Jesse Glessner

Tess Misch wrote:I live in the city and it has been rather depressing NOT being able to grow my own food.  --Tess

SO, there is a book you "might" find in your local library, or be able to buy it somewhere - that has an article of "How the Amish Grow Potatoes In Thin Air" - which might just be what you want! They use a 5 Gal. bucket with a lid, some PVC plumbing, and grow their potatoes "in thin air" as it says. The PVC pipes allow the sprinkling of water on the potatoes inside the bucket. But, you should read the full article as I've forgotten the whole setup. AND I have never grown potatoes this way yet!

IF you do this project, HAVE FUN!!!

lisa goodspeed wrote:thanks to all of you for all your replies.  i still live in town but once we get our piece of land i hope to be able know more of what tools work best for what jobs.

I also still live "in town" but at the edge of it on one acre. You never know until you start gardening projects, a orchard, keeping bees, etc. what might become a favorite. For me it is my WorkHorse Garden Tractor. No attachments other than a draw bar to pull my lawn cart, but I use it to haul leaves, dug up soil, bagged soil, mulch, fertilizer bags, etc.. Also, I haul 5 gallon bucket of water or water/fertilizer mix, dropped or cut limbs from trees  and just other trash. And it helps me with my beekeeping, That in particular is a great help just carrying out my tools/gear and holding supers or frames of honey. It just saves me a lot of wear and tear on the old bod!!!

Even living in the city, with anything more than just a standard house lot - you need something like this!d Check around for anyone who repairs old machinery and see if they have any old kind of "TRACTOR" whether it be an old riding lawn mower, garden tractor, or other small vehicle that can be adapted with a draw bar and able to pull a small lawn cart. You won't use it that often, but, when you need it, it will be there to USE!!

    This thread cracks me up! It reminded me of coming home on Vacation from California - where chopsticks abound. On one occasion I and a friend stopped at a local "drive-in" and I asked for a large burrito and they didn't know what that was. On the next surprising vacation back home (Indiana) I almost wrecked my car looking at a Chinese Restaurant sign, very "out of place" in stuck in the mud Indy!!
    Any way, I eventually ended up returning to IN to live and that little Chinese place made some pretty good food, so I hit it occasionally. And, YES, the chopsticks were FREE!!  :-) But, I always threw them away. See, all that money went down the drain. I could have used them for other purposes seeing other peoples' inputs, above.
    I do a bit of wood working and I have seen PLANS for how to make perfect chopsticks of your own!!!

    In very early fall of this year, 2025, I decided that I would start fresh and set all of my seeds out with a FREE sign on the boxes. Most of those did disappear as we have factories nearby and lots of traffic.
    I have re-orded all of my seeds fresh to start the year off and have those in a long plastic box the size of a shoe box. No need to categorize as there just are not that many there, however, the old system was by ALPHA order and I used lists of planting dates to determine WHICH seeds will be planted WHEN, and hopefully, this year, I will actually be prepping and growing "things" on my glassed in front porch.

Rico Loma wrote:Many good comments, and I am intrigued.  Thanks folks.  
Cristobal, you have a wealth of building experience,  so your word carries substantial weight. I thought the SBC was an integral part of dry stacking.....supposedly giving strength and waterproofing.  And I thought it was only exterior.  If you were building this wall, for example, how would you finish , interior and exterior? I have only used a OPC and fine sand finish exterior with some lime, on a looknormal block wall, then low voc latex paint inside.  

I saw some "dry-blocking" going on recently and it was of manufactured blocks of a new variety. The walls were so smooth that the lines between all the blocks were almost non-existant they were so fine. And the blocks were smooth and white on the wall they were showing. I believe this was on a recent episode of the "This Old House" TV show, I just do not remember.

These were "new technology" and had an interesting looking form of the blocks interlocking with each other. These were being touted as a new method of building a strongly structural house and, I'm assuming, from the looks of the blocks and the light weight they would also be insulating material as well.

r ranson wrote:Ever wondered why people keep mixing things up and calling puddings boiled when quite clearly they are steamed?
What about modern tech like the microwave and pressure cooker?
The thing I love most about the pressure cooker is I can shave hours off the time it takes to boil or steam a pudding.

This was a good History lesson! Thanks!    Now on to the modern methods.

I bought a Mealthy Pot, a low pressure, pressure cooker, something similar to an InstaPot. Someone told me to check the Internet for InstaPot recipes and I ran across a Cheesecake item. Dumb me just had to try it as I didn't believe it could be done!

Well, I did the mix, popped it into the Mealthy Pot, set the timer and walked away! When it was finished I pulled it out and it looked good. But, it called for using a Spring Form which I did, but I forgot to put a table knife down and around before I opened the form. It  could have cooked a bit longer but when the form opened about 1/3 of the Cheesecake slid off onto the counter top.

I haven't repeated that process yet, but I do make a 9" X 12" pan of cheese cake from a very simple recipe from the Internet, a Cheery Cheesecake by title, however you can top the cake with any fruit you have a hankering. I'll be making a cake for our family's Christmas dinner and two people have insisted that it be a Blueberry topping (pie filling works great on any of the fruits). IF you rinse your mixing pan after each of the mixes you make for the cake you can use just the one pan for the whole thing!

Now, I've made my self hungry for a bite of that!   :-)

Catie George wrote:I like sand.
Now in Ontario, the local municipalities put out a sand-salt mix for people to grab for free. I like it, because it doesn't freeze solid like wet sand, and is far less salt than actual salt, plus it adds traction, so you use way less salt... Also, admittedly, I like it because it is free, and I am cheap. I also use ash, but wouldn't in the city. The eco friendly ice melts work well, are less damaging, but very expensive. I use it on my north facing landing, where I don't want to track in sand or ash.

I have a cement walk between my house and garage and steps and pads outside of both front porch doors, all great places to go bottoms up!  I usually buy a sack of contractors sand (the brown stuff, NOT playground stuff)  and dump that into a 5 gallon bucket to easily fill, and use one of the old small coffee cans or large plastic peanut jars with holes drilled in the lids to sprinkle sand around the place. It doesn't take much, just a light film on the cement. During times with the sun shining the sand melts down through the snow/slush/ice like crazy and it doesn't take long until the sidewalks are clean.

As for personal safety there are gadgets that pretty much slip on over your shoes/boots that are similar to the spiked shoes that golfers wear. They are "spiked" and are good grabbers, but if you're not used to them they can be clumsy - and where are you going to put those when you get to where you're going? I'd rather sweep up a bit of sand. IF you sprinkle that lightly you may not even realize that you tracked any inside.

Until recently my labels really came off easily. I would pull all of the old canned items that I thought needed to come OFF of the shelves and dump all of those on my compost heap.
Then I would bring those into the house and turn them over to the Cleaning Lady's Helper. I just sat back and enjoyed watching! So, so easy!!!

But since she no longer works at cleaning it is up to me! I use Dawn detergent in with the jars, having soaked in very hot water, cooled down enough to be able to handle the jars and use a stainless steel scrubby on the labels. It does take some work as the labels are of the Avery Labels variety and stick very well for 7-8 years on the shelf. No scratch left on the jars that you can see with just the eyes, no magnification. And I've never had a re-use jar that has gone through this process break either in the pressure cooker of the water bath canner.

Dave Bross wrote:An idea from our very own Redhawk - " We trellis one sweet potato vine every year

I always wondered if sweet potatoes would climb a trellis. My mother used to grow one in a South window just to have something that was cheery green. I didn't climb by itself, but it didn't mind growing to the top of the window.

AND, darn it, I just downloaded an article about AIR GROWING potatoes with drip irrigation in 5 gallon buckets. and I cannot find the article. Oh, just remembered, it was in the book, "The Amish Ways" by Eddie Swartzentruber, Global Brother, 2024. The gist of this is to have the potato on top of the lid with irrigation tubes in the bucket where the potatoes will grow with no soil. Interesting concept! I MAY have to try this as I did different sizes of grow bags from landscaping cloth that I sewed myself, because someone challenged me to do the grow bags. For me they did not work at all. BUT, I also have never really had a good crop of potatoes even from the ground.

Mk Neal wrote:I would carmelize onions, salt to taste, and mix with sour cream ( or labneh) while still warm. Then let sit some time before serving so the flavor permeates.

I'm not big on dips, however, what would it be like to put the onions in a food processor and finely chopped, then use real mayonnaise as the mix, or maybe Ranch dressing? Lip smacking good or just totally YUK??