E Nordlie

Not specifically a depression-era trick, but if fuel is expensive it is possible to save some by letting for example stews, porridge, rice and similar finish cooking by taking the pot off the heat source and insulating it well - wrapping in blankets for instance. It may take a little longer to finish, but works well as a replacement in recipes where you would finish cooking on a low heat for a while. Here in Norway, and probably other places too, it was apparently not uncommon to have a wooden crate insulated with straw for this type of "cooking". I don't know when they went out of use, but I think I have seen them referred to in cookbooks from as late as after the war.

I have mostly eaten them green, when they are fully grown (or nearly so) but not starting to dry out. I pod them, dump them in boiling water for about a minute, then in cold water for a few minutes. Then I pop them out of their skins, and they are ready to eat; in curries or similar dishes, soup, omelette, salad - they don't need more cooking, so in a curry or soup I'd add them just before serving. Otherwise they will lose some flavor, color and texture. They can also be stir-fried for a minute or two in olive oil or butter with garlic and/or fresh herbs and salt.

This sounds like a lot of work (and the prepared beans make a small pile compared to the pods and skins they came from!) , but they are super tasty this way when they are picked at the right stage, and it is not actually difficult. I plan to try freezing some after scalding and 'skinning' (?) to extend the season.

I have tried eating them dried, but compared to other dried beans they are not as tasty, and I don't like the skins (chewy and unpleasantly bitter) - so they need to be boiled and 'skinned' which is much more difficult than when they are green. I have tried making hummus from boiled and skinned dry favas, but didn't think it worth the effort.

Considering that they are so tasty when green, and so mediocre when they are fully ripe and dried, I feel it is best to eat as much as possible while they are young, while leaving some promising plants to mature fully so I have seed for next year (and some backup!)

Some people apparently don't mind the skins, which I presume must be partly dependent on personal taste and partly on the variety.

Since they are easy to grow, look nice in the garden, and are very tasty early in summer I really like growing them even if I also have pole beans that are more versatile (are good to eat at all stages), less hassle to cook and possibly more productive pr. area.

Medieval wooden houses here in Norway usually have nearly square doors - wider than strictly necessary for ordinary use, but also lower than what we today would consider comfortable. The door sill (? or threshold?) would also be quite high, so you would have to consciously step over it at the same time as bending down to get in. The "folk interpretation" is that this is a defensive feature, but it definitely changes the air and temperature exchange between outside and inside. Even when you open the door some warm air will be trapped above the level of the door opening, and cold air from outside can not as easily "flood" the floor. I realise this does not really solve the mystery of the T-door, I just wanted to mention an example of a building feature that likely has a practical purpose, but still lends itself to other perhaps less likely (although possible) interpretations.

The T-shape does seem strange. If the lower part is very narrow, it would force you to mind your feet when using the door, which would be inconvenient in daily life - on the other hand, a wider than necessary top would be a structural weakness that would have to be compensated. So both parts of the T shape seem illogical, but depending on the way they were used, what people took in and out of the buildings, whether they went in and out many times a day, what the weather and climate was like - the inconveniences could be outweighed by, I don't know, less draft along the floor, more light when the door was open? Maybe you could sit on the little ledges under the arms of the T, doing some sort of chore in the daylight, while conveniently close to small children inside, pots on the fire, safely stored supplies of whatever? Being easily able to block the lower half does seem to be the most obvious practical advantage, keeping small children in, and to some extent drafts, dogs and turkeys out (if you keep half an eye on it at least).

Here in the northwest of Europe, I think birch would be best all round - not too hard but not soft, no weird grain/fibre twisting usually, no taste, no big pores, no excessive cracking if it is cut close to size and dried slowly (in the fridge, for example!). I have tried maple, apple, plum and cherry, which are all nice, but much harder. Maple can split easily when fresh, and is very hard when dry (especially bent pieces). Also tried rowan, which appears to often have "messy" grain - hard to carve nicely. Regarding conifers, juniper can actually be very nice, but is hard to find in the right size and shape - and naturally dried pieces have a lot of weird cracks, often partially across the grain, which is strange. But if it is carved fresh and dried slowly, it is stable and does not seem to need any oil.

I've *kind of* begun landracing Vicia faba, to the extent that is possible on the quite small scale I can work on - depending on other uses of the garden I have had between 70 and 140 plants every season for five years, and even smaller scale for a few years before.
I have saved seed from plants that grow fast, don't fall over, have comparatively dense foliage, produce beans early, and have at least an average number of pods and beans pr pod. This selection of course is easier to to while the plants are still in the garden, but after the beans have been dried and shelled I additionally remove any that are smaller than average, more wrinkly or misshapen, and definitely any that even *might* have signs of disease or pests.
Up until this season I only used seed that I had grown myself, after I started with a little handful of Witkiem (I think) that were bought ca. 12 years ago. While I was happy enough with these in most respects, I had the impression that the number of pods and beans pr pod had declined slightly. Because of this, and also out of curiosity, this season I got hold of some other varieties and sowed them with my own saved seed, about 1/4 of the former. These were already mixed, and I don't know which varieties the mix contained, but it looked like about 10 visually distinct types. I saved seed from this years mixed beans again, and am very eager to try them again next season. I tried to apply the same selection criteria as described above, but additionally I have tried to keep a good variety of seed types. Next season, or possibly after a few more generations, I may return more strictly to the "functional" criteria and possibly to some extent disregard the appearance of the beans.
My main goal is to have more beans! The general robustness of the plants (in growing fast, staying upright and outcompeting weeds) I assume will contribute to this goal, so that is a "sub-goal". Also important is getting rid of broad bean beetles, which is also necessary in getting more (edible) beans. I wrote a bit about my experiences (so far) in reducing broad bean beetle damage in another thread: permies.com/t/149600/permaculture/Natural-pest-control-broad-bean#2657998

You will not get toxoplasmosis from eating the potatoes, but possibly from any contact with the soil outside, whether in your garden or elsewhere, even if cats are only there occasionally. The pathogen can stay infectious in the soil for a long time. You can get it from other sources too, but I don't know the details. In many places most people have been exposed to it, and may actually be infected without knowing. It is usually not considered a problem (which is good, because it seems extremely difficult to avoid), UNLESS a pregnant woman is infected without any previous exposure - in that case it can be dangerous for the unborn child. Here in Norway I believe pregnant women are routinely tested to see if they have been exposed - if they have not they have to be extra careful about hand and food hygiene, and ideally avoid contact with cats.

So - unless anyone in the household is pregnant, and has previously lived unusually separate from any cats and any contact with soil, toxoplasma is not a big problem. And if it were a problem it would not just be keeping cats out of the potato bed that was an issue.

On the other hand, cat poop in your vegetable beds is of course unappetising, other parasites/infections could be a problem too, and the cat may damage young plants while digging. However, as other people here have already suggested, if the cats have better places to go, you might not have a problem. I usually cover the beds with dead branches or similar material, or even nets or fleece, until the soil has settled and the plants have grown a bit. The cats don't seem interested after that.

Anyway, if you somehow managed to get your next door cat to stay in their house or garden, or managed to get rid of or control any local cats that you know of, you still would not be guaranteed to avoid contact with toxoplasma, in your potato beds, or in any soil in your garden, or anywhere else. Getting one or a few cats locked up, or relocated, or killed, won't really make a difference in that regard.

I have only grown broad beans from saved seed from my own garden for five years, so the following is not very thoroughly tried and tested: The first year there were no beetles - the second there were many.  From the seed I saved that year I quite carefully picked out and threw away all seeds that had (or looked like they might have) larvae or beetles in them. In some cases where I saw damage as I was taking the seeds from the pod, I also threw away undamaged seeds from that pod. The next two years there were basically no beetles - this (fifth) year there were some again, but less than the bad (second) year. The reason the beetles returned this year may be completely random, or it may be because I planted some new seeds from another garden in between the seeds I had saved myself. However, it seems reasonable to me that thoroughly getting rid of infected seed would reduce the problem from year to year - both by reducing the population of beetles and by selecting seed that was for some reason (reasons?) not preferred by the beetles. Presumably this will be less successful if others are growing a lot of broad beans quite close to your garden or field.

When I said I "quite carefully" removed even possibly infected beans, I mean I actually looked at both sides of every bean that I considered saving to replant. They were mostly completely dry when I took them from the pods, but the beetles had mostly not emerged - even so I can often see a small circular mark on the bean skin, matching the size and shape of the holes the beetles eventually emerge from. I think the larva gnaw all the way to just beneath the skin before pupating, because these circular marks will be there for a while before anything more happens. So I removed all the "marked" beans, and any with actual holes in, and also any with suspicious looking spots or dimples. I then left the ones I thought looked good to dry some more, and checked them a bit more superficially again before storing them. This sounds fiddly, but seems to have been worth it - a couple of hours work to quality control two to three hundred beans, which resulted in a few thousand beans with close to zero beetle problems the next two seasons (and some beetle free back up seed left over).