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Post by macmex on Feb 9, 2022 4:48:37 GMT -6
Wow!
I'm suspecting this year is going to be a barn burner, selling sweet potato slips. I believe it's urgent to get more people growing and propagating for the sake of resiliency.
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Post by macmex on Feb 11, 2022 9:15:48 GMT -6
Am already getting lots of requests for adult chickens, which is indicative of many newbies wanting to get self sufficient. I wish I could impress on more folk the importance of starting a lifestyle of learning and doing for oneself and also of the importance of starting small.
I think sweet potatoes have great potential to help people, even in more urban situations, because they can even produce a respectable amount in containers and they are inconspicuous in the garden. However, there is still a learning curve, just as with rabbits.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 14, 2022 12:58:27 GMT -6
It's hard to beat a good sweet potato pie. My wife uses them to make smoothies, and I'll bet they'd also work for making Atole. I'm told the leaves make good greens but I've yet to try any of them in that way.
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Post by macmex on Feb 14, 2022 13:30:31 GMT -6
Sweet potato greens are quite good. They don't have any strong flavor. I enjoy them very much in a good stir fry. My only complaint is that they cook down so much. A huge colander full of sweet potato greens will cook down to about a cup of spinach substitute.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Feb 17, 2022 18:54:21 GMT -6
This looked so good that I just had to share it.
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Post by chrysanthemum on Mar 5, 2022 9:23:45 GMT -6
I used to have little Dutch bunnies when I was a girl. I won them at the country fair somehow. They were great pets. Rabbits are the animal I’ve most wanted to raise (I had plans for it when we still lived in Virginia), but I can’t imagine even trying down here with our summer (and spring and fall) heat.
Would you be able to sell the Blackeye look alike as a pet since he’s so cute and affectionate? I bet there could be a market for that.
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Post by macmex on Mar 5, 2022 11:16:37 GMT -6
You could try doing a Craigslist ad. Bet he would sell.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Mar 10, 2022 22:18:29 GMT -6
Bon, You have a message on your GCSS messages, about rabbits. Ron
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 9, 2022 18:01:05 GMT -6
It's not for everyone. My Daughter really surprised me a few years ago when I came home with two deer to butcher with no help. She really got in there and worked all day long, but they were not pet bunnies either. Plus, she wasn't there when I killed them. Seeing one lying on the table, gutted and ready to butcher, and seeing one grazing peacefully in a meadow are entirely two different things. The meadow these guys were grazing on just happened to be my garden. I went after them with a vengeance. My daughter just happened to drive up and see that I needed some help.
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Post by macmex on Apr 10, 2022 5:28:36 GMT -6
The older a person is when starting to kill and butcher for food, the more of a shock it is to their system. I was raised in a home which the only things we ever killed and ate were fish. I didn't clean my own fish until I was six and vividly remember how nauseous I was when doing that. At 13 I found a mentor to teach me to hunt and trap. That was another shock, but I knew I was doing the right thing and adjusted.
When we had our kids we involved them in butchering rabbits and chickens from the age of 3. They never had that problem.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 10, 2022 21:34:40 GMT -6
I think that's a good idea to get the kids started early on. My Grandma had us kids scaling fish since we were old enough to hold a butter knife. Any time my Dad, Granddad, and Uncles went hunting, it was the kid's job to dress their game for them when they returned. The old guys would hang around to make sure we didn't waste anything, but the kids did all the cleaning. We enjoyed every minute of it too and always scoffed at those Walt Disney-type city kids who would cry every time they saw anyone about to kill a deer.
Of course, I'll never know for sure, because I never asked, but I'll bet that was the same way the older generation was raised too. It wasn't so very long ago that refrigeration didn't exist. Any time those folks had meat it was probably pretty darn fresh. Things like dressing your own game was a big part of everyday life.
Back when I was a kid, meat was still scarce enough that it was cherished. My Grandma would drop everything to put on a big pot of dumplings anytime anyone brought home a squirrel. Fried rabbit was a very special treat, and quail, duck, or any other game bird was almost unheard of. Most of our meals consisted of cornbread, some form of potato, and a big pot of brown beans. Meat was not a thing we had at nearly every meal the way it seems to be nowadays. Meat was almost always stretched out to make it go farther, by preparing some kind of stew, soup, or dumpling.
I miss those days.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 11, 2022 9:51:07 GMT -6
We haven't bought beef in several years. I like pork better myself, but my wife really likes beef. It has been too expensive to afford beef for a very long time, so I just more or less pretend that it no longer exists.
I used to buy pork on really good sales probably on a quarterly basis, but it has been over a year since I've seen a good sale on pork. With grain prices getting higher and higher, I think pork is going to become out of reach soon too. Chicken and turkey are still options though.
When I was a kid, my grandma made a lot of soup from ox tail, or beef neck bones, because those were cheaper cuts of meat, but lately, I've not been able to find those two cuts for sale anywhere. I guess they chop them all into hamburger now? I really miss the old beef soups that she used to make from boiling bones. (That might be a thing a person could request from the butcher?) Good soups helped us make better use of or garden harvests; soups and a lot of homemade biscuits.
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Post by macmex on Apr 11, 2022 10:30:33 GMT -6
Ron, I think in many stores they no longer carry neck bones and tails, etc. because most of our population hasn't a clue what to do with them. I can remember burying them when I first started doing my own deer processing. It didn't take long to realize that those "cuts" make some of the most succulent meals!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Apr 12, 2022 13:03:45 GMT -6
Neck bones and tails are great stuff! Just pile a bunch of them into a big pot and boil them with some well water, fresh garlic, a little chopped onion, a bay leaf, and some salt, and pepper for about two hours to get the best beef stock you ever tasted. Not to mention it makes your kitchen smell like absolute heaven.
It's the neck bone and tail cartilage that makes this bone stock so good. It's way better than the bland old stuff that comes in a can made a year ago, because it's fresh and full of what your body craves. The canned stuff has all the gelatin robbed from it and that was where the flavor and the body of the broth is.
After it has boiled for a couple of hours, just dip out the bones, pick off the bits of meat, add to the broth some whole canned tomatoes, some corn, green beans, a few potatoes, and a carrot or two and you have the best homemade soup on the planet; boil that a little longer, add a little flour, or cornstarch, or dried okra powder as a thickener and you'll have the best beef stew there ever was.
My grandma was a champion soup maker. Every time I make soup and homemade biscuits, it's like she's right there in the kitchen with me.
That's how your kids will remember you too Bon, and Chrysanthemum, and George, and all of you who still do a lot of home canning and cooking.
My wife has a little sign board hanging in the kitchen that reads:
"Kissin' don't last ... Good cookin' do!"
There's a lot of truth in that. Even though no one may mention it much around the house, all of your labor in the kitchen is much appreciated and will be remembered long after you are gone.
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Post by rdback on May 21, 2022 7:08:00 GMT -6
@bon macmex This article made me think of y'all.
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