Cowgirl

WONDERFUL! Love my cast iron. You will love yours!

@Jeepers oh, those are SO COOL. Someday, maybe, I would like one also. They are SO BIG - imagine the produce you could process. Putting one in the garage sounds like a good idea.

Sorry to hear you are feeling so poorly, @Mt_Rider - I hope you feel better soon.

Mmmmm @Ambergris that sounds GOOD! Recipe? I was pondering dehydrated yogurt. I found this article with directions and may try it. Has anyone here dehydrated yogurt?

I like that the dehydrator doesn’t heat up the kitchen as much as canning.

Bump. I am wanting to do more dehydrating and less canning. This thread is amazing. I am still learning my way around my dehydrator, but love it so far! I think I am going to need to get a vacuum sealer next, though. I began by storing in my freezer, but I am out of room. I haven't canned anything yet this year!

Jeepers, the only way I control lemon balm is by harvesting. I use a considerable amount of it for feeding critters. I pull it up by the roots with each harvest, because yes, it will grow back. I let it spread to the size I wanted, and then heavily harvest that area. Now, when I am dead and gone, will someone curse me for it? Perhaps. But it is a valuable herb and we use a lot of it.

I think it likely that your starter colonized its neighboring dough. Sounds like you have an active starter. Time to give it a test run!

Yes! I have seen several recipes for sourdough cinnamon rolls on Pinterest. I have not tried it yet, but the sweet and sour should be a nice combo! Maybe save a little bit of the dough and have your own starter.

I started talking about flowers in my thread about raising chicken feed. They deserve their own thread! I have been creating essentially an old fashioned cottage garden around our property. English cottages did not generally have a lot of land to work with, so they have traditionally grown fruits, herbs, flowers and veggies in a glorious intermixing. But in this way they could supply their family’s NEEDS. It was a form of subsistence gardening, originally. Nowadays it seems to me that permaculturists are drawing a bit on this old concept, because that old concept WORKED. Plants can benefit from diversity - legumes produce nitrogen that feeds their neighbors, bees readily pollinate as they move from flower to squash flower, and pests are less likely to come in and decimate a crop interspersed with other plants. A happy pollinator population, particularly the native bees, means your food production goes up dramatically. No pollinators, and many crops will not produce ANY food. Thus, keeping the native bees fed through the entire season, from spring thaw on through to the last hard frost, means you will have the pollinators needed for your food production. Flowers are not just pretty distractions, they are VITAL to healthy bees, particularly in an age of widespread insecticide use and GMO crops with insecticides that are present EVEN IN THE POLLEN. Commercial farming practices have decimated pollinator populations. As a result if you want to raise anything that depends on pollinators, you must take on the role of cultivating not only your food crops, but your pollinator population. Feed the bees and they will feed you and your livestock. And that is where flowers come in. Organic flowers in an organic garden/homestead. I garden organically for many reasons. First, I don’t want to eat poison myself. Second, I don’t want my food producing animals to eat poisons and concentrate that in their eggs, milk and meat. Third, if I sprayed poisons I would kill off beneficial “weeds” that feed my native bees and also my animals, especially my chickens. Fourth, if I sprayed pest bugs, I could not harvest them for free, high protein chicken food, and I would also kill the bees. I do nothing that could harm the bees, and I try to provide them with a complete habitat so that they do not need to wander off and get killed by the crap the neighboring farmer is doing in his fields. My bee population has grown as has my fruit production. Our “lawn” and pasture are kept mowed (high setting), but it has much greater diversity than the standard American lawn. I encourage dandelions. Yes, I am one of THOSE people! Not only is the dandelion a valuable medicinal herb and spring tonic for people, but the flower is good for the native bees. I have seen hooved animals seek it out as well. I also encourage white clover. The bees love white clover flowers, and the clover is also excellent forage, akin to alfalfa, for the hooved critters. Another flower you will see in our “lawn” is violas or violets. The bees love these in the spring (as do I). Violas are also a useful herb. Our windbreaks include lilacs, another gorgeous and useful flowering plant. They grow tall and thick enough to serve as a windbreak, helping to stop the blowing snow in the winter. They feed the bees. And, they are edible! Eastern redcedars have rather inconspicuous flowers, so should I list them here? But they produce a fruit beloved of songbirds. Those birds, in turn, eat huge amounts of insects. The cedars are useful in windbreaks. They provide habitat. And they have medicinal uses (semi-low dose). I rank them highly. STEALTH: My cottage garden intermixes edibles, culinary herbs and medicinal herbs (including low dose botanicals — useful medicinals in very low doses but poisonous in high doses). I have a huge variety of fruits, both commonly and rarely eaten: roses, elderberries, highbush cranberries, maypops, and hawthorns are grown along with the more familiar apples, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, etc. A city marauder headed to the country to find food would have some difficulty discerning many of my edibles I have growing here, as not all edibles are growing in raised beds, and some raised beds have low dose botanicals intermixed. What is edible? What could kill them? Do they dare? Many edibles are scattered in the landscaping. There are pots of pretty annual flowers intermixed with pots of edibles. It does not look like a grocery store nor even like an expected standard American garden. I don’t like straight rows! A gardener would recognize many of the edibles, but other folks likely would not. Thus, my flowers and herbs serve another purpose, to confuse a would be food thief in a post SHTF situation. Echinaceas are gorgeous native flowers that attract bees, butterflies and birds. They are also medicinal in addition to being gorgeous. I have a small bed at the front of our house with daffodils, violas, irises, day lilies, peonies, daisies, Black-eyed Susans, echinacea, asters, and boxwoods. In one small bed I have blooms that attract pollinators all season long. The daffodils are not super pollinator attractors, but I love them anyway. They have uses in discouraging animals from wintertime damage to their neighboring plants, though - so daffodils are USEFUL too, in their own way (good in an orchard also). So, the flowers serve a myriad of purposes. They help to create a favorable ecosystem for raising food —my fruit production would be paltry without the populations of bees they support. They provide great enjoyment, both through their beauty and through the wildlife they attract — butterflies and birds are drawn in by them. Many of those birds also do double duty eating bugs, including copious amounts of mosquitoes! And they help to disguise the food to the ignorant. And, many of them have broader uses as edibles in their own right, or medicinal uses. In short, flowers are a mostly overlooked but important part of the survival garden. Plant some now.

Indeed! Flowers add joy to one’s life, and so do the many species of butterflies they attract. Yesterday while I took a tea break on the porch, I watched a black swallowtail fluttering from one echinacea to another. ? One very important thing I haven’t mentioned here, about raising food for chickens — I do this organically — I do not spray weeds, and I do not spray bugs. I ***HARVEST*** them. Weeds are not weeds to be killed, they are additional crops that the chickens can eat, roots and all. Bugs are not pests to be destroyed (which will also kill off your very necessary pollinators and reduce your total food production), they are free, high protein food for your chickens. I could not do any of this if I sprayed poison all over my land.

I ordered 50 pounds of organic high protein bread flour on Monday. It arrived on Wednesday. I cannot find it locally for any price, but it came in the cheapest of any I had found, even factoring in shipping. Its packaging is really good. I am SUPER PLEASED. I think I have found my new supplier.

Yeah. I would love to have someone nearby to do things like canning with, or who just understands prepping. Migraines are nasty. Hate! Them! I find lemon balm to be helpful both with the nausea and pain. So if you can’t stock the meds, you might plant some lemon balm. Be aware that it is in the mint family and needs to be controlled with harvesting or ... it has visions of world domination! Good luck avoiding the diabetes!

Not very close to me, then. I’m a stone’s throw from the Indiana border, but in the central part of the state.

@JeepersIndiana? Oh wow!!! Where? I am in Illinois.

About pollinators. When I first came to this site I had recently moved and my Spidey Senses were going off about looming disaster. I was hesitant to plant anything but food. And I think I even wrote that. Could I afford the luxury of flowers at such a time? But nonetheless I did plant some flowers. I am a gardener. There are reasons to plant flowers other than enjoyment, though. A wide variety of flowers makes for a healthier bee population, both for honeybees and native bees. I aim to have something in bloom every day of the growing season. Healthy pollinator populations mean food production. I have a monarch butterfly waystation here. I grow 3 different species of milkweeds plus a variety of flowers they like. A huge side benefit of this is the explosion in native bee population here. In creating great habitat for the monarch butterflies, I have also created a habitat for the bees. Our fruit production is very good as a result. So, a survivalist gardener who wants to produce a lot of food should also plant flowers. A former neighbor from down the road a ways got very snooty with me when I offered her some flower starts. She said she only raised FOOD and had no use for flowers! She also complained that her fruits did not produce. Plant flowers. Plant so that there is ALWAYS something in bloom through the spring, summer and fall (winter too if your growing season allows). Feed the bees and they will feed you (and feed your chickens, to keep this on topic).

One thing I think bears mention here. Like many super foods, lambs quarters should NOT be fed as an exclusive diet or even a majority of the diet. Like spinach, eaten in extreme excess it could cause problems. It is SUPER HEALTHY. But moderation is key. I presently have a large-ish patch that I have encouraged to grow and increase in size for several years. It grows happily in a gravely area where not much else could grow. I cut it for hay and hang it to dry for winter feeding. But again, moderation is key. A little is great. Vast amounts all at once? Not so much.

I buy a flock raiser from TSC - high protein. I add equal portions by volume, feed and water, each day and stir it into the previous day's ferment. I do not free feed the fermented food. What I do is to put out what they will consume in about an hour. The balance of their diet is weeds, hay, scraps, bugs, etc. Many years ago I fed dry feed and would dump a bag in a big feeder that dispensed it out as they ate. They would eat on that for a long time. In recent years I have been reading studies and applying that to my chicken care routine. I tried fermented feed about 5 years ago but did not like how it smelled over winter in the house - I was using a 3 day fermentation method then and its smell was objectionable. After abandoning that, I fed WET mash. Studies show a reduced need for feed due to greater digestibility of wetted feed, although not as reduced as fermentation. So due to changing over from dry feeding I began my practice of feeding once per day what they will consume and then supplementing with other foods. You definitely don't want to free feed wet food as all sorts of bad things could colonize it. I am not sure about fermented feed being left out for days, but I don't know anyone who does that. They do great on once per day of fermented feed, supplemented with foods that take longer to peck at and scratch for. Mulberries are not self-fruitful. If there are no wild ones in your area to cross pollinate, it won't bear fruit. You need at least 2 seedlings if there are no wild trees nearby. The other thing you must have for mulberries is plenty of bees. If your local pollinator population is too low to be attracted by your mulberries, they won't produce Some mulberries are advertised as self-fruitful grafted trees. Most "self-fruitful" grafted trees still produce better with cross-pollination. I suppose yours could be sterile. But I suspect it just needs a buddy.

Our tomatoes are still green. I am checking each day. I can hardly wait for that first delicious vine ripened tomato!!!!!!! Our rhubarb is having a rough year. Late spring freezes hurt almost everything this year. They rebounded and then due to that stress decided to bolt seeds. I must've cut a couple hundred seedheads from 2 plants - never seen so many in all my years of gardening!! Then hail with a few of the big storms battered them. They look so sad and beaten that I am hesitant about harvesting any - they may need what energy they can store in their roots for next year. But I want pie. So, undecided. I found ghee at ALDI's. I have never cooked with ghee but have long been fascinated by shelf stable butter. Before I stock up, though, I need to use it and see how I like it. I have been on an organizing kick this spring and summer also. It feels good to get things where you can find them, doesn't it? I am slowly working my way through the house. The kitchen was a monumental project. But I have not completed the whole house. I have been getting rid of old clothes, things we no longer use, etc. It has freed up space. DH has been resistant. He does not like parting with things, even clothes he hasn't worn in 20 years. So my progress in weeding out and organizing has been somewhat stymied.

Yippee for rain, @Annarchy and YIPPEE that it didn’t come into the house!

Um .... meany? Apparently this site auto-sensors the word for a female dog. Hmmm.

Yes. We have German Shepherd Dogs. DH owned 2 really nice GSDs years ago. He bred them once to get a puppy and found great homes for the others. That dog was a super dog and got many, many titles. When he got older, we bred him to a nice (meany) in exchange for pick of the litter. That next dog, an amazing dog even better than his dad, is now older and we bred him to a really nice (meany) we got 4 years ago. She has been an awesome mom (she is a great, great dog). We have a really nice litter. We don’t do this often, so it is a special treat to have puppies. I am keeping one to train and show, and DH is going to keep one also. DD is taking one. Another DD may take one. And a colleague may take another. Part of me wants to keep them all!

LOL @Mt_Rider — I love sweets too. I eat fewer now, but I still eat them. Hence, the weight has come off very, very slowly over the past year. The biggest change for me is portions. I decided to make meat a smaller portion of my plate, and veggies a MUCH BIGGER portion. We eat. We get full. But what we are filling up on is veggies rather than the meats. Because I am full after dinner, I am a little less tempted to have desert. But I still do have some.

I figured moderation would be the sensible way to approach such a list, but I was a bit surprised to see some of them designated “zero” along with greens. A person could literally pig out on some of those zeros and still lose weight, while others are definitely high calorie. We eat chicken, quite a bit. But I prefer dark meat. I will normally eat one thigh for the protein and then eat lots of veggies and a slice of sourdough with butter and/or apple butter for the balance. We also eat eggs. Lots of eggs (one reason I raise chickens is for amazingly vibrantly colored healthy eggs). Almost every day starts with eggs. And sometimes they find their way into dinners too. I always thought the urgent warnings against eggs and to eat nasty margarine and throw away those vitamin rich yolks was stupid. So we’ve been eating eggs for years, and butter too. I am amused that they now say eggs are ok, sort of. I don’t follow Weight Watchers because I am too lazy to track points or calories. The only reason I started losing weight was that I decided to eat for health, so I am always thinking about vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, etc.

Good for you, Kappy. I need to get my processing done. Ugh, I am so behind! But today I have used the cooler temps to expand my Maypops. I am making a larger area for them and so I dug up a bed along a fence and transplanted some Maypop volunteers from the grass in the orchard where they have survived mowings. Got them watered in. And now I am beat and sitting in my recliner trying not to fall asleep! But we will have a lot more fruit in the coming years. The chickens got a big zucchini that got away from me in size - the plants are really churning them out this year and we can’t eat them fast enough. I am too tired to process a big one today so the chickens are enjoying it. Worked with the litter of pups today. Getting them used to one-on-one people time and brushing. Still evaluating them - which to keep, which to DD, which to sell (good homes, interested in training only). They are all so danged cute. I need to get some things into the dehydrator. But I don’t think I have it in me today. I noticed that our raspberries are coming on. Need to get out there and begin first harvest. I have Heritage Reds, which are everbearing. So we get one wave in summer and another in fall.