 Well, hi, it's the middle of May and It's raining again this week, so it's a little slow But I hope we have a good episode for you. We're doing a couple different things number one, we are transplanting a whole bunch of starts from this greenhouse out into Their permanent growing location So that's exciting We also began to work here in the greenhouse covering these earth bags With plaster or at least mud mud cob right now eventually they'll get plaster and then We also had a big frost earlier in the week and so I'll walk you through what I did to protect my plants there We also planted oats out in our field otherwise It's been pretty quiet. So this might be a short week So without further ado Let's get on with this week of food McGatin so my neighbor who used to be a market gardener has a lot of these extra row covers lying about and he has Generously let me use them tonight because we have a record-setting frost coming And so I'm covering up all my currents to try and save them in hopes that we actually get a current harvest this year So this is what I don't want to lose these are going to be Currents I must they freeze tonight. Okra is still alive Looks pretty sad though. Now. Let's see the tomatoes Yeah, it's made of survived Now just uncover them for the day. Let's check out the greenhouse. Oh, it's nice in here Everything looks great over the last few weeks. I've been working to get this all torn up This is for my oats, which I Threshed and winnowed last night and finally finished that process that you saw me start in episodes one two or three I forget and so now I'm seeding all of these oats and Crossing my fingers that the deer don't get them this year I need to reform or rebuild my compost heaps And they were just some palates that I threw together a couple years ago But now I need to get serious about compost because I don't have enough this year So I need to get Making compost that I can use next year already now things are starting to Slow down in the world at large. We're still unable to go to the grocery store more than twice a month And our buying power has been cut in a quarter as the prices have risen significantly since we're now in month three or four of this fuel crisis we are Still living off of what we were able to buy before things got really bad And we're really jones and for our garden to pick up here We've had a few salads and things like that, but for the most part We're eating off dried goods lots of beans lots of lentils things like that so We're really looking forward to the first real plants and vegetables getting big enough to eat So We're three months in how's it going? I think it is going okay. You doing okay? This is the first Month where it really started to like Have an effect I would say because of the money situation, you know because things are so expensive We couldn't buy so much at the store. Yeah You know last week last month we just buy two of the groceries right right but this week I actually had to like think about it and I really only bought what we would usually buy for one week for the groceries and that would but He's done But that's gotta last us for two weeks instead, but I mean at the same stuff we can't produce like My cheese isn't ripe yet, so we have to buy Have access to peppers anymore It's spring stuff is starting to come in the garden, so we're able to you know do our own stuff We've got the greens that are coming up. We've been foraging the fiddleheads, you know, so we've been able to like supplement with Other stuff So yeah, and I mean we're having to get creative with our meals. Yeah, like tonight was And bean and pasta soup with greens from the garden and yard It's actually pretty good after cheese be nice with Parmesan cheese. I mean the other cheese is fine Yeah, but no I mean overall I think we're Still doing okay. I think we appropriately prepared For this and you know, we're still working through our stockpiling so I Mean it obviously once we can transition to the garden we'll be doing that and saving right much of the stockpile for the right but right now there's Too early to be getting a lot out of the garden although hopefully at this time next year the greenhouse will have been going all winter and hopefully we'll have stuff in the greenhouse that's and you know like Three or four months ahead of what the garden is Any worries about next month Food prices are just gonna keep going up, but less will be available Bill should be going down. I'll be nice because You know You know the more we are into the summer the more we're gonna be producing our own stuff We can't wait for potatoes. I know I miss potatoes. I Wanted to eat some of the sweet potatoes To steaks and those steaks go up to the ceiling of the hoop house. I ran out of those Individual metal steaks. So now using wooden steaks one per every two mounds. These will be cucumbers And there will be a V of string between them and once they're tall enough I will attach them to that string and they'll crawl their way up and Drop a whole bunch of cucumbers down for me. I hope So for you not nuts out there, I'm using an anchor hitch with two half hitches on the top It's two loops Around the post pull the string all the way through both those loops And then thrown off Two half hitches at the bottom. I'm using a clove hitch Again, just for you not nuts who really are interested in knots And now a whole bunch of eggplants So over the last few days, I've been attaching chicken wire to the edge of these earth bags and the earth bags are basically grain bags full of clay a binder like a straw a Little bit of sand a little bit of hydrated lime filled and then tamped and then they have rebar driven through them and Barbed wire between each layer to act kind of like velcro And so these have basically built a retaining wall and now I'm going to cover this with a Plaster and I'm starting out with my brown coat which is mostly clay and sand with a little bit of Chopped straw mixed in and this all gets spread on the wall and allowed to dry It's just been a few weeks now since I did my mushrooms probably oh I'll have to post a link to it, but if you look right here See this white thread like stuff. This isn't my psyllium so it has started to actually spread through I was getting a little despondent because I've checked this bag every week With no luck, but this week. There's actually my psyllium growing. Oh Holy crap I Hadn't taken the bag apart look watch Ready, I just been looking at the top look at that my psyllium Why didn't I look at the bottom dum-dum I Was so disappointed because I was gonna have to go on the I was gonna have to make the show about how it didn't work and there you go. That's mushrooms for you And it's working. Oh my gosh. That is just beautiful So hopefully That means we're gonna start getting mushrooms Smells like mushrooms even All right. Well, I'm gonna have to move on to the next steps. Maybe I'll show you next week Time to plant fava beans. Well, thanks for tuning in to another week of food mcgeddon It was another busy one. We got more coming up next week I'll be working on the greenhouse to get more of the walls done I've got more planting to do next week You'll see me planting corn and transplanting a lot more out of the greenhouse So it's the spring and that's just what everything is all about so it's gonna be a lot more planting and maybe I'll get some new infrastructure projects going or other things as well So check back next Friday for the next episode be alerted to that by subscribing below Obviously check our our website lowtechinstitute.org for updates on the blog and other things that we've been Doing you can reach out to me. I'm Scott at lowtechinstitute.org You can follow us on Twitter. Our handle is low underscore techno find us on Instagram Facebook all the you know the social medias I guess social media is already plural. Anyway. Yeah, thanks for watching I hope you have a good safe week out there taking care of yourselves and your communities. So all right. Take care