Anyone doing anything different this year in response to

[trampledbyturtles]

Yeah, cutting back where I can, added a couple more raised beds. One or 2 dedicated strictly for trying to make our own baby food. Still cant get canning lids for under 5.50/12.

Fewer trips to the farm. Projects are starting to fall behind. Luckily we have gotten plenty of moisture so far, cause the water wagon wont be making the rounds this year. Still have 4 archery tags planned for this fall. But the goal is longer stays, one go at it, no going back.
Planted beans vs corn on the main 6A plot for the first time in a decade. Just could not justify the added expense.

Fear things are only going to get worse.

 

[chucker66]

It's a little tricky, and probably better learned via youtube than a text recipe. There are some nuances with heirloom grains because they've got and lower and more digestible gluten content. It also takes some trial and error. Getting the rise to hold was tricky at first, but I just needed to 'knead' the dough a little more after the first rise. I can make this bread for the cost of the wheat. The rest is negligible.

Flour
water
salt
yeast

Cost me $4/loaf. If I sold it, I'd probably ask for $12-$15/loaf. It's more calorie dense, infinitely more natural vitamins and minerals, no toxicity, and it could give a lot of sick people their love of bread back.

Oh great. Another "hobby" I'm going to have to start. I lost 40lbs last year and into this spring by cutting out bread and lowering my carb intake., plus exercising. I miss good bread and pizza dough. Might have found the answer. I also see there is a mill attachment for a Kitchen Aid. Hmmmmm

 

[SD51555]

Oh great. Another "hobby" I'm going to have to start. I lost 40lbs last year and into this spring by cutting out bread and lowering my carb intake., plus exercising. I miss good bread and pizza dough. Might have found the answer. I also see there is a mill attachment for a Kitchen Aid. Hmmmmm

I've got the kitchen aid mill. It works great, with some caveats.

It's slow and loud. It takes 10-15 minutes to mill a loaf's worth of flour. It's about as hard as you wanna work your kitchen aid, so if you wanna do multiple loaves, you should wait an hour between milling runs so you don't burn out your motor. The plus side is, you don't have to sift. What you get out of it is bake-ready, if you mill on the finest setting.

I have started milling ahead of when I want to bake. Last time I baked, I did three loaves. Next go around, I'm going to try to bake 6 in one night.

Honestly, if you're not into preparing for TEOTWAWKI (google it), I'd just buy the flour directly. It doesn't cost much more than the whole wheat berries. Just be sure to keep it in the freezer if you don't use it all right away. You're dealing with real live food, so it will spoil at room temp. Same goes for the bread. Keep it in the fridge, or it will mold.

 

[SD51555]

You've also got to know how to eat the stuff. You're not going to be able to use it as a hot dog or brat bun. You could make some sandwiches with it if you wanted, but it doesn't get as tall as a loaf of science bread. That's a product of the lower gluten content. The bread itself is the food, and not a keep clean mechanism like a bun. You're going to feel full, not get foggy, and won't get the glucose insulin roller coaster like you do from enriched and refined flours.

You also have to eat just a piece or two and wait. Your subconscious brain is going to prepare you to expect to be hungry again in short order. I could eat 4 slices of science toast, and in 30 minutes be raging hungry again. Eat a piece or two of this, and then walk away and go do something. Make a point to stop an hour later and assess how you feel. Notice you're not hungry and you feel good.

Buy some flour first and try it. It's gonna change your outlook on eating.

 

[chucker66]

You've also got to know how to eat the stuff. You're not going to be able to use it as a hot dog or brat bun. You could make some sandwiches with it if you wanted, but it doesn't get as tall as a loaf of science bread. That's a product of the lower gluten content. The bread itself is the food, and not a keep clean mechanism like a bun. You're going to feel full, not get foggy, and won't get the glucose insulin roller coaster like you do from enriched and refined flours.

You also have to eat just a piece or two and wait. Your subconscious brain is going to prepare you to expect to be hungry again in short order. I could eat 4 slices of science toast, and in 30 minutes be raging hungry again. Eat a piece or two of this, and then walk away and go do something. Make a point to stop an hour later and assess how you feel. Notice you're not hungry and you feel good.

Buy some flour first and try it. It's gonna change your outlook on eating.

My family loves home made pizza. One of the reasons I was up to 235 at 5'6" haha. Have you ever made pizza dough with this flour?

 

[bigbendmarine]

My house sits almost smack dab in the middle of my acreage with 4 acres around the house fenced, and then with 108 acres outside the "inside" home fencing, and of that I've got about 20 acres of fields (versus the rest being woods and pond water). Definitely have been cutting grass in the inner yard and the fields less than in years past... not cutting either right now just to look pretty. And being honest, it's not that I can't afford it... just chaffes my arse to do so while Bidenomics has the gas prices so high.

 

[SD51555]

My family loves home made pizza. One of the reasons I was up to 235 at 5'6" haha. Have you ever made pizza dough with this flour?

No. I love pizza, but no, not yet. I'm only about ten loaves into this baking venture. I've about got that figured, and I'm working on scaling up the bread making operation. I'm also getting ready to enter a couple of my breads into the county fair up here. The judges are gonna go nuts for my maple tard (tallow & lard) spelt bread.

 

[b116757]

I’ve been meaning to build a outdoor wood fired pizza oven for some years now I welded together a steal base frame and bought all the firebrick about 10 years ago but it got relegated to the after retirement(maybe) plan. Just as well now likely we will be moving.

 

[bigboreblr]

Got to admit........ I am considering buying a Prius. Can plug in at work for free 53 miles 1 way.....

$200 round trip to camp and back with the enclosed trailer....... USed to go fri night to sunday. Now I am using a vacation day when I go and doing more work in less time up there.

I rotate where I harvest a deer. This year it's at the brother-in-law's 450 acre "food plot" Guessing it's gonna be soybeans this year, haven't asked or been u there yet. Still fertilizing, but with a bit less. Blew about 1/2 a bag on the brush n weeds and spurce trees around the house........ Growing privacy..... Bought about $300 of fertilizer. I usually buy 8-10 bags / year. Bought 10 bags, but using it over 2 years instead.

Big change might be cancelling renting a cabin at a campground in the adiirondacks this snowmobiling season. Worried the snowmobile clubs will groom less. I got a bad disc in my neck. Putting a somewhat steep price on my 2020 skidoo grand touring. IF someone buys it, I cancel the campground. Still got a 2010 polaris 2up to put around with a few times. Likely not ATV riding this year either. pulbic place to ride is 4 hours away. Bought a 2nd ATV, a 2020 honda recon 250 2wd. Might sell that too. Still got a 2017 rancher in good order to food plot / hunt.

I live near the hudson river. ALOT of boats for sale. Not too many in the water for striper season, including mne. I got a20hp rowboat, so it wasn't $$$$, but catching up on home projects. 2 years of partying up at snowmobile camp all winter makes the honeydo list loooooong. Was a great striped bass spawning season tthis year hough........

 

[chummer]

This made me think of another problem. My neighbor mows my lawn at camp and refuses to take anything for it. I hook him up with fire wood and venison but I am still ahead in the deal. That is at $2 gas, $5 gas I am going to have to go fill his mower and not tell him.

 

[DRG3]

I may have to cut back on drives to the farm. I’ll try not to. It’s about 45 miles.
I plan on keeping 2 marginal clover plots that I would have torn up and replanted in clover and just battling the weeds and thin spots to reduce my cost and I’ll cut back on fertilizer. I’ll probably plant more oats because around here they don’t require as much fertilizer and they’re cheaper than brassica and clover. I’m hoping for some shooters on the land I have at the house to cut down on farm driving but we’ll see.

 

[b116757]

One farm is 6 miles from the house and the other farm is 17 miles. I can’t really squawk to much on that front compared to many folks. I’ll be going through quite a bit of diesel this year most likely with brush management, fence construction and land clearing.

 

[Triple C]

Got to admit........ I am considering buying a Prius. Can plug in at work for free 53 miles 1 way.....

Buddy at work just go notified for delivery of his electric F-150. Boasting about 320 miles per charge. In our parking lot at work - 3 Tesla's, (another one ordered), I Porsche electric, and a Prius. They are taking over and 2 of em are repeat buyers of e vehicles. As I approach retirement, the F-150 sounds intriguing. Plug in at night and never have to worry about gassing up, oil changes, tune-ups, etc.

 

[Triple C]

As for doing anything differently this year...prolly not. We don't plant summer plots. Don't supplemental feed. A few salt blocks is about all I'll spend this summer. Did buy 4 more ladder stands months ago that need to be assembled. And just finished a timber harvest consisting of 60 acres of loblolly pine saw timber, (clear cut), and 110 acre thinning of 22 yr old stand of loblolly.

 

[b116757]

As for doing anything differently this year...prolly not. We don't plant summer plots. Don't supplemental feed. A few salt blocks is about all I'll spend this summer. Did buy 4 more ladder stands months ago that need to be assembled. And just finished a timber harvest consisting of 60 acres of loblolly pine saw timber, (clear cut), and 110 acre thinning of 22 yr old stand of loblolly.

You going to work any plantings into the clear cut areas?

 

[Triple C]

You going to work any plantings into the clear cut areas?

Planting back in loblolly. I have good plots established in the clear cut and will continue to maintain those.

I like planted pines for the future revenue. Most likely won’t be for me but children n grand kids.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I don't have the time or the energy to change much. My wife and I traded vehicles. She is a teacher so she has her summer off and chases kids all over the place. I fill that car up at the fuel tank at work. It gets around 40 mpg and has a range of about 700 miles. The yukon that I drive on the other hand costs about $125 to fill up and gets about 14 mpg on a good day. I generally just drive to and from work each day which about 20 mile round trip.

 

[b116757]

I’m probably going to plant walnuts after cross fencing the creek bottom out to keep the cattle out for future generations to benefit from.

 

[westonwhitetail]

You've also got to know how to eat the stuff. You're not going to be able to use it as a hot dog or brat bun. You could make some sandwiches with it if you wanted, but it doesn't get as tall as a loaf of science bread. That's a product of the lower gluten content. The bread itself is the food, and not a keep clean mechanism like a bun. You're going to feel full, not get foggy, and won't get the glucose insulin roller coaster like you do from enriched and refined flours.

You also have to eat just a piece or two and wait. Your subconscious brain is going to prepare you to expect to be hungry again in short order. I could eat 4 slices of science toast, and in 30 minutes be raging hungry again. Eat a piece or two of this, and then walk away and go do something. Make a point to stop an hour later and assess how you feel. Notice you're not hungry and you feel good.

Buy some flour first and try it. It's gonna change your outlook on eating.

Curious, what kind of wheat do you use? My wife has a gluten sensitivity so I’ve been thinking about giving this a shot. I’d love to grow my own and harvest and mill it someday

 

[SD51555]

Curious, what kind of wheat do you use? My wife has a gluten sensitivity so I’ve been thinking about giving this a shot. I’d love to grow my own and harvest and mill it someday

I use einkorn. It's the oldest pre-science wheat still grown today. It makes outstanding bread. Give it a read, and give it a try. I started out buying the flour first so I could see if I could bake it, if I'd like it, and if it'd produce a different outcome vs the most modern of science wheat flours.

Einkorn, Nature's First And Oldest Wheat » Einkorn.com

Einkorn is nature's first and oldest wheat, grown by farmers over 5,000 years ago. It's extra healthy and very tasty so we're pleased to be restoring it to the family dinner table.

www.einkorn.com

After I figured out how to bake it and saw how good it was all around (flavor, no regret after eating) I went big time. As far as wheat goes, it's extremely expensive at $3/lb in bulk. As a bread, it's extremely affordable at $3/loaf. I had posted earlier I thought it was $4, it's actually $3 if you get it from this place. The benefit of grinding it at home is that you can store whole wheat kernels for years in the pantry.

Organic Einkorn Berries | Grand Teton Ancient Grains

• Certified 100% Organic • As Low As $0.19/oz, Packaged In Paper Bags • 24 lb up to 48 lb Options • Free Delivery* on 48 lbs to lower 48

www.ancientgrains.com

Here's a place to get einkorn flour to try it:

Einkorn Whole Grain Flour

This is whole grain Einkorn wheat flour milled from einkorn berries sourced from a small family farm in the U.S Midwest. We locally stone mill the whole berries (nothing is removed) into flour upon order so it's maximally fresh when you receive it.

breadtopia.com

I've got a 50lb bag of seed right now, and I had planned to plant some this spring, but I never got around to it for a number of reasons. Beware, there are issues with einkorn that make it difficult to grow and process. It needs a special de-huller to get the husk off. It's also a low-yield grain. Best case it'll produce 10-30 bushels per acre. Still you can get a lot of bread out of a bushel of wheat. Now if someone would just solve for an at-home de-hulling machine and faster milling, there'd be a whole new rural development opportunity. I've got a wild idea for faster milling, but that's still not done yet.