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Everyone's posts
Applejack adventures
by shiny,
Last year, before i bought a still, i tried freeze-distilling. This is an old method of turning apple cider into apple sprit, that does not need a still. Traditionally the apple cider still in the fermenting barrel is taken outside to the snow. There the water will freeze over night. In the morni…
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What's in the larder
by shiny,
A whole year of growing, digging, fermenting, and canning eventually comes down to a shelf. Here's what was actually on it, as of early July:
Pantry - 2× pasta sauce - 14× tomato sauce - 4× tomato paste - 3× (huge) jars of pears with cardamom - 4× beef bone broth - 2× rendered lard - About 1…
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Pumpkins, kumara, and pressing this year's cider
by shiny,
Autumn is when the garden hands over the last of what it's got, and the cider press comes back out.
The last of the harvest
- Mar 26 — still harvesting.
- Apr 6 — some whataroa harvested.
- Apr 19 — risotto for dinner, made with pumpkin that grew straight out of the compost, p…
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The tomato glut
by shiny,
If this year's harvest had a main character, it was tomatoes. Here's how it went, roughly day by day.
Waiting
Early January was all impatience. The tomatoes just needed consistent days over 22°C to actually ripen, and Wellington — as Wellington does — wasn't cooperating. "Come on #Wellingt…
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Strawberries, barley, and the first Christmas spud
by shiny,
By November the garden stopped being a promise and started being an actual source of food again.
Strawberry wine ambitions
I saw a strawberry wine idea online somewhere and decided it was now a mission. It went straight onto the to-do list alongside dress rehearsals and concerts: harvest b…
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Video guides for your favourite crops
by CloCkWeRX,
In a recent release, we've added links to youtube videos covering the core aspects of growing a number of crops; as well as displaying the parent attributes of a variety when no more specific information is known.
If you are a creator or know someone who provides clear, useful content; submit a …
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Spring Prep
by shiny,
Spring prep and last season's ferments
It's spring again, which means it's time to look back at what an entire year of "grow it, ferment it, preserve it" actually looked like — starting last August, when none of this year's harvest existed yet, just seedlings, hail, and a lot of hope.
Hail…
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New features, and farewell to OpenFarm
by CloCkWeRX,
Sadly, our companion planted site, OpenFarm.cc has shuttered. As a result, we've removed some of the links to growing guides and other resources that are no longer available.
While far from the same open data goals, to mirror the previous functionality there are a few [external links](https://ww…
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One Million Worms
by CloCkWeRX,
I recently have fallen deeply into a composting and vermiculture rabbithole; having found a few (very cheap) [Vevor 1000L compost bins](https://www.vevor.com.au/compost-tumbler-c_11277/vevor-compost-bin-220-gallon-outdoor-expandable-composter-easy-to-setup-large-capacity-composting-bin-fast-creat…
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Integrating Farmbot 'curves'
by mvillion,
Hi I am a new Farmbot user. Web site is farm.bot
In their open source project they now have 'curves' that record things such as growing height, spread and watering requirements over the lifecycle of the plant. This is a very cool feature but there are no premade curves to download and use…