Ashley, your comments are interesting and, as always, right on point. Like you, I dislike the lack of politeness I see in people's interactions. Not always, but it is jarring when it happens. And, what I also notice is how much less often I see people interacting at all. It's as though in order to avoid unpleasantness, we avoid any contact including a simple head nod from a distance. We don't hold doors open for people behind us, or exchange pleasantries with the people waiting in line behind us any more. At 82, I find myself less and less relevant also.
I think it's less you're relevant to society, and more that society is becoming less relevant to you. At least that's the way I feel, a little bit more each and every year. I've got a long way to go until 82, but I can only imagine how much patience I'll have for this kerfuffle by the time I get there.
One of my other readers send me a really well written note saying that, "In the old days, at a certain point in life, a person "retired from society". They rarely left home and only entertained close family/friends infrequently."
She noted that she's there already (in her early 60's). At some point, you just don't have the patience for it anymore and a good book and a small garden is all you really need.
Not sure that's exactly what you meant, but what I mean to say in a nutshell is YOU'RE not any less relevant, but maybe you've just grown to the point where the trifles of the world are less relevant to you.
Very kindly and nicely put, Ashley. And, it's true that for the most part I have little patience for the kerfuffles and machinations of current society. The only things that catch my interest now are political in nature - like abortion banning and the associated ills of that power play; the attempt of politicians to put their personal agendas ahead of the good of the school, library, city, county, state or country; and injustice toward children and people who can't defend themselves against what ever the foe is, whether it be big business, overbearing neighbors, or others who try to use their power to put others down. Perhaps I'm related to Don Quixote in tilting at windmills, although not for a Rosinante.
Thk you so much Ashley fir putting some time to write. I will follow thru and expect great plump berries next year. Loving and care to you and the plants.
"Cultivate a bit of beauty, and sit down with a cup of tea."
I needed to read that today. Thank you.
I have a choke cherry tree and remember a post from you last year about things to make from the berries. My question is: how do you know if it's an edible or ornamental type of choke cherry tree? I didn't know there were two kinds until a neighbor mentioned it. Thanks for your time.
So I didn't know there were "ornamental" chokecherries either, but I looked into it now.
As best as I can tell, the ones grown ornamentally are the exact same as the regular ones, and there really is only one wild type of chokecherry. Some taste better than others of course, like with any wild fruit, but there's not a specific ornamental variety. If they're sold as ornamentals, they're just regulars (since the regular ones are so pretty anyway).
At least, so far as I can find anywhere online. If you've read something different, I'd love to see it.
Where there is a different variety is with ChokeBerries (Aronia). They're a totally different plant, but often confused because the name is so close. Ornamental aronia taste pretty horrible, though they are technically edible, and the edible ones are are much higher quality.
Black cherries, likewise, can be confused with chokecherries, but they're delicious and edible. I have a post on how to tell the difference coming out shortly, but here's an instagram post I did last year with pictures of the differences: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSrrFwWAZFr/
Very much looking forward to hearing your opinion on these portable generators that work with solar panels. Jackery is available here in UK, also looking at Bluetti. Please do include info on your suggested list of spares. Many thanks, love reading your stuff!
Great article! I have noticed lately that I am taking care of my future self better than I am taking care of my present self. I am practicing balance this week and it’s been very calming as well. Thank you for the reminder to enjoy the present as much as you prepare for the future. I just love your articles!!!
It's an easy enough trap to fall into, and we're just pulling out of it. As they say, you can't pour from an empty cup. Usually that means when you're taking care of others, but it also applies when you're taking care of your future self. Fill up for today, and you'll be better able to stay full tomorrow.
Ashley do you have detailed info about how you store your freeze dried items? I'm frozen in fear of doing it wrong and wasting all the food so I've been fd'ing things we use quickly instead.
The freeze dryer comes with vacuum sealer bags and just getting a good tight seal there is 90% of the solution. At least that's the case with our dehydrated stuff, but we're never storing it for more than a year or two. With the freeze dryer, I'm really actually going to have to look into this too. We don't tend to do really long term food storage, but rather keep around 1 years worth of food in the house and cycle it every single year. With this machine in the house though, I am going to be putting up stuff for longer, so I'll need to answer that too...When I have a good solid answer there, I'll write about it. Great question!
We are using our things up early too but I would like to pre make meals for 5 to 10 year storage bins. The research on what to use successfully seems to be all over the board so I'm so trying to make up my mind!
Hi Ashley. i appreciate your comments beyond the homestead, so to speak, and it reminds me of the only other farm-ish newsletter i get. he was a vermonter then moved across the lake, but he waxes on similar subjects. happy july ☀️ https://peasantryschool.substack.com
Where do you get some of the rare berries that you mentioned? I would love to plant some. Do nurseries carry elderberries and gooseberries? I really enjoy learning from your site, like your approach to living.
Most of our stuff comes from Fedco Trees (in Maine) and Raintree Nursery (in the PNW), and it's all through mail order. We rarely find the really unique stuff at local nursaries, unfortunately. They really do have to cater to the masses, and I understand they need to sell volume to make money...and few people want thing's they've never heard of. Because of that, most of the fun berries are not going to be available locally.
You can also get cuttings, seeds and scionwood from Seed Saver's Exchange, and they have varieties you can't get anywhere else because it's a community forum where people are just exchanging rather than a specific plant company.
I always have an insane amount of Chamomile self seeding in my garden. Its a welcome invader. I love everything about it down to its little daisyesque flora. I have a bushel in the house right now drying for use in the months to come. My favorite way to date is adding it to my home fermented Kombucha. It is so light and refreshing!
This is so inspiring!!! Thank you for sharing your experience with creating abundance for your family… makes it seem possible and achievable!!! I’m gorging myself on summer fruit, too… and planning for the day when it all comes from our property.
Hey Ashley! In reply to your last email I'd LOVE some doable advice on getting my fall garden started. I'm in Texas..and my "soil" is caliche. Hardened dust that seems like a huge slab of rock. I'm wondering if there are trustworthy places to buy transplants online (bc I tend to kill my seedlings when I start em in the house) also maybe you know of a chart that says what fall things grow well together? Or you can just tell me all things fall 😁I just wanna have a good ole pioneer thanksgiving this November if I can..so help me please if you can! Thank you!!
So I'll admit I'm not the best at gardening in the shoulder seasons (spring/fall) for warmer climates. We only have about 100 days of growing season here, and honestly, in the fall I'm just trying to bring in the tomato crop and hoping things will ripen before we get hit with hard frosts.
After frosts, we harvest plenty...but it's just about all stuff we planted early in the season that takes forever to grow but is cold hardy (think things like cabbage and brussels sprouts). The only things we plant now for fall are the very short season things that happen to be frost hardy. (30 to 60 days to maturity)
That includes cilantro (which will grow with snow on it, surprisingly), beets, short season carrots, spinach and other cold hardy greens (Mitzuna, Arugula, Tatsoi, etc). We still get a pioneer thanksgiving, and serve plenty from our garden...even though there's usually snow on the ground at that point.
Homegrown brussels sprouts take center stage (they're my favorite, I know, everyone else hates them but I absolutely love them). Butternut squash and pumpkins are cooked several ways, storage potatoes that have just been put up, our own cranberries. All of those though, were planted early in the spring and just take all season to mature.
I grew up in an area with caliche and year round warm weather, and we did garden seriously then...but that was a lifetime ago. Actually 20 years at this point.
I live in north Florida. hurricanes and storms often cut off my electric which I need for my water pump as I have sheep. a small good generator that's solar would be a big help! funds are low, though. maybe you have ideas?? also one fan and the refrigerator would make my life livable during storms..
Water pumps use an incredible amount of electricity, and when our power goes out, nothing kills our backup batteries faster than pumping water from our well. We only do it when it's mid day and our solar panels are getting A LOT of power in, so now showers in the evening off battery power over here. The well pump actually uses as much power as running a toaster oven, waffle iron and dehydrator...all at once. It's a lot of work to pull water out of the ground.
I'm not sure you're going to find a battery system that can handle a well pump load, at least not a portable one. Ours is huge and designed to power a whole house. If you had an unlimited budget maybe, but who has that?
Anyhow, a better solution for water is to have a cistern of some kind and pump the water into the tank before the power goes out. Then the water's above ground and much easier to get where you need it to go since it's not coming up from hundreds of feet down in the earth. A simple sump pump can then take it to your animals trough.
Then you can pump out of it with a low powered pump, like the sump pump we use to empty our stock tank pool. Ours is a model 91250 from a company called superior pump, and the cost about $60. It's lower power than a full well pump, so you can use that on a smaller battery like a Jackery. (Or you can just use old fashioned siphon power by hand.)
A Jackery (or similar power bank) can easily power a fan and a refrigerator, so that's a good option. They also now have small battery powered air conditioners, which is really amazing...they can run 12+ hours on a charge, and you can re-charge them on small solar panels, so not a bad option for comfort.
Blueberries are very shallow rooted, so they don't tolerate competition from grasses at all. They need bark mulch, or better yet, pine needle mulch at least 2 feet out in all directions, more if they're bigger. (Don't use plain wood chip mulch, it has to be bark or pine needle mulch as wood chips make the soil more alkaline.)
They also really need light, acidic soil...which we don't have. Ours suffered until I found the right amendment, and now they put on 6 to 12'' of growth every single year. We're using Espoma's Holly Tone, which is an organic fertilizer for acid loving plants. I wish I didn't have to bring anything in from off our land...but for blueberries in this type of soil, raking pine needles alone is not enough.
A few years ago when my kids were babies, ours were 12 to 18'' tall and not growing, now they're 5 to 6 ft tall and I pull buckets of fruit off them. Night and day difference with those two things, mulch and a well rounded acid loving plant fertilizer.
(If you want something that's similar, but care free and doesn't require any attention AT ALL, consider serviceberries/saskatoons or honeyberries, we don't tend those at all and they produce like crazy. Blueberries need a bit more coddling.)
Ashley, your comments are interesting and, as always, right on point. Like you, I dislike the lack of politeness I see in people's interactions. Not always, but it is jarring when it happens. And, what I also notice is how much less often I see people interacting at all. It's as though in order to avoid unpleasantness, we avoid any contact including a simple head nod from a distance. We don't hold doors open for people behind us, or exchange pleasantries with the people waiting in line behind us any more. At 82, I find myself less and less relevant also.
I think it's less you're relevant to society, and more that society is becoming less relevant to you. At least that's the way I feel, a little bit more each and every year. I've got a long way to go until 82, but I can only imagine how much patience I'll have for this kerfuffle by the time I get there.
One of my other readers send me a really well written note saying that, "In the old days, at a certain point in life, a person "retired from society". They rarely left home and only entertained close family/friends infrequently."
She noted that she's there already (in her early 60's). At some point, you just don't have the patience for it anymore and a good book and a small garden is all you really need.
Not sure that's exactly what you meant, but what I mean to say in a nutshell is YOU'RE not any less relevant, but maybe you've just grown to the point where the trifles of the world are less relevant to you.
Very kindly and nicely put, Ashley. And, it's true that for the most part I have little patience for the kerfuffles and machinations of current society. The only things that catch my interest now are political in nature - like abortion banning and the associated ills of that power play; the attempt of politicians to put their personal agendas ahead of the good of the school, library, city, county, state or country; and injustice toward children and people who can't defend themselves against what ever the foe is, whether it be big business, overbearing neighbors, or others who try to use their power to put others down. Perhaps I'm related to Don Quixote in tilting at windmills, although not for a Rosinante.
Thk you so much Ashley fir putting some time to write. I will follow thru and expect great plump berries next year. Loving and care to you and the plants.
Wonderful!
"Cultivate a bit of beauty, and sit down with a cup of tea."
I needed to read that today. Thank you.
I have a choke cherry tree and remember a post from you last year about things to make from the berries. My question is: how do you know if it's an edible or ornamental type of choke cherry tree? I didn't know there were two kinds until a neighbor mentioned it. Thanks for your time.
So I didn't know there were "ornamental" chokecherries either, but I looked into it now.
As best as I can tell, the ones grown ornamentally are the exact same as the regular ones, and there really is only one wild type of chokecherry. Some taste better than others of course, like with any wild fruit, but there's not a specific ornamental variety. If they're sold as ornamentals, they're just regulars (since the regular ones are so pretty anyway).
At least, so far as I can find anywhere online. If you've read something different, I'd love to see it.
Where there is a different variety is with ChokeBerries (Aronia). They're a totally different plant, but often confused because the name is so close. Ornamental aronia taste pretty horrible, though they are technically edible, and the edible ones are are much higher quality.
Black cherries, likewise, can be confused with chokecherries, but they're delicious and edible. I have a post on how to tell the difference coming out shortly, but here's an instagram post I did last year with pictures of the differences: https://www.instagram.com/p/CSrrFwWAZFr/
Thanks so much for helping me understand.
Very much looking forward to hearing your opinion on these portable generators that work with solar panels. Jackery is available here in UK, also looking at Bluetti. Please do include info on your suggested list of spares. Many thanks, love reading your stuff!
Bluetti is also on my list to review, so I'll definitely let you know!
Great article! I have noticed lately that I am taking care of my future self better than I am taking care of my present self. I am practicing balance this week and it’s been very calming as well. Thank you for the reminder to enjoy the present as much as you prepare for the future. I just love your articles!!!
It's an easy enough trap to fall into, and we're just pulling out of it. As they say, you can't pour from an empty cup. Usually that means when you're taking care of others, but it also applies when you're taking care of your future self. Fill up for today, and you'll be better able to stay full tomorrow.
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you and your family 🙏🙏💞
Thank you Joe!
I'm looking toward the review of power banks! I would like to invest in one that works well.
I'll definitely let you know!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your positive take on some very negative issues gives me hope.
Thank you Leslie!
Ashley do you have detailed info about how you store your freeze dried items? I'm frozen in fear of doing it wrong and wasting all the food so I've been fd'ing things we use quickly instead.
The freeze dryer comes with vacuum sealer bags and just getting a good tight seal there is 90% of the solution. At least that's the case with our dehydrated stuff, but we're never storing it for more than a year or two. With the freeze dryer, I'm really actually going to have to look into this too. We don't tend to do really long term food storage, but rather keep around 1 years worth of food in the house and cycle it every single year. With this machine in the house though, I am going to be putting up stuff for longer, so I'll need to answer that too...When I have a good solid answer there, I'll write about it. Great question!
We are using our things up early too but I would like to pre make meals for 5 to 10 year storage bins. The research on what to use successfully seems to be all over the board so I'm so trying to make up my mind!
Hi Ashley. i appreciate your comments beyond the homestead, so to speak, and it reminds me of the only other farm-ish newsletter i get. he was a vermonter then moved across the lake, but he waxes on similar subjects. happy july ☀️ https://peasantryschool.substack.com
Thank you so much for sharing, I hadn't heard of his newsletter but it is really wonderful. I just subscribed!
Where do you get some of the rare berries that you mentioned? I would love to plant some. Do nurseries carry elderberries and gooseberries? I really enjoy learning from your site, like your approach to living.
Most of our stuff comes from Fedco Trees (in Maine) and Raintree Nursery (in the PNW), and it's all through mail order. We rarely find the really unique stuff at local nursaries, unfortunately. They really do have to cater to the masses, and I understand they need to sell volume to make money...and few people want thing's they've never heard of. Because of that, most of the fun berries are not going to be available locally.
You can also get cuttings, seeds and scionwood from Seed Saver's Exchange, and they have varieties you can't get anywhere else because it's a community forum where people are just exchanging rather than a specific plant company.
I always have an insane amount of Chamomile self seeding in my garden. Its a welcome invader. I love everything about it down to its little daisyesque flora. I have a bushel in the house right now drying for use in the months to come. My favorite way to date is adding it to my home fermented Kombucha. It is so light and refreshing!
That sounds delicious!
This is so inspiring!!! Thank you for sharing your experience with creating abundance for your family… makes it seem possible and achievable!!! I’m gorging myself on summer fruit, too… and planning for the day when it all comes from our property.
Perfect!
Hey Ashley! In reply to your last email I'd LOVE some doable advice on getting my fall garden started. I'm in Texas..and my "soil" is caliche. Hardened dust that seems like a huge slab of rock. I'm wondering if there are trustworthy places to buy transplants online (bc I tend to kill my seedlings when I start em in the house) also maybe you know of a chart that says what fall things grow well together? Or you can just tell me all things fall 😁I just wanna have a good ole pioneer thanksgiving this November if I can..so help me please if you can! Thank you!!
So I'll admit I'm not the best at gardening in the shoulder seasons (spring/fall) for warmer climates. We only have about 100 days of growing season here, and honestly, in the fall I'm just trying to bring in the tomato crop and hoping things will ripen before we get hit with hard frosts.
After frosts, we harvest plenty...but it's just about all stuff we planted early in the season that takes forever to grow but is cold hardy (think things like cabbage and brussels sprouts). The only things we plant now for fall are the very short season things that happen to be frost hardy. (30 to 60 days to maturity)
That includes cilantro (which will grow with snow on it, surprisingly), beets, short season carrots, spinach and other cold hardy greens (Mitzuna, Arugula, Tatsoi, etc). We still get a pioneer thanksgiving, and serve plenty from our garden...even though there's usually snow on the ground at that point.
Homegrown brussels sprouts take center stage (they're my favorite, I know, everyone else hates them but I absolutely love them). Butternut squash and pumpkins are cooked several ways, storage potatoes that have just been put up, our own cranberries. All of those though, were planted early in the spring and just take all season to mature.
I grew up in an area with caliche and year round warm weather, and we did garden seriously then...but that was a lifetime ago. Actually 20 years at this point.
I live in north Florida. hurricanes and storms often cut off my electric which I need for my water pump as I have sheep. a small good generator that's solar would be a big help! funds are low, though. maybe you have ideas?? also one fan and the refrigerator would make my life livable during storms..
(Sorry about the previous comment, it was meant to be a reply to Jen below. Oops. Deleted now. Answering your question in a second.)
Hi Hedy,
Water pumps use an incredible amount of electricity, and when our power goes out, nothing kills our backup batteries faster than pumping water from our well. We only do it when it's mid day and our solar panels are getting A LOT of power in, so now showers in the evening off battery power over here. The well pump actually uses as much power as running a toaster oven, waffle iron and dehydrator...all at once. It's a lot of work to pull water out of the ground.
I'm not sure you're going to find a battery system that can handle a well pump load, at least not a portable one. Ours is huge and designed to power a whole house. If you had an unlimited budget maybe, but who has that?
Anyhow, a better solution for water is to have a cistern of some kind and pump the water into the tank before the power goes out. Then the water's above ground and much easier to get where you need it to go since it's not coming up from hundreds of feet down in the earth. A simple sump pump can then take it to your animals trough.
I'd suggest something like this tank to fill as a backup: https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/utms-275-gal-intermediate-bulk-container-1185722
Then you can pump out of it with a low powered pump, like the sump pump we use to empty our stock tank pool. Ours is a model 91250 from a company called superior pump, and the cost about $60. It's lower power than a full well pump, so you can use that on a smaller battery like a Jackery. (Or you can just use old fashioned siphon power by hand.)
A Jackery (or similar power bank) can easily power a fan and a refrigerator, so that's a good option. They also now have small battery powered air conditioners, which is really amazing...they can run 12+ hours on a charge, and you can re-charge them on small solar panels, so not a bad option for comfort.
Hope this helps!
Hi Ashley, how do you take care of blueberries? I have 2 bushes and fir 6 years now and I don't get any berries.
A couple of things...
Blueberries are very shallow rooted, so they don't tolerate competition from grasses at all. They need bark mulch, or better yet, pine needle mulch at least 2 feet out in all directions, more if they're bigger. (Don't use plain wood chip mulch, it has to be bark or pine needle mulch as wood chips make the soil more alkaline.)
They also really need light, acidic soil...which we don't have. Ours suffered until I found the right amendment, and now they put on 6 to 12'' of growth every single year. We're using Espoma's Holly Tone, which is an organic fertilizer for acid loving plants. I wish I didn't have to bring anything in from off our land...but for blueberries in this type of soil, raking pine needles alone is not enough.
A few years ago when my kids were babies, ours were 12 to 18'' tall and not growing, now they're 5 to 6 ft tall and I pull buckets of fruit off them. Night and day difference with those two things, mulch and a well rounded acid loving plant fertilizer.
(If you want something that's similar, but care free and doesn't require any attention AT ALL, consider serviceberries/saskatoons or honeyberries, we don't tend those at all and they produce like crazy. Blueberries need a bit more coddling.)