Planning Next Year's Garden -The Beginning

If you are in the Northern hemisphere Now is a great time to start planning next year's garden. If you are in the Southern hemisphere I would think that you would have your planning complete and you are either putting things in the garden or waiting to.

"Why start now?", you may ask.

Let me share a few things with you.

These are some of my left over seeds. Some, I am sure, are no longer viable but I have decided to try to use them up next year and maybe a few this fall.

My garden will be done in cooperation with a few neighbors and not only will we be sharing the fruits of our labor, it will be a wonderful opportunity to learn from others and share knowledge and to just enjoy the company of others. 

The first part in planning is deciding what to plant. "They" say  "Plant what you eat!" 

I say, "Why limit yourself?"

While many people won't try new things, there are others that are bravely forging a new food path. In the USA we have people here from all over the world and those who are Indigenous. They all have brought their different foods and a piece of their own cultivation experience and we learn from each other. When I was young I did not like garlic, today I love it. Some day you might like spinach. Why not grow it and try it from time to time.

Many of us are looking back at the old ways of growing as the best tasting produce, and most responsible to the planet. No Chemicals, all natural. I know that some of you will be able to pick out the fact that I have some old hybrid seeds in my basket. I will be quickly using them up and starting heirloom seeds when all the hybrids are gone. Some of the hybrids are so old I am sure they won't sprout. I will be getting into seed saving as time goes on.

So I need to sit down with my lovely neighbor and go through the planning of planting. What to plant and where, and how much should be planted.  We will draw out designs so that we can have a beautiful garden that will feed the eyes and soul as well as the body.

In the mean time, here is a tip for this time of year.

Start saving the empty toilet paper rolls and clean out empty one pint (milk, half & half or cream) containers.

Rinsing out and cutting off the top of the pint container, then poking some holes in the bottom make great starting pots. The thrifty have been doing this for decades.

The toilet paper rolls are for putting collars around plants to prevent cut worms from wiping out your seedlings.

Now to show you what we are up against and what we have to work with.

This is what happens when you have a garden and you get sick and have no one else there to help with it.

That lush growth there is where my compost pile was. It is weeds now.

These just happen to be my raspberry bushes.

At least I am providing a nursery for Monarch Butterflies.

This is my Asparagus row on the back side of the garden.

My Strawberries are lost and the Rhubarb is close to dying too. I couldn't even find the onion beds I had.

So as you can see there is much work to be done to get it ready for next year and I am still hoping against odds that I can just maybe get something this year.

What is needed is hard work. I hope I can rise up to the challenge. 

I hope you come back to watch the progress. I will try to post on it at least once a week.

Thank you for stopping by.

Dee Dee

Oats in My Backyard

We had laid straw down in the dog kennel this spring due to the amount of mud out there and what has sprung up is oat plants. At least I think they are oats.

I need some help with a positive ID on one of these plants though because I am not absolutely sure that they are oats. I know that the top ones are oats.

This bottom picture is of the seed heads that I am unsure of. I think they are oats, but I have seen wheat and barley that look like this as well.

I plan on saving the seeds and growing them next year, in the garden. Maybe choke out some of the weeds and grow some grain for breads.

If you can help me with this I would appreciate it!

Please leave a comment.

Thank you for stopping by.

Dee Dee

Camp Bread Recipe

Before you head out to camp mix the dry ingredients together, fill and label bags. I like to use the gallon sized bags even though this will fit in a quart size bag.

The gallon is big enough to mix the dough and after kneading it you can use the bag for raising the dough in.

My recipe makes a half sized loaf. I am still working on this recipe. I have made some breads, adding powdered eggs, honey (honey in condiment packages is great for this), and have tried a few that I liked with tomato powder and basil flakes. I really wish that I would have written those down. You can basically adapt any recipe to suit your tastes.

1 1/4 Cup Flour (I used All-purpose for this)

2 1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/8 teaspoon dry yeast

2 teaspoons powdered milk

The label on this should read "Bread Dough". For your own good label that

Bring an extra quart sized bag with a few cups of flour in case you should need more during kneading and for other cooking projects.

Once you get to camp start your fire and boil some water. Pour 1/2 Cup of that water into a cup with 2 teaspoons of butter or shortening.

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Right now I have to tell you that I forgot that step before kneading and had to add in 1 teaspoon of olive oil as I was kneading. Then before I put it into the plastic bag to raise I smothered butter all over it. If you mess up, improvise!

*

Let that cool to just warm and pour right into the bag. I prefer to mix with one hand and hold the bag with the other in case I need a clean hand to grab more flour. Try to get in the habit of mixing and kneaded with your non-dominate hand. There is a very good reason for that.

Once you have a good ball going in there you can take it out and knead it on a clean smooth surface, floured if necessary.

Once the dough is smooth and elastic it is ready to put back in the bag to raise.

It took me a long time to understand what smooth and elastic felt like, because I never really kneaded it long enough to get to that point. 15 minutes of kneading or more may just be what it takes. Kneading the dough does all kinds of magical things to it that you can learn about elsewhere if you desire. If you want to get good at it, close your eyes and feel it.

Dough needs a still and warm place to rest. You won't have much success with it if you put it in your back pack and start hiking. However, if you have to be on the move, you can make a "bun in the oven" pack to hold it in next to your belly. For the guys out there you can call it your "beer belly bag".

When the dough has risen to twice it's size it is ready to bake or slow roast over a campfire as with bread twists. Then there are some of us that also like to deep fry it.

You can use powdered eggs to make an egg wash for it.

Roll it in flour to ash bake it.

Brush melted butter on it.

There really is so much variety that you can do with breads.

If you are low on flour there are many wild plants that can help you stretch your flour supply.

I will do a post on that later.

Being at camp you will not have the ability to watch the temperature while you are baking your bread so you will have to eye and ear it. Golden brown crust and a hollow sound when tapped on and it is done. You can also check with a toothpick as you would a cake.

You can also take your own bread recipes and divide them by 1/4th as most recipes I have come across are for 2 loaves. For recipes with eggs in them, the powdered eggs are much easier to divide.

I have not tried powdered butter with this yet, but that is on the to do list.

I hope I have given you enough ideas to help you be more cozy at camp.

Thank you for stopping by.

Please feel free to comment.

Dee Dee

What We Don't Remember

Most people can't remember when you dialed a phone that a local number was 5 digits, or that there were party lines and if someone was using the line you had to wait and others could listen to your conversations. I have had young people ask me how to use a rotary phone. Yes I still have one!

Fewer people remember a time when there was no indoor plumbing and you had to use a hand pump outside to fill buckets to bring in for drinking, cooking and cleaning, and had to walk out in the middle of the night to the outhouse.

Fewer yet remember that turning on the light meant lighting an oil lamp or candle.

Oh this magical thing called electricity! Look what it has done to us.

We travel faster. We talk faster. We live faster.

Is this really a good thing?

Yes, as I sit here using electricity talking to you now, and you use electricity reading this, it makes us all hypocrites if we think it is a bad thing. But let us look at how it has affected us for a moment both good and bad.

The good.

We can learn more faster with a keystroke, finding solutions to problems that we may not have been able to come up with on our own.

We can stay up as late as we need to and not worry about the oil running out in the lamp and not being able to see through the darkness.

We can talk to loved ones whenever we want to by pushing a few buttons.

Our lives can be extended by machines.

Our food can be brought to us from farther away, faster than ever, and taste fresh.

We can listen to music without having a musician anywhere near us.

We can have clean clothes faster and easier than before.

We can preserve food easier and keep leftovers longer.

Water comes to us, in our homes, to drink, cook and flush away what we discard.

Speaking of discarding, our garbage just goes away.

Travel is much faster.

We can see sights around the world without even being there.

We get our news instantly.

Even our food  is planted, harvested, processed and put on our table with little effort to us.

But what exactly have we sacrificed?

What kind of changes would we see if it all stopped?

Well, things would be far from cozy and you know it!

However, we would find some things would happen that we might not expect.

The bad.

All of this technology has actually driven a wedge within families. Everyone is so wrapped up in their own little electronic world that the people that should matter the most to us are being pushed aside. We don't talk to each other like we used to. We don't use our creativity and push our talents. We don't spend as much energy on really learning things. Literally the list of what we have lost is endless. We just don't remember it.

Without TV, computers, ipods, phones, stereos, lights, running water, flushing toilets, stores, ATMs, credit cards, checks, automobiles, stoves/microwaves, AC/furnaces and the many other things we enjoy, what happens?

Well, for those that have never lived without, I guess you would be crying a lot. Most would not have jobs to go to. So you sit at home (if you are lucky enough to be home) and do what?

Just because you no longer have an employer it does not mean you won't have work to do. It will just be a different kind of work than what you are used to, and most likely harder.

If there was an EMP event you would see large groups of mostly young people (we are now seeing as "flash mobs") start looting stores. Foolishly grabbing up those high end electronic devices which are never going to work even when the power comes back on.

Some that are a little brighter, will hit the grocery stores and clean out the shelves there.

The ones that are a little smarter will have their packs on and will be on their way out of the city, some with no clue where they are going.

Some will have made arrangements with others out in the country to have a place to go to.

I know that there will be many people in remote locations that will be well stocked and very well armed (at least in the USA) that will most likely have ambush plans in place for intruders.
There will be several smaller towns and cities that will be organized and send out many armed citizens to help protect their area farmers against raiders, and also to work the fields.

The mobs will not be tolerated and strangers will not be trusted.
So I recommend that if you are in a bigger city, to make friends with your neighbors and the farmers that are farther out from you and make a plan to go there to help defend the farms or offer some other service to them (such as spinning fibers or churning butter) in exchange for food and a place to set up shelter, and to do that soon! Don't wait.

Children and Teens would soon get bored out of their minds without their little electronic baby-sitters.
If there is no one to guide them we will see a whole new kind of "rat" as we see with the "flash mobs". If you value your child please grab them now and get them under control, otherwise you are just raising worm bait.

I just can not stress enough that if you value your children, family or even yourself, you owe it to them and yourself to show them the importance of being compassionate, trustworthy, self-reliant and a hard worker. To find ways to solve problems through thinking. To learn how to not make matters worse.
Tough times do not demand tough talk. Just action.

We may have to rely on technology of the past that we no longer remember and it will be a hard adjustment for everyone. Even for those that have studied and lived it, because we will have to factor in those that do not know these things and only have the ways of the streets to fall back on as they will either need to be turned from those ways or be "left by the wayside".

 Even if it isn't an EMP it could be a social or financial collapse (as was seen in Argentina) that can do the same thing to us. We must be prepared to share our knowledge to help others and bring people together, and also to be ready to defend our families and communities against those that are a threat to us, and to try to distinguish who is that threat.

We must not let ourselves be divided by petty differences. That only makes us weaker.
Your beliefs, thoughts, feelings, skin color and preferences can be different from mine, but at the end of the day, if we work together in peace, we all go home and live in peace.

So work on being a peacemaker. There is much more to gain from that. I felt at this time that this is a very important topic. Some of you may not understand, others will. If not  now I hope it is not too late.

I am off now to work on more projects. I can't wait until the camera comes home but more so that sweet one that is using it.
You all stay cozy and thank you for stopping by!
Dee Dee