Homemade Radish Pickles

Well folks, I have been away from the blogging keyboard for awhile.   I am not sure if I will try to make this a regularly scheduled even again or not, as my goals have shifted a good bit after arriving here in Kentucky.  Those last few weeks in Tucson were just an absolute trial.  I felt like the house was literally sucking the energy out of me, so I let a lot of things go that I really enjoyed, including this blog.

However, going back to that period is not really that much fun.  So instead, I will just do a quick share of something fun.

As I mentioned a bit earlier today on our Facebook page, we had some leftover pickle brine and we tossed some radishes into it, which turned out to be amazing.  It was leftover bread and butter pickle brine, so the sweet brine worked out great with the slightly spicy radishes.  We just took the radishes that were too small for our dinner salad, sliced em in half, and chucked em in.  48 hours later, they were delicious.

Well, today when we went out to the garden, we had an incredible bounty of radishes waiting for us.  They are all coming to the finish at the same time.  So we went through and picked a ton of them while they were a bit smaller, because they are less spicy that way.  I didn’t think to take a picture of the radishes before we cut them, but here are the tops.  It was a bunch.

Radish Tops

So rather than simply using leftover brine again, we decided to make our own radish brine.  So I can actually expand on my 13skills goal, and work on homemade pickling and lactofermentation, despite forgetting about it for a few months.

So here is the Ayers family pickled radish recipe   We tasted the brine after we were done, and it was absolutely amazing, I will let you know how the radishes taste when they are done.  Anyone else know a good pickled radish recipe  Share it with us, and I will share it with our Facebook page and give you the credit to your blog or site if you have one.

Ayers Pickled Radishes:

Apple Cider Vinegar (splash)

White Vinegar

Honey (1 Tsp)

Dill (Dried or Fresh)

Black Peppercorns

Minced Garlic (1 tsp)

Kosher Salt

The finished products

Take all the above ingredients and mix together at the bottom of a canning jar.  I didn’t include a lot of measurements, because we didn’t measure much.  You can taste brine, so season to taste.  If you want sweeter, add more honey.  More sour, more vinegar.  Etc.  Once that’s all in place, stir it up really well.  Then toss in your radishes, fill the empty space with water, put the lid on and pop it in your fridge.  Start tasting after a few days and see how they are turning out.  The longer they sit, the more the flavor will change, so don’t hesitate to taste every so often.

Enjoy!

 

Why ELSE permaculture hasn’t caught on

As I mentioned yesterday, in the course of writing my post, I was able to think of three more reasons why permaculture hasn’t caught on yet.  So rather than creating one long mega post, I split it up into the two days to make it a little more readable.  The other thing I noticed about how these fell, is that these three can apply to more than just permaculture.  These three are all excellent reasons why many initiatives fail.  So while I am writing this about permaculture, I bet you could apply these to just about every environmental initiative you know.

#1 Hippies aren’t good spokespeople

Ok, now this one may come off as touchy if you don’t look at it objectively, since many of my readers either were legitimate hippies or at least identify with the movement.  So don’t get defensive.  This is strictly a discussion on the use of hippies as spokespeople, not a commentary on hippies in general.

There are two main problems with identifying as a hippie when trying to promote something.  First, they look different.  When you are selling an idea, you want people to be able to identify with the person selling it.  Either they could be that person, or they could be with that person.  Often people can’t feel either when it comes to hippies.  So while hippies might be a great draw to college children, they aren’t going to make any in roads with the actual movers and shakers in life.

Go for less of the Jerry Garcia look, and more of the Ben Falk.  Ben runs Whole Systems Design in Vermont and is a certified PDC Instructor.  Also looks like a professional.

Second, hippies aren’t very good at actually executing ideas.  Lets take a look at the occupy movement shall we.  A bunch of hippies had the idea that they would block traffic in major cities and change the world.  They got the first part done, but couldn’t even agree on goals.  So in the end, they just ended up hanging out in a park until they got cold and dirty.  So when we have a great system that is PROVEN TO WORK, we lump ourselves in with that when we present it wrong.

Again, this is about presenting an idea, not how you live.  Live however you want.

#2 Free Giveaway = garbage

Sign up for this credit card, get a free T-shirt.  That little toy inside the crackerjack box.  Free ski weekend if you sit through this Timeshare presentation.  People automatically associate free with bad.  Free can’t be quality.  It’s going to break.  Worst of all, by accepting this free thing, I am somehow going to get snookered down the road.

So why do we keep trying to give permaculture away for free?

Charity is a wonderful thing, and many people feel called to do better for their neighbours, and those are noble ideals, but people automatically distrust free.  We need less veggie co-ops and more “Eddie’s edible landscapings”.  We need less Permaculture blitzes and more “Bluegrass Food Forestry”.  We are standing on a gold mine of food information that is PROVEN TO WORK.  Stop trying to give it away for free to prove it.  We are living in an era when people are paying $10 a pound for organic Kale.  Get out there and make some money.  People are much more likely to sit up and take notice of a successful business that is creating good in a community than yet another group of idealists looking for donation.  Plus, once a business is successful, others will try to replicate it.  If it is really about making the world better, rather than stoking your ego, the best way to do it is to create a business.

#3 – We can’t afford green initiatives

Permaculture is an excellent way to save the planet.  The upsides of this system are nearly endless.  It uses no chemicals, less water and improves the land.  Animals are happier.  People are healthier.  It is the deliverance of all of the green initiatives ideas into one form.  Best of all, it actually makes people freer, unlike many green initiatives relying on government strong arming.

Boy, that sounds really expensive.

It isn’t.  We all know that it isn’t, but we continue to pitch it in a way that sounds expensive.  People are automatically associating us with the $10 kale movement mentioned above.  When you talk about what something can do for the earth, you set off the cash register sound in someone’s head.  Bad for marketing.

What we need to do, is emphasize how much it can save people money.  How much money would you save if you provided 25% of your own food?  Or 50%? What if you didn’t have to pay for medicine anymore because you weren’t sick?  What if you only had to drive to the store once a month?  What if you made some extra money selling veggies or eggs to your neighbours?

Again, these are all concrete benefits that are PROVEN to work.  So lets talk about what they can do for someone.  Marjorie Wildcraft has sold 250,000 of her DVDs because she called it “Growing your groceries” not “Saving the planet in my backyard”.  You need to hit people where it counts.  In their wallets.

So the next time you feel sad that permaculture isn’t the way of the land.  Stop thinking like a zealous true believer, and think about what you can do to correct the situation.  This will spread or fail based on what we do.  So let’s spread the right message.

Farm supression in Michigan

Well folks, I am just going to apologize upfront.  I am about to intentionally fail in a mission that I set for myself, and I am ok with that.  When I started this blog, I knew that it could very easily just turn into a mindless bitch session about things that irritate me, and I didn’t want it to.  So I made it my goal to provide only useful information or uplifting thoughts as much as I could.  I think most days this leads to a good product for you all to enjoy.

Today is not going to be one of those days.  Today I am angry, and since addressing that anger at those people that rightfully deserve it would probably count as sending threatening letters, I will take care of that here, in my own forum.

So what’s going on?

The township of Williamstown in Michigan has broken it’s word to a resident.  The government lied to you, shocker.  This woman was specifically looking for a place that she could homestead.  She wanted to have the dream that I have, and the dream that many of us have, of being able to raise her own food.  Before she bought her property, she checked with the township.  They said her property would be fine for what she wanted to do.  Shockingly enough, they have decided to go against their own rules, and have ordered her to cease operation.  This family is doing what more of us should, she is fighting back.

There is really no need for me to recount the issue in it’s entirety.  You can read an article from the Lansing Post here, as well as a detailed blog from Jessica Hudon here.  At least read the blog post, she does an excellent job of explaining all that she has worked on.

Have we really come so far as a country, that we are actively seeking to punish people for doing the right thing?  This isn’t about shouting dirty words in public, or hanging up paintings with feces, or smoking dope in the street, or any of that other bullshit that gets the fake freedom lovers up and waving.  To them freedom isn’t about being free, it’s about being shocking.  If you have shocked someone, you are a protected class.

No, this is about actual freedom.  It’s about the freedom to do as you please with your own property.  A tenant that used to be sacred in this country.  It’s about the freedom to feed ourselves and our families as we see fit.  It’s about the freedom to live independent of a system of control.  Control on the very food that we put into our mouths.  Food that is purposely being tampered with.  Food that is more and more proving toxic to the very people that are supposed to be nourished by it.

This is not an isolated incident.  A front yard garden was destroyed in Tulsa Oklahoma, despite being up to code.  This was a sick woman who used the fresh foods to treat a variety of ailments of hers.  A friend of my very own community, Witch’s Way Homestead, was just forced to give up her animals.  A woman who was using these animals to help pull herself and those around here off of food stamps.  Isn’t that what this country is all about?  Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and improving your life?

This is what we are left with?  A government that is so lost in it’s own self delusion that it reckons itself the infinite master of all time and space?  Governments all across the country are flat broke.  They can’t afford the games they insist on playing, yet they are addicted to the power.  They simply cannot stop.  To stop would admit that they are irrelevant, and they we were able to survive for hundreds of years without the programs they insist we need.

We are at the very fragile beginnings of an American Renaissance.   We are remembering who we are, and what we came from.  We are remembering what it was like to do for ourselves, and look out over a field of our own accomplishment.  We are remembering what it was like to be free, and you know what, a good many of us are willing to fight for it.

So what can you do?

Well, if I can’t be positive today, I can at least give an attack strategy.  This family is setting up a rural homesteaders legal defense fund.  If they get the township to back down, they will use the money for others in a similar situation.  You can donate here, I already did.  You can also go here, to find the contact information for the township’s leadership.  I suggest a polite, but scathing email to these petty tyrants, whether you choose to donate or not.

Lastly, reach out to others of like mind in these communities, and fight back.  This is a fight for our very way of life, and we need to quit laying back and taking it.  This isn’t about backyard hens or raw milk anymore.  This is about petty tyrants trying to control how we live.  We cannot sit here and let this happen.  Lets stand up and punch these jerks in the nose.  The more victories we win, the easier they become to win.  A snowball effect of freedom.

We need to remember.  None of us stand alone.  Every citizen in a sovereign republic needs to be a sentinel of freedom, for a fight for freedom anywhere is a fight for freedom everywhere.  I am watching, and I am fighting.  Stand with me.