John Hughes Cooper

We first ground our wheat in a grinder which we use to grind whole corn into scratch feed. Even on the finest setting and restricting the flow into the grinder, we got wheat flour which was smaller than corn meal size, but not the really fine flour we wanted. Regrinding did not seem to help much.

We bit the bullet and bought the Mock Mill 200. Pricey at about $400, but we love it. Sourdough bread most every day. Hope this helps.

Responding to the post about a Forest School:

Jerusalem artichokes (sunchokes) are native to that part of Georgia. They grow about 11 feet tall, have beautiful yellow flowers similar to a sunflower, but smaller and the tubers (harvest in fall and all winter) are delicious (taste like Irish potatoe) and a good source of fiber and inulin (sp?). They are invasive, and will thrive even if you try to harvest all the tubers. Inevitably, some small chips will come off the tubers, or you will miss a small tuber and you will have more artichokes next year.

You may also want to consider blackberries, which will give you fruit in early June. Good source of a lesson to show the perspective that thorn bushes can have delicious fruit, not the perspective that berry bushes have thorns (I stole this from someone on another permies thread).

I am not sure about Moose, but my experience is that deer (even day old fawns) will have no problem with a 2 ft x 2 ft ditch, regardless of length. Hope this helps.

My husband and I are looking to move to the Greenville area, and I was wondering if we could chat about your experience there? We are moving from California (born and raised in Texas), and we are mainly looking for a community that values organic food, art, and living off the land. We are wanting to dive deeper into living more self-sustaining, and would value a community where we could have an opportunity to learn. I am a ceramic artist, and would love an artist community. I am also interested in horses and herbalism, and permaculture in general.

Bella

Dear Bella:

We are enjoying the Greenville area. We currently have horses, goats, cow and calf, chickens, herbs, organic veg gardens, etc. There is a mini farm (13.5 ac) available adjacent.

The gas issue, according to my wife, is solved by boiling the sunchokes before cooking by baking, frying etc.

I do not even know what groundnuts are, but I know Jerusalem Artichokes (sunchokes) and have them 11 ft high each summer. We are in the piedmont portion of South Carolina with red clay soil. We plant the sunchokes in a raised bed (in the dirt, without sides) and we harvest all of the tubers during the fall, winter, spring (the tubers keep during the freezing weather in the ground). Invariably, there are many little pieces of tubers left after we harvest them "all." The second year we planted 16 -20 cut pieces of tuber, but found that the bed is already teeming with viable pieces of tuber, so the planting is not necessary. Jerusalem Artichokes are native (and invasive). Easy to grow, hard to get rid of.

They taste good raw. Crisp like a water chestnut. They can be kept in the refrigerator submerged in water for about 30 days. They can be kept in the ground until late spring, when they will all begin to grow new plants. They have little taste when roasted or boiled or steamed, think Irish potatoes, but take on the taste of anything they are cooked with or any spice added. The starch/carbohydrate of the JA is different (internet search will give the details; not my area). No fertilizer needed. No weeding. No maintenance. Lots of food. Indian gardening. Enjoy. Email shiplaw@jhcooper.com if you want more info.

Color me in. John Hughes Cooper shiplaw@jhcooper.com