Working toward food self sufficiency

ok ill admit that is a slick system. I see a lot of water savings in the way he is doing that

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Far less water needed to use JohanM.
Why? In our solid walls raised beds we will be able to hose end flood irrigate effectively. No water loses migrating outwards only to water weeds.
No mists, no spray droplets then very little to the air water losses. No stirring up too much evaportative carried-up in-dirt spores of blights and rusts.

Horrifying some here . . . I (and I think TomH.) fully intend as needed, to remove our upper bed soils and with wood fired rotating barrels sterilize them and then selectively re-inoculate.

The differences mainly are setting up to grow enough to sell for incomes: versus household personal consumption.
S.U.

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I never thought about it this way Steve, but I think that is a big advantage and you will be better able to keep track of weekly water application.

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Too bad you weren’t filming it. It would have been one of those million hit youtube shorts. I am glad you are okay flying mush could do damage. I am disappointed Ill never get to taste the final product.

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Oh perusing for Bar oil, and ant killer at the farm store. I ran into a bag of potting soil inoculated with mycorrhizal fungi which surprised me.

I ran into Jobes compost starter. I am guessing it is all the bacteria critters you need for fast composting.

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Airlock doesent hurt…

Johan, we usualy leave it in a cistern or a barrel, with a floating lid with mineral oil on top to prevent it turning in to vinegar. If you want to botle, l wuld ferment, then pour off off the sediment, put it in a new vessel and wait for some more gunk to fall down. Then bottle.

Depends. What you can also do if you want sweeter cider is cool it mid fermentation. Will stop it but will slowly ferment again. This we do for our young cider, to be drunk first. The rest we let ferment all the way, 0 sugar. It gives a tart, strong cider to be drank for thirst, mixed with mineral water.
Or, even more traditional, you throw in a pinch of soda, stir fast and drink as fast as you can. The old wooden barrels had no lid so the cider slowly turned more and more acetic. Soda kills of some sourness and gives it a nice fizz

Oh, l know the press explosions well :smile:

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I agree with Don, I was thinking the other way that the water would not be able to migrate inwards to the container but of course, water doesn’t care, it wants to even out moisture levels where ever they are. It makes sense Steve.

Yes, I am a bit bummed that I didn’t even think of taking a photo. It was funny though :smile:
It was only a testrun to find out the flaws (which I did). I however took a pic of the endresult

It was really good and tasty.

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That is clever. But mineral oil, as in motor oil?? Or is it the white mineral oil?

I was thinking botteling because of it turning to vinegar because of the large vessle but an oil layer would fix that even though I don’t really understand how to get just some cider out without oil, do you just siphon out what you want every time from the larger vessle or do you use a tap in the bottom (a little way up to pevent the sediment from coming out).
Writing this makes siphoning seem a bit far fetched so bottom tap is the way to go.

I do like those bought tart ciders like Magners and Strongbow (Magners is better though) but I have no idea about sugar content in those.

Edit: I looked at floating lids and it seems that they have an actual lid floating on top of the oil but is that really neccessary if a regular lid is used to keep bugs out

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No cauliflower or Brussels sprouts this year, don’t know why, probably too cold.
White cabbage, broccoli and kale, what do I do with kale?
I have no idea if I have the names of the vegetables right.

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That is a beautiful sight Jan. What I do with Kale is dry it and powder it and then add it into soups and vegetable juices. Some people make Kale chips and some people really like it as a salad green. I don’t but because of the nutritional load it carries it is wise to find a way to incorporate it into your diet. You can add quite a bit into pea, lentil, or potato soups and it blends right in. There is a vegetable drink here called V-8. Tomato juice with 7 other vegetables blended in. The reason I try and can as much tomato juice as possible is I powder most of my crops and make my own. Same with cucumbers and carrots. Always powdered or canned as juice. I should add that my wife and I are not gourmands. We don’t do alot of cooking or sit down eating. We look at food as fuel.

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And to dry greens and such with sky’s as your picture shows:
Use Wood Heating.
How once my home county for a time was the plumb-prune growing-making capital of the world. Too many trees to be cleared to make fields. Too many sons. And the demand for intestinal cleansing “health” driven by Mr Kellogg and his believers in eastern US and Europe.

Wood-for-your-powers
Steve Unruh

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I have 2 different kales I tried one taste like broccoli and I snack on a few leafs daily. I usually make kale chips but I like the idea Tom said to powder it. I’m not much of a drinker but it made me think it sounds real good in a bloody Mary mixer with breakfast. I love the store bought V8 juice, use to use it often to make a “red beer” mixer.

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This makes the point about why I would like to see Chris’s idea come to fruition. I could go on for hours about dehydration and food storage methods, about foraging and why found crops like stinging nettle is loaded with nutrition benefits and will go a long way in keeping you from having any prostrate issues. All kinds of information that can be found with enough time and effort scanning the web but to my knowledge not all in one easy to find source filtered from a lot of fluff and fodder. The need will become obvious in the coming months. Not years. I am sure people like Georgio and Tone, Kristijan, the Swedish cartel, many of the Americans, all of whom have work their land and produced for themselves have much information that would benefit many. Who is going to come to DOW to find that information. I’ll climb down off the soap box now.

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You can make ’boerenkool’ which is mashed potatoes with finely chopped fresh kale mixed in it( salt, pepper, some milk and butter of course), a nice good thick fried sausage with it and a sauce made from the frying pan after the sausagefrying (en vanlig sky) with it.
A dutch farmer’s meal that I like, wouldn’t you agree @Pelletpower?
It works fine with spinach in it instead of kale as well if that’s what you like or prefer.

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:grinning: :grinning:, correct Johan, but you have inside info on that one :grinning:
We are not known of our well kitchen abilities, haha. And I dont want to think about this winter-food yet. Hutspot is my favourite :grinning:

Just arrived back home last night. 1720 km , 22 h drive. To old for those actions, but enjoying this meal

Stuffed paprika the Yugo-way. This way we can keep the summerfeeling a little longer now that we are back in our mud/rain country.

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Sounds like a lot of poor based food we had growing up, hearty stick to your ribs fill you up and keep you going. Potatoes are still a staple in my diet, and I love them every way there is, I’ll be trying this out asap, one pot of potatoes is about ready for harvest they have been dieing back for a few weeks now

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Yes, it is filling and good. Boeren means farmer and kool is cabbage.
But as Joep says, it is more of a fall/winter food. As is his favourite food hutspot which is also mashed potatoes with onions and carrots in it, not sure about the preparations of those first though.
I had a bad experience the first time I ate hutspot (my wife is dutch so that is why I have inside info as Joep says :smile:), when they cooked it they were used to having syrup in it as well so they did that for us too. Me and my wife ate it as a courtesy but we did not like it at all but perhaps enough time has passed now for us to make it ourselves.

Those look good, never had stuffed paprikas. Will look into that.

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Never heard of that one. Dont call me…

Balkan kitchen is always good, lots of meat and vegetables cheese etc. Bah, I wish I stayed.

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You guys are making me so hungry with your talking.

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It will be fun to taste when it’s ready.

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