Isa Jardinera

It does pay. We have neighbors who moved in and tore up almost all of the food-bearing crops and good garden soil the previous neighbors had worked so hard on for two generations. Made me cry a little because I knew WHY those foods were planted and these new neighbors, for better or worse, had no idea what lack is. They didn't want the inconvenience of maintenance.
But we befriended them, let their kids play in the yard while the chickens were running around. After a while, they got a few small garden beds. Now they have chickens of their own!
So we have friends. And we can trade farm-sitting if needed. Plus they don't like pears so they give us bushels of fruit from the one tree they didn't cut down. 😊 I'd call that payment.

When we have way too much to use in our own garden, we sell our rabbit poop. It's always interesting how many people buy poop... And how many are somehow surprised when it stinks! 😂 But hey, it pays for the feed.

My submission -

- A picture and identification of the 3 species of volunteers and 2 species of selected wild plants
- A brief description on how you encouraged the volunteers and selected the wild plants (ie mulch, selective chop and drop)
- A brief description of the permaculture use of the plant if it isn't obvious

My 3 chosen volunteers are sunflower (pollinator bait, animal feed, shade/support for the other plants), radish (pollinator bait, animal feed), and passion vine (used as a supplement and caterpillar food for a butterfly that only eats passion vine leaves). My wild plants are lamb's quarter (people & animal food, shade for other plants, contros erosion while warm-weather crops are sprouting) and wild garlic (people food, animal supplement, rodent repellent).

I encourage volunteers by letting things go to seed before using it as mulch/compost and allowing seeds in the kitchen compost.Or just let decorative pumpkins rot in place then find babies in odd places. The passion vine spread underground from another area because the ground is protected and I guess comfy enough for roots to move through. For the wilds, I work to identify "weeds" that I like and let those go to seed while selecting out ones I haven't a use for. And any plant I like that is in a no-plant zone gets rehomed to a safe place.

Three words - Cast Iron and Fat

The way restaurants get a sear on their steaks is to slightly undercook the meat, maybe 10* lower than desired at the finish, then transfer meat onto a very hot preheated cast iron pan with a good layer of high smoke point fat, like bacon grease, and stick that in the broiler oven to finish. You may need one pan per loaf to keep from bringing down the temp of the pan too much.

Alternatively if you don't want to transfer, put a cast iron pan in the oven to preheat while you're mixing and add a Tablespoon or two of fat before plopping on your loaf and cooking to slightly under. Then pull it, readjust your oven to the higher temp (I generally do 425*), and put it all back in to get the final crust.

Just keep an eye on it; you want a crispy layer of fried meat, not burned. Cast iron is great at holding heat so don't leave your meat on it too much longer than it takes to cook or you may dry out the meat.

It may not be the way she does it, but it's how I make my gyro meat and that works for us. Good luck!

We mow with critters in the backyard when it's tender, but the front is more tricky because we live in a neighborhood. We generally mow that with an electric mower and bag the clippings, then lay clippings in a thin layer on the driveway to quickly dry (before it ferments) and make hay. After a few hours it's usually good to go into a storage tub for later when fresh food is scarce.