KenshoHomestead

Homestead Happenings

Ug, am I in a mood! Read on for a big fat bitch fest.

First I’m going to bitch about the weather. Then I’m going to bitch about the garden. Finally I’m going to bitch about all the dumb bitches.

I will end with one positive paragraph, however, so y’all can leave satisfied that there’s no need to fret on my behalf. 😆

Let me first set the proper tone.

Time stamp 35:53. It’s an old clip, but as valid as ever. Oh my, do I have rant-envy! How I wish I were this good!

You’re worried about what you’re putting in your fucking body?! What about what you’re fucking breathing?!!

I listen to Carol nearly every day; she’s one of the precious few who gets what’s happening and has a proper level of peeve about it all. Go ahead and give the first 30 minutes a listen, if you care to hear about all the (manufactured!) weather destruction around our realm.

If you want to be that person, who writes in the comments that all this is normal and they can’t control the weather, feel free, because I could use a good target for all this vitriol!

And just for the record, I know they use the word ‘control’ to confuse folks, because then they have plausible deniability. Because they don’t exactly “control it” like we control the thermostat in our homes. They manipulate it, where and when they can, in order to cause destruction, in order to profit from disaster capitalism and play the Stocks with weather futures and food prices and every other piece of the economy which is weather-dependent, which is a whole helluvalot.

If you are safe and secure in your tiny little area, good for you, your region is not on the targeted list, YET.

This is not about Bill Gates and his ‘proposed’ solar radiation management. This is SO much bigger and he is one drop in the bucket of the wild, Wild West that is happening in our skies and with our atmosphere. It’s been going on for decades! I’m SO SO damn tired of the denial and the Pollyanna pretending and the stoic excuses!

The general consensus that we can just keep throwing money at the problems and they will magically get fixed by technology is not just absurd and dangerous, it is fatal.

How’s this for the next big fix by Big Biz?

“Now, the likes of Bayer, Corteva and Syngenta are working with Microsoft, Google and the big-tech giants to facilitate farmerless farms driven by cloud and AI technology. A cartel of data owners and proprietary input suppliers are reinforcing their grip on the global food system while expanding their industrial model of crop cultivation.”
From Net Zero to Glyphosate: Agritech’s Greenwashed Corporate Power Grab
“Whereas traditional breeding and on-farm practices have little or no need for GE technologies, under the guise of ‘climate emergency’, the data and agritech giants are commodifying knowledge and making farmers dependent on their platforms and inputs. The commodification of knowledge and compelling farmers to rely on proprietary inputs overseen by algorithms will define what farming is and how it is to be carried out.”

How do you make the world believe there’s a climate emergency? It takes a lot more than hyped-up media coverage and fraudulent stats—there has to be something to cover after all. Enter mass-scale weather modification in key areas—droughts, floods, earthquakes—YES THEY CAN!

Not to mention they’ve cornered the markets of: Disaster Preparedness, 1st Response, Disaster Relief, and Reconstruction, of the entire globe.

Someone has to keep shaking that can to keep everyone fighting you know!

“There’s a meme that circulated on social media a while back that perfectly sums up the polarized, manipulated mayhem, madness and tyranny that is life in the American police state today:

“If you catch 100 red fire ants as well as 100 large black ants, and put them in a jar, at first, nothing will happen. However, if you violently shake the jar and dump them back on the ground the ants will fight until they eventually kill each other. The thing is, the red ants think the black ants are the enemy and vice versa, when in reality, the real enemy is the person who shook the jar. This is exactly what’s happening in society today. Liberal vs. Conservative. Black vs. White. Pro Mask vs. Anti Mask. The real question we need to be asking ourselves is who’s shaking the jar … and why?”

The Rutherford Institute, John and Nisha Whitehead
“Whether You Live in a Small Town or a Big City, the Government Is Still Out to Get You”

Weather warfare is real and it is happening. And it is going to get worse.

Around here, with nearly two months now without rain, high temperatures, drying winds, it’s very easy to grasp what sitting ducks we all really are. We spend the entire mornings just trying to keep what’s not already dead from dying. The time and energy and repetition is exhausting and demoralizing. The afternoons are spent indoors, grateful for the air conditioning and that we’ve had no animal fatalities from the heat, so far.

Most of the garden is dead and depressing. The tomatoes fried, the cucumbers almost gone and getting bitter, the squashes mostly dead, even the heat-loving luffa, which has never succumbed to the heat in past summers. One of four chayote squashes is still barely hanging on, and that’s supposedly another heat-lover.

Not even regular watering helps.

Thinking this ‘heat dome’ could be parked over us for another three months, or wildfires could be next on their battle plan is more than I can bear. I set a single perfect pinecone on the windowsill to remind me fall will surely come, eventually.

Then come the normalizers, Lord Have Mercy! The Fucking Chemtrail Deniers, How I LOATHE them! Let me count some ways:

The evolution of the geoengineering psy-op as I’ve experienced it over the last decade or so has been a recurring nightmare.

I’m thinking it might be helpful to those new to the topic and also to those compiling the multi-colored yarns of our clown world for knitting a scarf for their future grandchildren.

No kids, the skies did not always look like this. Don’t believe the Con-trail Believers!

Some early ‘rationales’ for the lines, dubbed chemtrails, back in the ancient past (circa 2010) — these would be the various layers of gaslighting I heard during my first inquiries on the topic.

*First tier. This is when I would randomly ask Google questions like, WTF is wrong with the sky? What’s the difference between weather and climate? What’s a ‘space fence’? What the hell is wrong with the weather?
Answers:
Planet Nabiru causing atmospheric disturbance
The wind patterns changing due to ‘El Nino’
Contrails, a con that keeps on giving
WiFi, atmospheric phenomenon due to widespread wifi
Radar, result of new tech

*Second tier. This is when I started seriously questioning and challenging on social media. What’s geoengineering? What the fuck is wrong with the weather? What are ‘sun dogs’? What is ‘solar radiation management’? What are chemtrails?
Answers:
Not there, my imagination (yes, I got that regularly)
Military operations, not my business (ditto)
New brand of ‘green’ Jet fuel
Military chaff
End of days
Coal Fly Ash
Military fuel dumps
Contrails, the con persists!

*Third tier:
Self-replicating Nano-bots (now we’re getting somewhere!)
Space fence, for real!
Germ warfare
Weather warfare (DUH!)
My imagination—yes, still!

I do try to focus on the positive, and there is a bit of it. Hubby’s first sunflower-melon patch was a big hit. It’s gone now, but we’ve got some really amazing watermelons to celebrate his success!

The pumpkins have also been pretty impressive, and amazingly they are still alive, though it does feel odd to have ripe pumpkins laying around everywhere in July.

Guess who else loves pumpkins? The plants got so big they’ve grown past the garden fence into the goat’s forage area, so, fair play.

But selfish old queen that she is, she wouldn’t share a single bite with her mates!

For a couple hours in the morning it’s not so terrible standing still in the shade with mist from the sprinklers blowing on me.

Moringa, a lovely plant that just might make it long enough to produce before frost.

While we definitely have fewer pollinators visiting the garden this summer, at least we do still have a few nibbling at the drying flowers. May they survive and multiply!

And of course, tomorrow’s Funny Friday, so that might help my torrid mood. 😆

Feast or Famine

We are just days away from no tomatoes. Just as I was really getting sick of them.

There’s an attitude to surplus, just as there is to scarcity. Maybe we could even call it opposing frequencies.

I’ve known wealthy folk, in my younger days, who refused to eat leftovers, ever, no matter what it was, even lobster or filet mignon. One could almost be convinced of a certain ‘trickle down’ economic theory when in their presence.

While I was really lucky to be friends with them, because I got a lot of free upscale leftovers, I did find that attitude to be wasteful, and was not shy about expressing it.

It behooved me to see all that good food go into the garbage, not even composted. I couldn’t eat all the leftovers created from a weekend lake house party, and there certainly weren’t any livestock to benefit, not even doggie bags.

I think my 2nd favorite thing about having pigs, after the sausage and bacon and ham, is that I feel zero guilt about throwing away our surplus. It’s not throwing it away at all, I’ve come to realize, it’s really more like pre-seasoning our sausage.

So it was interesting to read an article the other day from an author who presented a graph from the “Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data demonstrating a substantial decrease in household food expenditure as a percentage of income—from 44 percent in 1901 to a mere 9 percent in 2021.”

It was considered a ‘good thing’ according to this graph and this author that food prices had become so negligible in the modern economy.

I’d be willing to bet the farm that the general public agrees with this premise. To have the essentials of life—that is, food and water—as cheap as possible, indeed feels like a good thing. If those are brought to them poisoned is mostly not a thought at all.

Once the essentials are met, as in our modern Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we can move on to entertainment.

Oh, except for that other pesky thing, energy. Because WiFi and game boys and television aside, we do still NEED our fridges and freezers and air conditioners.

And if you think that’s exaggerated, watch the mass exodus from the South to the North if the World Economic Forum has their way and all those civilizing conveniences disappear before too long. All while we are sweltering down here under the umbrella of ionospheric heaters up there.

But, aside. Let’s get back to the basics. Food and water, even before energy. You already know the feast or famine feeling. I know you do.

Do you give a care when you shower that 5 more minutes will break the bank? Have you ever lived in a situation where you carried all the water you needed for the day?

Do you consider when you buy your groceries that 5 more dollars will break the bank? Have you ever lived in a situation where a few dollars meant dinner or no dinner?

Every technology is a Trojan Horse. From shoes, to language, to music, to roads, to windmills, to combines, to bombs, to telephones, to cybernetics. Every one. Man existed before all of them. Somehow. Not even the ionospheric heaters causing us drought and weather chaos will bring about the extinction of man.

Man, in whatever form, of whatever species we care to classify, is a feature, or a bug, of this ‘solar system’.

Or, maybe I’m wrong, and we will perish like the supposed dinosaurs.

But my sense says, its otherwise. It says we survive in surplus, in scarcity, in love and in hate. We remain under masters, in servitude, and occasionally at some magnificent moments, I imagine, its otherwise.

We survive wars and diseases and lies. We survive pop music and step mothers and manufactured weather.

They say we must thrive, to thrive is to succeed. To succeed is to know progress. To progress IS.

To succeed is to feast.
Yet to feast indefinitely, is impossible. It will eventually lead to famine.

Because failure IS the inevitable consequence of success.

Herbal Explorations: Pokeweed

Phytolacca americana

The latest addition to our Herbal Explorations pages.

Pokeweed is one of the most controversial yet fully legal weeds you’ll hear about, I’m sure!

A young plant on left surrounded by poison ivy. On right a mature plant with ripe and unripe berries surrounded by fireweed

Elderberry-Pokeberry syrup for flavoring cocktails and Pokeberry kombucha—such lovely colors!

There is a hefty amount of misinformation on this ubiquitous plant, but in recent years there’s been a significant pushback, especially among Southerners, where for some it’s been a staple crop for generations.

Though its reputation is still highly contested! The YT video below tells a good chunk of poke’s dramatic story. 😁

It is used as an ornamental in some areas, while others consider it invasive. Ranchers consider it a nuisance and try to eradicate it, though it loves nitrogen-rich soil, so tends to pop back up wherever animals have been penned up or have heavily grazed, therefore fertilizing the land.

We do use it as an ornamental and a food crop, and I’ve written short posts about it here and here. I make wine and syrup from the berries and use the greens in many dishes. The popular belief that the greens must be boiled 3 times is mistaken and overkill.

However, care must be taken in its preparation and it’s not to be eaten raw. The above video explains a lot for those wanting to give poke a fair shake!

Rinsing well before submerging in boiling water.

Boiled in batches until limp, rinsed in cold water, then used in a dish that will be cooked, like a casserole or stir-fry, or frozen for future use.

The common advice to boil it three times disintegrates the leaves into slime, but you’ll hear that all over the internet and probably from your neighbors too.

That is, if they aren’t already convinced it’s poisonous.

This false belief most likely comes from four places: 1) The farmers and ranchers who would like to see it eradicated because it so successfully competes with the grasses. 2) The high-end wine-makers of our predecessors, because the ripe berry juice was used to color inferior quality wine to make it sell better. 3) Rockefeller medicine which demonizes traditional healing herbs and practices. 4) Chemical dye manufacturers who wanted to dominate the market as it was (and still is) used as a natural fabric dye.

The economic importance of pokeweed to our ancestors was sure to be unpopular with manufacturers and industrialists wanting to create dependency on their products.

A few benefits taken from the sources linked below, not the best translations, unfortunately, but some interesting info. (They do also repeat the plant leaves cannot be used after the stalk turns crimson, but in my experience and in the video above, this is not the case.)

“The young shoots of Ph. americana are eaten cooked as a substitute for asparagus in spring, and its tender leaves were eaten as a substitute for spinach even by the North American (Delaware and Virginian) Indians.
We can found this kind of utilization nowadays too: at markets in the southern states of the USA it is sold as „sprouts” even these days, and they sell its young, tender leaves tinned (Poke Salet Greens). At some places it is still cultivated, though only in small-scale. The tender, bright inner part of the stem is crumbed in cornstarch and fried. They use the young plants before crimson coloration, but the cooking water needs to be discarded. Its ripe berries are added to cake pastries. The roots and the leafy stems are traditionally used for purple-brown dyeing. This colour is not much permanent, after body painting it can be removed easily. The root contains much saponin so it can be used for making soaps. The leaf ’s powder or the leaves were used for external treatment of cancerous wounds. After it got into Europe it was not only planted as an ornamental plant, but its dark purple dye was used for food coloration. The liquor of the berries were pressed, fermented and cleaned up by straining and afterwards it was evaporated down to about honey density in Chinas. The product was used at one for the coloration of foods, preserved fruits, sweets, liqueurs and wines; and for example alias Succus Phytolaccae inspissatus it was sold in German pharmacies. The berries were used to colour the wines of poorer quality with such a success that the plant was widely grown in Portugal, Spain, France and Italy. An ethnobotanical fact about the plant in the Carpathian Basin is that the Transylvanian (Kalotaszeg, Kiskapus) people put the fruit in the barrel cabbage to give it a red colour. Thanks to it betacyanin content it can be used as an industrial dye, but its colour is not as persistent as the colour of the scarlet oak (Quercus coccifera) is. Rarely it was used for wool and silk coloration too. The crimson coloured sap of the berries was used as ink (for example by the soldiers in the World War), that is where English name, inkberry derives from. A limner from Missouri, Bingham used it as paint. Its therapeutical utilization has traditions too. The Delaware Indians considered it to which has cardiac restorative effect, and the Virginian tribes used it for its strong psychotic effect. They presumed it is useful against rheumatism, tumours and in smaller doses against syphilis too. Its therapeutical utilization is comprehensive. Earlier the European therapeutics used it too as an emetic: Radix, Herba et Baccae Phytolaccae. Its root, leaves and fruits are used in the homeopathy too. The plant is a pharmaceutical base material even nowadays. Its drug is used as an antirheumaticum, purgaticum and emeticum (alias “poke root” or „Phytolacca”) in the USA, besides the lush root may can be used against breast cancer, too. The berries are utilized there for food coloration too, and with its leaves they adulterate, or rather substitute the „Folia Belladonnae”. The modern medicine started to show interest in it, thanks to the antiviral protein (pokeweed antiviral protein, PAP) that blocks the infection and reproduction of the HIV virus. The external use of PAP has an inhibi- tory effect on the plant RNS viruses too. The transgenic plants that contain the gene of this protein became resistent to a wide range of viruses. They impute that the root of the Ph. americana has blood cleanser, anti- inflammatory, expectorant, sedative, stupefying and purgative effects too. There are experiments for its uti- lization to cure the autoimmun diseases, especially the rheumatic arthritis. The plant contains toxic compounds against micro-fungi and molluscs too. The lectins extracted from it have toxic effect on the juvenile larvae of the southern corn rootworm (Diabrotica undecimpunctata howardi).”

Web references
Armstrong, W. P.: Pokeweed: an interesting American vegetable. In: Economic Plant Families. Wayne’s World, Escondido, California. http://waynesword.palomar.edu/ecoph24.htm
Hedrick, U. P. (ed.) & Moore, M. (upd.) (1972): Sturtevant’s edible plants of the world. Dover Publications, New York. E-version: The Southwest School of Botanical Medicine. http://www.swsbm.com
NIAES (2005): Japanese Fungi on Plants. National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences Natural Resources Inventory Center, Microbial Systematics Laboratory, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. http://www.niaes.affrc.go.jp/inventry/microorg/eng/kingaku-rs.htm
Plants For a Future. http://www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/
RBGE (2001): Flora Europaea database. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. http://193.62.154.38/FE/fe.html

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lajos-Balogh-4/publication/296812711_American_and_Chinese_pokeweed_Phytolacca_americana_Phytolacca_esculenta/links/56dabbad08aee73df6d267cf/American-and-Chinese-pokeweed-Phytolacca-americana-Phytolacca-esculenta.pdf

Medicinal properties and anti-inflammatory components of Phytolacca (Shanglu) – ScienceDirect

Compare that to what our US institutions repeat:
All parts poisonous, lots of toxicity fear-mongering, and usually including advice not to plant it in your garden.

Phytolacca americana (American Pokeweed, Common Pokeweed, Garnet, Pidgeon Berry, Poke, Pokeberry, Pokeweed, Scoke) | North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox

Native Plant of the Week: American Pokeweed | Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum

Buttercup’s been napping in the Pokeberry again!

Slavery By Another Name

The Church of England: enslaving God’s children

“Children, with their whole lives ahead of them and ready to be plugged in and monitored for decades in the financiers’ digital smart-city panopticon, are the prime target of the impact vultures.

Apparently forgetting its concern for the welfare of “All God’s children”, the Church of England has jumped on board this lucrative impact-slavery bandwagon.”

Chop Wood, Carry Water

Trip to town, so sad. Two machines tried to rip me off and no working humans looked capable of anything.

Don’t load, don’t count, don’t smile. What do ya do?

Hostessing was once a thing, like customer service. I was a really good hostess once, let me assure y’all!

It’s more than charm and service, it’s an art and a craft.

So, it’s no mystery to me why the cats eat with the dogs on our back porch: Good food + Good vibes= Good company.

Being a good hostess is similar to being a good teacher—observation, agility, ingenuity—are higher qualifications than even empathy, discernment and a sense of propriety—all already a challenge for most.

A teacher cannot play the same role as a bouncer, though that is mostly what is required these days.

My greatest failures in the classroom mirror my greatest failures in life. I’d sum them up to a kind of mis-navigation of the cherished Comfort Zone. As an example I offer a brief recap of my worst classroom lesson ever.

It was taken from a book of suggested lessons for EFL/ESL (English as a Foreign/Second) students and it was called: ‘Dog or Wolf?’

These are lessons designed to generate conversation in the target language, so students learn new vocabulary, practice old expressions, participate with one another, and ultimately create a student-centered learning environment. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, occassionally it’s a classroom catastrophe.

This is where the observational and flexibility skills of the teacher can really shine. Or, really, not.

I thought I knew these students well enough to pull it off. NOT!

Was it my mood? My confidence? My lack of fluidity that particular day? I really can’t say, even now, but oh how that failure, just that one day out of how many other lesser failures, who knows, but that particular one has stuck in my craw still 2+decades later.

They were mostly Japanese students, from various cities, all college-aged. The caliber of student willing and able to travel to the desert US to immerse themselves in American life, indoctrination, and university culture. We had a good rapport, they were good students. Their English was at a level I knew they could perform well with the material.

I presented it, gave the requisite handouts, grouped them in fours as per the instructions and posed the preliminary question:

If you could choose, would you choose to be a dog or a wolf?

There were follow-up questions about culture and civilization, surplus vs scarcity, independence and hierarchy. In my mind it generated a brilliant potential conversation and I was looking forward to it.

The question was meant to lead to an exchange between group members who would discuss the merits of their choice, as opposed to the deficiencies of the other option. It was based on the assumption there would be some who would choose dog and others who would choose wolf, for various reasons, creating an atmosphere for debate.

Except all the students agreed on dog at the preliminary question, leaving me standing there with my mouth agape and no further game plan.

I nudged, painfully, at my more philosophical follow-up questions and got crickets. Obviously, everyone would be a dog—comfort, ease, predictability, discipline, training—DUH!

The ‘best’ student, a relatively large young man from Okinawa, who was more bold and out-going than the rest, immediately intuited my dilemma. He raised his hand and said he wanted to change his answer.

But, I was stuck in my own personal baffledom. I tried to go with it, push through, take the ball he’d so generously tossed me and run with it, but I remained, I don’t know, just sort of, stranded there, for way too long a moment.

And then I couldn’t get it back.

Anyone who has never stood in front of a classroom most likely underestimates the skill it takes to be good at it. And when I say good, I don’t just mean popular. And I don’t just mean effective. I mean the kind of good where one can walk the line between popular and effective, because it is impossibly narrow. Those who pull off that level of impossible should be studied and duly rewarded and I’m sure there are more than a few. So, it’s not actually impossibly narrow. Just too narrow for me that day, that lesson.

They should also study bombs like mine that day.

After missing the generous handoff, I was so tongue-tied and disgusted, with it all—them, myself, the lesson—that I dismissed the class early.

The Okinawan student stayed there, obviously to discuss it with me. He wanted to make me feel better about the clear and dismal failure, I think. It was a really sweet gesture and very appreciated, even in the moment, but it didn’t really help me make sense of it all.

Like, why was I so confident that lesson would work? So confident, in fact, that I didn’t even have a Plan B. Bad teacher! So confident, in fact, that I became rigid. And frankly, still feel judgmental of those students (so passive, so acquiescent, so like, totally lame!).

Not really like me. So stuck in my own thinking that it’s not conceivable to me every student would choose dog over wolf that I could not, in fact still feel challenged to, mentally adjust from my misperceptions. Yes, even now.

A room of 30 students and only one wolf, and that one only under pressure, and with a savior complex no less.

What happens in world become so ‘civilized’ we’ve all become obedient dogs? And, obedient to what, and to whom?

Don’t think, don’t fight, don’t roam, what do we do? What happens when man becomes too civilized? Too domesticated? Too content?

I still don’t know what to do with such a muddle. Would you?

Homestead Happenings

Sometimes I look at Handy Hubby and whine, “Please, make it stop!”

Then I think of the shrimp scene in the film Forest Gump—you got your boiled shrimp, your fried shrimp, your grilled shrimp, shrimp creole, your gumbo . . . .

Only with me it’s tomatoes.

In my defense I planted so many tomatoes because last year was not good for tomatoes, so we didn’t can up nearly as much as we wanted and were way short on salsa. The crop burned up so fast, it was pathetic, even though I planted just as many, we got far less.

So this year I was really determined. Decidedly, way too determined.

And, while we do (still!) have a bumper crop, it’s not exactly ideal, because once again, it’s so hot so fast that they are burning and exploding on the vine if I try to let them ripen properly. So, I have to bring them in to ripen, which means I’m really, really sick of looking at them everywhere.

Due to excessive heat we have uneven ripening, sun scald and plants dying while still full of unripened fruit.

But they are good, so, so good! My very favorite way to enjoy them is so simple—sliced and liberally doused with salt and pepper and served with— Everything!

We can chow through a good many this way, and it lasts for just a month or two, which makes our enjoyment all the sweeter.

Then you got your salsas, your chutneys, your marinaras, your tomato soup, your creamed tomato soup, your plain canned, your Rotella style, spicy juice for cocktails, ketchup, barbecue sauce . . .. 😆. Did I miss anything?

And the cucumbers. Oh please, don’t get me started on the cucumbers! How I long for them all winter, and within two months can hardly stand to harvest them any longer.

I purposely planted fewer this spring, planning to stagger them more, for a longer season. In fact, there should not be so many cucumbers at all based on my inputs, and the sad fact that there are NO bees on them. By that I mean our own honey bees are not visiting our garden, though there are two colonies within 75 feet of it.

Speaking of bees, half of my colonies, that’s 3 out of 6, have perished this summer. I’m not surprised when I lose a colony over the winter or early spring, but 3 that were going strong into the summer, this is unheard for me, and super depressing.

I also notice far fewer native bees, and the ones I am seeing are much smaller. The wasps seem to be doing very well, so maybe that’s who is keeping us in bushels of cucumbers at the moment?

And of course we’re offering the surplus to anyone! We give it to neighbors, bring it to gatherings, get the word around that it is available, for free. What we can’t eat or give away goes to the goats and pigs and they need to eat too!

So, when I get the occasional comment that we should sell it at the farmer’s market or somewhere equivalent, I understand the well-meaning at heart. But, what I’m actually self-censoring myself from saying does stray a bit from the habitual and expected smile and nod.

Because what I sometimes hear, though I’m sure was not at all the intentioned meaning is:
It’s really not enough that you work your fucking ass off to produce all this fine produce, you should now go out and spend money on gas hauling it to town and suffer through the rules and regulations and pay for a booth and market it to a public who mostly doesn’t give a shit what they eat, and let’s face it, mostly just wants it cheap and convenient. So, don’t just plant it, nurture it, harvest it, sort it, wash it, package it, but now haul it to a market 20+miles away and stand there in the blazing heat all day so you can clear about $30.30 a truckload.

Sounds so awesome! Sign us up! 😳

On a brighter note, here’s something you’ll really like, because the world really does need one more cute kitten video!

Oh and Happy Independence Day y’all, thanks for stopping by!

Herbal Explorations: Datura

I’ve added a new ‘weed’ to the Herbal Explorations pages. It’s long, but fascinating, at least according to me. 😁

I hope I can help you enjoy my favorite flower from afar!

Common names: Thornapple, Jimsonweed, Devil’s trumpet, Mad apple, Stinkweed, and many more

Scientific names: Datura fastuosa, sanguinea; D. Stramonium; D. Metel
Solanaceae family

Datura is one of those weeds with a very long and very sordid history, but that’s only part of the reason it is my very favorite.

My *datura inoxia* with Bubba behind surely enjoying its ephemeral scent

It’s a luxuriously soft bloom, thick and silky, opening at dusk. For a very short time while opening it emits the most seductive scent I could imagine. It makes me want to just dive in and drink it up!

And sometimes I do smother my nose right into the center of it and breathe deeply as the smooth velvety petals brush my cheeks, but the scent does not become stronger in such close proximity. It remains very subtle, almost dainty, like a sweet teasing, a slight flirtation that drifts into an unrequited mystique.*

On the nightstand, just opening, when its fragrance is strongest

Man has been tempted and fascinated by this weed since long before written history.

From Wiki:

“The case of D. metel is unique in that not only is the plant not a true species at all, but an assemblage of ancient pre-Columbian cultivars created from D. innoxia in the Greater Antilles, but evidence is mounting that it was introduced to the Indian subcontinent no later than the second century CE – whether by natural or human agency is, as yet, unknown – making it one of the most ancient plant introductions (if not the most ancient) from the New World to the Old World (see Columbian Exchange).”

While there are many varieties, all with distinctive features, it is the scent especially that is said to vary dramatically among species—from noxious to intoxicating—sometimes dependent solely on the nose of the beholder.

From Wiki again:

“Datura is a genus of nine species of highly poisonous, vespertine-flowering plants belonging to the nightshade family (Solanaceae). They are commonly known as thornapples or jimsonweeds, but are also known as devil’s trumpets (not to be confused with angel’s trumpets, which are placed in the closely related genus Brugmansia). Other English common names include moonflower, devil’s weed, and hell’s bells. All species of Datura are extremely poisonous and potentially psychoactive, especially their seeds and flowers, which can cause respiratory depression, arrhythmias, fever, delirium, hallucinations, anticholinergic syndrome, psychosis, and even death if taken internally.”

From Reader’s Digest Magic & Medicine of Plants 1986:

“Jimsonweed: Although it has antispasmodic, painkilling, and narcotic properties, jimsonweed is a plant to be avoided. Every part of this weed, which is a member of the notorious nightshade family, is extremely poisonous and may cause death. (It) was once a popular asthma remedy. . . .The root and leaves were used externally in folk medicine to treat boils and cuts. The American physician and botanist Charles Millspaugh stated in his Medicinal Plants (1892) that jimsonweed was employed ‘as a narcotic, soothing drug’ for epilepsy and neuralgia. He also noted that it was recommended as an ointment for burns and scalds.” (P. 226)

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From Plant Intoxicants: A Classic Text on the Use of Mind-Altering Plants by Baron Ernst von Bibra (Die narkotischen Genussmittel und der Mensch by Wilhelm Schmid, Nuremberg, 1855)

(Datura fastuosa, sanguinea; D. Stramonium; D. Metel)

“An intoxicating drink called tonga is prepared from the seed capsules of this plant. This brew has a violent and powerful effect. Johann Jakob von Tschudi in his ‘Travels in Peru’ describes the effects as he saw them on an Indian who had taken the tonga.
‘Shortly after swallowing the beverage he fell into a heavy stupor. He sat with his eyes fixed vacantly on the ground, his mouth convulsively closed, and his nostrils dilated. In the course of a quarter of an hour his eyes began to roll, foam issued from his half-opened lips, and his whole body was shaken by frightful convulsions. After these violent symptoms subsided, a profound sleep of several hours followed. In the evening I saw the Indian again. He was relating to a circle of attentive listeners the particular of this silicon, during which he allegedly communicated with the spirits of his forefathers. He appeared very weak and exhausted.’
The name yerba de huaca (herb of the graves) thus derived from the peculiar idea of the Indians that they can communicate with the spirits of their forefathers, generally after consuming the thornapple plant.”
In former times the old Indian priests drank the thornapple if they wished to converse with their gods. Moreover, priests at the oracle of Delphi administered the prepared seeds of the thornapple to their seers to put them in the desired prophetic ecstasy. In the sun temples at Sogamossa, near Bogota in the Andes of New Granada a similar practice was carried out by the Indians.” (P. 77-78)

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From Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants by Claudia Muller-Ebeling, Christian Ratsch, and Wolf-Dieter Storl

The famous Flying Ointment

“The ointments (Unguentum populeum) were not forbidden; they were officially used for the treatment of pain, as a numbing wound dressing, as an executioner’s salve, for rheumatism, and for hemorrhoids. The common people were also quite familiar with plants that move the spirit, and used them for love potions and as spices to make beer more inebriating. . . .The courts themselves made use of such ointments. The inquisitors used them to revive defendants after they had been thoroughly questioned and—due to the effects of scopolamine—used the ointments as ‘truth serums’ to break the resistance of tortured prisoners.” P.51

‘Witches’ markets’ in Mexico sell ‘pomada de toloache’ made from the leaves and petals using the variety Datura inoxia (Mill.,syn, datura meteloides DC)

~~~~~~~*More on scent*~~~~~~~~

I am so enamored with the scent of this flower, I wish I could find it in bottle! But so far, I don’t think it exists.

I wonder, how would they re-create a scent that smells differently to different people? Considering ‘smellovision’( a play on ‘television)’ is apparently already possible and coming soon to a computer near you, I dare say there are some scents science will never capture, and perhaps datura will be one of them.

“The concept of digital smell technology was already being discussed openly in mainstream news in 2018, and The Monell Center in Philadelphia, PA, is actively engaged in research to digitize chemosensory data. The notion of a mixed, augmented reality, integrating smell technology, is no longer in the sci-fi realm.” ~Stephers

Part 4: The Scent of Fear ~ Musings on Fear and Olfaction – Piece of Mindful

If I could upload the scent for you now, I would! 😊

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Here is some more interesting information on the psychoactive properties of Datura. Scopolamine, the so-called ‘mind control’ drug is an active ingredient.

From Wiki again: Psychoactive Use

“In Pharmacology and Abuse of Cocaine, Amphetamines, Ecstasy and Related Designer Drugs, Freye asserts: Few substances have received as many severely negative recreational experience reports as has Datura. The overwhelming majority of those who describe their use of Datura find their experiences extremely unpleasant; both mentally and often physically dangerous.
However, anthropologists have found that indigenous groups, with a great deal of experience with and detailed knowledge of Datura, have been known to use Datura spiritually (including the Navajo and especially the Havasupai) Adequate knowledge of Datura‘s properties is necessary to facilitate a safe experience. The ancient inhabitants of what became central and Southern California used to ingest Datura to “commune with deities through visions”. The Southern Paiute believe Daturacan help locate missing objects. In ancient Mexico, Datura also played an important role in the religion of the Aztecs and the practices of their medicine men and necromancers. It was reportedly used by the Aztecs for ritual sacrifice and malevolent purposes as well. In modern-day Mexico, some datura species are still used for sorcery and other occult practices, mostly in the southern region of Veracruz, specifically in the city of Catemaco.

Bernardino de Sahagún, in around 1569, called attention to Datura in these words: “It is administered in potions in order to cause harm to those who are objects of hatred. Those who eat it have visions of fearful things. Magicians or those who wish to harm someone administer it in food or drink. This herb is medicinal and its seed is used as a remedy for gout, ground up and applied to the part affected.”

Christian Rätsch has said, “A mild dosage produces medicinal and healing effects, a moderate dosage produces aphrodisiac effects, and high dosages are used for shamanic purposes”.
Wade Davis, an ethnobotanist, also lists it as an essential ingredient of Haitian zombie potion. In Western culture, the same species (Datura stramonium) has been said to have been commonly used by witches as an ingredient for their flying ointments and was regularly included in detailed recipes of magical ointments dating back as far as the early modern period, predominately in New England and Western Europe. During the anti-witchcraft hysteria of colonial times it was considered unlucky or inappropriate to grow D. stramonium in one’s garden due to its supposed reputation for aiding in incantations.”

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For more information on its psychoactive properties visit:

Erowid Vault: Datura

Homestead Happenings

A few updates from our very busy and already very hot summer. We’ve got bad news about the blackberry issue mentioned last month; a brief report on what Handy Hubby has deemed our ‘ Summer Sausage-fest’; some harvest and critter happy snaps; and a really funny question. Ending, like the beginning, with my favorite flower.

Novice seed-saving mistake on my part—don’t plant Kakai pumpkins next to zucchini. Even though one is a winter squash and the other a summer squash, they are both part of the same family: Curcurbita pepo.

According to Southern Exposure Seed Exchange “Curcurbita pepo: Most zucchini and summer squash are of this species. Winter squash varieties do not store well and are best eaten within a few months of harvest, but also need less time curing to sweeten up. Best planted in monthly successions throughout the summer due to vine borer susceptibility. If you have trouble growing these squash, try luffa gourds or Tromboncino summer squash as a substitute for zucchini.”

Squash, Pumpkin, & Zucchini Growing Guide

I planted these pumpkins for the first time because a friend gifted me the seeds. The seeds are so delicious I decided to try them even though I’ve not had success growing pumpkins in years past.

Well, these are a big success! Except, now those seeds have surely been cross-pollinated with the neighboring zucchini, which according to this farmer, means the seeds will no longer be hull-less, defeating the whole purpose of planting this variety of pumpkin.

Don’t I feel dumb!

And dumber still! We are no closer to solving the blackberry issue. Hubby did some scientific-like sleuthing to eliminate potential variables. One commenter on a forum said what we were seeing was totally normal blackberry development and we just had to wait a bit longer for our huge harvest.

So, Hubby took some before and after photos, about two weeks apart. As hopeful as we were that he was right, we were skeptical, and he has now been proven to be wrong. Unfortunately for us, the mystery remains and the blackberry harvest is puny.

But, we have been blessed with a few weeks of prolific chanterelles, which we love, though their tiny size requires some patience while picking. I’ve tried them preserved in oil for the first time and we’ve been enjoying them in crepes, omelettes, soup and sauces.

Chanterelles and while foraging for them we find
Not-Bert ducking and covering! 😆

We’re also getting a bumper crop of tomatoes and peppers, with Hubby continuing to pressure can while I remain fixated on fermenting.

On left Pressure canning carrots, green beans, banana peppers and jalapeños;
fermenting the same on right.

We rarely eat an entirely vegetarian meal, but with so much produce I thought I’d challenge myself to use every vegetable in one meal. As it’s so rare I thought I also better commemorate it with a photo!

Tomatoes topped with my own aged chèvre; cucumber and corn salad with salsa verde; veggie casserole au gratin; kombucha cocktails

More garden happy snaps.

Because obviously we have a lot more seeds than sense or cents, Hubby decided we didn’t have nearly enough to do with a huge garden, an orchard and squash plot, and a menagerie of critters, so he planted a separate melon maze as well! It’s actually pretty impressive and already producing, but we’ll see with this heat and drought how well it does. We were hoping the ‘El Nino’ predictions would be correct and we’d be wetter and cooler this year—so far, not panning out!

Hubby’s ingenious companion planting—esthetically pleasing and practical— sunflowers helping to shade the melon mounds.

Patty’s first litter: 9 males and only 2 females!

And still dumber still!! We’ve been gifted an unwelcome ‘Sausage-fest’ this year as far as livestock goes. A whopping 80% male birth rate among pigs, goats and sheep.

Of course, all the critters are cute little blessings, but no one really wants a Sausagefest.

However, Hubby did take the next big leap in livestock rearing and learned to castrate the piglets. He’s been avoiding that like the plague for YEARS! The lambs and kids are pretty easy and he’s been doing that since the beginning. But piglets are a different story.

I’m too squimish for all of it, so he never got any pressure from me to buck up, I’m not that big of a hypocrite. The nudge actually came inadvertently from a timely email from a friend who didn’t even realize at the time our current Sausagefest challenge.

I think it was seeing a girl do it, alone, that put the final bee in his bonnet! Or, is that spur in his boot, since this gal was demonstrating the ‘Boot method’.(We’re not on FB, so couldn’t see the entire post, but here’s the link, if you dare.) https://www.facebook.com/100064629581910/posts/in-the-past-ive-struggled-to-castrate-piglets-for-a-few-factors-i-took-an-old-ti/632005412297106/

He did the deed and it was a full success, bravo brave man! A real homesteading hero! 🤗

Scrappy, our first bottle-fed lamb is turning into quite the glutton

Now for the funny question, which sprouted from a favorite blogger’s recent post.

Plans for the Weekend? – Dispatches from the Asylum

In it we are presented with the ‘13 Do’s and Don’ts’ from the CDC about survival after a nuclear attack. It’s even funnier than the original!

From the life-saving list:
Do take a shower, but don’t use conditioner on your hair.
That’s even better than Duck & Cover!
Yes, you read that right! There’s our tax dollars hard at work to keep us safe.

I laughed so hard I wanted to include it somehow in our ‘Funny Friday’ post, but decided it really needed a whole section devoted to it.

So, before you click the link to look it up in order to verify (or afterward, if you promise to come back and reply!) here’s my question.

Can you guess why hair conditioner should not be used in the aftermath of a nuclear attack according to the experts?

Finally, the gorgeous, sublimely-scented Datura to leave us with some beauty and grace to cleanse the palette from the bad hair days certain to haunt us for decades after nuclear destruction. 😂

Datura blossom about to open for the evening

Thanks for stopping by!

Geoengineering Update

Will this be the tipping point for the geoengineering discussion? Thank y’all for the comments on the last post, much appreciated. I intend to get to them pronto, it’s just I’ve been a bit under the weather. Irony?

But I couldn’t resist sharing this new one first. I found it to be an informative discussion and RKJ had a few good questions I hadn’t already heard, which is impressive considering I could recite a good portion of Dane’s points.

Not that I’m a fan of RKJ, but he does bring with him a famous name and a large audience, not to mention his contacts in the environmental groups. Maybe this will be the catalyst for these groups to finally take this seriously?

On the other hand, I did find instances where RKJ sounds to me to be dismissive—when he says things to Dane like ‘your story’ and ‘your theory’ —and especially when he says he can’t imagine something staying so hidden for so long.

I actually had a chuckle at that one! Really? Can’t imagine that at all, decades of government secrecy and misinformation never crossed your radar? Hmmm.

RKJ broaches the biggest conspiracy theory . . .for real, or just for fun and profit?

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