Dian Green

Beans on toast style beans. We've been making a dupe of the Heinz style beans on the regular. Seems to work with most smaller beans. Broth as the cooking water, along with tomato paste, ketchup and spices, makes them very tasty. A bit of meat is a nice addition too. Just add some cornstarch slurry at the end to get it thickened up.

To prevent sticking to the workspace, there are a few ways to go. If there is room for it, a piece of glass, ( with the edges taped to reduce cutting risks, if the edges aren't ground) or a chunk of polished stone will work. The glue can stick but it's easy to scrape off with a razor blade.
For cases where fast and easy changes and movement is needed, the Ikea non-stick silicone baking mats are hard to beat. ( I haven't priced then recently but they were very cheap in the past) You can also thrift any silicone mat or larger dish for this too, since it's not for food use.

Had to share the auction score we picked up today. $15 for nearly 200 packs of seeds! (Just under $20 all in after premium and taxes)
Not sure on the ages but they look pretty recent. Most should still be viable and at these prices, I can live with using a bit of extra seed.

I would never pay for the seed tapes or coated "sow easy" types, but they are easier to use.
It's also mostly stuff we want but I'll have lots to share, trade and give away.

I've been very happy with how easy and productive the sunchokes have been but I was surprised to be shown just how vigorous they are.
Last fall, I dug out the ckokes from my GAMCOD plot. Then scrubbed and sorted them before weighing it all.
There were a few little chunks that had been cut or broken from the digging or in ground vole damage.
I just tossed them on the grass, along with the washed off dirt.
Just the other day, I noticed a few small sprouts in that bit of lawn. They are a pretty easily recognizable plant so I dug them out and they still had the tiny scraps of tubers attached!
Ive potted them up, labeled them and put out at our local post office.  ( they have a donated plant starts spot that converts to a free produce section later in the season)

I've used rabbit skin glue, but for custom framing and gilding. It has been used for centuries both for making "compo", which is the sculpting material for frame detailing, and as an adhesive for the metal leaf in gilding.

There are easier, more modern options but for restoration or historically accurate reproduction, it is still used.
Compo is still the best option for getting sculptural details to stay on wood. It's mostly a mix of clays, fine sawdust and the glue. It's hard, stays stuck to the wood and holds up really well. It's fairly water resistant as well, once set. I've seen pieces that are 200+ years old and they are still solid.

I've only used the purchased fine pellets, never handled homemade. For keeping it warm, we used a crockpot on low, with water in it as a warmer. Just had a spacer on the bottom so the pot didn't get direct heat from the crock. They are pretty cheap and easy to find in the thrift stores so I recommend just having a craft specific one. The smell wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't want it on food.

Great design and execution, and that tile is a stunner! So practical and pretty.

I've been trying to figure out the best greenhouse for us as well. ( also Southern Ontario)

One thing I had been considering  was to go with a passive solar type. South facing is all windows but insulated walls on the sides and north. I was thinking of a partial roof, to reduce overheating in the high summer, and giving it big overhangs. Then pack straw bales around on the north and sides. They should really up the insulation but won't be inside the envelope and would be converted to mulch every few years. ( where we plan to locate the greenhouse also means they would be super easy to get placed too)

I need to do more research.

A wet room is really smart, especially with limited space.
Might be worth checking your local tile shops. For our last house, we scored several types of really nice clearance tiles. I could not have made them for the prices. (And tile can be hard to make in bulk)
We did the walls in stone tiles ( an auction deal) but did use the bathroom drywall boards behind them. Was still in perfect shape after 15 years when we moved. We used a cast shower base for the bottom but I've seen friends have tiled floors that hold up as well.
There are large tiles being made now that look like marble as well as glass and steel ones.
You never know what you will find at the Habitate for Humanity ReStores. If you have your sizes on hand you may be able to do some cool designs with mixing pieces and tile types.

When I was making Venetian masks, I needed to fit some.
The trick I used was to take a paper towel and fit it over the face and then mark the eyes and nose/cheek lines. Then it could be moved to mask and was soft so would fit over it without problem and make it easy to copy the eye placement as well as fitting the bottom edges.

Once the eye openings were marked, I used razor blades or fresh box cutters to make the cuts. You would need to do that part for the kids of course.

Sarah Joubert wrote:

Dian Green wrote: For us, doing a turmeric/ginger paste has been our first major medicinal herb for regular use. It has worked really well for reducing my mothers inflammation.

I'm interested in how you prepared your paste and how you used it as my mother suffers terribly from arthritis and old post operative wound sensitivity.

Hi Sarah,
I did a full write up of the ginger/turmeric paste process in this Thread about osteoarthritis care options. It's on the second page of replies and I've been updating on how it's going for us. Your question reminded me that I needed to add on to it!
I hope it helps you out and works as well for your mother since it has been great for mine.