Kayla Landis

An old southern recipe my grandma used to make: egg gravy. It was made with bacon grease or butter, white flour, milk, chopped hard-boiled eggs, salt, pepper, and a little bit of cayenne or chili powder. Served on toast or buttermilk biscuits. Very nostalgic for me

Sometimes recipes call for only the yolks; when that happens, my go-to use for the whites is meringue cookies

On the other hand, if I have extra yolks I often make egg yolk coffee... or egg nog (I don't care what time of year it is!)

There are plenty of "lawn weeds" that I like a lot. Henbit, creeping Charlie, dandelion, hairy bittercress, self-heal, clover, wild violets, lady's thumb, and others. If I had to choose one favorite, it'd be creeping Charlie, because I love the smell (very nostalgic for me) and it behaves itself well enough, in my opinion. Wonderful groundcover

I love pokeweed! I don't use it for anything, but I let a patch of it grow in a corner of my yard because it's beautiful. I also really like trumpet vine, even though I've fought battles against it - it's just a stunning plant when it's in bloom, and it draws in the hummingbirds like crazy!

Sorry about your seedlings! I'm trying out soil blocks for the first time this year and so far I've had good luck, but I won't claim victory until the plants are safely in the ground. I agree that it's harder to tell when they need water, or at least it was for me in the beginning. I overwatered a little bit, but backed off when I started to see green algae slime. In my case, though, the blocks dry out FAST. My setup is in a warm upstairs room, the air is bone-dry, and the grow lights have fans in them, so things get really dry really quick. I worried too much and overcompensated, thus the overwatering. Even so, I think soil blocks are a winner for me personally, but with a learning curve. I would probably go back to paper pots if this experiment didn't work out - I don't have much interest in going back to plastic at this point

I've worked at several privately-owned parks that were open to the public. There were times that I had to confront somebody about their clandestine gardening. I'm a laid-back person so I had an attitude of "hey, at least they're not stealing or destroying anything," but some other staff would get really riled up about it. Would not recommend

On the other hand, I've known a few urban "guerilla" gardeners who definitely made their neighborhoods nicer by taking care of truly neglected land. So I can't say it's always inappropriate

A decade ago, I apparently put a rosemary plant in the PERFECT spot near a sunny south-facing shed wall at my parents house. It is literally planted in one hole of a cinder block and hasn't been watered in many years - and to date it's the healthiest rosemary I've ever grown. Whenever I go to plant my next rosemary, I'll be thinking of that one.

I love beets!  I did not grow up eating them because my parents dislike them. The first time I can remember eating beets was a Turkish beet and yogurt dip called Pink Sultan that I got from a vendor at a farmer's market. It helped me to acquire a taste for beets. At first I found the flavor a little odd, but after a few more exposures I really liked it. I could go for some right now!

My favorite way to eat them now is in borscht, particularly one made with a good bone broth. I had an apple and beet borscht recently that was delightful

I'll add that I'm one of those people who have had a brief panic because my pee came out red after eating a bunch of beets. I didn't know that could happen!

I clean my couches and rugs with a Hoover portable mini shampooer that I was given as a housewarming gift. I've used both the included oxiclean type solution and diluted vinegar, about 1 part vinegar to 3 parts water. I've never used a steamer so I don't know what's better, but it does the job! I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has used both...

I started using horsetail a couple years ago under the advice of my dentist, who said the silica in it is beneficial for tooth remineralization. Cool plant! I love "living fossil" types of plants like this.

Bob Hutton wrote:Hi Kayla,
Congratulations on your find of property. Sounds very similar to my find. As I was putting the road into my property (300 yrds) to where I am now and a further 50 to where I have stored my former life. I have found several strings of ancient barbed wire, the funny thing is it runs perpendicular to the depth of the property, like it was pens for something. I also discovered a spot where tin cans were disposed, maybe a 8 foot diameter pile of barely recognizable cans, they were so decomposed.   I will include a picture of a piece of wire that a tree once consumed here then rotted. Going to hang this piece of wire in my cabin once I get it built.

Hi Bob! So fun! My trash is spread out in a couple smaller piles - lots of cans too decayed to read, but there are also some glass bottles which I can identify. King Syrup, Pepsi, Ball jars, stuff like that. Makes me feel like an archaeologist haha! Speaking to a neighbor, I found out that the land once belonged to his now-deceased relative, so that solves the mystery on who left it there

Nancy Reading wrote:Hi Kayla, sounds like you might like to do some garden planning!

Have you looked at where your permaculture 'zones' might be? 16 acres is amazing! livestock or just plants (and wildlife!)? You're near the US East coast right? What (climate) zone is that?

Hi Nancy! I just looked into permaculture zones and I think I have a general idea for how things will turn out. For right now, I'll be sticking close to the house and focusing on plants and chickens, which I'll be getting in the spring or summer. Eventually I'm interested in raising dairy sheep, too - but I'm taking it slow on adding animals. And yes, I'm on the US east coast close to the Chesapeake Bay, a humid subtropical climate.

M Ljin wrote:Welcome to Permies!

Matt's advice is wonderful--be enthusiastic but it's fine if you can't do everything you want to. None of us start (or end) that way!

I also would recommend looking to the wild plants growing around you first for your needs as oftentimes there are a lot of excellent ones! For instance, I think you should be able to find plenty of greenbriar in your climate zone, which is a delicious spring shoot vegetable that's delicious raw or cooked. There are many others too... and watching them can provide a lot of wisdom about how our local ecosystem works, what it is good at, how soil affects plants, and much else.

I wish you a good start to your permaculture adventure!

There is indeed a ton of greenbriar, and I've never tried eating it - thanks for the tip! I'll have to try. Maybe it'll help me appreciate it more

Alder Burns wrote:Before doing anything dramatic in your excitement at the new place, I would seriously recommend leaving some time, and most of the space, to observation the first season.  Especially so if you see yourself living there for a long time. More than once I have been on a site for a design consultation and just happen to spot a rare wildflower, right in a place where some big project was being planned, like a deck or a dug garden bed.  Many rare plants and fungi are ephemerals....that is, they only show themselves above ground for a short season of the year and are otherwise invisible.  Spring time is a prime season for them, so if I were you I would restrict my planting ambitions to a small area the first spring and devote serious attention to getting to know the land as it unfolds itself.  The older the forest is, the more important this is since it's more likely to contain uncommon things.  

Great advice! My first time setting foot on the property was last May, so I haven't really seen springtime here. The back ~1/4 of the woods (which I don't intend to touch, really) are on steep-ish slopes so they've escaped a lot of the logging and crop farming that the rest of the land has been through. We'll see what comes up!