Deedee Dezso

Some years ago, I was wanting to start a new sourdough starter. I googled ways and discovered there are wild yeasts on organic grapes and juniper berries. It's that white coating! Naturally occurring yeast! I was surprised and pleased because I had grapes on vines.

So I mixed up the tiny bit of flour and spring water (not chlorinated tap) in a large glass jar and dropped in my destemmed grapes. I swished the jar to coat the grapes to pick up that wild yeast. Every day I added a little flour and a little water and gave it the swish. After just 3 days I had the bubbles telling me success! I would have waited 2 weeks just to prove this out!

I also learned about dehydrating a bit of that active starter in case it failed at some point. Smear some on parchment paper and place in a warm dry spot until its all dry, break it up and package it for posterity! Don't use additional heat like a dehydrator or oven on lowest. Just air dry.

I have since purchased someone else's dried starter for a few dollars from etsy. But I don't have any real space to work a bread dough and haven't made any since before the move, not counting quick dessert breads like pumpkin or banana bread.

I no longer have grapes on vines, they haven't grown that much yet. But i think I've seen junipers somewhere in my local travels. I might try those next.

Go ahead and try capturing a wild yeast for your next sourdough starter.

Ac Baker wrote:

Deedee Dezso wrote: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'm growing on an allotment garden site with up to 40 other people growing squash.  These will mostly be courgettes (zucchini) or pumpkins.

The whole site is only about, I guess 200 yards long.  So getting uncrossed varieties from which to save seed sounds like low probability for me unfortunately.

Ac- there is another way but it seems unworthy of earlier mention. Cage and cover the plants/bed with a microfine mesh that light and water can get through but excludes the pollinators like bees, flies, butterflies. You will have to manually pollinate for fruit, but it can be done.

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.