Ida Schwartz

Louise Berns wrote:One thing I’ve never quite figured out is why some batches of broth go bitter, especially in the slow cooker. I’ve read this is a result of overcooking the remaining meat scraps, but for me at least it seems unrelated to the length of the simmer.

I had this happen recently because I oversimmered a mushroom/kombu broth, I’m inclined to think in that case it was due to the bay leaves, peppercorns, or garlic. Perhaps adding aromatics nearer to the end of the long simmer? I’ve had a bitter batch of bone broth before, but this was super concentrated bitter, which points to the veggie ingredients.

Thanks folks, this is reassuring. There’s no way the fruit was splashed but I will wash it well anyway and will only use the fruit from this tree for jam.  I had a sense that the bacteria can’t transfer through roots to fruit but have seen so much caution in all the lit I’ve read that wanted your more educated opinions to hopefully override my own fecalphobia. Something about other peoples poop near your food source, yuck.

The main issue with the pile is that it’s just that, a pile, without an adequate barrier to keep interested critters out. The pile is hot and lots of straw in there so we’ve made a barrier of pallets on rebar around it, with a good buffer of straw, and we’re going to leave it alone til next summer. Then we’ll dig it in.

Next time, if there’s ever a next time, we won’t assume others have fully read the handbook, we’ll give detailed info and expectations. Like we offered with the kitchen compost heap. We won’t assume that anyone knows they can’t just dump their bucket in the orchard. I’m so mad...

It’s even worse, they were longer term visitors and were building a Jeavon’s style pile, which they decided to put near the plum tree instead of where we okayed it. And their enclosure was not what they said it would be either.  No more land sharing for us for a while ack.

Still think the plums will be okay?

Does anyone know the pathogen potential for fruit from a tree about 8 feet from a humanure pile?  We had former summer “guests” who left a fairly untidy surprise pile (a worry in itself, one which we are dealing with). I’m wondering if they have also fouled our jam supply for the fall. Ugh. Thanks for advice.

Like sunshine, I've come into a huge amount of raw wool, a couple years old, and stinking like a barn.  I'm planning to use it to insulate a small (10sm) structure, by packing it tightly in a 4-6" gap between wattle walls, as I weave my way upward.  Then I'll thickly cob or lime plaster over the inside and outside of this layered "wall".  I'm hoping this will help to add some insulating properties to what would otherwise just be a mass wall, allowing me to trap some significant heat in our cold climate, and reduce the amount I need to burn.  

Has anyone used the "stuff" method to insulate with wool?  And/or used the wool in its raw state?  I would pick out twigs and cut out any exceptionally dirty sections, and I would spray it with a borax & water solution and weave some wormwood in there, as others have suggested.  Wondering if its likely that the smell would be detectable trapped in plaster.  

Thought I would post first on this very helpful thread, and see if I get any responses, before starting a new thread... Would love to hear updates on the projects that prompted this 6 years ago!

Thanks for replying Dan.  Yes that's what we think is happening, improperly insulated slab so the heat is radiating out instead of up.  When we start the boiler, it takes two days for the floor to raise by even a couple degrees.  If we wanted an actual "warm floor" we would be burning twice the propane.  

Replacing the infloor "heating" would be a massive job.  We would have to rip up more than 1000 sq feet of large stones, and pull out a bunch of interior walls, and then dig a couple inches under that to even get to the heating pipes.  And they've been laid out in such a way that we heat totally unnecessary areas (like the utility closet and a storage room!) to even get heat to the living spaces. I'm very nervous to think what we'll find under there, given the sketchy situation we've encountered under the roof metal, in the electrical panel, etc.  

Sorry for the rambling.  Nightmare is right....  Your post is nudging me toward moving to the outbuilding.  

We have a dilemma. We are living in a straw bale “passive tech” house that has a lot of inefficiencies and is waaaay too big for our little family. The stone/ rammed earth floors are insufficiently insulated and we lose a lot of heat through the roof and drafts around the timber bales. In the winter, we are spending over $700 a month in heating costs to keep the house at 16-18 C, a large portion of which is propane for the “in floor heating” which keeps the floors cold but not icy to the touch. Suffice to say, we inherited some major design flaws.

We have a second, much smaller structure on the property that we are considering moving into for the winters. It would cost us next to nothing to heat using a rocket mass stove and our own willow, and no propane at all because the floors are not icy. It’s also much more appropriately sized for our little family.

The house is magical in warmer/hot times of year (stays 20 C degrees all the time passively)  but so incredibly wasteful in winter. We are thinking it could be rented for three seasons and closed down for winter.

Do folks know of whether it’s possible to overwinter an unheated straw bale house without damage to the bales?  Or is there some way to retroactively “fix” a slab on grade floor to be more efficient?  

I’m trying to fill several large raised beds and what I have on hand is two huge rotting organic straw bales, a lot of fallen apple branches that are in varying states of decay, a big pile of compost a pile of well composted horse manure, and some wood chips.

My thinking was to layer the apple branches in the bottom foot of the raised beds (for water retention, but also because I’m cheap!) and then mix the straw and the compost/manure and toss it over top of the branches. Kind of a modified hugelkultur raised bed.  And layer the well seasoned wood chips over the top of it all.

I’ll build the beds in early spring and tarp them to try and get the elements rotting together nicely, and warmed up. So this year I can hopefully get around our marshy climate and our late frosts, and raise some more of the heat loving veg than I was able to grow last year.

I’m so happy to see that straw and compost had worked for you as a growing medium Violet! I’m curious to know from your experience how these break down over time. Are their additions that I should be adding over the growing season? After harvest?

This thread is so great!

On the topic of vegan mayonnaise, don’t forget about Toum. Garlic is full of lecithin and so it emulsifies really well, no egg needed. This works for my partner who can’t eat egg and for me who can’t eat soy. Just oil, fresh garlic (I take the little sprout looking bit in the middle out, I’m told it can be bitter), a pinch of salt, and a squeeze of lemon.

I haven’t tried this with the immersion blender and a jar yet, fingers crossed that it works. I always feel like I lose a lot of goodness to the blender jar.

Skandi Rogers wrote: I'm going to make some tomorrow I'll take some pictures. It should, but there might be a problem with the filling being to wet? Not sure though as I have never tried.

Ohh I’ll watch for your photos! Thank you! I’m feeling inspired by this thread and might try some empanadas.

For Apple pie I usually toss apple slices with flour, cinnamon, and a bit of sugar before layering them onto the pastry so the only liquid is what cooks out. Think that would be okay?