"Space" Invaders

My garden has a species of "Space" Invaders. I guess the packet of Kale seeds opened into the bowl of organic fertilizer. Pictured below - 1) Kale in the baby beets; 2) More Kale than carrots; 3) Kale in the Pea Patch; and 4) Kale invading the turnips. In many cases the Kale is growing much better than the seeds I planted . . . hmmmmmm . . . . I think I'll be having a LOT of Kale to trade!!!

Fishing & Forage

The Turtle and I made our way to Spencer Lake for a morning of fishing this past week. We didn't catch any fish. After 3 hours of sitting around with virtually no interest from the fish we set out into the field for a bit of foraging.

Please, if you are going to forage for wild food, do your own research. Don't take my word here as bible on what is safe for you or your family to eat.

To the left are some of the interesting things we found out there - most but not all of them edible. Starting in the upper left we found some hickory nuts. I has spotted these on a recent hunting excursion and took a few home to identify. There are 5 varieties of hickories in Ohio, 4 of which are edible. The non-edible one distinguishes itself with 4 bony spines along the nut shell. They have a green husk that rots to black, and the husk segments into 4 sections as it dries. Although the ground was littered with old nuts, most appeared to have been from the previous year and wouldn't yield anything edible. We did score a couple dozen newly fallen nuts. I discovered that you can smack them on top with a kitchen mallet and the husk will split off of the shell readily.

Just west of the hickory nuts are an old favorite - black walnuts. We had a monolithic walnut tree growing next to our house growing up which would dump its bounty onto the roof every fall. The sight and scent of these is unmistakable - round green husks with a pungent almost pine-like smell.

Down from there is a little plant we discovered near the shores of the river. It had thorns and small yellow fruits, a few which were ripe. I broke a fruit open and it had the scent reminiscent of a green pepper or tomatillo. I took this sample back with me for identification. Thanks to the OSU Weed Guide I identified the plant to be horse nettle. It is a relative plant to the tomato, tomatillo, ground cherries, etc. but it is not edible! Lucky thing my mom was there with me to constantly tell me, 'don't put that in your mouth.' I imagine I must have been a handful growing up!

Left of that we have another plant we had not previously discovered in our foraging. Mom asked me about cattails which we saw. I reached over to pull a dead one up to show her the part of the root where the starch is stored. When I stepped near the bank I evoked an herbaceous scent. We poked around until we found the source - field mint! I had never tasted this variety of mint before. It is pretty readily identifiable by the ring of light purple flowers which ring the stem, and the unmistakable scent of mint when the leaves are broken off.

Finally pictures is a cluster of elderberries. There are several elderberry trees at the north end of the lake I spotted while out hunting. We picked about 2lbs of them in pretty short order. Before cooking these have a potent dry flavor and a texture like raw cranberries (or, for those of you who have never bitten a raw cranberry, the texture of balsa wood.) Cooked without sugar these yielded an almost coffee-like flavor.

We also saw several ground cherry plants, many growing right along side the road. If you have ever seen a Chinese Lantern plant, ground cherries look a lot like them (big surprise, they are relatives.)

We also saw a lot of jewel weed, which means there is a lot of poison ivy. I myself don't have a reaction to it, my mother does though. Looking at the OSU site I saw that poison ivy yields clusters of white berries. Be careful when foraging out there, and don't put that in your mouth!

Okay Already - Fine!!!

I was feeling some pressure about this whole sugar bucks thing from some of the scratchers. So, I finally knuckled under or buckled under the pressure and created the much desired sugar bucks. Here they are! (I still have no clue but at least now I have the sugar bucks!!!) Anybody have anything to sell - I'm going to press with the design and I want to know how many to print. (tee hee).

Trades

We've had some trades agreed to that have not been published here, so here they go.

I collected a big old pile of wheat. Separating it takes forever. I did some calculations and the grain weight is approximately 80% of the bulk weight of the grain heads. I offered 20oz of unprocessed wheat for SB1.50 (which should yield out 1lb when finished), and will mill the wheat once separated. Kathy and Todd took 10lbs, Sharon took 5lbs, and Therese took 4lbs.

I owed Sharon SB4 for previous work she did helping me in the garden. She paid me SB3.50 (well she paid me SB4, because she didn't make a 1/2 buck bill. So now I owe her SB.50)

I also traded 6oz roasted ground chicory to Kathy for SB5. We agreed on another trade for 1 gross of eggs for SB2.25 per dozen. She delivered 9 dozen yesterday. So as of now I owe the Jacksons SB.25, with another 3 dozen eggs yet to be delivered.

Therese (AKA Mom, AKA The Turtle) has yet to take delivery on her wheat, I hope to drop it off this evening. She has also yet to embrace the idea of SugarBucks, and wants to make trades right away to settle things. I've agreed to take grapes in trade for the wheat I am delivering.

Amber Piles of Grain

The three bags in the upper right of the picture are filled with the wheat I've separated so far. It is easy but very time consuming to separate the wheat by hand. I winnowed what I had this morning as it is cool and breezy outside. My current stores are 12lbs of grain, with an estimated 19lbs yet to process. There are a couple pounds of oats that need processed too.

Also pictured (top right, going counterclockwise,) 4 jars of apples in light syrup, 4 jars of dill pickles, 3 jars bread & butter pickles, some salted fish, 4 jars of blackberry jam, and 1 jar of whole peeled tomatoes.

In regards to foraging - I went out hunting at Spencer Lake, my favorite local hunting and fishing spot. There was a ranger there who was scolding a couple of hunters, I don't know what for. When he was done I told him about us getting kicked out of the metroparks for picking blackberries and asked if it was permitted there. He told me that picking berries, nuts, and mushrooms were permitted in the Spencer Lake wildlife area. It is good to know for sure that we have an area legal for foraging!

Cash Monies

I haven't spent all of ours yet and don't plan to until I really need it. Jessica and I get $13 for the challenge. So far I have purchased 1lb yeast ($2.34) 1 26oz can salt ($.39) 1 5lb bag of sugar ($2.69) and 1 gallon vinegar ($1.99) - $7.41 so far. Pickling with Kathy used up 2-1/2 lbs of white sugar, 1lb maple sugar, and almost half of my bottle of vinegar. She took the spices and salt out of her expenses to make it even. The last $5.59 will be spent as sparingly as possible - the only thing I plan to spend on at this point is buying some ginger to make real ginger ale. I'll probably need some more staples such as sugar and salt too.

I do not feel very confident that any of use will make it to March 15th. The last challenge was a week and we had huge piles of food. This challenge is 10x as long and I don't feel our stores are going to be enough. Only time will tell!

My $10 "Allowance"

I've thought long and hard about how to spend my $10 "Allowance." This is what I've come up with. It is "subject to change" along the way.

Cupboard items at the time of the ruling:

I have 1/2 bottle of vinegar. Full price at the store for that particular bottle - no sale - no coupons is $1.99. So, $1.00 of my allowance will be that vinegar.

I froze 1 stick of butter. The whole pound is $4.39. So, $1.10 of my allowance is the butter.

I had 5 pounds of sugar. I figure I will use half. Cost at the store $2.99. So, $1.50 of my allowance is the sugar.

I have about 1/2 jar of soup base paste. The jar costs $5.40. I figure I will use 1/4 of the jar. So, $1.35 of my allowance will be the soup base.

I had balsamic vinegar - I haven't priced that yet but I'm thinking I'll use 1/2 of what I have. So, I'm putting a price of $1.50 on that.

That's $6.45 from the cupboard

I bought small bag of brown rice for $.78, and a small bottle of oil for $1.28. Total new purchases $2.06.

Lastly, Sharon is purchasing $1.25 worth of cornmeal for me.

Bringing my total to $9.76. So, that's how my $10.00 will be spent as of this moment.