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Friday, September 09, 2011

I do not read homesteading magazines

I gave up on them years ago. Sorry to my readers that work for them. (there are more reasons then what is stated below.)

The reason I am bringing this up is out of a bit of eye rolling on my part. I was looking for some info, found what I was looking for and then a bit of a squabble over "well I read it in this magazine" They are not gospel guys!

Sometimes having a conversation with someone gets a tad frustrating, "well I read in. . . that that wasn't even possible." What about your experience with it? Are you willing not to try something because some person in a magazine told you not to. You are not willing to try new things because of that rag?

Ok I get it, the FDA will jump down their throats if they promote something that they deem risky. I understand that, I use to write for food e-zines. But for the majority of people that read these as a bible. . . well it gets on my nerves a bit. These magazines are good for a starting point for your own adventure, they are good to entertain you or enlighten you toward a path you hadn't thought about before.

I got all excited the other day (maybe last week or so) Grit had a Kansas blogger. Cool, a fellow Kansan going through the same BS that I am. I clicked on it and started reading. She doesn't even grow an edible garden! It was mostly about those horrible weed sunflowers that I will burn, take the ashes and soak in lye so that they will never reproduce in my garden again!! But this Kansas gardener loves them. I get it if you are attracting bees only, but these things are so evasive that I won't have them anywhere near my garden, and the one year I planted them the wind blew the seeds into an area that took me 3 years to clear the things out of.

I guess I find the realness of these magazines lacking. I was so disappointed to find this Kansas blogger didn't understand the problems that we as Kansas homesteaders are facing right now. I need to read about the trouble and tribulations that are common, that are shared and how they are coping with it. How is it working out for them? How are they making it through this? But no, no one wants to talk about it. It's back to being happy go lucky I guess.

I want the realness. Why does that seem to be so hard for these rags to understand? I want to see photos of bleeding hands and a smiling face. I want  read about mourning a cow (though I really don't want someone's cow to die, been there, done that) I want to read about the wild dogs (or other predators) attacking their livestock and what they did to stop it. Not "oh to keep predators out do this". . . how do you know to do this??? I want to know exactly why you came up with this idea, not just because you read about it in a book from the 70's and that's how they fixed their own problem.

The reason I started this blog is creeping back up I guess.

I am canning dry goods in my oven and chicken on my stove. I should probably get back to that. Feel free to vent away here, no matter what is on your mind. I don't mind it at all, it's real.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Wait! Wait! Go back... You're canning dry goods in your oven????

Talk to me!!! What is that? I've never heard of it. And it sounds like something I just might be game for!!!

Phelan said...

lol, ok will do WeldrBrat.

Dry goods (flour,oatmeal,corn meal, but not sugar) can be "canned in the oven. Heat your oven to 250F, place your dry goods in a canning jar, place on a cookie sheet and heat for 1 hour. This will kill the bugs (if any). Turn oven off and allow to cool completely before removing. This extends the shelf life and prevents bugs.

If you want to can sugar, make a simple syrup.

Felinae said...

Oh...thanks for that tip about canning dry goods in the oven. I also had never heard of it.

SkippyMom said...

I guess reading material is subjective. Everyone has their own opinion and way of doing things, but it doesn't mean we have to read it or agree.

Sort of like our blogs I suppose. Not everyone agrees with what everyone writes [and who is an expert anyway?] So we pick and choose.

I am glad you don't read them anymore - they really seem to frustrate you. With good reason I think.

TransFarmer said...

I haven't made any ketchup yet, but plan to do so soon. I had big plans to do jalapeno jelly and peach butter, then got the sinus infection from hell. I refuse to can when sick. I look forward to making your recipe soon though.

Basic Humanity said...

hey phelan, I didn't know sun flowers were that pesky, but I guess the only place I've seen them grown are in suburban gardens that are usually full of them. the seeds aren't even that nice to eat so that's a good tip for when I one day get my own garden. I'm planning to put myself down for an allotment soon, hoping to get some experience growing outdoors as well as whatevter I grow on my kitchen counter

Phelan said...

It's not all sunflowers, just the small decorative ones. I love the edibles and use them to separate things in my garden.

Phelan said...

FTM, I don't like canning when sick either. Hope you feel better soon.

Basic Humanity said...

Fair enough. Then I shall make a point of keeping those away from my garden!

small farm girl said...

I'm going to can dry goods in the oven this year too! I think I read about it in a magazine. hheheehehe. Just kidding. :)
I'm really with you on the magazine thing. The only one I'm even slightly interested in is Country Side. They have "normal" people write stuff in it.

jenny said...

Me too! Magazines are hardly worth reading anymore these days. Part of it is, (I hope) that I've grown up and learned a few things and the stuff the magazines talk about are "been there already, what else can you tell me" kind of stuff. The other stuff is just not realistic enough for me, like how to modernize your living room with things bought from pricey stores I've never heard of or landscape your garden with 50 million bricks and ornamental foo-foo plants. So I stick to reading blogs written by people I can respect. Hey- like you!

Phelan said...

Small Farm girl, I got it out of a 70' book. :D

Jenny, I have in the past gritched about that as well. Glamorous homesteading.

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