TROUBLE TREE INTO CULINARY MUSHROOMS: ADVICE FOR YOUR URBAN HOMESTEAD

Do you have a healthy tree you need to trim back or cut down?
Did you know that you might be able to grow culinary mushrooms on small logs taken from limbs or small trees or on the stump, or in wood chips made from the tree?

The first step is to know the tree is healthy. Is it's bark free of big black lumps and wood pecker holes?

If the bark looks healthy, determine what kind of tree it is. Then go to the website of
The Mushroom People

and see if there is a kind of mushroom you can grow on your tree.

If the answer is yes, in February or March, trim your tree or cut your tree down before the leaves come out while the buds are swollen. At this time, the sap has a lot of nutrients in it that will get the culinary mushrooms off to a good start, out-competing any "weed" mushroom spores that happen to land on your mushroom logs or stump or wood chip pile.
Read  the website or talk to the folks at the Mushroom people about what you have and the best method for inoculation.

From Scratch Cooking - Slaw Dressing For Winter Eating

 In today's entry you can get info on cooking, egg laying, and homegrown/locally grown fresh winter foods.

I love mayonnaise and other dressings that have creamy texture. Unfortunately, I have food allergies that keep me from eating many commercially prepared "mayo" and other salad dressings. 
I had been purchasing an inexpensive nonorganic  canola oil based mayo from Whole Foods, but felt increasingly uncomfortable with the likelihood that the canola oil was pressed from GMO rape seed.

I can go through a quart of mayo in  less than a week. Today, disturbed by the thought of consuming so  much GMO canola oil, I made my own mayo substitute for my cole slaw.

I have enough experience cooking and browsing  old cook books  over the years that I can satisfy my gourmet cook/eater without having to go to the trouble of finding a specific recipe. 

Creamy dressings are usually made of oil, vinegar/ and/ or lemon juice and egg or some kind of thickening agent such as xanthan gum or guar gum. Xanthan gum is out for me because it is corn based, and  I am allergic to corn .

Here is how tonight's concocting went:

Goal: mayo to chop locally grown organic carrots and cabbage and (don't know where it came from) parsley into with my food processor to make 2 big servings of slaw.

I took a 7 inch diameter heavy bottom sauce pan. Into the sauce pan I poured  a big puddle of grape seed oil ( any kind of healthy oil OK for cooking is fine). I gently heated the oil on medium low.

Into the warm oil, I stirred prepared mustard and a dash of Braggs liquid aminos (anything for seasoning that will either dissolve or have acceptable texture for salad dressing is fine). 

Into the now seasoned oil I stirred in one raw egg (locally laid). I added about 1/4 tsp of guar gum powder to ensure a nice thickness. (any thickener can be used, including flour from wheat, rice, tapioca, chick peas ... any thing that is finely ground and will absorb oil and water.)

I cooked the egg mixture gently by stirring frequently and adjusting the heat so that the mixture  looked smooth. The end result was creamy and smooth and yummy! Now I had my slaw dressing which fits the definition of mayonnaise.

I chopped 2 small carrots and a Tablespoon of fresh parsley in my food processor. Then added coarsely chopped fresh raw cabbage. I used the machine to make the slaw pieces small. I had more ingredients than would fit at once in the little 8 ounce bowl. So I removed the finely chopped cabbage/carrots/parsley mix to another container and set it  aside and finished chopping the remainder along with my just made mayo (when it cooled off enough to put in a plastic food chopper bowl!). 

Finely chopped ingredients take less volume, so  I did manage to fit it all into the small chopper bowl  at once, getting  the  creamy slaw all chopped and mixed together.

I certainly enjoyed eating my raw vegetables as slaw tonight, with no thoughts of ingesting more GMO's. It is nice to know what you are eating and FEEL GOOD about it and have your body feel good (as opposed to vaguely or not so vaguely "off")

As an advocate for eating locally grown food, I want to point out that cabbage can be harvested during late fall, early winter and stored. Same with carrots. Also, carrots maybe harvested during the winter. They might need some freeze protection. Parsley can take the bitter cold, too. 

Chickens tend to slow their egg laying as the days shorten. They can have their inner clocks fooled into greater egg production, however, by giving them a few hours of artificial light.  Nature does give them a rest from egg laying with the hens' natural response to decrease/ or temporarily stop egg production during the cold months. 

Simple increase in positivity

The past few weeks, I been gently nudged to use computer time writing more and reading less.  This is what I wrote following this guidance.  I came to this blank blog page not knowing what I would write.
Here is what came out of me:

I wish something would be channeled. I do not want to get a headache over this. I do not want it to be hard.

There are the negatives. Reframe to positive. 
I want to enjoy doing this I want to gain energy doing this. I want it to feed me. I want it to be easy.
Now make affirmations of the above statements:
I enjoy writing. I feel good about writing. My writing develops me and helps develop others. I enjoy writing. Writing energizes me. I know when to end my writing session.

I wonder about doing a written exercise or speaking exercise where I develop affirmations as preparing myself for more of my everyday activities.

I know I will raise my vibrations if I go about my day in this manner.

I feel happy and clear now.