helwen

I finally had some time to check all the things that

jdulac provided me on feasts in the middle ages. The Babees Book of Manners is not in the budget, but I can use it as an internet search reference to pick up useful bits (

bunnyjadwiga refers to it in her article on washing the hands at table, for instance. I did order the other book, Fast and Feast: Food in Medieval Society.

And I ordered The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It, by John Seymour. Originally written in 1976, the 2003 reprint is mostly the same, except that many of the pictures are now in full color. It also includes an updated list of suppliers and seed companies.

Ordered both through Barnes and Noble, as I'm a member there. But besides that, they have an online special today. There's a code they provide on the web site that you type in once you're placing your order, that gives $10 off your order of $40 or more.

Currently I'm reading Gardening When It Counts, Growing Food in Hard Times, by Steve Solomon. I'm only in chapter two, as I've been busy with other things, but I find I'm quite enjoying it so far. I even read the entire introduction, something I'm not prone to doing with most books. Solomon has long experience with gardening both as a serious hobbyist and as a professional seedman of the highest quality. Which is to say, he ran trials on all the plants he was going to sell seeds for, to determine which ones he thought would be best to sell. He's grown in both intensive styles (raised beds, irrigated, etc.) and in the older way where things are spaced further apart. He got into the intensive style like everyone else because it was supposed to produce the most per square foot, but discovered when running the trials, where plants _must_ be far enough apart to not cross-pollinate, crowd each other and thus affect their growth, etc., that the uncrowded plants didn't need as much irrigation, and produced more food. Just the opposite of what the intensive gardening books claimed. There is still a place in this type of gardening for raised beds, but it depends on what you're growing, and what resources are available to you.

The less intensive gardening doesn't necessarily need as much fertilizing, etc. But that may be in part because if you're going to get into this type of gardening seriously, you'll want to be able to rotate your plots so that some of it could rest a few years (he seeds with grass). So, in some ways it may need more land, but the garden isn't as hard on the soil (nutrients). I don't have enough land to really be at all self-sufficient, but I expect the information on fertilizing (he has a recipe and he explains what the parts are for) and other information I've yet to get to will be helpful regardless of the size of my garden.

I like the way he writes and the way he explains things. While assuming that the reader may not know much about gardening, he doesn't come across as condescending at all. So, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the book, which covers starting the garden, maintaining it, tools and tool care, what to look for when buying seeds and plants, watering, composting, diseases, etc.

Well, we have a box of things to take to the party for giveaway, and are as ready as we're ever going to be, so it's time to sign off and go party for a couple of hours.

Like as not we'll sleep through the turning of the year so... See you all next year!