M Ljin

This brings up an interesting point.

I remember reading some Vermont history about how the Abenakis—and most indigenous groups—intentionally kept their populations at around one fourth of the land’s carrying capacity so that if they faced hardship they wouldn’t have to starve. And mostly it worked!

But there is also the element of caring for the land and not exploiting the land in horribly devastating ways. We have tested this earth to the breaking point and if things are extremely difficult then it’ll be no surprise.

That is interesting. It relates to a passage I was reading from Matthew Wood’s Book of Herbal Wisdom.

Lactuca is suited to conditions where cold has supervened over the normal body-heat. This results in a cold, tight state, with tight sinews and muscles, rheumatic aching the joints, but with evidence of heat still showing through at the corners. When the heat has been completely extinguished, we need Wormwood or one of its cousins, Mugwort or Sagebrush.

Internal cold is not caused by a lack of heat in the system, but by external cold which has invaded, and become locked in. When cold results from a lack of internal heat it is called "yang deficiency" in Chinese medicine. Because of the deficiency of yang (fire) the patient is not only cold but weak and relaxed. Internal cold, on the other hand, is associated with tension because the cold has forced its way in.

He goes on to describe the lettuce personality as associated with homelessness or extended hardship and a sense of being mostly deadened, saying again that wormwood is best for when the internal heat has been completely deadened. It’s interesting to make a parallel with that above quote.

Morgan Donner has some videos on ancient or historical hairstyles that might be helpful to some. They are ones I watched a long time ago but haven’t looked back in a long while—when I have the time… here is one about using ribbons, etc. and more natural materials in place of elastics.

I knew someone who told me about an apple volunteer growing out of the compost pile and making excellent fruit.

I have seen inky caps popping out of the compost! It might be all the sawdust/food scraps mixture that is making them so happy. They are the sort that doesn’t go well with alcohol but if you’d like to drink wine without vomiting there are others that will thrive in the situation. I tried to get Agaricus subrufescens to grow in the compost as they are said to thrive in compost but they were slow to start and it was too heavy (food scraps and not enough brown) for them to grow. They are growing in pure maple leaves outside though, no fruit this year as of yet and none expected either.  I think I’ll keep them indoors over the winter maybe in a bucket with partially decomposed materials. They seem to thrive in the interface between soil and the leaf litter.

Tomato also loves compost…

G Freden wrote:Regarding oil, what about lard, tallow, etc?  Our main cooking fat is tallow which we render ourselves from fat our local butcher gives us.  His family raises the beef and pork that he sells in his shop.

I am vegetarian so that’s why. I do use butter.

Source https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/716424253198925962/

randal cranor wrote:howdy,




Come, you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind the walls
You that hide behind your desks
I just want you to know
Know, know, know
I can see through your masks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0xOZCSgWJY

Interesting how people treat the melody of this song… I think I heard a recording of a later Dylan performance where he altered the original melody a bit.

If anyone wants to know the whole melody scuffle look the song up on Wikipedia.

Conifers seem to offer a protective niche in the ecosystem both as fungi stewards and in all sorts of other manners. Especially white pine in my region.

The needles for one create a resilient layer of mulch. And fungi like to grow under pines—chanterelles, suillus, boletes especially. Pines are the tallest trees in the forest—they protect the rest from wind by slowing it down as it rushes through the ecosystem. Thus moisture is lost more slowly. And they provide some shade to the other trees.

Hemlocks are their stout, old, slow growing cousins—they don’t get as tall but they are very good at shading the soils. They also harbor some fungi in their roots such as chanterelles, lobster, bolete, and I have heard even matsutake. A friend gave me some matsutake last year to spread around.

Conifers also need time to regenerate. White pine is a pioneer (forests that start off as pine are really happy) but the others do. In mature forests I notice a lot of spruce trees especially regenerating happily. But there needs to be a mother spruce for there to be baby spruces and a lot of places, the mother spruces have been wiped out by logging. This is the case in a lot of forests—not a conifer in sight because they’ve all been logged out. Leading to drier forests, less mushrooms, more monotony, and less vitality overall.

It’s also possible to make acorn oil, and some people make it. The northern acorns supposedly aren’t the best; small, southern acorns of the red oak group are. So too with hickory (bitternut or “oilnut” hickory especially, which is common here). And the oil extraction doesn’t require leaching because the tannins won’t come out with the oil.

Northern red oaks have decent fat content, though, and so I consider them a slightly fatty food anyway.

People don’t think of them this way but nettles are also fatty. I notice an oil come off of them when I make nettle soup; it settles out and oxidizes to a deep greenish-purple, sticking to cookware. Maybe that’s part of why they’re so delicious?

Dinner tonight is crisped garlic mustard and wild parsnip, with a soup of plantain, nettle, lamb’s quarters buds and acorn. The non-local thing is olive oil but I could have made it state-local by using butter. The soup is leftovers from breakfast.

I shouldn’t have added so much plantain. They are just such a common weed, and nutritious, but the flavor is overpowering.

Yellow transparent apples (an early variety) make an excellent snack through the day!