Burra Maluca

I asked Stephen Barstow, author of Around the World in 80 Plants and he told me this...

Yes, many Alliums occasionally produce small bulbils like yours which you can try to grow on. Other Alliums always produce bulbils - like hardneck garlic, some types of leek, Allium vineale etc.

I looked up the wikki page for Allium vineale, also known as crow garlic.  Apparently the umbels of crow garlic usually have several small bulbils and may or may not also have flowers. Apparently the seeds seldom set and propagation is usually by accomplished by bulbils getting knocked off and growing into new plants.



Onions are strange creatures...

Does this count as demi-ace?

I took another photo this morning, slightly more from above.

It's not much different, but it does seem that more of those little green stalks are growing. It would be so cool if they really are little plants.

I'll take more photos every few days and report progress.

Nynke Muller wrote:With one leek flower, I let it go. Miniplants grew out of it. I carefully picked the mini plants and planted them in a planter. I stopped when I had 400.

Oh now that is fascinating. I was hoping it was going to turn out to be something like that but I hardly dared hope and thought I was just seeing what I wanted to see, especially as I'd just bought some Egyptian Walking Onions and had them very much on my mind.

I'll try to take some more photos tomorrow to check on progress and prepare a pot to start transplanting babies to, just in case...

What on Earth is my Welsh Onion flower doing?

It flowered last year, alone, and didn't set a single seed.

This year there are two of them, but the other one isn't open yet. I put the pot they are in next to the White Lisbon onions which are just beginning to flower in the hope that if I couldn't get pure Welsh Onions, which are Allium fistulosum, then I might at least get an interspecies hybrid with the White Lisbon onions, which are Allium cepa. That hybrid is essentially what the Egyptian Walking onion is.

There are also some chives flowering not far away.

But what is happening to the flower? Are onions supposed to do this? I haven't dared to investigate what's happening any closer in case I mess it all up but it kinda looks as though seeds have germinated and started to grow right from the flower. Which bearing in mind the wet weather we've had recently I guess could be a possibility. Or are there teeny bulbils down there? Could it be because it's crossed with the White Lisbon onion and the resulting seed has a mind of its own? Or is this behaviour perfectly normal and I just haven't noticed before because I don't usually grow onions with flowers.

My neighbour, Christine, takes my sheepdog Rock out for a walk every afternoon.

Yesterday he suddenly raced up our steps and started scratching at the door while he was supposed to be out with her helping in the garden, so naturally I assumed something had happened and he'd come to fetch me. I went outside to see him hurtling off at top speed so I followed. Christine was fine. He sat by her side and grinned at me smugly and said that he thought we should have a nice chat about whatever it is that hoomans chat about. So we did that for a while. Then she put her secateurs down and showed me some baby puffballs that had decided to appear after the recent unexpected rains. Rock gleefully pounced on the secateurs and ran off with them, which I'd never seen him do before. She shrieked and set off in hot pursuit to retrieve them and said that he'd started doing that with socks too and she had to make sure all underwear was in off the clothes rack before she came to fetch him.  So then he found a nice bit of unwanted plastic and started running round like a lunatic with that instead.

I have to wonder if maybe he's found some different sort of mushrooms to eat, because he's not usually quite this bonkers...

I'be been living in Portugal for a couple of decades so have a bit of experience in similar climates. I'll share a few thoughts about my experiences here in Portugal. I'm in the Castelo Branco region in case that helps.

Julian Kjellberg wrote:How difficult is it to get permits for simple rural/offgrid living, small structures, wells, rainwater systems, solar systems or renovation projects?

To get permits is not easy. If you get somewhere that's already registered as a dwelling you won't need permits, just go for it. Mostly if you're renovating without changing the external appearance you don't need permits. The registration system for properties is a bit weird and you really need legal advice to interpret the paperwork no matter the seller tries to tell you. Roughly if a property is completely rustica then it's unlikely you have rights to live there legally, though you are likely to get away with living there illegally, for now at least. If the property has a building registered as urbana, then generally you're good to go. Some places have a habitation license, which obviously means you can live there legally. Older properties might also be perfectly legal even without a habitation license. It's complex, but I'd strongly recommend getting a place that is legal to live in so you know you're safe. Don't believe the estate agent when he tells you there will be no problems. Invest in a lawyer unless you're prepared to risk it.

Loads of people just buy an acre and live on it without any care about permits. The locals are just beginning to get fed up of this as to be blunt many of them try to live wild and free in the middle of a forest and then set fire to the place because they have no clue about fire safety. The Portuguese fire fighters have recently announced that anyone living in unregistered places in the middle of a forest fire are on their own and resources won't be devoted to rescuing their property.

How serious are the drought and water issues in different regions?

The drought can be severe but if you get somewhere with a good well or water mine there will be no issues. Visit in August when the wells are at their lowest. They are all full in March so no point looking then. With a good water supply you can re-green most places, though it takes time. It's not so much the amount of water as the reliability of it so you can keep things alive during August.

How do locals generally feel about foreigners, especially someone from Sweden, buying rural land and trying to live a quiet self-sufficient life?
I’m not looking for a fantasy escape. I’m trying to understand what is actually practical: water, permits, solar, soil, local acceptance, and long-term stability.

When I moved here over twenty years ago we were welcomed with open arms as being one of the first immigrants in the whole area. These days there are so many immigrants that the question is almost irrelevant. Most of our closest neighbours are immigrants, from all over the place. Mostly the locals are still fine with immigrants though there are some undercurrents now that there are too many with too little clue of what they're doing. Just be responsible, learn about fire safety, don't have dogs wandering loose that kill people's livestock, learn the language, try to drive a legal vehicle rather than an illegal import, get to know your neighbours, that kind of thing. Mostly if you are known to be a good neighbour and look after the land you will be welcomed. Do find the nearest café and talk with the locals though. They will warn you gently if you are trying to buy somewhere with a known bad neighbour, who can make your life miserable.

For long-term stability, take the time to find somewhere with a bit of depth to the soil, with a good water supply, and the legal right to live there. Oh, and don't buy an old mill right next to a river - I've watched scary videos of people who have started to renovate them to live in with apparently no idea why the mill would always be lower down than the actual house. They flood! And the floods seem to be getting worse.

In short, it depends a little on your budget and how much you want to risk. I believe it's worth devoting a bit of time and a bit extra money to finding somewhere legal so you are safe.  Prices here are all over the place but rising rapidly. About five years ago my son bought a fully legal stone house to renovate, with an acre of land, for €22 500. Other people seem quite happy putting up a wooden cabin in the middle of the forest and assuming it won't burn and they won't get kicked out. Ultimately, it's your choice.

Good luck with your adventures!

I've known goats who have milked for seven years straight after being bred just once. I think all the ones I knew were British Saanens, which are known to be excellent milkers. I'm not sure what the equivalent would be in the US. But if you could buy one that had kidded that year and was already established in milk in theory you could get several years of milk from her without having to worry about access to a billy goat for quite a while, if ever.

This was what many of the more out-of-the-way smallholders in Wales would do and they would generally fly under the radar and no-one would know about them until the shit hit the fan and they would need an emergency milker whereupon I would get summoned to step in. Generally they would have just one or two females and they would be much loved family members.

Josh Warfield wrote:Saying flat out that grains aren't worth it is a little intense, compared to what Mr. Lawton actually said in the video. .

I went to watch the video, and you are absolutely right!



In the blurb under the video, it says this...

Key Takeaways

Grains easily fit in places like the deserts and cold climates where there is dormancy and time to process everything. Outside of these climates, grain is inefficient. There are a lot of easier foods to grow in terms of nutrition for the labor required. Grains are a high-quality food that stores, which was good for military needs and aided in the rise of grains agriculturally speaking.  However, usually, the amount of work necessary for the food gained just isn’t worth it. But, mass agriculture has thrived in the grain game because its production is easily industrialized: machine harvested, processed, stored, and shipped.

So somewhere that there is a dormant period, grains are good because you have the time to process the grain, and food to eat until dormancy is over.

Which isn't quite the same as saying that grain is not worth while.

Well that was a breath of fresh air to watch compared to pretty much any other video I've seen on the same kind of subject lately.

I think the biggest takeout for me is about getting organised. I tend to be chaos personified, though I did make a bit of headway sorting out the freezer today so I don't have to play freezer-tetris quite so much every time I open it.

I think the video would be good to share on the what if the cost of food goes up 10x? thread too.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote: I have very good hearing (was the result of the test), but if there's a lot of noise, I can't concentrate on what someone is saying. That's why I don't 'hear' it.
I already knew I had concentration problems (since my childhood). Maybe there are practices that can help me ...

I never realised it at the time, but when I was younger I had super-sensitive hearing and I could never hear a thing people said in a noisy environment.  Even these days when my hearing has deteriorated to being not much better than most people's ever were, I still prefer a very quiet environment.

I haven't been tempted to buy any yet, mostly because I'm such a hermit I don't think I could justify the expense for the number of times I'd use them, but I did stumble across some earplugs which claim to be able to filter out background noise whilst allowing speech to be heard clearly. Here's the link  - Loop Engage earplugs

They promise...

Clear conversations
Filter out distractions to stay fully present while chatting and parenting.

Everyday noise relief
Take the edge off for more calm and focus when life gets too loud.

Happier socializing
Connect at your own volume during team projects and group gatherings.

That page I linked to has a 'click to try' option which claims to let you test them out virtually by listening to a noisy background, like at a market or shopping mall, and turn the earplugs on or off. I have no idea how accurate it is, but I developed an instant headache playing around with it as I have almost zero tolerance to much background noise. If it really is accurate, turning the earplugs on made a huge difference. It's just that I have to listen to the full noise first to hear what the difference is. Maybe I should invest in a pair. Or maybe I'll just stay being a total recluse...