Olivia Hall

I'd be interested. Sounds fun.

I'm finding that I'm starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by the number of plants and projects I've been trying to take on. How do you go about prioritizing and organizing what projects you tackle? How do you keep track of all the tasks that you need to do throughout the year? I've cut myself off from accepting any additional plants this year because I just can't deal with them (I still have several perennials that have been in their little containers for a month because I haven't been able to plant them yet).

I need a blog or course-style presentation of the information and steps. The forum format confused me terribly when I was just trying to figure out what it's all about. Is a post an official instruction or someone's commentary? I don't have the time or wherewithal to sort through pages upon pages to sort it out in order to decide whether I even want to participate.

I'd like a spiffy link, please!

I love the idea of giving some lawn over to a meadow. I suffer from seasonal allergies, though, so I'm concerned about making my environment more difficult for myself...Any tips? Thanks.

I either drink the (fermented) pickle juice plain, or I add vegetables, as others have mentioned (e.g. cucumber slices). One of my favorite things to do is adding chopped up cooked beets, and once those are used up, pickling hard-boiled eggs, which turn beautifully pink. You can also get that effect from any other ferments that are reddish or pink, e.g. watermelon radishes.

I most frequently freeze lemon juice. I usually buy a whole net of organic lemons, but I can never use them up fast enough, so I zest them (freeze that, too) and freeze the juice in ice cube trays. When I have the time, I may measure out a certain number of teaspoons or tablespoons. When I need the juice in a recipe, I just defrost a few cubes in the microwave.

Other things I've frozen: herbs (basil, cilantro), leftover milk or yogurt (for smoothies), tomato paste.

I also have one silicone oversized ice cube form, which I've used to freeze large chunks of homemade broth. I take them out and store them in a ziplock freezer bag.

Su Ba wrote:Non food uses.....

...seal seldom used hand tools to keep them from rusting

Some really great tips! Wouldn't have thought of sealing up my tools.

You all are my tribe!

I love all things fermentation. I have two little kids, so I can't experiment as much as I'd like (time-wise), but I am happy that I've given them an early start with the probiotics. My staples are a sourdough (mainly used for big batches of waffles that we eat throughout the week), milk kefir (also goes into the waffles and into smoothies for the kids), water kefir, a neglected kombucha, and a variety of vegetable ferments. When I have time, I try out other things. Currently strewn about the kitchen, pantry, and two fridges: banana peel vinegar, two types of kimchi, fermented cucumbers, fermented muu radish, fermented carrots, sauerkraut, some pretty well-aged dandelion wine, red and golden beet kvass, bread kvass...

Ok, now that I've written it all out, I see I can't really complain. Plenty of fermentation going on, even with the kids.

I just got a hand-me-down Foodsaver (which had been on my wish list for a long time). I'm vacuum sealing just about everything in sight. I'd love to hear about your favorite kitchen and non-kitchen uses for a vacuum sealer. (So far I only have the sealer itself, no attachments for jars etc, though I'm keeping my eye out for used accessories.)