is too much a matter of opinion. Permie FAQ says if you need to use a fake name, it should "SOUND real".  But what if Permie decides my real name is fake simply because you're unfamiliar with what it sounds like? What the heck does "sound real" mean, anyway?

If it's my birth name and everybody in my part of the world recognizes that name because it's a common one, but the spelling is weird to English language speakers because my name is e.g. a legit click language name, and if nobody on the Permies knows what it actually sounds like, then... it's rejected as fake?  

What is the purpose of this qualification in the first place? This is a text forum. We don't need to know what people's names sound like. We just need an identifier that is easy to read, don't we?

Burra Maluca wrote:This is couve galega, and it's Brassica oleracea. Nothing to do with goat's rue. It's one of the original brassicas to be domesticated and never had its perennial tendencies bred out. Probably older than anything currently labelled 'kale'. Every self respecting Portuguese garden has these growing just outside the back door. The lower leaves double as toilet paper.

Aha - translation issue. Thanks for the correction!

paul wheaton wrote:I like this general idea that this can be morphed into other zones, other conditions, other challenges ...   Before I can contemplate those, I guess I would like to ask... etc  

and then

paul wheaton wrote: What I really want to do is be able to say something like
      - spend 30 minutes gardening the way I tell you.  NO FUCKING VARIATIONS!  Obey my instructions or fuck off.

Well, THAT made me consider leaving permies, until I calmed down and went to page one of this thread, the first post, where I saw that you wrote " I want to start putting the idea out there and see if a dozen others out there wanna play with this thought experiment."

I did not read that original post before I read the fuck off comment. Now that I have read it, I understand the frustration. I just would like to remind you that I'm probably not the only person who didn't read the first post, and I assumed it was just like any other thread where it's a conversation, not a controlled thought experiment. Really, the frustration would be nonexistent if the title of this thread had been "THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: Automatic Backyard  Food Pump" and that every Paul Wheaton post in this thread reminded us what the point was, along with the request to stick with the stated purpose of the thought experiment.

With that, I will bow out of the whole thread.

Burra Maluca wrote:I think I need to find a way to get some of my galega seed to you. It's a perennial tree cabbage, very similar to kale but 'older' genetics, which is usually kept perennial by removing the flower buds- But I've been selecting for the ability to survive seeding and have seed off one that survived for four years and seeded successfully for three of those. Generally they live for seven or so years if you take the buds off.

I don't think Galega (commonly known as goat's rue or French lilac) is a tree cabbage. It's in the legume family. Tree Kale is in the Brassica oleracea family. I think I would prefer it more than regular kale because supposedly it doesn't taste a whole lot like regular kale.

L Anderson wrote: I’m not going to pay attention to stuff I don’t like in it (like kale, or making my own biochar).  
I’m going to pay attention to the parts that get me thinking of possibilities I hadn’t thought of.

Super post!

Your thoughts on being in mourning for the gardening you could no longer do really hit home for me. I lived for over two decades in California before moving to New Mexico, and I've been here over thirty years, still mourning the fact that my coastal CA green thumb has turned brown. High altitude and low moisture, along with extreme temp ranges within one day and short growning season (with my "greenhouse" being inside my home), plus all kinds of hungry critters that don't share well, combine to make me feel triumphant if I can keep one plant alive for one growing season.

Okay, I exaggerate somewhat, but not by much. I have found a few plants that I can grow reliably because they're almost as tough as the wild native plants. I love them for that. I do have to water heavily during the dry season, which is currently drought conditions (normally 10" annual precipitation, this year 4.08" since New Year's Day). Some plants have to be covered every night because of the hungry critters mentioned above, and uncovered at sunrise lest the sun bakes them.

Anyway, because of your post, I realized I've been in mourning for the loss of California conditions which is crazy because I adore living in New Mexico.  I can grow things, I just have to figure out new ways of going about it.  I know it can be done because a friend about five miles away has an organic farm and I buy my veggies from her. If she can do it, I can do it.

Also, I will not eat kale. Don't care how nutritious it is.

James Bradford wrote:Oyster mushrooms do great here in the winter, but you gotta figure out how to create a consistent cool, moist, oxygenated place for them ...I kinda cheat and use big plastic buckets, but definitely a great source of easy calories.

More on this please!

Anne Miller wrote:
I have not grown sunchokes because some folks say they cause gas.

That's not a problem if you cook them.

Dynamic Accumulator Database and USDA Analysis
Ben Tyler and Greta Zarro
Last updated: 1/19/2023
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19S3wsjXU6VPzmbklZLVxKt6DCyZIPjCYw6zRrVg7M4Y/edit

Dynamic Accumulator Database and USDA Analysis
Ben Tyler and Greta Zarro
Last updated: 1/19/2023
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19S3wsjXU6VPzmbklZLVxKt6DCyZIPjCYw6zRrVg7M4Y/edit