15
Thank you so much! It's wild how far we have come in the past 3 years. There are still almost infinite lessons to learn but it feels nice to see progress.
It's like a non-shitty TV dinner with those cherries in there!
I saw them yesterday 😎
This is a very much a personal preference!
The beans in this photo are cooked. I snapped off the tips which is where the most of the "string" is. I find the variety of the bean makes a big difference, and of course the age. Some beans I would never eat raw (taste is a factor too!) but some are tolerable. This one is okay, but I prefer them cooked. They are a variety called Maxibel and they are known for being tender. This is my first time growing them.
The peas here are raw, and were selected for this plate because of their tenderness. I will typically eat them all except sometimes the very tip where they used to connect to the plant. You can see the little stem on some of them. My partner will pop many of them open and just eat the pea, like edamame.
I try to pick peas when they are still able to be eaten in the pod because they are the most delicious at that point in my opinion. At this point in the season they are maturing really fast so we end up shelling the majority of the peas coming in now and cooking the shelled peas.
Variety plays a part here too. I typically grow three varieties:
- Dwarf Grey - very much meant for eating in the pod but you can let them get bigger and eat as shelling peas. I did not have success with them this year because I planted them in a less protected bed and the tips got eaten. They are just flowering now.
- Alderman Tall Telephone - these are intended for shelling and make beautiful thicc pods. I'll still eat them raw and in the pod when I can!
- Alaska peas - also intended for shelling but sometimes I just really need to taste the peaness and pick them while still tender.
For me it doesn't feel wasteful because I rely on minimal external inputs. It's time and effort and a little money for seeds, but I'm usually learning something and I'm at the worst case generating compost. A being of some kind will eat it!
When making jam, I still buy local fruit so it's as close to homegeown as possible. I will typically make strawberry, blueberry and raspberry. I am skipping strawberry this year as I need to buy a new hose for the propane burned I use for water bath canning (outside, of course). I've done peach in the past too. That's not locally grown, but I still buy the ones grown in my province and they are wonderful. I also make apple butter. I guess if I was going to say what makes a fruit it worth it is if I can get the fruit at the peak of ripeness. Compound berries take the least prep, but blanching peaches is still worth it because I love the flavor so much and frozen peaches don't hit the spot.
Thanks!
I try and eat as much fresh as possible but I do preserve as well. I freeze, dehydrate, water bath can and pressure can depending on the produce.
Beans and peas are best frozen I think - water bath canning cooks them too much. That said, it's really good to have a shelf stable option so I will likely end up canning some beans. I have water bath canned pickled beans but I simply don't eat them enough to make it a good choice.
I prefer to eat most things fresh because any of the processing really takes away from the flavor. Tomatoes are the exception to this and I also make jam from purchased fruits as I don't quite have enough to make the kind of batch size of jam I would like to. Homemade jam is amazing and I use it in my oats almost daily.
In a few weeks I will (hopefully) be drowning in produce and will preserve whatever I can't eat or give away.
Thank you!
13
Foundation drain sump pits/Iron ochre
(vegantheoryclub.org)
I'm mid-DIY on this one but putting it out there in case it's helpful for anyone.
I'm not specifically looking for advice, but if you have personal experience with iron ochre and are willing to share, I would welcome it.
I live in a swamp. I have basement foundation drains that we got replaced when we moved in a few years ago. We mostly wanted battery backups on the pumps, but we ended up getting a new drainage system too. This got us super acquainted with our drains.
There is a type of microbe living in the soil that consumes iron and leaves behind something called iron ochre. We use chemical treatment to help keep the drains running (cleating agent, keeps the iron soluble) but are at the point where the pumps need to be cleaned.
We have a water treatment system (iron/sulphur filter) that backwashes every few days. It is overwhelming the pumps and causes the sump pit alarm to go off (at 4:45 am).
Our pumps are not easy to disconnect from the discharge hose, so I took a first go at cleaning out the pit and making sure the material isn't building up at the pump inlet. There was also a lot of ground water that day, so I wouldn't want to have pulled the pumps in the first place. I am sharing the photos of what it looks like inside a sump pit to help demystify the system.
link to video of the rate of water into the pit 😬
This is a photo of the sump pit:
There are three pumps. On the left you see the first pump (above the green hose), to the right of that you see the second pump, and then the red thing is the emergency pump which is on a battery back up. On the far right you see the drain and build up of iron ochre, as well as the white hose which is the backwash drain.
The first pump get stuck running dry and I think it has to do with how it is positioned in the pit. The pumps turn on and off via a hardwired float. When the water level rises, the float well...floats and pump turns on. When the water level drops, the float will also move down and eventually reach the off position. When there are more than one pump in a pit, the floats are set at different positions so that a second pump can kick in when the first is unable to keep up.
The float must be getting stuck in the up position. It doesn't do that when the cover is open, but when it is closed it shifts a little bit. It is also not properly sealed, and shoots water out of the sleeve connection to the discharge hose you can see on the left. The strap is facing away ands can't be tightened without taking the pump out.
How I attempted to clean the pit and hopefully flush some of the buildup off the pump internals:
- I forced the pumps to run as long as they could by holding up a float (with a plastic coat hanger, lol - don't put your hands in the pit!)
- After unplugging the pumps, I used a shop vac to clean up the iron ochre buildup on the side of the pit (at the drain) and anything I could get on the bottom, below the pump stands. You can see the contents of the shop vac here
- I put some cleating agent (Iron out) into the pit and left the pumps unplugged to allow the pit to fill with water, keeping as much retention time as possible with the chemical rich water. Once the pit got very full I then plugged in the pumps and let pumps discharge the water. I repeated a few times.
- I flushed the pit using the green hose in the above image. It is connected to my water heater and is only accessible tap in the basement (I have taps for the washing machine but no other plumbing). I opened it to the put and let the pumps keep up.
- After I was satisfied that the pit had been sufficiently flushed, I poured a little bit of bleach into the pit and repeated the process of soaking the pumps. Please never mix bleach with other household chemicals. Bleach is not compatible with the active ingredients in Iron out. The use of bleach in the first place was somewhat questionable. I was trying to kill any iron bacteria in the pit, but I likely didn't use enough to manage that. It's not something I will be doing again.
I think the clean out helped a bit - the pumps seemed to be running quite well, but I have no way to quantify it. Unfortunately, it didn't help enough, and we are still be awoken by the alarms. The next step is to get brave and pull the pumps.
One thing I want to add to this system is something to measure and record the amps draw on the pumps. This would let me know how often they are running and help track issues with their performance.
Once I figure out how to disconnect the pumps and am able to take them out of the pit to clean, I will be sure to take photos of the process to share.
40
Vegan home meal assemblers
(i.imgur.com)
Home grown peas, beans, zucchini with homemade Novick burgers and store bought hummus, cheese, and rice crackers.
Good people don't want to use the states monopoly on violence to protect capital.
I recently shared the video of the guy washing the TVP with my mom so she can ensure that her balls don't have that weird taste and smell to them 🫡
To this day!
14
Radish, rashish, rice and lentils
(cdn.discordapp.com)
Roasted and kimchi radishes on some rice and lentils cooked in a rice cooker.
All lentils all the time
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Wow! I'm so glad you are finding inspiration. You should get back into gardening ☺️