Alex Howell

There's a hot-spring that's quite sulfur heavy near me and leaves your skin smelling of eggs for days. I wonder if it would also help to deter mosquitos...

Hi everyone,

Here's my submission for cooking grains with a slow cooker. My grain of choice is Japanese Genmai rice. I prefer is to regular short grain as it's got a nice chewy texture and a lot more fibre.

Thank you for reviewing my submission!

EDIT: Since the requirements updated this morning I went away and did some research on my rice-cooker. The bowl itself has 3 layers, one outer steel one for IH conductivity, an iron core to hold heat, and an aluminum liner. There is a ceramic coating on top of the liner, so it isn't in direct contact with the food, but if any of this coating wears off then it would be. While it's currently in tact I will be looking at replacing it when I have a bit more financial freedom.

I realize that this is likely an edge case from the above information I have provided, and hope that judgement on this particular submission can help further define whether ceramic coated aluminum bowls are classed as "food touching aluminum" or not, as this is a very common construction for modern rice cookers in general.

I was born in the UK, so I love tea and drink a variety of infusions daily.

I'm planning to make as many of them home-grown as possible, so I'm starting this fresh/dry list with an easy one using chamomile I grew from seed!

Simple infusion in hot water with a bit of honey, a nice before bed drink for relaxation.

Thank you for reviewing this submission!

Thom Bri wrote:
Me too! Very curious. I gardened in Japan (Kanagawa Prefecture) from 1996 through 2005. People were very curious about the white guy gardening next to a busy road.

Haha, I get a lot of questions about what I'm doing, what I'm growing, etc. from local farmers and passers by!

What I'm growing is always difficult to answer because the list just keeps dragging on...

Hey, as a fellow permie in Japan I was wondering how your garden has been coming along since your last post?

Here in Japan they leave them out in the sun to dry for a couple of weeks after harvest until the shells get hard, then store them in a dark drafty barn until processing.

I would think the easiest way to process is making peanut butter!

Feeding some to your local crows isn't a bad shout either if you're looking for passive livestock guardians.

I totally understand the limitations you're working with. There's only so far you can get with pure AI development at the current time...

The prototype is sound though, and I think it works well conceptually as an idle game. All you need now is someone to buy in to helping with the project!

Abishai Graeff wrote:I agree! I hid those stats behind soil science which has to be unlocked. During an earlier version, you could see nitrogen, carbon, biota, compaction, and other soil factors.

Hiding the more gritty stats behind soil science definitely makes sense, after all, nitrogen/carbon/biota levels cannot be tested without specialist equipment and knowledge.

Compaction, mulch thickness and water needs however are observable landscape features with no requirement for specialist knowledge, so perhaps basic information could be provided until soil science is unlocked? Maybe it could be provided after spending some time doing "observation" on the tile. After all, making informed decisions is what permaculture is all about!

Examples could be:

Water:
the ground feels wet, but your plants are wilting (continuous over-watering)
the ground feels wet and your plants look hydrated
the soil surface looks dry, but your plants aren't wilting
the soil surface looks dry, and your plants are wilting slightly

Mulch:
the ground is finely mulched. Some weeds are poking through.
the ground has a thick layer of mulch.

Compaction:
The ground feels tough beneath your feet
The ground feels loose beneath your feet
The ground feels firm beneath your feet

Once you unlock soil science you can then read the exact percentages of moisture, thickness of mulch, compaction, etc.

Hope this helps you on your journey!

Happy to help!

I just have it on in the background while I work at the moment and it seems to tick along fine.

Sorry to keep giving more advice, but I will say that one area I feel could be improved is the watering/mulching system. As it stands there is no idea of knowing how much mulch is on your plot/how hydrated it is, and you can just endlessly add layers of mulch and more buckets of water with seemingly no outcome. Perhaps some kind of hydration percentage for the plot, and how many mm thick your mulch is could be displayed on the lower bar where growth percentage is shown?

Just some quick feedback here regarding the "go to work" function.

Currently it generates money so slowly that it's almost always better to select the forage function and hope for wild food drops to sell.

In order to more accurately reflect the way which most people start out in permaculture,I think it would be interesting for it to generate significant portions of your income in the beginning, then as your farm starts to grow and you have more produce available, it becomes less relevant.

In future development you also may wish to consider there being different job options, some of which earn you less money, but help you to gain experience in permaculture-relevant fields (working as a farm-hand, etc).