Heh - you are exactly right about how I handle my “compost.” I had to sign a waiver that I understood the stuff was not for human consumption. However, I had made friends with the produce man and knew they weren’t putting any poison on it. Ya know, I just had to know lest that stuff contaminate my garden. But, we have eaten much more fresh food this winter as I have been doing this. I really have to watch to whom I say that as this *is* a small town and if word got back they wouldn’t give me the culls anymore.
They throw away so many good items that I have been sharing with a friend on social security and preserving a little each week. For me, it’s something when I have produce to can in January!!
I expect my soil is about opposite of your soil. It’s such hard packed clay that I often injure myself with trying to loosen it up. We don’t have a motorized tiller yet, so I borrow one about once a year and do the rest by hand. The compost is helping but it takes time. This is my grandmother’s old home and she was the first generation who didn’t garden so it’s never been broken up. However, she never fertilized, just watered and cut the grass. When I manage to get the soil loosened up I find lots of earthworms the next time I move soil. They are really taking to my compost piles.
And I’m getting to be like that manure patch you found, I have piles all over the back yard! LOL
Canning in January is fun, and it warms the house.
Have you tried a dehydrator?
I like the cheap one that Walmart sold, about now it is sometimes half price, it will have about 5 trays, is round and has a fan.
I have a larger homemade one, but it involves real work and uses too much electric for small batches.
Watch for onions in your produce, as when they are planted, they will bloom and give you seeds, plus split into 4 onion bulbs......yes, the common onion.
I had read that when you cut the roots off, you can plant them and they will grow again, I didn’t get mine planted in time to really test it, but it looked like it was going to grow.
I also found a half onion in the refrig, that was growing nice green onion leaves from the center.
If you cut the leaves for cooking, it will make your growing onion smaller and I think stronger flavored, so I use lots of greens and then use the bulb for soups.
yes, I have sand, or a sand / clay mix, some spots are pure sand.If the earthworms are happy, the soil is doing the right things.
I envy you, a move and compost piles too...You will enjoy the challenge of a new place.
I laugh at lawns, such a waste of effort, even flowers are better than grass to look at, for me.
My sister insists on flowers, she calls them “ Food for the soul”.
If you live in an area that has canals, watch for the time they clean the moss from them.
We would bring home all the trailer would hold and dump it in a pile, and the poultry would have said it was a poultry heaven, all those little shells and other goodies.
Most folks have never heard a batch of chickens sing, they do with a pile of moss.
This was in Wellton, near Yuma, Az, if there was any moss left after they had eaten their fill, we put it in the compost.
Your “sharing with a friend” reminds me of several years ago when we raised belted galloways, we would go to a thrift store weekly and get a pickup truckload of bakery items, mostly bread. Some of the items would be several days prior to their “freshness” date, but discarded because of failure to be uniform in size, color etc. We paid ten dollars for the whole load. It was cheaper than cattle grain and great for fattening cattle and hogs. We also shared with several neighbors living on small pensions.
I remember asking an elderly gent if he needed some fresher bread and he answered that he didn’t mind removing a little mold and wouldn’t take any fresh, but how he loved raisin bread when we would have some for him. How grateful and thrifty some of our elders are!!
I, too, here in Maine have rock hard clay. Have been working on my soil for 50 plus years and have some beds that are very friable after adding literally tons of compost. Yes, it is “black gold” and I am fortunate to have tons of it every year to share with family and friends. Having two miniature ponies, all the neighbors suitable kitchen waste and grass clippings and all the seaweed I can get hubby to help me harvest makes for a big pile. As I share, it is like a community project. I keep a thermometer in it and everyone is amazed when I get it up to 120 degrees. When it starts to cool. hubby takes his loader, turns it and it starts to heat up again.
My children say that I am the only one they know that gets all excited about a compost pile, but I bet Granny would understand my enthusiasm.
Like you, I have been poor but was so blessed in other ways, didn’t even realize I was poor. When you have plenty of milk, eggs, poultry, beef, pork, wild berries and apples, how can you feel poor feasting on custard, blueberry and apple pie, homemade icecream, cottage cheese, breads and biscuits hot from the oven.
Just sitting here watching the snow falling today and dreaming about the garden I will be planting, God willing in a few weeks.