Deedee Dezso

To start, I've not read all the contributions to the thread.

I've put this warning up in other threads, but am placing it here as well for all enquiring minds to have another opportunity for enrichment.

When planting any squash, it is important to know what sub tribe each variety is. Pepo is very commonly the summer squash. But there are winter/pumpkin types in the family.  Pepo don't keep long. All pepo will readily cross with each other and saved seed will reflect that cross.

Maxima is the sub-tribe that grow the really big fruits. Dills Atlantic Giant is in this family.  All maxima will cross pollinate with other maxima, and saved seed will reflect the cross.

Moschata is the sub-tribe that the longest keepers come from. I find them sweetest. Butternut are in this group. Moschata will cross, and the saved seed will reflect that.

There is another sub-tribe that I can't remember at the moment.  

Only distance,  and alot of it (often 100 feet or greater, up to a mile), will help prevent this crossing. Or only planting 1 of any sub-tribe. If I'm growing zucchini (green or yellow), I do not plant any pepo winter squash. I prefer the flavor and keeping qualities of the moschata, and currently have 1 fruit left from last October's harvest. I also like several in the maxima group, and I think the "cheese" are from this bunch.

I would add a link to Pearl's discussion with pictures of good eating winter squash,  but I'm doing this from my old cell phone that has no further updates or support! Maybe after posting I will figure that out.

When I lived in Southern California,  like zone 10 or higher, the squash only produced until short days arrived. They are annuals, and require replanting next year, or more plants this year for greater harvests. But then you need places and methods for keeping, whether it is canning, freezing, drying, or whole.

Here in West Virginia I've been keeping mine in the coldest part of the coldest room, checking and turning them monthly. And I'm down to my last, growing none this year. In favor of additional tomatoes and peppers which we eat more of.

When I saw "struggle meals", I thought I'd find how others feed themselves when the purse strings must tighten. The Wiki didn't really go there. However, Permies across the globe did not disappoint! Some good food is being eaten out there, despite the need or choice of frugality. I can't wait to add nettles to our available foods!

For me, a quick PBJ (peanut butter and jelly) 1/2 sandwich. But the best-tasting meal I ever served my family when paying bills and buying groceries were such a struggle and the kids were still so young, some concoction of dry beans, rice, bbq sauce and maybe some onion and garlic. No meat. Consistency of jambalaya.

We often had a stir-fry fried rice with egg, lots of veggies. Lots of soups. I was feeding 3 children and 2 adult men on pennies. I still buy holiday meats in multiple when they are on sale. Last year I put 6 turkeys in my freezer when they went to less than $1 per pound. There's 1 left. And I always boil the carcass for the soup/stew base that is requisite of every turkey and hambone.

I draw the line at real butter. I won't touch margarine.

In 2019 or so i started my Alice-in-Wonderland deep dive into ways of growing more food on less land, trying to plan on feeding about 10 people. Much of the available information was linked to Permies.com and I liked what i was reading and seeing here.

I asked what seemed to me to be newbie questions about stuff I'd never heard or thought of and was greeted by friendly welcomes and lots of reply. I felt seen, accepted. Getting apples on posts encouraged me to continue in my own vein.

I've posted a link to Permies.com a number of times elsewhere.  I've told people about the site as i explain what hugelkultur and permaculture are to those who only know the concrete jungle! I believe in this "place".

We just hit our 3 year anniversary of moving across country.  I had 3 hugels before the end of that summer. I tried growing food in this heavy clay, but it was just an experiment. The seeds popped but didn't get far.

Now I have 4 raised beds in addition to the hugels. Im slowly working on another, bigger hugelkultur bed. Clearing some of the flatter land has left us with piles of twiggy debris piled here and there that need to be addressed. A big part will end up in hugels or as biochar.

Daniel Andy wrote:If i was far enough along to start weaving stuff i would be trying to buy foxfibre organic cotton. Sally fox may not be selling to levis anymore but she still sells it direct from her farm shop. Probably not cheap but its one of the best fibers I know of:

https://www.goodyarnbadknits.com/articles/foxfibre-the-yarn-that-almost-saved-the-world

https://www.vreseis.com/

I would love to hear what you think of it?  As I'm not to the point of buying it, you would have more experience to judge it with. Far more.

Cotton is a different creature when trying to weave on pin looms. There's almost no give to the fiber, so getting the last few rows gets very hard. Protein fibers, coming from animals, has lots of give and will felt if improperly washed. Felting reduces the size. Cotton doesn't felt.

If I could have unlimited access to any fiber, my choice would be alpaca. Its a bit pricey for those accustomed to the cheap plastic fibers like acrylic that so many of the easily accessible places carry. It will keep you warm in winter, wicks moisture, and isn't scratchy like many sheep wools. I've used it more in crochet than weaving, but it does weave up (on my looms) quite nicely.

Skipper looms are a larger sett 3-pin loom that are no longer being made. The gentleman who made them got sick and passed away.

I discovered them too late. But in looking to find the reasons they were scarce I called the seller at a fiber arts store and followed that with a hand written letter to the maker. His widow called me and she gifted me ½ dozen or so for the cost of shipping!


If you like working heavy yarns, find a few of these skipper looms by Blue Butterfly. They are extremely well made.

Anne Miller wrote:When we built our first aid kit, it was a backpack.

Something that we could grab and go.

I still feel the grab-and-go kit is a good idea.

Think about natural disasters in your area.

What would cause your family to be evacuated?

What would you need in a kit if you had to leave on foot?

What would your family need if they were staying in a rescue shelter?

Just some food for thought.

Anne- to my mind this description is a bug out bag and will contain a change of clothes, some travel foods, and something to filter and carry water in addition to some 1st aid items, ways to have fire, flashlight and extra batteries, some cash, small notebook and writing implements, knives, emergency blanket. Just to name a few. I made 2 of these for hubby and I years ago in external frame backpacks.

As this response is being generated by the receipt of an email stating theres been a reply,  i don't know off hand if I've already made a similar post on this thread. If so, please forgive.

For those who don't want to use beeswax to make an ointment,  which by definition is a thickened oil-based product, try using the solid-at-room-temp coconut oil, mango or shea butter, or other solid fats that melt with applied heat.

I use liquid oils like olive because they impart their own benefits to the finished product. And allow for use in a roller-style applicator!

I've found that just a few calendula plants can produce enough flowers (the medicinal part) over the summer to make plenty of medicine/1st aid. I pluck daily and lay them in a shallow box (soda pop case box) in a warm and dry place. In southern California that was just a shaded spot outside.  In WV i have to bring it in because we have lots of wind strong enough to blow it all to the next county, and frequent rain.

And I'll chime in in agreement with not using comfrey as a first deep wound remedy for the same reasons that it works too fast to heal and can capture infection.

Deedee Dezso wrote:Well, i can't list just 1 book.
As a young gardener, back in my 20s, i was gifted a great resource of a book titled "The Self Sufficient Gardener- the compleat illustrated guide to planning, growing,  storing and preserving your own garden produce " by John Seymour. It was, and still is, my #1 for the growing requirements of many food plants, as it lists each type with headings like soil and climate, soil treatment,  propagation, pests and diseases...I now have and use "The NEW Self Sufficient Gardener "...The book begins with an introduction chapter covering organic gardening, small animals (rabbits and chickens  for meat, eggs and manure), and how nature's cycles effect growing. And I love the Illustrated Index of Vegetables,  Fruits and Herbs.
I have done alot of notations in this book to help keep vital information in one book. The table of contents lists plants according to family and that confuses me,  so I added what I'd understand.  For example, fabaceae is the legumes, and brassicaceae is the cabbage/broccoli family. This book is not listed in the above mentioned list of great resource books.

My 2nd most referenced book is Carrots Love Tomatoes by Louise Riotte. This is my companion plants resource. I've taken the vitals from this volume and copied them into the inside covers of my copy of Self Sufficient Gardener, listing companions,  allies and enemies for my preferred crops.

And because one cannot be self-sufficient in raising your own food year after year without saving seed, another gifted resource book is Suzanne Ashworth's Seed to Seed. Before this book i didn't realize the level of cross pollination between crops in the same family groups.  I learned the hard way.
I'd saved seed from a zucchini and shared some with a Facebook friend. When hers fruited, those zucchini were the right shape but wrong color; they were white! I was grateful that I had kept a map of what was planted where. Referring to it, I saw that I'd put a white patty pan squash beside the zucchini. I looked up the 2 squash in Seed to Seed and discovered both are pepo types and that in the squash tribe, any 2 in the same sub-tribe can and will cross. So 2 pepo, 2 maxima, 2 moschata, etc. will cross pollinate and the seed saved will often show the effects of this.
I now don't buy squash seed if that sub-tribe information isn't present. And if I plan to save seed with the idea of continuing the variety,  I'll only plant 1 variety.  1 pepo, usually a  zucchini; 1 moschata,  often butternut, etc.

Of course I have other gardening books. My personal library of physical books is far more extensive than I have room for since our cross country move, but these are the volumes I made sure to have available after settling in.

I meant to post photos weeks ago. Life happens.

bruce Fine wrote:all of my trees have come from state department of forestry seedling programs.
if anyone is near what was previously the West Virginia state tree nursery, clements tree nursery in Mason county west Virginia, prior home to Samuel clements (mark Twain's) grandparents
there should be a large stand of American chestnut trees there and maybe even Chinese chestnut trees that the state used to offer for sale.
im still curious what ever became of the place since the West Virginia legislature shut it down.

Well, Google maps says it's permanently closed. I'm now only an hour's drive away and may make it a day trip to see if I can access fallen nuts! I'll report if/when there is anything to report!