i'm on my second year of using newspaper pots, they've worked great for me. if anyone wants to know how to make them or has questions, let me know! i can show you on my webcam how to make them, or post a video. johnny, the only guess i've got as to why the egg carton seedlings are week is that Maybe the paper pulp is thick enough to absorb the water that they need? and so not as much is left in the soil? what type of mix are you using?

Haha, Storm, I hear you on the chickens! I don't live in the city anymore, but I'm so excited about all the stuff I'm setting up I *almost* want to be Back in a city just to see what types of comments I get! I'm hopeful, and Incredibly optimistic as a personality type, but I understand the concept of 'hope bashing', too - you gotta make sure there's some OOMPH behind that hope, otherwise people are just gonna stay on their @sses, and that doesn't get us anywhere. My dream life is to live like I'm Native to somewhere. Like I know the land so well I don't have to control it to take care of myself. It's a lot harder to live like this with the system we've got today, and with the way things are it just looks to Me like I need to make more noise about what I'm doing to help others start to question a bit more. Yep, I'm hopeful. Yep, even if there's catastrophic collapse. In fact, I'm Hoping FOR economic collapse. Doom and Hope. Yeah.

Wow, so many awesome responses! I'm glad there are so many folks foraging :D (or trying to!) Nekhbet - I didn't know you could use rosehips for wine! I've dried them for tea. Would you treat them differently for wine? I've never made wine before, but am interested in trying to here sometime in the next few years. Amiga - there is Some type of dock on the land that others know about, I have yet to learn what it looks like. What do you do for a poultice - chew the leaf up? or crush it with some tool? then just slap it on there? I've read fancy-dancy books about herbs that mention poultices Plenty but never tell me how to actually make them *sheepish grin* Stacy, those acorns sound good! Last I heard my options were 'red oak, or white oak... but neither's so great' - Not a great perspective! I'll have to figure out which types are growing nearby. Groupgirl - harvesting for service is a sweet idea! There are a lot of sustainable minded folks around here planting fruit trees... I wonder how many don't feel like pruning them... *plots* I feel ya on identifying, grrlscout. I've been interested in really Knowing what grows near me for a long time, and it's only just now that I'm getting the chance to positively identify and Use things. It's Mega exciting. And wow, Linda! I wish I lived somewhere like that. Whenever I was living in Richmond (VA) I'd look at all the landscaping and wish they had just put in some hardy fruit trees and let them do their thing. I wish, even if I were living in an apartment complex, that I could just pick some fruit on my way out of the neighborhood. That's what cities should be like!

Stacy - what type of oak do your acorns come from? And what are you doing with them? Making acorn flour for... ? I haven't tried that yet, but I'm excited to (oneday). I wonder what dandelion wine tastes like. Strangely enough, the land I'm on is 'wild' and so healthy that there aren't many dandelions trying to patch things up. So no wine for me :( Amiga - I'd love to have nettle! There's some growing wild on a neighbor's homestead - I'm hoping they'll let me take a bit to try to grow. Problem is, my girlfriend Hates it (after many hours spent in nettle Fields - no wonder!). I'm hoping I can grow it in an isolated spot that won't let it spread, because the tea is Great for me. Do you do red clover tea with the leaves, or the blossoms? And do you mix it with anything particular? I've read varying reports about trout lilies online - some say roots (really just a small bulb at the bottom end) and leaves should be cooked, others say they're fine raw. Flowers are edible raw. I've also seen that it can be emetic (vomit-inducing) in some people, so eat in small amounts! I haven't tried any trout lily yet because it's not on my land and there are so few that I wouldn't want to prevent their spreading. Let me know if you want to see the web sites I looked at for information - or just Google search 'edible trout lilies'.

I give a second vote to "Gaia's Garden" by Hemenway. It was a simple read, and clearly explained some very important principles. It talked about creating zones around your home no matter how much space you have, gave All sorts of ideas for patterns of design, how to get water to different areas, how to work different types of food production (fruit, veggies, herbs, etc) into small and shared areas. Basically, I found it to cover a wide range of topics in a way that really gets your gears turning. It made me feel capable of really Starting something without needing a Ton more information, and also gives plenty of 'links' to books and web sites if you Do want to keep searching in more detail. For me, it was a great starter book to help me feel grounded in what I was talking about before tackling larger texts like the Edible Forest Gardens volumes. Good luck finding something tasty!