Here are some great ideas. Do you have some to share?

....Deanne Bednar

 

Best Kept Secrets!

 

INSULATE YOURSELF ! 

• Instead of heating your home, insulate yourself with cozy clothing ! Wow, what a concept. 

 

ELECTRICITY GOES OUT? 

 

How do we keep the water pipes from freezing?  (How's come no one seems interested in talking about this? ) Water expands when it freezes and can burst the pipes. Some possible solutions?

• Open faucets and allow a trickle of water to flow.  Moving water is not likely to freeze.

• Find out the lowest part of your domestic water system and drain out the water from that point. If emptied from the lowest point, there should not be trapped pockets of water that can freeze.
• Canned goods can freeze also.  Store canned goods in places where nature provides a constant low (but not freezing) temperature: a root cellar, basement, etc. 

 

COLD? 

• Insulate yourself.  See above.   Move around ~ create a naturally warmer body!

• Build a little shelter inside your house !  Set up a tent inside the house, or make a tent from blankets or such.  One friend I know built a little roof over a couch, using a lawn lounge chair, covered it with blankets, and created a cozy place that was 20 degrees warmer than the rest of the room.

• Desperate?  Stuff your clothes with leaves! A wilderness survival skill!  Or build a tent out of sticks and piled up leaves.
• Hang out with a heat source.  A hot water bottle, or very hot water in a jar can warm a bed, warm feet (put a blanket over your lap to keep the heat in the area. 

FOOD

 

The term "Locavore" (eating locally) was coined by Barabara Kingsolver in her book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle".  Locavore is considered the most popular "new word of 2007" by Webster Dictionary folks. It saves fossil fuels and supports local economy.  I have considered making a commitment to eating, say 50% of my food from local sources, then increasing that amount each year.  But, surprisingly, I was able to go to almost all local food almost overnight ! How?

 

I bought a "share" of local food from the Three Roods Farm "Community Supported Agriculture" (CSA). By paying about $550 at the beginning of the season, I get a huge box of fresh, organic produce (a wide range of vegetables and some fruit) from the farm each week for 20 weeks during the growing season. 

Additionally, we get a jar of honey, and can buy organic eggs from happy free-range chickens and organic meat if we want to. Through the CSA I got connected with a local organic source of bread, grains and beans (Hampshire Farms, in the "Thumb" of Michigan) and a local source for milk.  What more do I need?  That is about it!

 

This winter I will eat the potatoes, squash & other vegies that can be stored, the apples picked off the proterty here, which I have frozen, canned and dried, the grains and beans from Hampshire farm. Continuing through the winter will be a fresh sources of eggs, and milk from which I make Kefir and Yogurt, which also is a preservation technique extending the life of the food.

 

Food Preservation techniques provide safe food without the ongoing electricity of a refrigerator.  Fermenting, drying, canning, root cellars and cool places all extend the lifespan of foods.  The Sauer Kraut and Kim-chi from the cabbage, garlic and hot peppers from the CSA will store well in the fridge or a cool place. 

 

Plants from the property have been dried for teas & cooking herbs, made into tinctures or vinegar. For fresh greens, "sprouts" can be grown in the kitchen all winter-long, providing nutrition without leaving the house.  Some of the sprouts can be grains and beans from Hampshire Farms.  Others can be bought this year, and planted next year, to produce seeds for the following winters' sprouting.

 

To extend the growing season, a new greenhouse is up, and for the first time here, food will be grown year-round.  This year's tall kale plants are hardy through the frosts and snow, at least so far, and with the out and inner plastic covers on the greenhouse, frost-hardy plants will survive and take off when the light starts to return in February and March.

 

Early in the spring wild foraging plants will come up: wild chives, nettles, violets .... and the earth will be providing again in a myriad of ways that I am beginning to learn.  There are at least 90 edibles I have identified here on the land...some are wild, others are "volunteers", garden plants that are perennial or self seed each year & trees & berry bushes that faithfully bear fruit.

 

When buying plants or seeds, I value most the ones that can faithfully reproduce (old varieties & heirlooms), so we can keep growing food year after year ~ sharing the ongoing bounty, rather than depending buying new plants/seeds from commercial sources every year. 

 

This local food movement is growing quickly, and a number of friends are in on it to varying degrees as of late.  Quite exciting.  It makes for very special potluck gatherings!

*****

All grass seeds are edible.  But cook them, since some need cooking to be safe.  Chew grass and spit out the fiber.  Very nutritious.  Grubs.  MMMM.  Slugs (just Escargot, snails, without a shell).

 

Resource: www.Solar-aid.org

It is a VERY good idea to cook land mollusks before eating them, as

they are good vectors for human parasites. Cooking them will kill the

parasites. The people on reality TV shows who eat live slugs are taking

chances with their own health.   As far as I know, none

of the land slugs are poisonous. However, the digestive gland (which

occupies about the posterior third) of at least some of the species is

foul tasting, so I advise removing it before consumption. It is

relatively easy to remove after cooking by making a longitudinal slit in

the tail, and peeling the skin back, then either pulling off or cutting

off the dark-colored digestive gland.

Slugs tend to have more slime than snails (probably defensive, since

slugs can't hide in a shell). An easy way to remove the slime before

cooking is to put the live slugs into 50% vinegar 50% water. The

solution is fatal to the slugs in a few minutes, and in the process,

they exude most of their slime. Also, when you are boiling them, change

the water after a minute or two to remove further slime. One recipe

advocates adding a bay leaf to the cooking water to improve the smell.

After they are cooked (and the digestive gland removed, if necessary),

you can use the slugs as you would clams (e.g., slug chowder); be

creative.

While I am mostly a vegetarian, I advocate eating of pest slugs.

Eating slugs from the garden is biological control, with humans being

the predator! Slugs are like escargots with the shell already removed!By

eating slugs, we can turn pests into something desirable.

 

 

Preserving Food .   Root Cellars & more

 

 

 

 

 

Group Project

 

Here are some great ideas. Do you have some to share? Best Kept Secrets! Group Project Working together using this wiki Group members Sources Meetings Drafts

 

Working together using this wiki

 

Think of this wiki as a shared online whiteboard. Your entire group can share information using this wiki, making your research accessible to everyone. Play around with this wiki: Notice how you can add comments to a page, see what people have changed, and edit all the text.

 

Group members

 

• Deanne (ecoartdb@gmail.com) )
•  

 

 

Sources

 

1. Source 1
2. Source 2
3. Source 3
4. Source 4

 

Source Name	Page #	Quote
		"

 

Meetings

 

When should we meet?

Who	When I can meet
Jesse	M-F, 8am-5pm
Chris	Anytime after 2pm
Dana	Saturday, 5pm
Pat	Sunday, 4pm-8pm

 

Drafts

Keep your drafts here so you can refer to earlier versions.

 

Draft 1

Draft 2