#Sustainable Living Garden

[samwisethewitch]

Homemaking, gardening, and self-sufficiency resources that won't radicalize you into a hate group

It seems like self-sufficiency and homemaking skills are blowing up right now. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the current economic crisis, a lot of folks, especially young people, are looking to develop skills that will help them be a little bit less dependent on our consumerist economy. And I think that's generally a good thing. I think more of us should know how to cook a meal from scratch, grow our own vegetables, and mend our own clothes. Those are good skills to have.

Unfortunately, these "self-sufficiency" skills are often used as a recruiting tactic by white supremacists, TERFs, and other hate groups. They become a way to reconnect to or relive the "good old days," a romanticized (false) past before modern society and civil rights. And for a lot of people, these skills are inseparably connected to their politics and may even be used as a tool to indoctrinate new people.

In the spirit of building safe communities, here's a complete list of the safe resources I've found for learning homemaking, gardening, and related skills. Safe for me means queer- and trans-friendly, inclusive of different races and cultures, does not contain Christian preaching, and does not contain white supremacist or TERF dog whistles.

Homemaking/Housekeeping/Caring for your home:

Making It by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen [book] (The big crunchy household DIY book; includes every level of self-sufficiency from making your own toothpaste and laundry soap to setting up raised beds to butchering a chicken. Authors are explicitly left-leaning.)

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust [book] (A guide to simple home repair tasks, written with rentals in mind; very compassionate and accessible language.)

How To Keep House While Drowning by KC Davis [book] (The book about cleaning and housework for people who get overwhelmed by cleaning and housework, based on the premise that messiness is not a moral failing; disability and neurodivergence friendly; genuinely changed how I approach cleaning tasks.)

Gardening

Rebel Gardening by Alessandro Vitale [book] (Really great introduction to urban gardening; explicitly discusses renter-friendly garden designs in small spaces; lots of DIY solutions using recycled materials; note that the author lives in England, so check if plants are invasive in your area before putting them in the ground.)

Country/Rural Living:

Woodsqueer by Gretchen Legler [book] (Memoir of a lesbian who lives and works on a rural farm in Maine with her wife; does a good job of showing what it's like to be queer in a rural space; CW for mentions of domestic violence, infidelity/cheating, and internalized homophobia)

"Debunking the Off-Grid Fantasy" by Maggie Mae Fish [video essay] (Deconstructs the off-grid lifestyle and the myth of self-reliance)

Sewing/Mending:

Annika Victoria [YouTube channel] (No longer active, but their videos are still a great resource for anyone learning to sew; check out the beginner project playlist to start. This is where I learned a lot of what I know about sewing.)

Make, Sew, and Mend by Bernadette Banner [book] (A very thorough written introduction to hand-sewing, written by a clothing historian; lots of fun garment history facts; explicitly inclusive of BIPOC, queer, and trans sewists.)

Sustainability/Land Stewardship

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer [book] (Most of you have probably already read this one or had it recommended to you, but it really is that good; excellent example of how traditional animist beliefs -- in this case, indigenous American beliefs -- can exist in healthy symbiosis with science; more philosophy than how-to, but a great foundational resource.)

Wild Witchcraft by Rebecca Beyer [book] (This one is for my fellow witches; one of my favorite witchcraft books, and an excellent example of a place-based practice deeply rooted in the land.)

Avoiding the "Crunchy to Alt Right Pipeline"

Note: the "crunchy to alt-right pipeline" is a term used to describe how white supremacists and other far right groups use "crunchy" spaces (i.e., spaces dedicated to farming, homemaking, alternative medicine, simple living/slow living, etc.) to recruit and indoctrinate people into their movements. Knowing how this recruitment works can help you recognize it when you do encounter it and avoid being influenced by it.

"The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline" by Kathleen Belew [magazine article] (Good, short introduction to this issue and its history.)

Sisters in Hate by Seyward Darby (I feel like I need to give a content warning: this book contains explicit descriptions of racism, white supremacy, and Neo Nazis, and it's a very difficult read, but it really is a great, in-depth breakdown of the role women play in the alt-right; also explicitly addresses the crunchy to alt-right pipeline.)

These are just the resources I've personally found helpful, so if anyone else has any they want to add, please, please do!

[notbecauseofvictories]

also, just as a coda to that last post---if you think "spend a week making a needlessly complicated dessert" has fixed me, I was searching for ways to use up the extra heavy cream and milk....and discovered recipes for making cheese. So this inexplicable, needlessly elaborate train can just go on rolling!

[arc-hus]

Gardenhide Studio, London - Commonbond Architects

[bumblin-bees]

july diaries part ii

[hedgewitchshit]

The chicken came up to the garden today to demand some snacks! 🐓

[thestudentfarmer]

Good afternoon everyone~

It's cold, windy and it's been raining on and off all day but I finally got out to harvesting the sweet potatoes.

I started with the 'L' bed.

This is the bowl I'll be using to collect the spuds for this deep raised bed.

Those are full size scissors btw. This is the absolute biggest strainer I own and when I do harvesting I'm always glad to have it! Helps with carrying and washing off dirt outside so much easier!

It was pretty fun digging round for the spuds and to be honest the size and shape of some of them really suprised me!

For some size comparison, my hand is right on top of them.

All cleaned out!

Next was the little round bed in the corner. I wasn't really expecting much, but it filled the bin pretty good.

I've washed the spuds off and am letting them dry off but I'll be finding a spot inside soemwhere to let them sit and cure for a bit of time. (I probably will let them cure until end of febuary.)

Curing your sweet potatoes is what makes them sweet, you can eat them right away but their said to be bitter. (I will be trying 1 potato to see if this is true!) Curing them should be done for at least 2 week in a cool dry space (around 80*f). If you under 80*f space add 7 more days.

I thought this was neat and wanted to share it. since I've not seen a sweet potato grown or dug up before

I wasn't expecting so much differance in spud size from one single root.

And one last pic,

The ducks quite like the greens, while there's not much left of it I'm going to leave the vines a couple days so they can use it as enrichment/snack opportunity.

Weigh in on the spuds later!

🍠🌱Happy Homesteading and Harvesting!!

🌱🍠

1.11.2024

[gardening-guy]

a very autumnal gardening update || 11/08/2024

happy autumn everyone!!! here's a very very big gardening update as i've been hoarding photos to share since a couple days before halloween yippee!!

to begin, i've got progress photos of lots of different fall crops that i planted from seeds!

if you'd like to know what plant something is, read the image description for plant name and usually where i bought it from!

up above are pictures of my crops that have sprouted or long since sprouted and are now growing growing (i have a lot more that i'm not consistently taking photos of tbh). i'm really excited for everything to start being a lot bigger so the raised beds will look much more filled in.

i recently did a round of fertilizer water too! i make my own fertilizer and then add it to my watering can after straining out the big bits. my fertilizer water recipe is to put eggshells, used coffee grounds, used teabags, and banana peels to this big container i have and let it sit all in water for a couple days; then i strain it and put the water into my watering can and fill the watering can the rest of the way with regular water from my tap (i don't have a hose unfortunately and i live in a rental).

i also harvested a bunch of lil tomatillos recently, i wasn't expecting them to actually finish growing at this point, but somehow it was successful!

here's a bunch of photos from the greenhouse box too! most of the lil seedlings are doing really well, and i'm eager to get to transplant them soon (and those that don't get transplanted will go to friends as gifts or be given away on fb marketplace).

i'm also pleasantly surprised that my basil plant and coleus plant are doing well still in the greenhouse! after all, the greenhouse box isn't properly sealed and isn't fully insulated, it's mostly just a cold sun box. but somehow, they're doing pretty damn well, yay!!

i also repotted a few plants: my butterfly bush, my dieffenbachia, and one of my basil plants! my poor dieffenbachia was really going through it, so i figured he really needed a repotting. here's to hoping he starts recovering!

also... the table on my back deck finally gave out lmaoooo! i was repotted my butterfly bush on it and i was pushing down on the dirt in the pot onto the table and... perfectly pot-shaped hole was born! i have stuck an identical pot into the hole and i might seal up the drainage holes on it so i can collect a bit of rainwater?? maybe?? idk for sure yet to be honest, but i'll figure it out! :)

and that's all for this update!! i really hope you all enjoyed, it's been a bit tedious typing all of this out admittedly lol, so thank you for sticking around! lmk in the replies what you think and if you've got any ideas on what to do next! :)

[salvagebloom-blog]

Wishing you a thrifty pre-owned, sustainable, Nature-loving day🍃

[catrocketship]

fighting my personal feelings about dandelions ATM to draw this little illustration in the name of fighting lawn culture

[catalyst-collective]

Permaculture Garden In The High Desert

this guy is in the high desert of colorado. soil conditions there are slightly different than here in so cal. we have high alkalinity here & so need to add nutrients differently to balance the soil. otherwise everything hes saying here applies to our operation.

this guy has solid advice. chiefly, save your own seed & invest that time! adapting plants to your environment & putting in the work are absolutely key to success in self sufficiency. and of course, build that soil by composting everything you can.

in the 10 years we've been working this land, I've watched the soil in my garden plots transform entirely. every year i am encouraged by the visible progress. every year i ramp up my efforts.

love what this guy's doing. i hope he gets to "retire" soon so he can go full time on his farm.

[homeiswherethewitchcraftis]

If it wasn't obvious, I am really into self-sufficiency and homesteading. One criticism I keep coming across is that you can't be self-sufficient because you can't do every single thing that needs to be done. I feel like this is completely missing the point of working towards self-sufficient lifestyles and that is to do as much as YOU ARE ABLE for yourself that may look different than your neighbors or friends and that is OK.

It's also important to remember that self-sufficient does NOT mean isolated. Focusing on being more self-sufficient is a key part of building strong communities. If you and your friends and neighbors are all working on being more self-sufficient, that opens the door to form bartering relationships. For example say I need seeds for my garden and my neighbor has a wonderful garden and extra seeds but she wants chicks I can trade her my chick for her seeds now we both are more self-sufficient and have started to build a relationship that is beneficial to both of us.

[bitstitchbitch]

I find it very fascinating that there are two separate movements among the youth (gen z / younger millennials) embracing traditional crafts and hobbies - knitting, crocheting, mending, gardening, baking, basically anything that involves slowing down and making things from scratch. one is the mostly Christian evangelical conservative “tradwife” movement. They’re not only embracing the crafts and skills, but also traditional gender and social roles.

the other is the sustainability, slow-fashion, save-the-earth movement which is mostly progressives / socialists / anarchists (using US frame of reference here). This group embraces the crafts and skills but not the traditional power structures.

I guess that it just goes to show that across the political spectrum we are recognizing an inherent instability in the way we live our lives and are searching to slow down and live more sustainably. Gen Z in particular seems very focused on the long-term (we have more retirement savings than older generations did at our age).

[thestudentfarmer]

Kitchen post today~

With prices being what they are I like a good deal on groceries when I can find it. Sometimes that leads me to buying large quantities of things.

This week the local scratch n dent market had 5 pound bags of golden potatos on sale, 2 for $4. We like potatos so I snagged a few bags. Since i had 2 from last week's groceries I decided to pick through them all.

I tossed a few rotten ones and sorted out the good from the ones getting on the going side. The good ones I put up in a storage tote (a cooking pot for now) for later cooking.

These ones are the contenders for the weekly meal/freezer prep. They had some funny or funky spots, things that can be cut off and thrown away or in the compost. I clean them after washing them well.

As a heads up, it's not suggested to feed chickens raw potatoes. So leave anything with raw potato bits in the trash or the compost bin.

The bad bits.

If you feel need to you can wash them up again. I move to peeling after words.

I save the peels for breakfast potatoes, or to make soup.

A few peeled spuds.

Afterwords, depending on how many potatoes needed to be processed will decide what im making. This time I had enough potatoes to do cubed potatoes and hashbrown potatoes.

Cube potatoes, then blanch them till all Dante in a pot. (Not quite to mash potatoes softness, but not crunchy.)

Drain, cool quickly. (If your into water conservation, save the water for your plants once cooled) I cool till just under warm and lay them out to drain/dry a bit.

Then take a pan and lay out a clean kitchen towel on it. Pour dry potatoes on and place in freezer till frozen.

Store in container and use like regular frozen potatoes.

Moving to hashed potatoes

Similar to the cubed potatoes except I grated them.

I like to destarch my potatoes a little so I do a soak for about an hour, drain and then blanch.

I did about 5 minutes to blanch the hash, every couple minutes fish out a peice and test it to see if it's crunchy or just firm. Drain, cool asap.

Lay out to drain and dry a bit.

Lay towel on baking sheet. Place drained hashed potatoes on top. Place in freezer and freeze a few hours.

When frozen package up. Date and use as necessary :)

Other potato freezing/preserving resources

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-to-freeze-potatoes

https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/dehydrate-potatoes-for-various-uses-zbcz1507/

🥔🌱Happy Homesteading!🌱🥔

[the-solarpunk-activist]

Zero waste garden update 1

Added an egg carton as a seed starting tray, covered in plastic from clearance orchids i impulse purchased. Currently sprouting two heirloom tomatoes, two heirloom cucumbers, dill, cilantro, and purple basil

Two celery ends I'm regrowing in an old cat treat container

Two clearance cacti i also impulse bought using peanut butter lids as saucers and an old aloe plant i found tucked away by a windowsill that we all forgot about (oops) also with a peanut butter lid saucer

My moss terrarium i dug up out of the woods once that had moss in it, watered like twice, and let keep growing. Going on like three or four years now

Found a sprouting onion in the fridge so like any logical person i ripped it apart, kept the usable parts, composted the rest, and am now rooting in oui jars

And then an actual update: got some carrot greens finally, once they all sprout I'll transplant them to more oui jars but with dirt