Billy wrote:
In article ,
Nad R wrote:

Billy wrote:
In article ,
Nad R wrote:

If you have money to burn about $50k. How about a small compact tractor.
They can mow the lawn, can add a five foot tiller, front loader, remove
the
snow, rear baggers for lawn clippings and small enough to fit in your
garage. About the size of mid size car.

Easy on the back but hard on the wallet.

You have a wallet? A little ostentatious, don't you think, or is it just
an heirloom?

Doing my gardening with newspapers, alfalfa, a pointy stick, and sweat.
Total cost $18.


"Tickle the earth with a hoe, it will laugh a harvest."
- Mary Cantell

When gas gets much higher, I will have get out my scythe.

For those with health problems a pointy stick may not do the job.
The soil is soft from having been groomed for years, so pretty much all
I have to do with the stick (old shovel handle actually) is to lean on
it some to make a hole that the seedling will go into. The newspapers
and mulch get rid of the weeds, so there is no weeding. They actually
become part of the mulch. The drip irrigation is already laid out, but I
have the occasional repair to make which is no big thing, cut, insert a
barbed connector, insert barb into new length of drip emitters, and I'm
back in business. I normally put tomato arbors over my plants to protect
them, which is just habit from when I had two young dogs that would dash
from one side of the yard to the other, heedless of prized plants. Last
year, I used clear plastic to cover the beds of the tomatoes and
peppers. This year, for the beds that don't get plastic, I covered them
with chicken wire to discourage ol' rascally raccoon. As you can see, it
isn't brute force. It's time and patience. Tractors may allow you to do
more in a shorter amount of time, but they have their maintenance too.
Where I live isn't flat. It seems that every year, some one who has been
driving tractors forever, manages to roll one down a slope. Not pretty.

Machines can be dangerous if used improperly, Including cars.

My soil is in bad shape. I use raised beds for the veggie garden. Fifty
years or more of modern farming techniques before I purchased the land. I
like where I am at. The soil is better now under my care. I have more years
to go for improvement and In the mean time the heavy equipment helps.

Are you tilling the soil?


For some reason, Nad, I thought of you ;O)

"The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there."
- George Bernard Shaw

Shaw, like Mark Twain wasn't very religious. Like "The poor cannot afford
morals".

Some, not much tilling. Spreader for the manure and compost. Trailer for
the free compost down the road, seems to be good stuff, all grass clippings
and leaves from the city. Snow plowing for those one foot snow falls. Front
loader for hauling hay to feed the cow. The tractor itself is slightly
smaller than my twelve year old single cab Dodge Dakota.

--
Enjoy Life... Nad R (Garden in zone 5a Michigan)

On Apr 10, 3:19*pm, "Steve Peek" wrote:
"Gunner" wrote in message

No one eats better than I! I'm not
quite sure what you want, ask questions. If I know the answer I'll be glad
to share.

Appalachians ? Been in that area a bit. Spend a life one winter in
Dahlonega, Georgia humping those Mts in the early 70s. Then a hella
lot of time on both sides of that State. A little time in your
State. Read a lot of the old Foxfire series books about the
Appalachians in & since that time. Good stories into a disappearing
way of life.

I was that kid once myself, Steve. Sharp stick and a dull 3 blade
pocket knife, an old twig wrapped with salvaged fishing line, a hook
and a sinker crammed in an old Prince Albert Can for "just in case".
Probably the reason I'm too old to be this young , but some
hellaciously good times to recall for the later years.

Mushrooms and bees are good. Both of them are on my list of “to-
dos”. As much liberty as some here take in defining “Edible Garden”
topics, I think foraging crops or “wilding” (not the catch word it
once was) would be a good occasional topic. Sure beats clueless BS on
tractors vs. Newspaper, don’t ya think?

Got any recipe/cooking ideas with herbs and veggies you forage?
I can dig up some from up here?

In article ,
Nad R wrote:

Billy wrote:
In article ,
Nad R wrote:

Billy wrote:
In article ,
Nad R wrote:

If you have money to burn about $50k. How about a small compact
tractor.
They can mow the lawn, can add a five foot tiller, front loader,
remove
the
snow, rear baggers for lawn clippings and small enough to fit in your
garage. About the size of mid size car.

Easy on the back but hard on the wallet.

You have a wallet? A little ostentatious, don't you think, or is it
just
an heirloom?

Doing my gardening with newspapers, alfalfa, a pointy stick, and sweat.
Total cost $18.


"Tickle the earth with a hoe, it will laugh a harvest."
- Mary Cantell

When gas gets much higher, I will have get out my scythe.

For those with health problems a pointy stick may not do the job.
The soil is soft from having been groomed for years, so pretty much all
I have to do with the stick (old shovel handle actually) is to lean on
it some to make a hole that the seedling will go into. The newspapers
and mulch get rid of the weeds, so there is no weeding. They actually
become part of the mulch. The drip irrigation is already laid out, but I
have the occasional repair to make which is no big thing, cut, insert a
barbed connector, insert barb into new length of drip emitters, and I'm
back in business. I normally put tomato arbors over my plants to protect
them, which is just habit from when I had two young dogs that would dash
from one side of the yard to the other, heedless of prized plants. Last
year, I used clear plastic to cover the beds of the tomatoes and
peppers. This year, for the beds that don't get plastic, I covered them
with chicken wire to discourage ol' rascally raccoon. As you can see, it
isn't brute force. It's time and patience. Tractors may allow you to do
more in a shorter amount of time, but they have their maintenance too.
Where I live isn't flat. It seems that every year, some one who has been
driving tractors forever, manages to roll one down a slope. Not pretty.

Machines can be dangerous if used improperly, Including cars.

My soil is in bad shape. I use raised beds for the veggie garden. Fifty
years or more of modern farming techniques before I purchased the land. I
like where I am at. The soil is better now under my care. I have more
years
to go for improvement and In the mean time the heavy equipment helps.

Are you tilling the soil?


For some reason, Nad, I thought of you ;O)

"The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there."
- George Bernard Shaw

Shaw, like Mark Twain wasn't very religious. Like "The poor cannot afford
morals".
They seem to be even too expensive for the rich as well.

Some, not much tilling. Spreader for the manure and compost. Trailer for
the free compost down the road, seems to be good stuff, all grass clippings
and leaves from the city. Snow plowing for those one foot snow falls. Front
loader for hauling hay to feed the cow. The tractor itself is slightly
smaller than my twelve year old single cab Dodge Dakota.

How was last years harvest, and what are you planting this year?
Anything new? Any changes to your garden?


If you like weekends (8 hr./day & 40 hr./week), then thank a labor union.
They paid for it in blood. Real working class heros.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair


=
--
- Billy
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 16 April 1953
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/8559254-11yearold-takes-on-genetically-modified-food-producers-video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_vN0--mHug

On Apr 10, 3:19*pm, "Steve Peek" wrote:

a handful of ramps and morels with
a few eggs is a meal fit for royalty.

Here in the PNW, its chantrelles and camas

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Apr 10, 3:19 pm, "Steve Peek" wrote:

a handful of ramps and morels with
a few eggs is a meal fit for royalty.

Here in the PNW, its chantrelles and camas

We get the chanterelles here, but it's a late June through July thing. I
like to drop a chanterelle into vodka and let it soak for a month or so.
It's the ultimate martini.

My home area was settled mostly by Scots/Irish folks with no traditions of
mushroom foraging. I remember my mother telling the kids that all those
toadstools were poisonous. In my rebellious teenage years I decided to prove
her wrong and began a lifelong study of fungi. Don't get me wrong, there was
never any money for college but I did finish high school (eventhough I was
married before graduation). I was self taught, foraging and eating wild
fungi from drawings. It scares the hell out of me now, it's so easy to screw
up & be seriously poisoned. Years later I discovered a mushroom club and my
education continues to this day.

On Apr 11, 7:57*am, "Steve Peek" wrote:
"Gunner" wrote in message

...
On Apr 10, 3:19 pm, "Steve Peek" wrote:

*a handful of ramps and morels with
a few eggs is a meal fit for royalty.

Here in the PNW, its chanterelles and camas

We get the chanterelle here, but it's a late June through July thing. I
like to drop a chanterelle into vodka and let it soak for a month or so.
It's the ultimate martini.

Have to try that. But my 100 Proof gets make into Lemoncello. I've
need thinking to get a little still ....just for medicinal purposes,
of course.

Years later I discovered a mushroom club and my
education continues to this day.

Love to eat em, but still very, very leery of picking em wild and I
don't hike the woods as well as I used to plus wild pickers have been
known to rob & shoot each other here over a good chanterelles patch.

Perhaps you can help me ID this one below: In my neighbor's Doug fir
chip mulch, came up last year also. The nickle is a size reference:
http://s704.photobucket.com/albums/w...DSC_7797-1.jpg

Did ya hunt the wild ginseng back in the day? There is some big $$$$$
in that crop these days.

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Apr 11, 7:57 am, "Steve Peek" wrote:
"Gunner" wrote in message

...
On Apr 10, 3:19 pm, "Steve Peek" wrote:

a handful of ramps and morels with
a few eggs is a meal fit for royalty.

Here in the PNW, its chanterelles and camas

We get the chanterelle here, but it's a late June through July thing. I
like to drop a chanterelle into vodka and let it soak for a month or so.
It's the ultimate martini.

Have to try that. But my 100 Proof gets make into Lemoncello. I've
need thinking to get a little still ....just for medicinal purposes,
of course.


Be very careful & tell no one, the revenuers are still about. They busted a
fairly big operation east of me a couple of months ago.

Years later I discovered a mushroom club and my
education continues to this day.

Love to eat em, but still very, very leery of picking em wild and I
don't hike the woods as well as I used to plus wild pickers have been
known to rob & shoot each other here over a good chanterelles patch.

We don't really have market pickers here. A few folks sell to the
resturants, but it's not an issue here. We have tremendous numbers of
species, but no huge patches of anything.

Perhaps you can help me ID this one below: In my neighbor's Doug fir
chip mulch, came up last year also. The nickle is a size reference:
http://s704.photobucket.com/albums/w...DSC_7797-1.jpg

It's one I'm not familiar with. There are many west coast species that don't
occur in the east. I'll hazard a guess though. I'm about 99% sure the genus
is Pluteus, species is a bit more iffy maybe atromarginatus. If you can get
a spore print (cut off the stem and lay the cap on a white sheet of paper
for a few hours) check the color. I suspect the color will be pink (this is
very subjective, think the flesh colored crayola). If so there are only two
genus (genii?) to chose from Pluteus of Volvariella. They are closely
related and I know of no poisonous species in either genus. Dear God, please
don't eat them based on a half-assed ID from an online photo!

Did ya hunt the wild ginseng back in the day? There is some big $$$$$
in that crop these days.

Yes sir, I used to dig enough to pay the winter heat bill and buy a little
Christmas cheer!

On Apr 11, 3:00*pm, "Steve Peek" wrote:


Dear God, please don't eat them based on a half-assed ID from an online photo!


You need not worry that one......I don't even trust billy... nor his
other brothers bill and llib

but thanks for the lead,.... haven't got a good lead from the local
s'room folk here either, something about a trip they were on and they
would get back to me whenever.

Seriously now, maybe Pluteus cervinus? My wife says no guts.. no
glory, but I also caught her talking to the money guy on the phone the
other day about a good sum of money she might be able to get her hands
on. humm....

You stay in touch Steve Peek.

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Apr 11, 3:00 pm, "Steve Peek" wrote:


Dear God, please don't eat them based on a half-assed ID from an online
photo!


You need not worry that one......I don't even trust billy... nor his
other brothers bill and llib

but thanks for the lead,.... haven't got a good lead from the local
s'room folk here either, something about a trip they were on and they
would get back to me whenever.

Seriously now, maybe Pluteus cervinus? My wife says no guts.. no
glory, but I also caught her talking to the money guy on the phone the
other day about a good sum of money she might be able to get her hands
on. humm....

You stay in touch Steve Peek.

Remember you are on the other side of the world from me. IMHO they are way
too dark to be cervinus. Here they are tan to fawn in color, that's the
reason for my other suggestion. In my collection of mushroom books I have a
cookbook from the Puget Sound Mycological Society. I'd say they would be
good folks to look up. Don't sign up for any new life insurance.
Steve
(paranoid retired insurance adjuster)