Sarah Teets

I love this post, particularly as I was a professional Classicist in my first career (that means I studied ancient Greece and Rome). I knew and interacted with a lot of archaeologists, and read their research. My knowledge of the archaeology of agriculture of the ancient Greek and Roman world has limited direct applicability to my context in central Virginia, USA, but is nevertheless fascinating. The agriculture of Greek and Roman antiquity bears a closer resemblance to permculture in a lot of ways than to European agriculture after the green revolution: much more polyculture, for example, but it’s a big tolkc and of course varied considerably by region and over time. You referenced the Judean date palm, which is a story I love deeply. The seeds were found at Masada in Israel, an environment almost uniquely conducive to maintaining viable seeds over literal millenia. The wikipedia article is worth a read! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judean_date_palm

We’re maing turkey soup with the leftover turkey we cooked on Christmas Eve. I made bone broth from the carcass. We’ll add some veg, noodles, and a bit of cream.

How old is your wife? What you’re describing is a common symptom of perimenopause. If she’s at that time of life, it may be helpful to seek treatment specifically for perimenopause.

Hello, we recently acquired a very nice glass greenhouse kit very cheaply, and we’re making plans to build it before the fall. Has anyone ever dug down a couple of feet or so to make your greenhouse partially sunken, but also used a kit with a set height? I’m curious about the net impact on temperatures of having the resulting high ceilings.

We have probably 10 or 12 nankings on out property in central Virginia. They started fruiting for us two years ago after three years of growing. As a and edible fruit, I honestly find them overrated. If a perfectly ripe sour cherry scores a 10 on flavor and a 6 on ease of processing, Nanking cherries are a 6 on flavor and 3 on processing. They are excellent as ornamentals with their stunningly white early blooms, and they appear to be great for wildlife, but we have decided that we don’t want to plant any more. For more cherries, we’ll add more sour cherry trees, which do extremely well in our climate, and for fruit bearing shrubs, blueberries and honeyberries are more desirable for their fruit.

I'm with the other respondants on Edible Landscaping being the absolute best. I'm in Louisa and it's only about an hour's drive for me, so doable once or twice a year. What I really wish I could find more easily is local dairy products: raw and/or non-homogenized milk (I make my own yogurt and would pasteurize if the milk were raw), cheese, butter, even products like cottage cheese. We're not in a position to raise our own dairy.

I’m so disappointed I missed this! I live in Louisa and just saw this post. The harvester sounds amazing, especially given the dearth of grain production in the region!

I don’t know whether you’ve found your people or you’d be willing to come a bit further north, but check out the Community of Peace in Louisa, VA.

Hi all, with all the talk about disaster preparedness, I wanted to start another related thread. In addition to using permaculture design to make our landscapes more resilient, and having a store of supplies, food, water, etc., my question is, what do you think are the most important skills to build in advance of a disaster? For example, I’ve decided that I would like to take a wilderness first aid course, as I feel that having a well stocked first aid kit will do minimal good if I don’t actually know how to use it safely and effectively. I live in central Virginia, USA, and one of the major risks we face is damage from fallen trees. I think it would be useful to up my chainsaw skills. I (39F) have used a chainsaw, but am not comfortable handling it. My husband can use a chainsaw very handily, but we own two saws, and could potentially both work on clearing trees off our roads, etc., if I were a little more skilled. I’d love to hear your thoughts on valuable disaster coping skills!

Cristobal Cristo wrote:Sarah,

What are the dimensions of the wall you want to build?

It’s a 9x12. The north wall will be one of the long walls.