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Homesteading Skills

Andy in NH said:
Most chickens have significant reduction (if not a complete cessation) in their production when the days get shorter.
A chicken typically needs 14 hours of daylight to keep their reproductive cycle active.
A buddy uses the winter to give his flock a break, but I use a lightbulb and a timer inside the coop to keep them laying.

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I let mine rest as well.
Some breeds are better winter layers though. Typically the brown egg layers are pretty good.
Personal experience has shown me that the barred Plymouth Rock is a reliable layer through winter, albeit at a reduced rate.
I buy about twenty laying chicks a year and rotate on three year intervals. So three flocks of twenty or so, sixty total. I try to keep two of those flocks barred rocks.
 
Hazelnuts are ready to pick in central ma.
If you let them ripen on the tree the squirrels get most if not all of them. They’re close enough now that they’ll ripen off the tree. I lay mine single layer thick on screens in the back room to dry and ripen them.
Then most get dry roasted and stored in tight jars. Supposedly they’ll last 2 years stored this way. We always eat them way before that.
 
All this posting of mushrooms.......that's great, but they are more a condement than a staple. They have little to no caloric nutrition and will not sustain you as an exclusive diet no matter how many you eat or how frequently you eat them under survival conditions.

Unlike meats, fish, fruits, nuts, berries, mushrooms are almost as nutritious as a piece of corrugated cardboard.....just with a better texture.
Along with the potential illness or death that comes with eating the wrong type, mushrooms should be avoided completely by all but the most knowledgeable foragers.....especially under survival conditions.
A fistful of common platan or dandelion leaves are by far a safer and more nutritious alternative in season.
 
Uzi2 said:
All this posting of mushrooms.......that's great, but they are more a condement than a staple. They have little to no caloric nutrition and will not sustain you as an exclusive diet no matter how many you eat or how frequently you eat them under survival conditions.

Unlike meats, fish, fruits, nuts, berries, mushrooms are almost as nutritious as a piece of corrugated cardboard.....just with a better texture.
Along with the potential illness or death that comes with eating the wrong type, mushrooms should be avoided completely by all but the most knowledgeable foragers.....especially under survival conditions.
A fistful of common platan or dandelion leaves are by far a safer and more nutritious alternative in season.
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Some good points but my opinion is it’s always better to pursue knowledge about your natural environment wrt flora and fauna as much as you can and not discount anything. I’m certainly not advocating a myopic view of foraging just one kingdom by posting fungi pics. A multifocal approach is best. I still have plenty of proteins vacuum packed and frozen to last quite awhile for a family of 5. Wild greens, nuts, and berries are also abundant and available for at a least 3 full seasons. When in a survival condition maybe that tinder fungus is best used as a fire starter vs medicine. Don’t you find it compelling that a shelf fungus can act as a fire starter, blade finish sharpener, and medicine at the same time?

I can certainly try to post more variety if the fungi are boring you 😁
 
djbradles said:
Some good points but my opinion is it’s always better to pursue knowledge about your natural environment wrt flora and fauna as much as you can and not discount anything. I’m certainly not advocating a myopic view of foraging just one kingdom by posting fungi pics. A multifocal approach is best. I still have plenty of proteins vacuum packed and frozen to last quite awhile for a family of 5. Wild greens, nuts, and berries are also abundant and available for at a least 3 full seasons. When in a survival condition maybe that tinder fungus is best used as a fire starter vs medicine. Don’t you find it compelling that a shelf fungus can act as a fire starter, blade finish sharpener, and medicine at the same time?

I can certainly try to post more variety if the fungi are boring you 😁
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Fire starter? Food? Give me fritos. :)


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7noZ7gk8AI
 
Uzi2 said:
All this posting of mushrooms.......that's great, but they are more a condement than a staple. They have little to no caloric nutrition and will not sustain you as an exclusive diet no matter how many you eat or how frequently you eat them under survival conditions.

Unlike meats, fish, fruits, nuts, berries, mushrooms are almost as nutritious as a piece of corrugated cardboard.....just with a better texture.
Along with the potential illness or death that comes with eating the wrong type, mushrooms should be avoided completely by all but the most knowledgeable foragers.....especially under survival conditions.
A fistful of common platan or dandelion leaves are by far a safer and more nutritious alternative in season.
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Not totally true. Some mushrooms have a lot of good vitamins in them, antioxidants and medicinal value. And if you are creative, you can take the 50 pounds of Chicken of the woods I found last year, grind it, hit it with a skillet to dry it a bit and freeze it in ziplocs. Use it as fillers for meatloaf, meatballs, and use it as "bread crumbs" on chicken and other dishes. Way better than using real bread crumbs and it actually has nutritional value.

Turkey tails have cancer fighting stuff in it. Japan and other countries are doing actual scientific studies, unlike here, where the pharmaceutical companies won't bother because they cannot make money with it. Mushrooms are good stuff!
 
peterk123 said:
Not totally true. Some mushrooms have a lot of good vitamins in them, antioxidants and medicinal value. And if you are creative, you can take the 50 pounds of Chicken of the woods I found last year, grind it, hit it with a skillet to dry it a bit and freeze it in ziplocs. Use it as fillers for meatloaf, meatballs, and use it as "bread crumbs" on chicken and other dishes. Way better than using real bread crumbs and it actually has nutritional value.

Turkey tails have cancer fighting stuff in it. Japan and other countries are doing actual scientific studies, unlike here, where the pharmaceutical companies won't bother because they cannot make money with it. Mushrooms are good stuff!
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In a survival situation, mushrooms should the very last thing sought.

Again,

Little to no caloric value.....your body will expend more energy trying to digest them than they'll provide.

Extremely dangerous to health to the unknowledgeable......get the wrong one ONCE and you may be dead or suffer permanent organ or central nervous system damage. NO THANKS.

Found in limited quantities under limited conditions in limited seasons and in limited areas.......In a survival situation, you will more than likely die expending the effort hunting mushrooms.

There are hundreds of other, more prevalent, safer, easier to find sources of actual caloric rich foods than mushrooms.
 
I’m not sure if it’s homesteading. Wife just made apple cider on an apples that I grew from a seed. I have a pretty thorough edible landscape. My place looks overgrown and like shit. But once you get stuff like that establish it just spreads like wildfire.

The apples are kind of strange. They taste just like a pear…We kept all the seeds going to start them in anticipation of my move. The tree may be too big to take with
 
She made a gallon I started yelling at her after about an hour how she f***ed it up. I don’t know why everybody does dumb shit like this. I thought we were making Cider not fireball
 

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Wonder how pissed she will be if I just pour this down the sink while she’s at work. I told her to throw it out the second she started. I guess we’ll just try again
 
MGnoob said:
She made a gallon I started yelling at her after about an hour how she f***ed it up. I don’t know why everybody does dumb shit like this. I thought we were making Cider not fireball
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Take one of those glass 1-2 gallon apple cider containers you buy from the store, put 1 tsp of champagne yeast in it, give it a shake, and place a stopper with an airlock. After a few days at room temps you can cold crash it once the gravity drops, add a little sugar, bottling yeast, and then you have some killer hard cider.
 
djbradles said:
Take one of those glass 1-2 gallon apple cider containers you buy from the store, put 1 tsp of champagne yeast in it, give it a shake, and place a stopper with an airlock. After a few days at room temps you can cold crash it once the gravity drops, add a little sugar, bottling yeast, and then you have some killer hard cider.
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I was thinking this for a few years. I probably have 1000 pounds of Keewee is that just fall on the ground every year. Seems like a prime stock for us still. I’m kind of disappointed the apples got wasted. I was gonna fire up the dehydrator. But cider sounded fun..

I know a lot of people who brewing to still have a batch from the last one to start the process for yeast I never really got him where to collect it from naturally. Probably better off to spend the $.99 in buying it
 
Uzi2 said:
In a survival situation, mushrooms should the very last thing sought. (It’s a bonus item found, not necessarily something to earnestly seek after)

Again,

Little to no caloric value.....your body will expend more energy trying to digest them than they'll provide. (Huh? Where did you get this gem? Source?)

Extremely dangerous to health to the unknowledgeable (We get it, that’s where you prefer to stand)......get the wrong one ONCE and you may be dead or suffer permanent organ or central nervous system damage. NO THANKS. (Never eat a raw mushroom and again, it’s better to know more than less)

Found in limited quantities (WRONG) under limited conditions in limited seasons (WRONG) and in limited areas(WRONG).......In a survival situation, you will more than likely die expending the effort hunting mushrooms.(Who’s expending effort when you already have knowledge and happen upon them?)

There are hundreds of other, more prevalent, safer, easier to find sources of actual caloric rich foods than mushrooms. (Again, don’t keep all your eggs in one basket. Use every available asset in a survival situation. This isn’t the Argentina thread. It’s homesteading.)
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Otzi, the 5000 year old iceman was found in the alps carrying two mushrooms; the birch polypore and the horse hoof. Both are edible, extremely medicinal and can be used as tinder to start fire.

If you believe a portable medical kit that you can also eat or burn is a wasted effort on your quest to survive, so be it.

There are many, many more dangerous plants you can consume that will kill you than there are mushrooms.

Don’t confuse your familiarity with the plant world as safety. You must be absolutely sure what you’re doing regardless of the kingdom you consume.
 

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