GROWING FREE FOOD IN A WINDOWSILL

On a day where there is a ton to write about politically, I am making the conscious choice to blog about growing celery in a windowsill. It was a tough choice (seriously!), but I am choosing to focus on the positive.

In passing, someone mentioned you could "grow plants from kitchen scraps." Never heard this before so I did some investigating. I ended up buying, then returning, the eBook Don't Throw It, Grow It! 68 Windowsill Plants from Kitchen Scraps by Deborah Peterson. As I stated in my review, it's clearly written, but there are too many directions on growing "greenery" plants from kitchen scraps rather than specifically "food" plants for my taste (pun intended), which is what I was looking for and why I ended up returning it.

Everybody it seems, grows celery from kitchen scraps. Here's my YT video:

BTW, that's the first time I've embedded a YT video in my blog, vs a link. Pretty snazzy!!

I'm looking forward to growing more things, namely ONIONS. I go through a ton of onions. I would dearly love to buy a 50 lb bag of onions, chop off the root bottom like I would do anyway, dehydrate the majority of the onion, and use that chopped off bottom to grow more onion!! Ostensibly, I could spend $4.99 for a 50# bag once and never have to buy onions again !!!! (What, you thought I was kidding when I said I'm all about getting groceries for free?)

Same for scallions, leeks, radishes, turnips, beets, garlic, lettuce (specifically romaine), and a few others. So yeah, look forward to a plethora of kitchen scrap videos. Unlike most of the YT kitchen scrap videos out there, I'll show you installments of what happens along the way (my DD17/videographer is so thrilled.)

Free food, free food, free food, free food, fffffrrrrreeeeee ffffffooooodddd. I can hardly wait!

LESSONS FROM A PRESSURE CANNED CAN OF CHICKEN

It's been a pretty decent few days, knock on wood. 

I finally figured  out that one Value Pack of chicken breast with rib attached (roughly one 5# package) will result in 2 1/2 pints of raw packed chicken. This means that 6 value packs will result in a full Pressure Canner (14 regular mouth pints) if you are using a pressure canner like mine, which is a Presto 23 Quart Pressure Canner (and cooker). 

We had purchased about 40 pounds (about 8 packs) of chicken earlier in the week and canned a PC worth. Which meant we had 2 packs leftover. Fortunately, there was an even better sale the last few days (.88cents a pound!) so we bought some more and canned it today.

Fridays are great  days for our family. My two middle children who attend a local community college do not have classes, and my youngest (14) homeschools. So today for school, we learned some self reliance skills: canning chicken.

I taught my youngest first, all the way from sterilizing jars to de-boning chicken to placing chicken filled jars in the canner.

Then a miracle happened. 

On his own initiative, HE turned around and taught his 17 year old sister. That's my 14 year old teaching!

Then SHE turned around and taught her 18 year old brother!

It was so great. 

Beyond the mechanics of canning chicken, this morning saw my children learning the importance of organization (getting everything ready to use before you start cutting), how to sterilize jars and instruments on a stove top (dishwasher's out of service), preparing enough workspace, as well as reinforcing the ideals of self-reliance, and learning something well enough to pass the knowledge and skills on to others.

The latter was particularly noteworthy for my DD17, who is a vegetarian. Her initial position was, "I'm never going to eat canned chicken, so why should I learn how to do it." She came to the realization that regardless of whether it is chicken, vegetables or fruit, knowing how might someday be important. And someday, she might be the only one who does know how; she may end up re-introducing the skill to a whole new group of people, thereby enabling their self-sufficiency.

We still have a long long way to go to build up a year's supply of canned chicken. At a minimum, I prefer to have 104 pints of canned chicken on hand (do the math, lol, that's 2 pints of chicken per week.) 

But at least my children have learned how to 'fish' for themselves.

PUZZILLA.ORG

FINALLY! A true genealogy wonk has taken over the reins at the LDS Family Search throne!

Don't I wish.

But it IS true that a real, true, died-in-the-wool genealogy wonk has created a program which makes that miscreant genealogy database, Family Tree, a lot more palatable.

It is no surprise (unless this is the first time you have visited this blog) that I loathe with virtually every fiber of my being, the new and mislabeled improved LDS genealogy site, Family Tree. Yes, it is kind of cool that you can click on a geographic area from within FT and go to the LDS records/search collections, if they have any, for that area. But that small token of convenience pales in comparison to how cumbersome, lethargic, and abysmal the process is if you are actually LDS and are doing genealogy for religious reasons. It's so bad, I have to wonder who Family Search has in mind for its target audience?

So for those (LDS and non-LDS) who are in it purely for the research, you're going to love Puzzilla.org. Puzzilla.org is a brand new (like, released a few days ago) search engine which literally turns your research upside down. For real.

Bear with me, this is about to get technologically complicated, but as Steve Jobs said: "It takes genius and a lot of work to make complicated, simple."  Alas, I'm not Steve Jobs. Those of you who are visual learners, might want to watch the movie (I'm not kidding) it's at:

https://puzzilla.org/videos/PuzzillaTheMovie/

Most genealogy software and search engines work bottom up: from you to your ancestors (hey, there's a book by that name, LOL.) Puzzilla.org accesses the data already linked in Family Tree and creates this flowering tree which looks traditionally familiar, bottom up:

That little dot at the bottom is "you", and the upward branches are "your" ancestors. Looks familiar right?

Here's where it gets crazy cool.

See that arrow in the previous (above) graphic? Let's say that happens to be one of your 4th great grand parents. If you click on his or her dot (blue dots for boys, pink dots for girls), your 4th great grand (mother) now becomes the center of a circle, as illustrated below:

Spreading out from your 4th great grandmother (who remember is the square-in-the-center dot), in concentric circles, are all of her descendants. 

Notice how some of the 'petals' end pretty quick? Regardless of whether the petal ends immediately or keeps going (like the one on the upper right quadrant), where it ends is where the research (or linked records) ends in Family Tree.

Come on. Admit it. THAT is phenomenally cool. If you hit Shift-click on any one of those dots, it will take you directly in to Family Tree to see the details of the record, which is particularly of value if you want to see if the line/record ends "for real" because your 2nd great grand aunt Betty didn't have kids, or if there's a link you can make because no one else has linked her to your great grand uncle Paul. And then, once you're within Family Tree, you can click on the geographic area to be taken in to the LDS Family Search records collection. (See? I managed to tie in, and say something worthwhile and nice, about Family Tree!)

It's particularly cool if you come from a line of genealogy slackers. Or you are new to genealogy. Way back 35 years ago (wow, it's really been that long!) Spencer W. Kimball asked Latter-day Saints to combine their resources and submit "one" coherent pedigree chart which went back four generations (you, your parents, grandparents, greatgrandparents.) For some (chiefly english speaking) members this was relatively easy; for some (spanish, german, french etc. speaking) it was a little tougher- they may or may not have had the records themselves, they may or may not have had to do a bit of research in parish records to find the info; and for others (asian speaking countries, or countries where records had been destroyed or were difficult to access), it took a lot of work, prayer and effort.

Surprisingly (to me) Puzzilla.org shows that there are many, many petal pods which have gone no further than these initial 4 Generation charts submitted decades ago. They look like this:

Where " I " would be say, one of those (pink) 5 dots center left, my "mom" would be that one pink dot of 9 dots to the right, her father the blue dot leading to the right, one of those 7 dots, with his mother the pink dot leading to the cluster far middle right (black arrow).

Notice how FEW descendants there are leading away from that central dot (black arrow). If you count carefully, you will see that there are no more than 4 Generations descending from that center dot, in any given direction, a reflection that "people" dutifully submitted their 4 Generation Chart as asked, and didn't take it any further.

What this means is lucky you, there's a ton of research ready to be done. You could pretty much just "pick a dot" and go to town. 

Puzzilla.org is still under construction, so it's got some flaws, but they are open to feedback. Here's one: although it doesn't seem to have a petal "limit", the system freezes if you ask for it to flower to 20 generations. Just saying. But overall: it is phenomenal, worth checking out, and is guaranteed to get your genealogy engine revving and running.

Happy hunting.

UPDATE: Had a "conversation" with the designer of Puzzilla.org, Bill Harten. He noted in the FAQ there IS a 12 petal limit, although you can then refresh it with the 12th petal as the starting point and go another 12 petalls/generations. Guess it helps to read the directions, eh? He also noted that just as I was blogposting, he was updating Puzzilla. There is now a "golden thread" (think The Three Fates in Greek mythology, lol) showing your direct line throughout all the descendants in the petals, a 'book'-marker to show the last person you clicked on, and a button to refresh data by reloading from FamilyTree. Pretty dynamic.

And the following comment was posted somehow on my Genealogy page instead of here, so I've recopied it here. Still not smart enough to figure out how to get that background color off, sorry.

Just looked up my Tree: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152171595433686&set=a.40140643685.48877.623338685&type=1&theater

FREE TREE COLLARDS FOREVER !

(GARDENING has been updated)

If you live near Gardena, California, or are willing to make the drive, you may want to stop by Centrose Nursery. It's just off the 110 freeway on 525 E. Rosecrans. 

They are THE PLACE to go for tree collards. Well worth the drive.

Tree Collards are a non-heading member of the cabbage family, and were introduced to California in the latter-half of the 18th century. They are nutritious and contain more calcium than milk! A cup of cooked collards contains 226 mg of Calcium. They are high in soluble fiber, and contain multiple nutrients with potent anti-cancer properties. 

They taste great raw (my DD started eating them on the car ride back home) and can be eaten raw or cooked or used as a substitute for any recipe calling for kale, collards or cabbage; shredded as a substitute for lettuce; wrapped (raw or slightly steamed) as a substitute for a tortilla.

They propagate by cuttings, and if cuttings are set in the early spring, should grow about 3-4 feet before the hottest part of summer (July/August) when all your crop needs to be pruned back in order to reset  itself for the fall. It is best as a fall/spring/very early summer crop. The goal is to produce fewer medium to large leaves rather than a plethora of bitty leaves (unless you're growing for cuttings!)

A YouTube video showing where to cut can be found here: http://youtu.be/WPLus7YVM4k

These are the tree collards I bought yesterday at Centrose Nursery. The 9 foot high tall one is a Green Tree Collard, and the sapling is a Purple Tree Collard. Green tree collards taste more like mild cabbage, whereas purple has a strong taste (like the difference in taste between lacinto kale and curly kale.)

Green tree collard, will likely stay in this pot.

Purple tree collard, will eventually need to be repotted.

I could not resist also purchasing 18 celery (yes, I have seeds in 43 trays) and 6 white onions...but getting such a huge jump start on celery will be wonderful.

FUEL and FOOD

Every once in a while, I go on a prepper binge. I can't help it. Opportunities just present themselves and I am just compelled to take advantage of them. I started seeds for a dozen Kale and 43 Utah celery this weekend with my really cool worm compost (mixed in some sand to aerate it also.)

Both of my neighbors on either side of me where cutting down or cutting back their trees this weekend. I ended up with a large palm tree, cut into logs, an entire eucalyptus tree (they pruned it back to practically the nub) and a good amount of a gum tree.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the leaf pile comes out about 8 feet from the wall, 10 feet across, and that's an 8 foot high fence in back.

The leaves are going to be stripped from their branches, dried and mixed in with newspaper pulp to create fuel briquettes. Once formed, it takes them about a week to dry out, so it's a project for sure! I've already started shredding newspaper, I just found my bottle jack in the garage, now I just have to buy a set of 2x4" wood, a 6" and 4" piece of PVC pipe, and create my very own Petersen press.

If you Google fuel briquettes, especially the ones from the UK, you'll see how great they really work. I was amazed that so many people in the UK use them as their primary source of heating. I watched this one guy make it an annual project with his entire family, and I went, "hey, there ya go." The Brits use a newspaper briquette maker similar to this one called a "4 Paper Log Briquette Maker." Theirs are usually a solo variety, but for my purposes, for $29, one which makes four logs at a time would be really great.

My DH after about an hour of trimming down branches (that's the wood pile to the left) said "only you would go scavenge wood on this magnitude."

No dear. I'm not the only one !