>> Oh, wow. Friend, I see that you are a gifted Resourcer. <<
Bard-O-Matic information dispensary, at your service! :D I have about a brown belt in google-fu. A real geek can beat me, but that's about it.
I'm a writer, so I do a ton of research. Fans love that I put links at the bottom of my writing, so they can find recipes or craft tips or horrible news stories.
>> Thank you for all of this helpful information: about Dreamwidth and about practical matters to do with gardening, homesteading, and community. <<
I'm happy I could help. It's fun to find someone else interested in similar things.
>> I'm looking forward to looking at all of these links more deeply during this snowstorm we're supposed to get tomorrow.<<
Rain is predicted here, which we desperately need. Usually spring is quite wet. This year I'm having to water plants in March. 0_o
>>Ah! My sister is Pagan. I'd love to hear more about what that looks like for you.<<
Some highlights:
* I was raised by hippies, so I started out with an eclectic background. Also Mom's family has some Cherokee heritage, which makes life interesting because I'm still finding tidbits like, oh so that's where that came from.
* My main Pagan influences are Celtic, Sumerian, and West African.
* I tend to view nature as relatives and myself as part of the planetary body. I'm not really attached to humans as a species. So that sets me at odds with most humans. But sometimes Gaia plants things in my yard for free -- the wild grapes, elderberries, and cup plants are all volunteers. \o/ I am more likely to chat casually with the gods than set up a formal ritual, though we do rituals for the sabbats (seasonal festivals) and esbats (monthly lunar ones).
* I'm similarly casual about magic. Unless I'm doing something really complicated or that needs a lot of power, I just do the thing. Some of it's sensory stuff I can't turn off anyhow.
* Our coven site is here and has a lot of recipes, a few rituals, some of my earlier Pagan writing, etc.
* I've written a book on how to do Pagan liturgy, Composing Magic.
* I write for the Llewellyn annuals and have been over 20 years now. I've done a bunch of other stuff in the past but that's lasted the longest. I'm just starting to get my assignments for the summer writing season, which will be for the 2026 editions. If you're curious, I recommend the Herbal Almanac, which is gardening-oriented rather than spiritual or magical. Check the publisher site or Amazon, there may even be some of the 2024 ones left.
* I'm interested in interfaith work and comparative religions.
>> Some people I work with have livestock,<<
If at all possible, get experience with someone else's critters before obtaining your own. Also it's entirely possible to have a chance at free ones if all of someone's hens go broody at once and they're trying to get rid of 100 extra chicks, or whatever.
I highly recommend learning to clean and butcher dead animals. I learned when I was 2 and 3 because Mom tried chickens those years and my hands were small enough to fit inside. And my grandparents fished so we cleaned those too. You can save money, and you can also save the day if someone winds up with a carcass that won't fit in the oven.
Waste nothing. Feathers or fur can be used for crafts or composted. Guts make great bait, or pet food, and can also be composted if you bury them deeper than scavengers can smell. Bury fish scraps in the garden, we did that a lot (Cherokee thing).
>> and it seems like extensive kitchen gardens remain much more common than they are nowadays in the city.<<
Very true.
>> I have experience with vegetable gardening, but not at scale and not with preservation skills beyond freezing.<<
Critical point: canning varieties are NOT the same as fresh eating varieties! Many vegetables have a branch of canning varieties that produce one mass crop, then you pull them and plant something else. A salad variety will produce smaller amounts over a much longer season. Look on the label or catalog description and it should say something about fruiting habits.
Alternatively, hit a farmer's market and ask if they have "seconds." These are bruised or split fruits / vegetables that are usually either half off or $1 / pound. You have to use them the same or next day, and it's better to cook them, but if you're going to throw everything in a crockpot or canner anyhow, it doesn't have to look pretty. I'll dump an entire bag of produce into a 9-quart crockpot and make spaghetti sauce to freeze.
Hit a bookstore or library and browse the books on food preservation methods to find one you like. It's prudent to start with a book that will introduce many different methods. Figure out what you want to try and then get a second book on that specifically.
Note that some types of food have been developed for specific types of preservation. Native American corn, squash, and bean varieties are mostly meant for drying and do so very well. There are apple varieties for cider, drying, winter storage (e.g. in barrels), cooking, and eating fresh. And so on.
For self-sufficiency, consider seed saving so you can develop your own landrace varieties. I have marigolds like that, and they are so tough they can volunteer in the lawn and win. I did recurring posts on landrace gardening a while back. Last year I got my hands on some Zuni sunflowers, this year I found Arapaho ones. A good introduction to landrace gardening:
I suppose you could say homesteader. We have a 2-acre yard in rural Illinois. I don't have a big vegetable garden. I have some small scattered gardens for herbs and flowers, and sometimes I do a few vegetables in pots. I have a lot of edibles just planted into the landscape. There are mulberry trees all over the yard, and wandering black raspberries, and so on. I like being able to walk around and put things in my mouth. I call it laissez-faire permaculture.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Re: Thoughts
Date: 23 Mar 2024 01:31 (UTC)Bard-O-Matic information dispensary, at your service! :D I have about a brown belt in google-fu. A real geek can beat me, but that's about it.
I'm a writer, so I do a ton of research. Fans love that I put links at the bottom of my writing, so they can find recipes or craft tips or horrible news stories.
>> Thank you for all of this helpful information: about Dreamwidth and about practical matters to do with gardening, homesteading, and community. <<
I'm happy I could help. It's fun to find someone else interested in similar things.
>> I'm looking forward to looking at all of these links more deeply during this snowstorm we're supposed to get tomorrow.<<
Rain is predicted here, which we desperately need. Usually spring is quite wet. This year I'm having to water plants in March. 0_o
>>Ah! My sister is Pagan. I'd love to hear more about what that looks like for you.<<
Some highlights:
* I was raised by hippies, so I started out with an eclectic background. Also Mom's family has some Cherokee heritage, which makes life interesting because I'm still finding tidbits like, oh so that's where that came from.
* My main Pagan influences are Celtic, Sumerian, and West African.
* I tend to view nature as relatives and myself as part of the planetary body. I'm not really attached to humans as a species. So that sets me at odds with most humans. But sometimes Gaia plants things in my yard for free -- the wild grapes, elderberries, and cup plants are all volunteers. \o/ I am more likely to chat casually with the gods than set up a formal ritual, though we do rituals for the sabbats (seasonal festivals) and esbats (monthly lunar ones).
* I'm similarly casual about magic. Unless I'm doing something really complicated or that needs a lot of power, I just do the thing. Some of it's sensory stuff I can't turn off anyhow.
* Our coven site is here and has a lot of recipes, a few rituals, some of my earlier Pagan writing, etc.
* I've written a book on how to do Pagan liturgy, Composing Magic.
* I write for the Llewellyn annuals and have been over 20 years now. I've done a bunch of other stuff in the past but that's lasted the longest. I'm just starting to get my assignments for the summer writing season, which will be for the 2026 editions. If you're curious, I recommend the Herbal Almanac, which is gardening-oriented rather than spiritual or magical. Check the publisher site or Amazon, there may even be some of the 2024 ones left.
* I'm interested in interfaith work and comparative religions.
>> Some people I work with have livestock,<<
If at all possible, get experience with someone else's critters before obtaining your own. Also it's entirely possible to have a chance at free ones if all of someone's hens go broody at once and they're trying to get rid of 100 extra chicks, or whatever.
I highly recommend learning to clean and butcher dead animals. I learned when I was 2 and 3 because Mom tried chickens those years and my hands were small enough to fit inside. And my grandparents fished so we cleaned those too. You can save money, and you can also save the day if someone winds up with a carcass that won't fit in the oven.
Waste nothing. Feathers or fur can be used for crafts or composted. Guts make great bait, or pet food, and can also be composted if you bury them deeper than scavengers can smell. Bury fish scraps in the garden, we did that a lot (Cherokee thing).
>> and it seems like extensive kitchen gardens remain much more common than they are nowadays in the city.<<
Very true.
>> I have experience with vegetable gardening, but not at scale and not with preservation skills beyond freezing.<<
Critical point: canning varieties are NOT the same as fresh eating varieties! Many vegetables have a branch of canning varieties that produce one mass crop, then you pull them and plant something else. A salad variety will produce smaller amounts over a much longer season. Look on the label or catalog description and it should say something about fruiting habits.
Alternatively, hit a farmer's market and ask if they have "seconds." These are bruised or split fruits / vegetables that are usually either half off or $1 / pound. You have to use them the same or next day, and it's better to cook them, but if you're going to throw everything in a crockpot or canner anyhow, it doesn't have to look pretty. I'll dump an entire bag of produce into a 9-quart crockpot and make spaghetti sauce to freeze.
Hit a bookstore or library and browse the books on food preservation methods to find one you like. It's prudent to start with a book that will introduce many different methods. Figure out what you want to try and then get a second book on that specifically.
Note that some types of food have been developed for specific types of preservation. Native American corn, squash, and bean varieties are mostly meant for drying and do so very well. There are apple varieties for cider, drying, winter storage (e.g. in barrels), cooking, and eating fresh. And so on.
For self-sufficiency, consider seed saving so you can develop your own landrace varieties. I have marigolds like that, and they are so tough they can volunteer in the lawn and win. I did recurring posts on landrace gardening a while back. Last year I got my hands on some Zuni sunflowers, this year I found Arapaho ones. A good introduction to landrace gardening:
https://lofthouse.com/articles.phtml
>> Are you a farmer or homesteader? <<
I suppose you could say homesteader. We have a 2-acre yard in rural Illinois. I don't have a big vegetable garden. I have some small scattered gardens for herbs and flowers, and sometimes I do a few vegetables in pots. I have a lot of edibles just planted into the landscape. There are mulberry trees all over the yard, and wandering black raspberries, and so on. I like being able to walk around and put things in my mouth. I call it laissez-faire permaculture.