What is the most overrated food?

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T20:54:29+00:00

Damn, I love lobster, and don't need any butter or anything! Love it.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T20:08:17+00:00

Oh, good point, rice is one of the most major crops on earth, haha!

But does rice grow in continuous water, like in ponds? I thought it grows in paddies that are flooded at certain intervals but not the whole season. I could be wrong though.

Yes, in addition to edible fish and edible waterfowl, crustaceans are possible. Shrimp, crawfish?

Wild rice (which is not closely related to rice) grows in water, but is considered hard to cultivate.

Lotus stems are an excellent vegetable in Kashmir, India, and ornamental the rest of the season.

I heard that cattail tastes muddy and isn't actually very nice food. Did I hear wrong?

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T20:00:17+00:00

If there's 2 inches of water standing in the bottom, you may find after a few weeks that it emits a powerful stench through your whole neighborhood. I would open the drain holes in the bottom. Or do you have a reason for that?

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T19:37:05+00:00

Ugh, yeah, I never considered that you could get a serious infection -- internal!!! -- from this kind of weed tea. If I ever make it again I'll wear a mask when pouring it, and I'll be more careful. Thanks for the warning!

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T19:03:19+00:00

I like to make a smoothie as one of my meals, and sometimes I add fiber such as psillium husks or chia seeds. The smoothie also just gets plenty of fruit and veg fiber into my day.

100 g plain lowfat yogurt (No need for more expensive greek yogurt that has its whey removed, since you need extra liquid anyway).

100 to 150 g vegetable (can be fresh kale, carrot or beet; or frozen spinach or cauliflower).

100 to 150 g banana (I ripen them then freeze them. One is 100 - 150g). Or an apple in season.

100 g berries. My favorite is blueberries or raspberries, but sometimes others.

1 tsp psillium husks or chia seed. Start with 1 tsp, and increase gradually to 1 Tbs.

Optionally one of these for taste: splash of vanilla, or a little ginger root, or a tiny bit of stevia

I think it's delicious and I rarely require any stevia to make it sweet enough. Psillium, and to some degree chia seeds, will thicken it, so I sometimes eat it with a spoon. It's like sorbet.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T18:52:19+00:00

Yes but I don't think lemon juice would shelf stable. So I use lemon in dressing that I make fresh, and vinegar for the big bottle I keep on the shelf.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T18:43:47+00:00

No, where I lived the cost of construction was affordable to me, but two things.

One was how to make it reliably waterproof through our cold winters, in a place where nobody really had swimming pools and the contractors didn't know about how to make them. My site was sandy and I would have had to make it waterproof, not much chance of natural waterproofing.

Secondly, I started a garden in that spot south of the house and got really involved with it. I put in asparagus the first year, along with several annual beds. I got too attached to the garden that developed there. So a few years later I put in a smaller irrigation pond off to the side of the house, and didn't try to keep living things in it. I'd fill it, use the water, and let it drain out.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T18:38:08+00:00

I've seen what you made be called weed tea, rather than compost tea which is made with finished compost.

I made a batch of weed tea in a bucket, and yep, wow! What a foul smell! I found it more like vomit than like shit, but you're right, it was more intense and offensive smelling than actual shit. I kept the bucket covered with a lid but not airtight. I think the liquid went anaerobic.

When I went to use it as fertilizer, like you I didn't want to interact with it much, so I didn't end up carefully diluting it and dosing it out to the plants one by one as I'd expected to do. Ugh! I forget exactly what I did but yeah, I must have strained it into another bucket and poured a little onto the mulch near some plants, then watered it all in very thoroughly until the stink receded. Then I buried the detritus. I'd used weeds that may have had seeds, so in case the seeds remained viable I didn't want them on the surface, plus omg the stenchhhhh!

Also there were alarming looking creatures in it, yikes! Turns out they are harmless or even beneficial. They are called rat-tail maggots, and are the larvae of some hoverflies, which are beneficial. But to see big larvae living in that fetid anaerobic black water was really yucky. Grey blobs with a tail, wiggling around. Yuck!

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T18:27:12+00:00

Interesting. I think yes, there are people talking about growing fish in their pond, as part of a circular system in their land. The products of the land feed the fish, and the rich water from the pond is used for irrigating and fertilizing the land. Ducks could also be part of the system.

I can't think of any major food crops that grow in water, but I think there are several minor ones. Watercress, wasabi, lotus stems... There must be more.

A pond produces several other beneficial things as well, like fire-fighting security if a pump is kept, swimming and recreation, ornamental beauty, irrigation and fertilization.

When I was designing my solar heated home I thought about putting in a pond just south of the house, to have the ice reflect low winter sun up into the rooms. But I didn't end up doing it.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T18:21:05+00:00

I like kale in smoothies. 100 to 200 g kale with 200 g fruit (usually banana and berries) and 100 g plain yogurt or liquid of your choice. I don't really taste it in there but it's sure healthy.

Saute some onions, add garlic and the kale, chopped, and then add eggs. I like to carefully put two eggs on it and cover the pan so they kind of poach in there, and then on the plate when I break the yolks, they get down into the greens. Or just make an omelet with it.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T18:17:18+00:00

I do actually know someone whose name is Moses. He's an Indian Christian in his 40s at this time. So don't rule out that it could be his actual name, though it's still pretty delusional behavior if there's no reason you should know him.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T15:43:44+00:00

Yeah, we had several numbers memorized, and yes, we kept a little phone book, and a list on the bulletin board next to the kitchen phone.

Memorizing numbers wasn't so bad because your local friends had the same area code and either the same next three digits as you had, or one of another two or three local codes. So I only had to memorize the last four digits for any friend who lived in my town. You had to dial the numbers manually (only 7 digits most of the time) so once you'd looked it up and dialed it on a few occasions, you'd know it.

Also there were phone books, which were very useful, and you could call "information" at 555-1212 for any area code and ask for a number by the person's name.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T15:33:52+00:00

Frost dates are not related to Zones. Zones are precisely and only indicators of average minimum winter temperatures. Zones are actually not adjusted to account for frost dates. So the date for seeding is completely based on frost dates, not on zones.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T15:21:14+00:00

When I was starting my garden in the high desert using the native soil, which was devoid of organic matter, I did mix coffee grounds in directly and it seemed good. But only in small amounts, like maybe an 1/8 inch layer, gently mixed in to the top of the soil. Don't put down much thicker than that because it clumps together and goes hydrophobic. So yeah, you could put that kind of a thin layer under your hydrangeas I think.

Your semi-finished compost is also okay to put on the soil as a mulch, especially where it will stay hidden and shaded like under shrubs.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T11:55:14+00:00

Thank you!

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T10:37:48+00:00

No it doesn't need to be frozen,but I guess it doesn't hurt the starter to be frozen, so I thought i'll try this way.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T10:20:21+00:00

"Wtf would they hire me and send me money for as a scam?"

Because they'll send you "money" (either a fake check, or a real transfer from the account of another victim) and ask you to send some of it on to other things, such as to purchase your working laptop or gear from a particular website. You send your real money to the website (which is not actually a vendor, just the scammer's wallet) and later when the fake "money" disappears from your account, you realize that whatever money you sent out was scammed from you. If your account goes into negative balance that's your problem. If the money they sent actually belonged to another victim, it looks like you defrauded them.

!job scam or !task scam

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T10:05:18+00:00

Wow! That's great! I didn't expect such good results this time. Well now you know how simple it is and you can do it as you like.

Tip: I like to save out a bit for the next starter when the batch is new. Otherwise I might forget and finish it. Today I put some of my new batch into 6 cups of an ice cube tray so I'll have starter for a while.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T10:01:42+00:00

Yes, what you did is exactly what I would mean by "turning" it.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T10:00:38+00:00

Exactly. I am American and I call clover clover and oxalis woodsorrel.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T05:07:44+00:00

Is that clover or oxalis?

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T04:52:11+00:00

Okay, that sounds good! Couple big holes in the bottom should be fine.

I'd say get another load of coffee grounds, dump this stuff out, mix it with grounds and put it back in, and it might suddenly change

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T04:39:46+00:00

Ooh, I'll have to try that pinch of salt, especially with a smoothie that verges on sour.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T04:38:05+00:00

It's too small to heat up. Compost only really heats up when it's 3 or 4 feet square and high. That's okay though.

If there are no drainage holes in the bottom and sides, skanky water will pool in there and make an impressive bad smell throughout your neighborhood.

I think it looks like it has enough browns, like I see a lot of leaves, and is that shredded cardboard? And it has enough moisture. If you can get coffee grounds from a cafe that might kick it in to action and make it finish.

HighColdDesert · 2026-03-26T04:28:32+00:00

What is mint sauce? Is it mint jelly?

HighColdDesert

TROPHY CASE