artmeetsearth's Profile

I've been to a couple of pig roasts, and the worst thing you can do is let the macho dudes get carried away with the lighter fluid. The entire pig can get suffused with the taste of it.

We like drinking port, but we have a trick for all of those bottles and jars of odd things we receive as gifts: bring them to potlucks or dinner parties. Crack open a bottle of port after dinner and let everyone else drink it for you! They'll love it and you'll be rid of it.

What about my PB&J?

Great idea that is only 2/3rds there - where is the recipe for homemade chocolate bars?

We do some syrup making on a farm here in Michigan - about 1000 taps. A couple of points:

Charlotte, actually the opposite is true. The trick for making light, clean maple syrup is to boil it as hot and as fast as you can, although it's easy to over-boil it and get maple caramel. A hygrometer is key, and not expensive

Larger (at least 25" diam) and healthier trees can easily handle up to three taps. An old field or yard tree with a full crown is the best bet.

A single tap will produce 10-20 gallons of sap over the course of the season. That's up to a half gallon of syrup if you're lucky - definitely more than one pancake!

The prime season is 40 degree days and 20 degree nights. Once you see the beginnings of buds on the trees, you're done, and the sap becomes bitter.

Of course, you need to boil off all that water, which is best done (at the home scale) OUTSIDE, with some old catering pans over an outdoor fire. You can "finish" your syrup indoors but I wouldn't want 20 gallons worth of sugary steam in my house!

Finally, there is a lot of great information out there, mostly from the midwestern ag school extension offices. An hour on the internet will tell you everything you need to know for a small scale boil. Nothing better than your own syrup on your pancakes or in your morning coffee!

Anyone who describes something food-related as "a revelation." Enough already.

I was a vegetarian for about 10 years until I realized "local" food on the 45th parallel in Michigan (6 months of snow) is meat. I just finished my second hunting season.

Cost - yeah, I got a $500 deer rifle as a very generous gift from my wife. If I didn't have that rifle I would have to borrow one from my neighbor (most lifelong hunters have a few), or shell out $150 or so for a used one. .30-30 ammo is between $1 and $1.50 a shot. I put about 10 rounds through the rifle to be sure I could hit what I was aiming at and that the scope was lined up. I found some wool pants at the army surplus for $20 and a blaze orange jacket at the goodwill for $10. Another $5 for a blaze orange hat, everything else - boots, long underwear, heavy socks - I would have for a long winter anyway.

Skill and Safety - in Michigan new hunters are required to take a hunter safety course. You can apprentice for two years before taking the course, meaning you hunt with another licensed hunter, before you take the course. I passed an online test (and learned a lot) and felt comfortable handing the rifle safely. Though I have no firearms training or experience, I learned that 1) using a rest (like in a blind) and 2) watching my breath let me hit within 2" of what I was aiming at up to 100 yds away. That's definitely accurate enough to fatally injure a deer.

Around here we have public land and farms so there is plenty of "backyard" hunting. I've seen the gut piles and smelled the innards and cut the meat. I'll happily eat meat from these animals. I'm not grossed out and I don't think it's unethical, though I avoid factory farmed meat.

That said, "real" hunting (not shooting from a blind) is HARD - hard enough that you have to make it more than a 1 weekend/year hobby to do it well. I plan to.