Posted on 03/23/2008 11:36:40 PM PDT by nw_arizona_granny
Thanks for the welcome, I’ve been reading the thread off and on. We used to keep chickens, ducks, geese, goats, and horses, but I have scaled back to just dogs, fruit trees, and grape vines since Rob died. This year I’m going to try to put in potatoes, tomatoes (in pots), snow peas, and a few other things. They don’t take much work...
PS, I forgot to mention I have a stocked pond, very large, we have some catfish that are 3 feet long. Grandson caught a two foot one last summer, and cleaned it, and instructed me on how to cook it, the little darling. :D I must say it’s good fish. We have some other fish in there too, but the catfish are just delicious.
They like to shoot squirrels, too, and we’ve had country fried squirrel (same dry-wet-dry method as Southern Fried Chicken). I would say that homemade bread is cheaper than storebought, but they eat it so fast I have to stock up on flour before they visit.
I looked and couldn’t find gurshaws either, maybe we both had the name wrong. Could it be Crenshaw melons we remember?
http://www.heirloomseeds.com/melons.htm
http://www.neseed.com/Crenshaw_Melon_Seed_s/256.htm
I looked and couldn’t find curshaws either, maybe we both had the name wrong. Could it be Crenshaw melons we remember?
http://www.heirloomseeds.com/melons.htm
http://www.neseed.com/Crenshaw_Melon_Seed_s/256.htm
The big onions can go in big pots or the ground, just enough to cover the shoulders of them.
And they will root and divide into 4 large onions that grow and set seeds.
I take my scissors and cut off a leaf or two from several if I have them and they will keep putting out more leaves.
Then wash, chop and add to or use for garnish, but I use them in tuna salad and green salads, on beans, etc.
Onions are good for you and I like them.
I will be interested in your earth pots, they should work and I have a couple tubs that are too old for storage and one that I had tiny kittens in, so don’t store in it.
I can grow the sprouted sweet potatoes for house plants, but they will not grow here, too hot.
In San Diego, we had a patch of them.
During WW2, we got running water in the house and a sink, it just drained out on the ground and watered the biggest patch of sweet potatoes, you ever saw.
When mom wanted them, I went out and dug up the right amount and made sure the soil was firmed back down and that the next time I moved over a little and so it went around the patch and it kept growing.
LOL, someone would complain today about us using ‘grey water’ that had not been filtered and that would be the end of it.
As I recall, we grew them that way for years.
The ‘Sandhill Preservation Center’ link in post 107, did have a variety of sweet potatoes, I did not check this year.
No, not a melon, this was definitely a squash. Had a round body and a long neck. Green/pale green stripes. I’m going to ask some of the Amish around here, this summer. They may still grow it.
As my memory serves me, fried green tomato, would taste a lot like Zucinni squash, when it is dipped and fried.
There was a time when I thought of frying everything and did not know that people did not fry onions, squash, okra, apples and green tomatoes. And sweet potatoes, after parboiling them.
I like cabbage fried alone or with potatoes and onions.
Ok, I like the taste of fried food, in bacon drippings or lard, not this fancy oil that has no taste.
Take a look at these 3 nurseries they should have the Cushaw, as I have seen them listed, at all 3 I think.
These wound up being the ones that I ordered from every year.
There is a farm in Iowa, a school teacher, who grows fancy poultry of the old varieties and crops for seeds, all that I bought were good and cheap. Sandhill, it is here:
Nichols, had many heritage varieties and oriental, I have bought from them over 30 years:
Pinetree I also bought from, I like their mixed variety packets, so I could try more than one variety.
I am so sorry that you have lost Rob, it is no fun alone.
They don’t take much work..<<<
Now you sound like me, I have started more projects that did not take much time and found they did.
It is healing to work in the soil, so go for it and you will benefit with good food to boot.
Do post when you want, you are welcome and if we work at it, this can go on and be a usable thread to pop in and dig for a new idea, recipe, hint or even a money saving hint..........LOL, and that should cover any post we come up with, so we will not be saying that anyone is off topic.
Well I sure appreciate the warm welcome. This is a really interesting thread, it’s nice to see people interested in growing and cooking their own food; sometimes it seems like people eat out so much they’ve forgotten how to cook...
What fun, you won’t starve and that is good news.
A 3 foot catfish, will have all the fisher folks knocking on your door.
I have no problems with hunting for food, and lots of people think things are good that do not interest me.
A friend kept rattlesnake in her freezer, for feeding to company.
I made sure that I did not eat any of her fish or chicken dishes.
I am sure that my eating habits will change, if I ever reach the point that I don’t have a choice of what I eat.
There were many animals that I kept and did not eat, such as rabbits, it did not bother me to sell them to other people, right out of the freezer, but I only cooked them a few times and no one in the family would eat them.
It sounds as though you have a fine place, fruit and fish is a good start.
There was a time when homemade bread cost 25 per cent of store bought bread.....and I do not consider that white air bread to be bread, that stuff is good for crafts, makes a nice clay, when the crusts are removed and it is kneaded well with Elmers white glue, to make a dough/clay.
I have a pair of bread dough ear rings, a rose, that are almost 40 years old.
You are welcome.
The country/people began to change after WW2, mom kept working and didn’t have time and soon it was the mixes and then the fast food and many of them do not know how to cook.
I listen to my granddaughter almost 30 with 2 kids, she cannot cook without a mix, hasn’t a clue.
Theresa is in Alabama so I am not a help, unless she calls and asks how.
And she is trying hard to be a good wife and mother, home schooling and putting all her effort into the job.
Imagine the next generation, they will not have a clue.
For some reason, I always wanted to “do it from scratch” and now cannot do what I need to, even with mixes.
So goes real life.
Well, the grandsons can hunt and clean food, the girls know how to make homemade bread (at ages 12 and 7). I consider it my “granny job” to teach them to cook.
We fashion the bread loaves into large wreathes for Christmas and Easter dinners....takes about 2 pounds of dough, but it’s beautiful and delicious.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/1995899/posts?page=2
Swampsniper has posted todays photos and they are fantastic, come and see what a real fisherman looks like.
Do you have them on your pond?
You are correct, it is your ‘granny job’, it is what we should all do.
My daughter moved to Texas and then settled in Alabama, when the kids were very small, so I have seen very little of them.
That Theresa has bonded with me, over the phone and actually wants to know the old way of doing things, gives me hope.
http://outlands.tripod.com/index.htm
At the bottom of the page, there is a map, showing the countries that are looking at the survival information that is here.
Around Iran and Pakistan, at this time shows 2 to 1, of the rest of the world.
Why?
http://www.homestead.org/Poultry/VictoraVarga/GuineaFowl.htm
Guinea Fowl:
Something Different in the Garden
by Victoria Varga
Photo by Sabry Mason
An exotic and perhaps odd-looking breed of poultry, the Guinea Fowl, is fast becoming not just the friend of the poultry farmer, but a friend of the avid gardener as well. These solid colored birds, weighing in at no more than 4 ½ pounds apiece, hail from the Sub-Saharan regions of West Africa. The domestic, modern stock has originated from the wild breed of Guinea Fowl (‘nuneda meagris’), found as far south as the Eastern Cape Horn Regions of W. Africa. These domesticated fowl are found now in every region of the world.
These unusual birds are quite interesting in that their increasing role on the farm has taken on many purposes in today’s diversified livestock community. In addition to egg- laying and breeding stock production, one of the foremost uses for these animals today is for pest and rodent control. Guinea fowl, both male and female, are particularly adept at rooting out vermin such as mice and rats, and are even known to chase down and kill snakes. As well as keeping pests out of their environment, Guinea Fowl have been incredibly successful at ridding forested properties/farms of many types of bugs, particularly the deadly Deer Tick, which can carry Lyme Disease resulting in paralysis and death amongst other forms of livestock. This purpose in particular, has given the Guinea Fowl a widespread and excellent reputation, allowing the breed to rise above its former meat production-only function. Although raised for meat and considered a delicacy in Europe, the Guinea Fowl seems to, through their display of intelligence and multifunction, have risen above the stature of ‘meat-bird’.
These normally docile but alert birds have a surprisingly acute awareness of predators within their habitats, and will alert the farmer to any henhouse intrusion, day or night. A distinct and rather operatic call will be sounded upon any strange intrusion. Many Guinea Fowl breeders will attest to their “watchdogs’” ability of being able to distinguish between family members and strange and unfamiliar faces.
Guinea Fowl have been used for both pest control and as farm ‘watchdogs’ for decades now, and one of their relatively newer uses has been to the gardener and small crop grower. Guinea Fowl have proven most successful in organically controlling pests by eating most bugs in the garden, while leaving the green foliage virtually untouched. This has garnered the Guinea Fowl not just the praise and welcome of the farmer, but that of the gardener as well. Slugs, bugs, and other thugs are their specialty and Guinea Fowl have demonstrated once again, their versatility and ability to earn a reputation of wonderful uses.
Guinea Fowl can be kept either free-ranged, or free-run in the company of other poultry. They will usually group together if more than one of them are kept, even in a henhouse/run situation. Females often select their mate and then remain steadfast companions until death or separation. Males tend to be more vocal than females, making a sound that is described as the world “buckwheat”. Both the male and female are very similar in stature, and distinction. The only difference lies in the male possessing a slightly larger red appendage on his head; at first sight, males and females are difficult to distinguish apart from one another.
Guinea Fowl today come in a variety of colors, and Guinea Fowl breeders and enthusiasts are always breeding and looking for the newest genetic colorations. Their plumage is almost solid in color, with fine dappling of white or cream specks. Variations in overall color range from browns, blues, violets, creams, whites, grays and charcoals.
Chicks are called “keets” and can be hatched as with other fowl, by a reliable incubator, by Bantam mothe,r or a sitting hen of another variety. Their eggs are small, like the Bantam variety, and are hatched out in the standard 28-day cycle akin to other chickens. The suggested grower feed for the little keets is a medicated Pheasant/Turkey starter, and precautionary care with regard to warmth, drafts, and a dry environment as with other young birds is imperative. Keets display themselves as very alert and hardy and seem to develop independence much more quickly than other chicks.
If you are interested in keeping something a bit different in the coop, & would like to eradicate the possibility of ticks and other harmful pests in the farmyard or garden, perhaps a pair of Guinea Fowl would be a successful addition to your own spread. Guinea Fowl will certainly be a conversational addition to any farm, and with their many successful uses around a country acreage, should result in being a hard-working member of the farm operation team.
If you want the babies to thrive, feed buttermilk to them in place of the water, to get them started and partly afterwards till they are really growing.
You can set your clock by them as they make their rounds each day, eating bugs.
I always thought of them as the first ‘liberated’ poultry as the uncles and proud daddy watch the young keets.
People eat them, I didn’t, but did use their eggs in cooking.
granny
http://www.homestead.org/Gardening/NoxiousWeeds.htm
[end of article]
The search proved to be an eye-opening, and horrifying, experience. Typing “noxious weeds” into the search bar took me to the USDA national database with a large listing of all noxious and invasive weeds, by state.
( http://plants.usda.gov/cgi_bin/topics.cgi?earl=noxious.cgi )
As none of the scientific, nor common names, meant anything to me, I decided to click on each listing separately and look at the photographs included, to see if I could identify this plant. And as I viewed and read about each weed, my heart sank deeper and deeper. The groundcover that graced our driveway turned out to be Puncture-vine (Tribulus terrestris), a weed that grows burs so hard it can puncture bicycle tires (imagine what it will do to your foot !). The purple spikes at the edge of the irrigation canal are Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria). It aggressively pushes out plants with nutritional value for wildlife but offers none itself, and the “Morning Glory” is none other than “agriculture’s twelfth most serious weed species”, the infamous Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) which seed can remain viable in the soil for fifty years. But worst of all, the milky stalks I had been removing from our acreage, were part of the one plant that would feed the butterflies I so longed to provide for, the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca).
Puncturevine (Tribulus terrestris) is surely not a groundcover by choice!
Needless to say, I had my work cut out for me. During the next couple of days, I read up on every possible plant I recognized from their online “mugshot” and marked them on our property. Some of them were poisonous to livestock (and humans), so I focused on those first. The plants that had not gone to seed yet I pulled from the ground (with gloves on) and laid them to dry on the burn pile. The weeds that did go to seed I tried to remove as carefully as possible. Various websites suggested placing a container or a plastic bag over the plant before removing them, so the seeds don’t spread.
But what was I going to do about the milkweed? Several new plants had sprung up, both in the pasture and in my flowerbeds. And although not considered dangerous to our health (or to the cows or chickens) unless it was eaten in large quantities and without proper preparation, it was still considered a noxious weed. The Asclepias syriaca, or common milkweed, is invasive (hence the fact that shortly after I pulled each and every plant in sight, there were new plants growing everywhere), it absorbs nutrients and water more quickly than many a crop, and with each seedpod containing about 500 seeds each, I rested in the knowledge that the milkweed and I were going to be long-term friends - or foes, depending on how you look at it.
Once considered an ugly intruder, the Asclepias Syriaca is now welcomed into my butterfly garden!
Decisions, decisions! Milkweed is a must for the Monarch butterfly, as the larvae will feed off the plant. I definitely wanted to create a safe haven for all critters, flying or not. So after some good and hard thinking, I decided to remove all milkweed plants from the pasture area but leave them in my butterfly garden. It has been a privilege to see a few Monarch butterflies, whose life depend on the availability of these plants, visit my garden.
As for the rest of the weeds, several times a week now, I walk the property and look out for new outbreaks of the various noxious weeds that I identified earlier this summer. Once familiar with the leaves and the way the plant grows, it becomes easier to spot them right away and remove them before they can go to seed, or do any mayor damage. If you are new to the area where you are homesteading, or find an unusual plant or flower on your property, contact your county weed superintendent, or county extension office. There are also online resources to help you identify the “intruder”, and the URL mentioned above is a great start. You may also want to check with your local authorities and see if they provide additional, area-specific information, or workshops on the topic. They are also great for identifying any weed you may find on your property that cannot be recognized with the current listings.
Although now less colorful, I know that our pasture is healthier for our soon-to-be-purchased livestock, and with the help of a local nursery and several online resources, I was able to make up for my terrible milkweed mishap with a thriving butterfly and hummingbird garden. The milkweed stalks that I so brutally removed earlier this spring have grown back and are sporting huge clusters of flowers. Unfortunately, they are also developing equally huge seed pods. Tomorrow morning I will, sharp knife in hand, pay a visit to my friend the milkweed, and remove these green tear-shaped pods from its stalk. There is no doubt in my mind that I will miss one or two on our acreage somewhere. At 500 seeds a pod, it will mean that next year I will be busy chasing down every growing weed in our pasture again, but hopefully with a butterfly or two happily flying along.
http://peaceandcarrots.homestead.com/ForagingAndWildFoods.html
Wild Food Adventures - Edible Plant Expertise
http://www.wildfoodadventures.com/
Foraging With the “Wildman”
http://www.wildmanstevebrill.com/
Wildflowers and Weeds: Identification of wild flowers
http://www.wildflowers-and-weeds.com/
Open Directory Food: Wild Foods
http://dmoz.org/Recreation/Food/Wild_Foods/
Cooking - Wild Edibles & Foraging
http://www.pathtofreedom.com/links/food&cooking/wildedible&foraging.shtml
Free Food From Field and Forest: Stories and Recipes
http://www.tagyerit.com/freefood.htm
Gather and Hunt your food-Links Page
http://www.naturalhub.com/gather_hunt_food.htm
RawFoodNetwork.com: Links to Information about Raw and Living Foods Online
http://rawfoodnetwork.com/books_wildfoodandforaging.html
FORAGING THE EDIBLE WILD !!!!
http://community-2.webtv.net/Taimloyd/FORAGINGTHEEDIBLE/
Delicious Cooking and Healing with Wild Edible Plants and Mushrooms
http://www.bobcatswilderkitchen.com/links.html
The RuckSack
http://therucksack.tripod.com/edibleplants.htm
The Forager Community - Links and Resources for Foragers
http://theforagerpress.com/community/links.htm
Dining on the Wilds links
http://www.edibleplants.com/weplinks.htm
Foraging and Ethnobotany Links Page
http://www.panix.com/~paleodiet/foraging/
Nearctica - Family - Eating Nature - Misc. Wild Plants
http://www.nearctica.com/family/eatnat/plants/miscplan.htm
ETHNOBOTANY OF WILD PLANT FOODS
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/profiles/smason/smethnob.htm
Medicinal Herbs And Edible Plant links
http://altnature.com/links/medicinal_plant_links.htm
Non-Timber Forest Products - Edible Links
http://www.sfp.forprod.vt.edu/sfp_link/edible.htm
Foraging Links
http://wildfood.home.infionline.net/foraginglinks.html
http://peaceandcarrots.homestead.com/Thermoscookinglinks.html
Thermos cooking and other similar links
Cooking Steel Cut Oats in a Thermos
http://www.edgarcayce.org/th/tharchiv/therapies/oats.html
SAVING MONEY WITH A THERMOS BOTTLE
http://www.justpeace.org/nuggets11.htm#THERMOS%20COOKING
Vacuum flask cooking - encyclopedia article about Vacuum flask cooking
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Vacuum%20flask%20cooking
Lunch the Ayurveda Way
http://www.mapi.com/en/newsletters/newsfood-lunch.html
SAVING MONEY WITH A THERMOS BOTTLE
http://www.kurtsaxon.com/foods005.htm
Making Yogurt Without a Yogurt Maker Recipe
http://homecooking.about.com/library/archive/bldairy9.htm
Article on using a hay box as an economical cooker
http://www.poundsmeetends.co.uk/articles/haybox.htm
Energy Efficient Cooking Methods
http://www.lostvalley.org/haybox1.html
Solar Ovens & Cooking, woodstoves
http://www.northcoast.com/~tms/kitchen.html
Solar Cooking Documents in the Solar Cooking Archive
http://solarcooking.org/docs.htm#Retained%20Heat%20Cooking
Hay box cooking
http://www.tnau.ac.in/tech/homesci/haybox.pdf
The Hay Box
http://www.moscowfood.coop/archive/hay_box.html
Cooking in a Thermos(TM) Bottle
Vacuum flask cooking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vacuum_flask_cooking
Cooking With A Thermos Bottle
http://www.xmg.com/thermos.htm
Improvised Cooking Stoves
http://www.dalbeattie.com/domesticcivildefence/stoves.html
Thermos Flask Lunch - An Ayurvedic meal in a jar
http://www.ayurvedamed.com/recipes/57/
Nice article on a root cellar and photos, plus many related links:
http://peaceandcarrots.homestead.com/RootCellar.html
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