"gunner" wrote in message "FarmI" ask@itshall be
given wrote in message

I have an amateur anthropologist view also. we had a old series her in the
US called the Foxfire books that I enjoyed. old stories of the hill folks,
bee keeping, chicken raising, gun making, bear hunting, even "shine"
stories. lots of old "getting by" stories from back in the day.

I know the series well. I got the first of the Foxfire books sometime in
the early?? '70s. I don't have the full set as some have obviously been
'lent' over the years and never came home again. I was going to throw the
remaining ones out to make more bookshelf space a few years ago and couldn't
bring myself to let them go.

No, that is not me. we left Europe in 87 and moved here, retired in 92,
did a few contractor jobs and now just keeping busy with "things".

Amazing how once one retires there are so few hours in the day. I',m amazed
now that I ever found time to go to work.

Trying my
hand at Breads and Sourdough,

I used to make bread all the time. For some reason, I've not been doing so
recently - must get back to it now our kitchen range is on for the duration
of the winter. There is less of a need now as we now have a superb bread
shop semi-locally. He does Beer Baguettes made form his own home brewed
beer and they last about 5 minutes from the time they get to our kitchen to
the time they disappear into our gobs.

would like to have some ducks and chicken but
we live in a development on the edge of some green belts, I do have a
neighbor with 8 acres behind me that raises chicken and pheasant. Been
thinking of Beekeeping. Definately have to learn canning. Tomatoes are
doing very well this year and expect to have a new hydro system this week
and another next month to test run for greens and lettuces in the late
summer early fall.

Bottled (you'd say canned) tomatoes are a good place to start if you get
some surplus. It's not rocket science and there is enormous satisfaction in
seeing shelves of home bottled goods lined up waiting for the winter.

There is a ng called rec.food.preserving which might be worth looking at.

I notice that American style jars are now available here and thought I might
buy a few of the smaller ones to try a different technique.