Kathryn McCoy

Feral, sorry I didnt see your post sooner. I have been off the forum for over a week, I think. I have taken our venison scraps and dried them, just as I do for our jerky, but without the marinade, just a wee bit of salt and smoked it. Smoke helps to preserve and even has an anti-bacterial action. Smoked tanning helps in its preservation. The drying saves space and requires no electricity for storage. I double bag them in paper bags and store them in a cool, dry place. The dogs love it and it helps out with the cost of dog food.

Charles, the persimmon astringency is due to tannin. Before making any jam with them, you need to make sure that they are fully ripe, squishy soft. The tannin is significantly reduced when they are extremely soft and then not astringent. I have made persimmon jam from persimmons in Texas and was coached by the neighbor who gave them to us. She grew up with them and had been making jam for years.

Travis, I fully understand your perspective and have tried to deal more with natives  when possible. I used to live in Texas and have seen the devastation that many new plants and insects have caused to the land and wildlife, based on what we know now. I personally would like to obliterate fire ants. And having lived a few years in Nebraska, I can attest to the invasive Russian Thistle, also known as the tumbleweed.

I can see both sides of the issue and as a researcher of a wide variety of archaeology studies, have seen invasive versus native issues come up for a host of things. Such as mesquite, which is everywhere in the southwest, used by bees, by livestock for fodder, food and medicine for people, useful for the furniture industry, wood chips for smokers, etc., but archaeologists have shown that mesquite was not native to that area and they can date when it first starts appearing in sites. What did it displace and how much time did it take to find so many of the beneficial uses for it?

Enjoying many wild edible and medicinal wild plants, I like to find the uses for as many things as possible, such as a variety of goosefoot that that removes salt from the soil and transpires it to the leaves, which when burned can be added to soap to make it hard for the bars. For me, it is a challenge to find the myriad of uses for plants, rather than look at them as invasive and a thorn in the side. Surely some capitalistic company could find certain properties and uses for the hated buckthorn in Canada and next thing you know, they will be growing it intentionally.

Having spent much time reading the accounts of archaeologists, predominantly from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, I have read of the effects of hunter gatherer groups, as they wandered and foraged, spreading seeds from one area to another, as well as the effects of the early agriculture movements of men. What you may think is native plant life of an area, according to your current historical knowledge, may well be not native, in the grand scheme of things. Some seeds found at archaeological sites from several thousand years ago, are not what is considered native now.

Add to that, the effects of migrating animal life, carrying seed from furs or droppings and you can easily see that "native" is a relative term. Climate change is also having an effect. Plants that would not previously survive in one zone, now are not only surviving, but spreading. A friend of mine here in Montana, originally from the south and used to cardinals, saw his first, in 20 years, up here in Montana last spring and others this spring. In the old alpine regions of Old Europe (Neolithic) there is evidence of the climate change, similar to what we are going through now. As it got warmer, alpine regions began dying off, and the aspens, which thrive in the die off areas of the alpines, spread. That created a different habitat, causing other wildlife to prosper there and that changed the plant life.

There is apparently a small vineyard near/or in Missoula that everyone told them they could not grow grapes up here. But all the old timers have stated that the winters have been milder and that is allowing those grapes to survive where they would not have in many years past. 500 years from now, someone may be worried about the native buckthorn, in Ontario, disappearing and some other invasive arriving on the scene.

Tel, did you leave your lemons whole or quartered? And did you cover them with water after salting? I have wanted to find ways to preserve lemons, even wanting to make limoncello, so that I have more lemon around. I use a lot of lemons in my recipes.

Charles, I just finished my second batch ( 1 gallon each) of kimchi, which has been great and very addictive. In reading through the wild fermentation book again, I noticed another kimchi recipe, similar to the regular, but without the cabbage and lots of root vegetables, including sunchokes. I am making a batch of the root kimchi this week. If you are interested in the recipe, I can post it for you.

For those of you that like carmel popcorn, I came up with a recipe that we love.

Pop your corn in advance and have ready in a large bowl (I use stainless steel). I take 6-8 tbs of butter and start melting it in the skillet. Add 1/2 cp of Edens organic Barley Malt, a little bit less than 1/2 cup, but more than a 1/4 of honey and about 1/4 to 1/2 cup (depends on how much sugar you like) organic brown sugar and a pinch of salt. Stir thoroughly and constantly, letting it boil and bubble quite a bit.

Here is the tricky part, deciding when enough is enough. If you boil it too long, it becomes very hard and crunchy on your popcorn. If not long enough, it is too soft. Humidity is also a factor. If it is very humid, you need to boil a wee bit longer to get more of the moisture out. I generally boil for at least a couple minutes, until it looks very light and frothy. Then take that (with or without any nuts added) and spoon it over the popcorn, mixing it up to disperse the carmel mixture well. You will need to let this cool a bit before serving. Since it is so cool here in Montana in the evenings, I just set it outside for a few minutes and then it is ready to serve.

Years ago when I was researching water cisterns, I was concerned with the water sitting and possibly developing problems, like bacterias or algae. So I tried finding ways to naturally purify water. I came across an article that mentioned a particular type of sphagnum moss that had strong anti-bacterial properties. There was a man that was thinking about using it for pool and spa filtering. All the articles now, dont have the sphagnum variety listed, but I still had it on a post it note. The variety in Minnesota is called Sphagnum papillosum and the variety from New Zealand is Sphagnum christatum (sutton moss). Both varieties were used to heal wounds because of the natural anti-bacterial activity.

Creative Water Solutions marketed a system to use for pools and spas, but the delivery method involves plastic bags like tea bags, which I would not want in my water, nor the high cost,  but if you find or can order either variety for gardening, you could make your own muslin bags for using the moss.

http://www.cwsnaturally.com/pdfs/Knighton_Fiegel_1108WCP.pdf

Nicholas, here is a link to St. Helena history that has a book list at the bottom, perhaps one of the titles will jog your memory as to the book you could not remember. I would be interested in that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Saint_Helena