Selfsufficientish.com

last of the winter greens - starting planting (trying Hiko 40 cell trays for starting seedlings) spring greens, spuds, strawberries and some herbs. Put in a few early tomatoes just in time for a late frost!

If my memory serves, triffids were boiled down for oil

a forge of some sort was always on the retirement plan - I have gathered most of what I need over the years although there are a few specialised (modern) tools that would make things much easier

is this a new ISH Skill? the Kids gave me a course in Japanese knife forging as a retirement gift - after an intensive 20 hours at forge, anvil, grinder and tedious hand finishing the result is a single edge Nakiri for slicing and a two edge Deba for general purpose use - both are great to use and c...

preserving in oil? Anyone into preserving in oils? (olive oil in my case) I have tried this for things like chillies, garlic, ginger etc but the oil usually ends up cloudy and sometimes has a wax(?) layer on top.

Or is this normal?

Many of the self branded products are imported from SE Asia and EU - I do look at the ingredients lists and the nutrition details and if anything they have higher levels of added "taste enhancers" than the branded products.

Beg to differ Bernard - in Oz at least the Aussie grown branded products are markedly better than the self branded and than the imported brands - but we do pay more for them

first official day of spring - sunny & cool topping 17c- weather forecast tipping tops of low 20'sc next week; a little too warm too early

not much at this time of year; with the heavy frosts and dry autumn only a few greens still going. The normal citrus glut; sans lemons due to heavy pruning - Marmalade on the go 'though how much of this needed is limited. Thankfully our first "normal" autumn and winter rainfall for more than 4 years...

I,m baaaack
Short time away organising retirement etc. and purchasing my first ever personal computer.
Retirement sucks! not a days break in 5 weeks, covid lockdown so can't travel, dine out etc. and to top it all off a torn meniscus in my left knee so no driving, bending, clod hopping etc.

This is all about people. You can get a rational, intelligent, considered answer out of a person (singular) but people (collective) are stupid, dangerous herd animals with no thoughts but to follow the one in front.

Rusts are fungi so prefer moist, mild conditions - getting good air movement *(NOT Nth sea gales) helps preventing them. Copper or Sulphur based fungicides will work but you need to cover both sides of the leaf - alternatively, according to my friendly iris farm owner, a couple of teaspoons of Bicar...

They are not bulbs but corms, hence the stacking effect. Not much foliage in the pic but I am fairly sure they are Monbretia also known as Crocosmia. Fairly common ornamental, iris family, lots of bright orange flowers, but can be invasive - declared weeds in parts of SE Oz.

OK Guys - I am about to push the button to try to change my details and access processes pre retirement - I may be gone for some time (but will be back eventually)

Might not be a disadvantage - many of our "new" varieties originate from plants that have naturally diverged from the norm - your new variety (the Oddy Onion?) may be a ground breaking development.

Its baaaaack!!!! - One state in Oz has had a significant spike in positive cases following some relaxing of the rules and has gone into high levels of quarantine and movement restriction again. Within 2 days the toilet paper, rice, flour etc. had disappeared off the shelves nationwide