this and that from Joy

[Guest guest]

Kris I make surdough bread most of the time. I have a bread machine that I rarely use I love the challange of making by hands. My soap I make in tehblender it is called just blender soap I use lye, water, coconut oil, olive oil and essentail oils. I mak emy own laundry detergent by using washing soda, borox, and grated soap. It only takes about 2 T to wash a full load. I hang me wash out on the line to dry. We live in a rural area in Virginia on 10 acres. We loose our power often and we have a well so no power no water. It's Ok we are all prepared. Our three youngest have muscular dystrophy and herat problems our youngest also has a pacemaker and major heart problems and is on oxygen. I can and dry all our foods from our garden and some which I buy from other folks at our farmers market. I have a ton of cookbooks I keep as my tried and true ones. I make everything I can that way I know what is

in the food. I have a funny story to share about food. One day we were over my brothers house for supper and my son whoo was about 10 then saw his Aunt pull french fries from the freezer. She was fixing hamburgers and fries for supper for all of us. Well my son came to me and said Aunt Ann gets french fries from her freezer I'm not eating them. He would not eat them at all. I tried in private to explain taht one where do you think Mc Donalds gets their fries from??? We go there occassionally ! Second I realized they have never had frozen fries I always use potatoes and make oven baked fries. So in effect I have spoiled my kids. We do live a very simple life not a bunch of possessions around here. We enjoy our life the kids are happy as a lark !!!! Have A Blessed DayJoy

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[Guest guest]

Introduction

 

Hi, I'm Ellen

 

I'm a single working servent of two cats and a large garden. I am working to combine my Weight Watchers Core diet plan with local eating. Not much local produce here yet in northern Utah, though I did pick some chervil for my salad last night.

 

On 3/25/08, joy elliott <blessed4431 wrote:

 

 

Well my son came to me and said Aunt Ann gets french fries from her freezer I'm not eating them.

 

LOL, 30+ years ago a cousin came to visit. We were going to have french fries for dinner and while my sister went to the basement to get the potatoes my cousin rushed to

the freezer and rummaged around. She turned, saying there were none, then broke off, seeing my sister with an armload of potatoes. " French fries are made from potatoes? "

 

Ellen

 

 

..

[Guest guest]

Joy, what kind of soap do you grate up for your laundry detergent? Your house and acreage sound wonderful. That is our dream as well. I may pick your brain for canning tips when the produce harvest from the garden comes in, lol. I'm such a chicken!

 

And your son is one smart cookie! LOL. Already he knows more than most adults what is not healthy!

 

Cyndi

 

In a message dated 3/25/2008 5:16:33 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, blessed4431 writes:

 

Kris I make surdough bread most of the time. I have a bread machine that I rarely use I love the challange of making by hands. My soap I make in tehblender it is called just blender soap I use lye, water, coconut oil, olive oil and essentail oils. I mak emy own laundry detergent by using washing soda, borox, and grated soap. It only takes about 2 T to wash a full load. I hang me wash out on the line to dry. We live in a rural area in Virginia on 10 acres. We loose our power often and we have a well so no power no water. It's Ok we are all prepared. Our three youngest have muscular dystrophy and herat problems our youngest also has a pacemaker and major heart problems and is on oxygen. I can and dry all our foods from our garden and some which I buy from other folks at our farmers market. I have a ton of cookbooks I keep as my tried and true ones. I make everything I can that way I know what is in the food. I have a funny story to share about food. One day we were over my brothers house for supper and my son whoo was about 10 then saw his Aunt pull french fries from the freezer. She was fixing hamburgers and fries for supper for all of us. Well my son came to me and said Aunt Ann gets french fries from her freezer I'm not eating them. He would not eat them at all. I tried in private to explain taht one where do you think Mc Donalds gets their fries from??? We go there occassionally ! Second I realized they have never had frozen fries I always use potatoes and make oven baked fries. So in effect I have spoiled my kids. We do live a very simple life not a bunch of possessions around here. We enjoy our life the kids are happy as a lark !!!!

Have A Blessed DayJoy

 

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[Guest guest]

Welcome, Ellen, and thanks for the intro. :-)

 

I think I am definitely the pet/garden servant here at my house too, lolol. Do you grow any of your own produce? I know how cold it gets in Utah, I imagine it would be hard to grow more than a small portion of your veggies. I lived in Utah in my teens.

 

Cyndi

 

 

In a message dated 3/25/2008 10:41:25 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, stringweaver writes:

 

Introduction

 

Hi, I'm Ellen

 

I'm a single working servent of two cats and a large garden. I am working to combine my Weight Watchers Core diet plan with local eating. Not much local produce here yet in northern Utah, though I did pick some chervil for my salad last night.

 

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[Guest guest]

Cyndi I use Fels Naptha soap it is usually in the laundry isle. I also take all our trash to the dump. At the dump it si so nice that is funny. We throw our trash in this thing that looks like a train car. Then there is a recycle section so we do that then the best part it is a free to a good home section and a goodwill section. I found a brand new sleep sofa at teh free to a god hoem. It had a note on it saying they just bought it and broke the leg trying ot get it into their home and teh wife did not want it them so we brought it home and took our sofa to the dump to the free to a god home section. We also freecycle. Well I have to run I have 3 loaves of sourdough bread baking. Have A Blessed DayJoy

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[Guest guest]

On 3/25/08, cyndikrall <cyndikrall wrote:

 

 

 

Welcome, Ellen, and thanks for the intro. :-)

 

I think I am definitely the pet/garden servant here at my house too, lolol. Do you grow any of your own produce? I know how cold it gets in Utah, I imagine it would be hard to grow more than a small portion of your veggies. I lived in Utah in my teens.

 

Cyndi

 

 

Thanks for the welcome.

 

I've got a fairly warm microclimate-zone 5, so I get away with quite a bit, but it takes most of my time. Good thing I enjoy it.

 

I didn't get my garden in last year-too busy at work last spring and summer. It will be just as bad this year, but I'll get my garden in if it kills me, I missed it too much. The previous year I don't think I bought any vegetable produce all the next winter except salad greens. I had dried tomatoes and greens; frozen beans, corn, peas, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and roasted peppers. I had a big jar of hot peppers preserved in sherry. In the basement I had potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, belgium endive, carrots, sweet potatoes and beets. I was able to pick broccoli, brussels sprouts and kale through november. Deer got the last of the sprouts thanksgiving morning, drat them. That was a good year. I even got two tiny artichokes.

 

I get good local peaches, apples and winter squash at the produce stand. I froze the peaches and kept the apples and squash in the basement. What I wouldn't give for a real root cellar!

 

I hope for the same this year-except the sweet potatoes, they grew way down below my raised beds into the rocky ground and I had to get them out with a chisel which damaged most of them. They were really productive though, maybe I'll get a wine barrel for them.

 

I'm working on getting fruit growing as well, I've not had much luck with asparagas, strawberries and raspberries, but I keep trying. I have a young pear tree that should produce this year; a bunch of apple trees I'm training to make an espalier fence, entering their second year; a wine barrel with three dwarf blueberries. I still want to plant grapes, peach, plum, asian pear and quince and there's a fellow at the university working on hardy almonds, so I've got a space reserved for that someday. I'm presently attempting to root some fig cuttings, which will have to be grown in a pot and moved to the celler in the winter. I'm trying to figure out where I could put some hardy kiwi. And one of these days I'd like to try a dwarf lemon or lime tree in a pot.

 

Obsessed much?

 

My garden isn't as neat as I'd like it. I've got a healthy population of weeds, especially bindweed. I don't spray them and handweeding loses its appeal in the heat of July and August.

 

I'm looking at getting a hoop house to keep greens and carrots going through the winter under double row cover protection, as described in Eliot Coleman's Four Season Garden, but I'm not sure my zoning will allow it. I remember something about requirements for greenhouses in the code.

 

I haven't canned yet either. My tiny kitchen faces west and gets HOT in the summer. But I want to this year-peaches and tomatoes at least. Maybe I'll get a camp stove and work in the shady car porch. Perhaps we can encourage each other.

 

Ellen

 

[Guest guest]

Oh, yes, I've heard of Fels Naptha. It was very popular back in PA. I wish our dump had a recycle section-that you could take from, that is. I don't know what they do with their "reusable" items. And I love freecycle too!

 

Cyndi :-)

 

In a message dated 3/26/2008 6:10:25 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, blessed4431 writes:

 

Cyndi I use Fels Naptha soap it is usually in the laundry isle. I also take all our trash to the dump. At the dump it si so nice that is funny. We throw our trash in this thing that looks like a train car. Then there is a recycle section so we do that then the best part it is a free to a good home section and a goodwill section. I found a brand new sleep sofa at teh free to a god hoem. It had a note on it saying they just bought it and broke the leg trying ot get it into their home and teh wife did not want it them so we brought it home and took our sofa to the dump to the free to a god home section. We also freecycle. Well I have to run I have 3 loaves of sourdough bread baking.

Have A Blessed DayJoy

 

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[Guest guest]

I think that if there is one obsession in life that is good, gardening would be it, lol. I can hear those who know me well laughing at this, lol. "Obsessed" is putting it mildly, lol.

 

Sounds like your garden is GREAT. I've been trying to grow veggies in pots (yard is too small for regular garden, plus it's all rock under the grass.) This year we are trying raised boxes based on the Earth Box design. I must say so far the results are wonderful! I've been harvesting lettuce and spinach every day for my lunch salad. I will upload pics into a photo album next week.

 

When you say you have dried "greens" what kind of greens do you mean? I am assuming you dehydrated them? You can probably get away with small, portable floating row covers without any permit violations. As long as it's not anything permanent, I think most zoning allows it, from what I read on the gardening chat lists.

 

We can surely support each other with canning efforts. You go first, Ellen. rofl!!!! ;-)Cyndi

 

In a message dated 3/26/2008 9:05:37 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, stringweaver writes:

 

 

Thanks for the welcome.

 

I've got a fairly warm microclimate-zone 5, so I get away with quite a bit, but it takes most of my time. Good thing I enjoy it.

 

I didn't get my garden in last year-too busy at work last spring and summer. It will be just as bad this year, but I'll get my garden in if it kills me, I missed it too much. The previous year I don't think I bought any vegetable produce all the next winter except salad greens. I had dried tomatoes and greens; frozen beans, corn, peas, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and roasted peppers. I had a big jar of hot peppers preserved in sherry. In the basement I had potatoes, onions, shallots, garlic, belgium endive, carrots, sweet potatoes and beets. I was able to pick broccoli, brussels sprouts and kale through november. Deer got the last of the sprouts thanksgiving morning, drat them. That was a good year. I even got two tiny artichokes.

 

I get good local peaches, apples and winter squash at the produce stand. I froze the peaches and kept the apples and squash in the basement. What I wouldn't give for a real root cellar!

 

I hope for the same this year-except the sweet potatoes, they grew way down below my raised beds into the rocky ground and I had to get them out with a chisel which damaged most of them. They were really productive though, maybe I'll get a wine barrel for them.

 

I'm working on getting fruit growing as well, I've not had much luck with asparagas, strawberries and raspberries, but I keep trying. I have a young pear tree that should produce this year; a bunch of apple trees I'm training to make an espalier fence, entering their second year; a wine barrel with three dwarf blueberries. I still want to plant grapes, peach, plum, asian pear and quince and there's a fellow at the university working on hardy almonds, so I've got a space reserved for that someday. I'm presently attempting to root some fig cuttings, which will have to be grown in a pot and moved to the celler in the winter. I'm trying to figure out where I could put some hardy kiwi. And one of these days I'd like to try a dwarf lemon or lime tree in a pot.

 

Obsessed much?

 

My garden isn't as neat as I'd like it. I've got a healthy population of weeds, especially bindweed. I don't spray them and handweeding loses its appeal in the heat of July and August.

 

I'm looking at getting a hoop house to keep greens and carrots going through the winter under double row cover protection, as described in Eliot Coleman's Four Season Garden, but I'm not sure my zoning will allow it. I remember something about requirements for greenhouses in the code.

 

I haven't canned yet either. My tiny kitchen faces west and gets HOT in the summer. But I want to this year-peaches and tomatoes at least. Maybe I'll get a camp stove and work in the shady car porch. Perhaps we can encourage each other.

 

Ellen

 

 

 

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