permies is sponsoring the Homegrowing show!

So, permies, what would you suggest to a growing family who want to 10x their homestead’s food production?

T Blankinship wrote:

So, permies, what would you suggest to a growing family who want to 10x their homestead’s food production?

Mushrooms! There was an article in Permaculture Magazine winter 2022 (pm114) about using tea and coffee waste to grow mushrooms.

Have The Homegrowing show looked into aquaponics? There is also a forum on Permies.com link here.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:You can have more food when you spare yourself some of the intensive work.  If you can get things to happen automatically then adopt that process.  

For example, let some of your lettuce go to seed.  Plant enough that there will be extra and when it starts to turn bitter, leave it in place.  Spend a little time harvesting the seed, so that you can spread it anywhere you might have tilled or bare soil.  One method is to pick the flowering stalk once the seeds are mature.  Put the seed stalks in a paper bag for later.  When you’re ready to plant, just hit the ground with the seed stalk, anywhere you have bare ground or in spaces where you end up weeding…. Where you plant or have planted your garlic& onions.  Where you will be planting your summer annuals.  Come springtime, there will be lettuce everywhere.  It germinates easily in cool soil.  Germinates far earlier than if you wait to plant it.  

The idea is to have lettuce as your most prolific weed.  In place it prevents germination of warm soil weeds, and when it’s in the way, eat it😊.

Purslane is another weed to promote, let it live anywhere it comes up until it’s in the way, then eat it.

Parsley, being biennial, you have to establish twice.  After that you’ll have some germinating every year, some seeding every year.  All you have to do is let it go to seed, and keep an eye on it.  

If you like neat rows and pathways, allow dill, cilantro, cosmos to come up in clumps here and there in your rows.  This is also a good place for parsley.  They provide habitat and food for parasitic wasps and pollinators.  And they will also reseed.

All the reseeding saves you the time of seeding, saves the expense of buying seed.  And it provides a latent seed bank in the soil…. So that you get something you want instead of weeds… or useful plants become your weeds.

Ben Cummings wrote:Mushrooms are something we've been scared of simply because of lack of knowledge. I don't have enough experience foraging to know what's what so we largely stay clear. Except for chaga.. I love a good chaga tea!

paul wheaton wrote:

A rocket mass heater is ten times better

Raphaël Blais wrote:
I was in the same situation, but i'm learning slowly by reusing in my garden and orchard the waste of a mushroom farm. It is a good way for me to get used to mushroom. Maybee your have a mushroom farm around you ?

Ben Cummings wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:

A rocket mass heater is ten times better

How would that work with home insurance I wonder...

paul wheaton wrote:

Ben Cummings wrote:

paul wheaton wrote:


A rocket mass heater domesticates the chimney fire.  you cleaned your chimney to prevent a chimney fire.  You were cleaning out creosote.  A rocket mass heater exhaust has zero creosote.  Insurance companies love that.

That makes sense! I'll ask a buddy of mine, he's a WETT (Wood Energy Technology Transfer) certified inspector. As far as I know, in Canada anyway, you'd need something that's CSA approved which would mean commercially available or a stamp of approval from an engineer which can get pricey.

Ben Cummings wrote: of approval from an engineer which can get pricey.

paul wheaton wrote:

But it would make damn good television ...  

Get a really good, solid idea of how much wood you are going through now.  So if you put in a rocket mass heater, you can get an idea of how much less wood you are using.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:

Check into it, (in your spare time!)🤣

But that's a project for once we don't have a mortgage and can be even more reclusive.

I want to build one in our greenhouse

I've got a perfect spot for a wofati greenhouse that we should be able to make sizeable enough to put in a rocket mass heater to dip our toes into building one.

Beau Davidson wrote:Check out Uncle Mud's webinar recording on heating greenhouses with RMH!  Everything you need to know.  Plus, Mud is very active around here and might be inclined to weigh in and lend you his expertise . . .

That's the one, Margaux suggested! I've been looking at it a bit. More reading to be done!

Regarding the Wofati greenhouse - it shouldn't need an RMH.  Paul's stayed safely above freezing even at -12*F it's first winter.  
https://permies.com/w/greenhouse
https://permies.com/t/175937/WOFATI-Greenhouse-Plans

That's crazy.. We were just hit with -22F (before wind chill) this past weekend.. Freaking cold here in Canada! My thing is, I want SO BADLY to grow citrus and other fruits but with our brutal winters it makes it.. "Complicated"

Ben Cummings wrote:Also, this is my first ever time on a forum so apparently my formatting is horrendous...

Ben Cummings wrote:

That's crazy.. We were just hit with -22F (before wind chill) this past weekend.. Freaking cold here in Canada! My thing is, I want SO BADLY to grow citrus and other fruits but with our brutal winters it makes it.. "Complicated"

Ben Cummings wrote:

Beau Davidson wrote:Check out Uncle Mud's webinar recording on heating greenhouses with RMH!  Everything you need to know.  Plus, Mud is very active around here and might be inclined to weigh in and lend you his expertise . . .

That's the one, Margaux suggested! I've been looking at it a bit. More reading to be done!

Regarding the Wofati greenhouse - it shouldn't need an RMH.  Paul's stayed safely above freezing even at -12*F it's first winter.  
https://permies.com/w/greenhouse
https://permies.com/t/175937/WOFATI-Greenhouse-Plans

That's crazy.. We were just hit with -22F (before wind chill) this past weekend.. Freaking cold here in Canada! My thing is, I want SO BADLY to grow citrus and other fruits but with our brutal winters it makes it.. "Complicated"

Not sure if you're still around, but I'm not far from you in central maine - got hit with that same cold (negative 51*F windchill just up the road in millinocket!) and didn't even get a frost on our broccoli and kale in the "sunroom"! I have an 8" RMH that I ran the day before the cold and wind, bringing the mass up to about 90*F, but I couldn't run it at all for three days with all the wind gusts. I think the temp dropped at lowest to ~42*F, but the thermometer isn't very trustworthy. Definitely stayed above freezing. This is a cheapo DIY above ground greenhouse / polytunnel "sunroom" made with cpvc electrical conduit and sheet plastic (UV stabilized with rip-stop thread) attached to the south side of the 5th wheel camper and a "cobwood" cordwood wall wrapped around the rest of the camper.

Citrus in our neck of the woods?  I certainly plan to. We're overwintering things like sweet potato, ginger, etc out there without losing it to the cold already, so it's definitely doable!

Gonna see if I can check this show of yours out tonight neighbor ;)

Ben Cummings wrote:
Mushrooms are something we've been scared of simply because of lack of knowledge. I don't have enough experience foraging to know what's what so we largely stay clear. Except for chaga.. I love a good chaga tea!

I know there are a few mushroom groups locally, we've just never taken the time to learn.

Mary Combs wrote:There will be many newbie folks having to start 'homesteading' their back gardens for the first time this year. So I'll kickoff with a suggestion for first time growers. First bit of advice 'don't get overly ambitious to start'. Projects always consume more time than you have available.

Chris Vee.[/quote wrote:


…does anybody know when season 2 starts? I’ve looked all over and I’m not seeing a date anywhere…

Fall 2023 is when it'll be available across our streaming partners! Season 2 is in production now.