Dawn419
Almost Self-Reliant
Happy Solstice to you too! 
Can't wait to hear how the kraut turns out. Sounds like a project I can talk my mom into.
Can't wait to hear how the kraut turns out. Sounds like a project I can talk my mom into.
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- Thread starter dragonlaurel
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- #92
dragonlaurel
Improvising a more SS life
Hi Dawn Hope you are enjoying yourselves up there.
Mike snuck a bit out of it and liked it. It was started on Monday or Tuesday and has been doing fine so far, at room temp.
Hope you are enjoying yourselves up there. Mike snuck a bit out of it and liked it. It was started on Monday or Tuesday and has been doing fine so far, at room temp.
Britesea
Sustainability Master
Sauerkraut is SO easy to make! And I love the flavor and texture of it- so different from the canned stuff. If you want it to work faster, you can add a glug of whey from cheese or yogurt but it isn't necessary. I've got a gallon of it in my fridge now- it should stay good pretty much all winter. At first it was a little too salty, but the saltiness toned down as the kraut matured.
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- #94
dragonlaurel
Improvising a more SS life
This is my first try at making it, but it seems to be working. It probably needs to age, but I doubt hubby will leave it alone. I saved the extra juice from the Claussen kraut and poured that juice in the bucket to give it a head start. Just wanted to make sure the right culture got going.Britesea said:
Dawn419
Almost Self-Reliant
Brought this idea up to my mom last night and she's totally on board! My sister works in the school cafeteria so she's going to grab us some 2 1/2 and 5 1/2 gallon food grade buckets for the project. We'll be doing it in moms canning shed!
Happy Birthday to fluid druid!
Happy Birthday to fluid druid!
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- #96
dragonlaurel
Improvising a more SS life
Hubby said Thanks for the birthday wishes.Dawn419 said:Brought this idea up to my mom last night and she's totally on board! My sister works in the school cafeteria so she's going to grab us some 2 1/2 and 5 1/2 gallon food grade buckets for the project. We'll be doing it in moms canning shed!
Happy Birthday to fluid druid!
He's always surprised when people remember his birthday. Too much going on with the Xmas season. We invited some friends to come over in the daytime for a birthday party and it was the 1st time he'd ever had a b-day party that had more than just his own family there. 3 of the people do Christmas eve candlelight services, so they wouldn't have been able to come at night.
The birthday party menu was unusual:
some deli appetizer sandwiches (thin spiral sliced) that a friend brought
Corned venison - a friend gave him 10 lbs of deer meat (steaks & some stew meat). He found a recipe for corned beef and did the deer steaks that way.
baked potatoes
pot of greens fresh from my garden
brown rice (2 people can't eat potatoes, so we gave them another option)
homemade bread
my sauerkraut - needs more time to build the flavor
his kimchi ( insanely hot! )
Cheesecake for the b-day cake - with blueberries, chocolate sauce - or both
soda, lemonade & herb teas for drinks
Oooh a canning shed... Wow
Those buckets are great. I got some for free, but no lids. I used a plate for a lid with the 2 kraut. I used a salad platein the bucket with a bag of water on that. Then used a dinner plate on top of the 2 gal bucket and stuck it on top of the frig. It was the best spot I could find in our tiny kitchen.
Merry Christmas to all my friends that celebrate it, and I hope all the pagans had a happy Yule.
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- #97
dragonlaurel
Improvising a more SS life
This is something I wrote a few years ago and it still fits, so I thought I'd post it here.
Garden Diversity
Our farming ancestors grew much of what they needed themselves. They saved seeds from plants that produced well, survived harsh weather, or had less insect problems. Eventually, they had plant varieties that grew extremely well in certain regions or challenging situations. Most of the plants were pollinated by wind or insects. This is what is meant by open pollinated crops. Heirloom seeds come from these species. They have been toughened up through natural selection and given us crops through many years. If you plant heirloom varieties, you can save seed from them and get future generations of plants with the same traits.
Seed companies don't make as much money this way because you can save your own seed from these plants to sow later. You already have more seeds for that type of crop next year. They started trying to make new varieties of plants so they would have a product you could only buy from them. They pollinated plants with the pollen of different varieties to make hybrid plants with unusual traits. If the new plants had any advantages, they marketed those plants with huge advertising programs and it became a big, very profitable business.
Hybrid seed can give good results in the short run, but if you try to save seeds, they are frequently useless. When you save seed from hybrids, the new plants don't usually turn out like the parent plant. Seeds from hybrid plants are often sterile, meaning they dont grow new plants at all. This keeps the customers having to buy more of their products.
GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) plants are worse. They are made in laboratories by inserting chromosomes from other plants, animals or even germs into a plant to try to make new traits. The process of changing chromosomes makes a chain reaction of big or subtle differences that we may not know the full effects of for years. Corn and soy are both very frequently GMO crops. Both are still technically edible, but I think the subtle differences affect the way the body reacts to it. It's interesting that both of them are very frequent allergies now.
The GMO crops are still very good for the seed companies. They were invented, not something that developed on its own in nature. Inventions can be patented. Patents make it a crime for anyone else to reproduce your product without your permission. It makes them able to create a new plant that would not occur in nature, market it, and control its use. People can be prosecuted for using cuttings from them to make new baby plants. The legal control they have makes more profit for them.
Eventually, the richer seed companies bought out many of the smaller seed companies. They controlled much of the market and quit selling many of the old varieties. This made farmers rely more on the hybrids. They used advertising to make us think they were doing something good for us, while we had less and less choice available to us.
If there are food plants and legal herbs you would not want to be without- try to grow some yourself. Many herbs grow well in pots if you dont have the land available for a regular garden. Heirloom plants are a current trend and the seed companies are stocking some of them again. Some companies advertise which ones are heirlooms (open pollinated) and may charge extra. Other companies have always had them in their product line. There are seed saver organizations also that carry even more selection to pick from. These organizations are determined to help keep plant species from going extinct and deserve lots of praise and whatever money they make in the process.
Growing plants yourself has another advantages. The fuel prices were very high last year. This countries food is usually shipped long distances to the areas that sell it. Food and herbs were available but transportation costs raised the prices too much. This could happen again easily. CSA's (community supported agriculture), market gardens and home gardeners were less affected. I was so grateful to just walk to my patio and get some of my favorite herbs. I could pick fresh beans and squashes that were growing up the fence or pick some flowers nearby to bring inside. Tomatoes and spinach were recalled over contamination too, but home gardeners were not affected. Well, I planted some extra spinach in a hurry. It was summer already, so it went into a shadier spot and had to be used as baby spinach to keep from bolting in the Florida sun. Tomatoes were already growing in everybody's yards around me. Growing what you want locally, especially in your own yard can be more dependable.
Dragonlaurel 5:55 PM 4/22/2009
Garden Diversity
Our farming ancestors grew much of what they needed themselves. They saved seeds from plants that produced well, survived harsh weather, or had less insect problems. Eventually, they had plant varieties that grew extremely well in certain regions or challenging situations. Most of the plants were pollinated by wind or insects. This is what is meant by open pollinated crops. Heirloom seeds come from these species. They have been toughened up through natural selection and given us crops through many years. If you plant heirloom varieties, you can save seed from them and get future generations of plants with the same traits.
Seed companies don't make as much money this way because you can save your own seed from these plants to sow later. You already have more seeds for that type of crop next year. They started trying to make new varieties of plants so they would have a product you could only buy from them. They pollinated plants with the pollen of different varieties to make hybrid plants with unusual traits. If the new plants had any advantages, they marketed those plants with huge advertising programs and it became a big, very profitable business.
Hybrid seed can give good results in the short run, but if you try to save seeds, they are frequently useless. When you save seed from hybrids, the new plants don't usually turn out like the parent plant. Seeds from hybrid plants are often sterile, meaning they dont grow new plants at all. This keeps the customers having to buy more of their products.
GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) plants are worse. They are made in laboratories by inserting chromosomes from other plants, animals or even germs into a plant to try to make new traits. The process of changing chromosomes makes a chain reaction of big or subtle differences that we may not know the full effects of for years. Corn and soy are both very frequently GMO crops. Both are still technically edible, but I think the subtle differences affect the way the body reacts to it. It's interesting that both of them are very frequent allergies now.
The GMO crops are still very good for the seed companies. They were invented, not something that developed on its own in nature. Inventions can be patented. Patents make it a crime for anyone else to reproduce your product without your permission. It makes them able to create a new plant that would not occur in nature, market it, and control its use. People can be prosecuted for using cuttings from them to make new baby plants. The legal control they have makes more profit for them.
Eventually, the richer seed companies bought out many of the smaller seed companies. They controlled much of the market and quit selling many of the old varieties. This made farmers rely more on the hybrids. They used advertising to make us think they were doing something good for us, while we had less and less choice available to us.
If there are food plants and legal herbs you would not want to be without- try to grow some yourself. Many herbs grow well in pots if you dont have the land available for a regular garden. Heirloom plants are a current trend and the seed companies are stocking some of them again. Some companies advertise which ones are heirlooms (open pollinated) and may charge extra. Other companies have always had them in their product line. There are seed saver organizations also that carry even more selection to pick from. These organizations are determined to help keep plant species from going extinct and deserve lots of praise and whatever money they make in the process.
Growing plants yourself has another advantages. The fuel prices were very high last year. This countries food is usually shipped long distances to the areas that sell it. Food and herbs were available but transportation costs raised the prices too much. This could happen again easily. CSA's (community supported agriculture), market gardens and home gardeners were less affected. I was so grateful to just walk to my patio and get some of my favorite herbs. I could pick fresh beans and squashes that were growing up the fence or pick some flowers nearby to bring inside. Tomatoes and spinach were recalled over contamination too, but home gardeners were not affected. Well, I planted some extra spinach in a hurry. It was summer already, so it went into a shadier spot and had to be used as baby spinach to keep from bolting in the Florida sun. Tomatoes were already growing in everybody's yards around me. Growing what you want locally, especially in your own yard can be more dependable.
Dragonlaurel 5:55 PM 4/22/2009
Dawn419
Almost Self-Reliant
Great job, dl! 
- Thread starter
- #99
dragonlaurel
Improvising a more SS life
Thank you. I wrote it for Earth Day back then, but wanted a copy of it here.
Btw- I tried to make it a page in the My Page section, but that wouldn't cooperate. The title spot doesn't give enough characters -and- it wouldn't let me paste the text in either. So it went to the journal instead.
I wrote it for Earth Day back then, but wanted a copy of it here.Btw- I tried to make it a page in the My Page section, but that wouldn't cooperate. The title spot doesn't give enough characters -and- it wouldn't let me paste the text in either. So it went to the journal instead.
- Thread starter
- #100
dragonlaurel
Improvising a more SS life
I found a site that has a garden planner I really like. It's also Free, not just a 30 day trial. Gotta love that price.
Here's the link: http://www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Garden-Planner/kgp_home,default,pg.html
Here's the link: http://www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Garden-Planner/kgp_home,default,pg.html
