(A Juan Valdez moment! Think how much we all owe him!)
Posted on 10/01/2022 6:40:39 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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In MY world (low carb/carnivorish), the only “unhealthy” item in the recipe list is the Texas Toast.
✔️ Cream cheese - full fat
✔️ Cheese - grated off a block (not already grated - stuff they put in to keep it from sticking is ‘carbs’)
✔️✔️BACON - oh yeah ... good stuff!!
✔️Spices are fine
✔️Butter - real stuff, not margarine.
✔️Jalapenos are a ‘nightshade’ & I have an issue with nightshades, but 4 jalapenos won’t be a problem.
So .... will have to dig out a low carb bread recipe to do this .... this one came immediately to mind:
https://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/easy-keto-bread-recipe-low-carb/
Smart! I’m betting it works well.
“It wasn’t until World War II that we reassessed what we had lost. Victory Gardens once more coaxed productivity from the land, and for many of us, these wartime yards helped shape our 21st-century perceptions of living in a fruitful community landscape. We are now in a similar time of reconsideration, adapting to an even more densely populated landscape. We are once again reminded that food security works best when there are many alternative sources for edibles—sources including our own backyard.”
Amen to that! Wonder what WW III will bring? ;)
I have been noticing a GLUT of canning supplies in the stores this season. Farm & Fleet even had a 50% OFF sale last week! The obsession with gardening during CovidBS-19 was certainly short-lived. :(
Best years I had for potatoes is when I dragged humus and leaf mold into the garden from an area where I wanted grass to start growing. Tilled it in and it made my heavy soil fluffy for a couple of seasons. I’m slowly converting forest to pasture so I have no shortage of humus, leaf mold, leaves. My neighbor tilled a bunch of leaves into his potato plot and had the best year ever.
Most people wait until the soil is bone dry to dig potatoes but I do it when it’s about the same moisture level as it would be for tilling. One year I didn’t have to dig them. I just pulled the plants and the taters came up with the roots. That was that first year after adding humus, leaf mold.
I’ve got a big spot where I’ve been pushing rotted wood and leaves for a few years and it should be rotted down more and ready to drag up to the garden.
Tried potatoes in 12 inch tall rings made from slices of plastic barrels this year. Scratched up the ground, set seed potatoes down and covered with shredded leaves. Not impressed.
Probably got a 1:2 ratio.(2lbs of harvested potatoes per 1 pound seed potatoes planted) My old organic gardening book by JI Rodale says 1:7 is a good return and I think I hit that on that one good year. Usually get 1:4 - 1:5.
I could only find a single 5lb bag of Yukon Gold seed potatoes this past Spring which is what I prefer to grow. Russets are so cheap to buy, it doesn’t seem worth the effort to grow and we like the Yukon Gold better. Better than the reds even.
Those supposedly ‘in the know’ have been calling for food shortages and telling people to stock up. “Prepper” types are listening, but no one else. I’ll have to inventory my canning supplies & stock up where I need stuff.
I am VERY concerned about food security which is why I got that half a hog. I also go by the store frequently & buy meat on ‘Manager’s Special”. Last week, I got 3 London Broils for $3.89/lb. That’s actually up - the ones I bought previously were $3.59/lb. I still have hamburger I bought cheap at Aldi’s in 5 lb tubs - broke it down into 1 lbs packages. There’s also some leftover venison from last year. Once I get the new freezer up & running, I’m going to sort through everything & organize it.
For years, I have thought “Victory Gardens” were a great idea and people should grow some of their own food. A niece of mine lives in Brooklyn & has a little balcony - she and her roommate grew a bunch of herbs & a tomato plant this year. I think they had a strawberry plant, too. At least they are doing something ... plus the plants tend to cheer them up, living in the big city.
Do you remember the Victory Garden on PBS, way back when Marian Morash did the cooking segments (70’s I think)? I loved that show! If you do not have the Victory Garden cookbook, it’s a gem. The veggies are alphabetical ... tips on growing from Russ Morash, then from Marian, about every which way you can prepare that veggie. Her carrot cake recipe is one of the best (my go-to) ... her zucchini breads are good, too. Lots of recipes that are not cakes, pies or bread. The book is a delight just to look at the veggie pics!
https://www.amazon.com/The-Victory-Garden-Cookbook/dp/B0017HRN2I
The heat wave probably killed a lot of people's gardening spirit this year.
Interesting... I had a coffee tree for about 8 years - - it died at the beginning of the pandemic. Easy to grow one in my part of Florida.
Not up here, so the glut of canning supplies seems weird. We had a cool spring to start, then wet, but it evened out. Fantastic growing season in Wisconsin - for gardens and crops.
The fields are fuller than full of soybean and feed corn. Soybean harvest has begun. :)
Some supply issues were probably resolved, too.
We always watched ‘The Victory Garden.’
My Grandma Anita had a postage-stamp sized yard in inner-city Milwaukee and she grew a ton of food in it. I learned so much from her; how to butcher a chicken, how to grow food, how to bake bread, now to can, how to make sausage.
We also hit the Municipal Market in the summer months - a HUGE Farmer’s Market in Milwaukee. LOVED that place. :)
And then there was ‘The Fruit Boat’ which was this big boat anchored on the Milwaukee River, and you could come on board and there were crates of all kinds of fruits to buy. :)
“This smell of the country gets me. I don’t wonder the farmer is held under the hypnotic spell of Mother Nature and thinks about all the stuffy city is good for is to trade with and visit occasionally.”
That’s a lot of text to say grass yards are boring. LOL. I appreciate the education. Thank you.
I think this is a good small garden idea for brussel sprouts, which grow to about 24-36" tall which makes it hard to use regular garden fabric or a low tunnel in the smaller 6' long raised bed frames I use. B. Sprouts grown in the open take a long time to mature, and by the end of the season they are usually damaged by cabbage loopers even if you spray with BT or spinosad every few days. I have avoided planting them and cabbage for this reason.
If you were are a small farmer growing cabbage or brussle sprouts you will probably have long straight rows of sprouts that are easier to cover with an 82" x 100' roll AgriFabric or Reemay, and probably have someone to help you to cover your crop and secure the fabric. (If you are growing in quarter sections you probably just regularly spray the crap out if it with BT and expect a 10% crop loss!)
COST; I can use the netting multiple years. The cost of the netting was about $13-$14, about the same as 16 oz of BT spray which I would easily use in one year. Other things needed: Two 48' metal support stakes at either end and a 72' metal stake to act as a mast in the middle. A couple of gallon plastic pots on the stakes to protect the fabric. about 8' of paracord for center support. Stakes; Clean them at season end and reuse multiple years.
I have 7 plants which will be about all the choux de bruxelles I will be able to enjoy this winter!
You made the lawn comment & right after that, the “yard” post happened from Jon Forti on his FB page. I couldn’t resist passing it on :-)
The Lord do move in mysterious ways.
I actually made it to the garden this morning! No bugs, no sweating - windy, overcast, low 50’s. I eventually chucked the fleece jacket & just worked in a flannel shirt and LONG pants - first time I’ve been in long pants since very early Spring.
The tomato beds are empty ... not totally clean, but empty. I did one last picking of Sungolds & got a couple green tomatoes off the Celebrity. All the plants are out of the ground & in a pile to haul away. The fencing, which will be totally redone (galvanized wire replacing plastic mesh, metal zip ties replacing plastic) are stacked in a convenient spot. I still have fencing to take down around the other two raised beds.
After getting the tomatoes out & doing a few other odd things around the garden, I moved to the generator shed where my new 7 cu ft freezer is going. What a mess. I worked a couple of hours & got 4 huge bags of trash in the pickup for the dump. The issue was the freezer was still in the pickup bed as well so that was limiting my trash space.
This evening, I got in touch with my brother to come help me one night this week move some heavy stuff that I couldn’t handle on my own. To my surprise, he came over in 15 minutes. Thirty minutes later, the heavy stuff was out of the way & the freezer was in!! What a relief! I still have to take more trash out of the shed ... actually, lots more trash, but now I can get it in the PU. Some small re-arranging around the generator needs doing too, but I can handle it.
I REALLY want to work on the garden, but if I do some of that in the morning, then tackle the shed for an hour or two the rest of the week, I should be in much better shape by the weekend.
My back & knee were killing me when I came in late afternoon & I felt like I had dust up my sinuses all the way to my brain. It’s all better now after a bit of a rest & I’ve sneezed out most of the dust. I’m looking at some pork recipes over a cup of hot tea ... good times!
(A Juan Valdez moment! Think how much we all owe him!)
Tea; Little Jeremiah likes tea and pictures of Tea plantations!
(That is a big Freezer! Should swallow up a side of something or other!)
(That is a big Freezer! Should swallow up a side of something or other!)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I’m getting half a hog Saturday. It should be 60-70 lbs worth. I also asked for the liver and fat (leaf & regular) to render into lard. The hog is from my niece’s regenerative farm - hogs raised on pasture, rotated every 2 weeks to a fresh field. Any additional feed is non-GMO & non-soybean. Very happy hogs ... they even got some back scratches & tummy rubs periodically.
They will eventually do beef as well, but still working on fencing & then the calves they’ll get have to grow up.
Also hoping for some venison this year. Make that LOTS of venison :-)
When the word “broadfork” was mentioned earlier, it reminded me of a youtube I watched awhile back. Making wooden pitchforks the old fashioned way. Very cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmNnRjhv4XY
Taking advantage of a really beautiful day this afternoon. Got two more batches of applesauce canned. It doesn’t seem like I’ve even made a small DENT in those three 5-gallon buckets of apples! Beau has decided he wants dried apples, so I’ll haul out the dehydrator this week and get some of those going. They’ll be a good addition to the homemade granola I make, once the weather cools. :)
Now that THAT is done and the kitchen is cleaned up, I’m heading outside to clean out garden beds. 99% of my tomatoes are spent, but I’ll bet you I still find some more tomatoes hiding out there, and maybe a few more peppers. :)
Plenty of Kale still going strong and I might take a look at the pole beans - just in case. ;)
Frost warnings Thursday & Friday nights, so I’ll be moving my still-beautiful Walmart-Deal-of-the-Century hanging baskets into the green house - if I can lift them!
Bear Camp is going well. Beau has tracked and/or treed 50+ bear this season. He doesn’t have a tag, but they’ve helped get 6 bears for other hunters this season so far, with another tag coming up for the weekend Two more weeks to go. Biggest bear culled was 400+ pounds. They have averaged 350 pounds per bear culled, so they’re getting some decent sized Black Bear this season.
Nothing goes to waste. Beau will bring home the ribs that most people don’t want, and as much fat as he can get a hold of. He renders it and uses bear fat on his boots and anything leather that he owns.
So far no dogs hurt by bear, which is always a bonus. Those are MY PUPPIES he’s training and using; I hate it when any of them get hurt. :(
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