What Did You Do Today?

[YosemiteBen]

well, the week of June 3rd I was in a historic log and wood preservation class. Got to put into practice skills I knew of but have never used. Got to use a wide variety of axes, slicks, chisels, screw jacks. Learned how to replace crowns on log cabins, hewed some logs, cut notches and other preservation techniques. It was a good time meeting new folks too.

[JW_Halverson]

well, the week of June 3rd I was in a historic log and wood preservation class. Got to put into practice skills I knew of but have never used. Got to use a wide variety of axes, slicks, chisels, screw jacks. Learned how to replace crowns on log cabins, hewed some logs, cut notches and other preservation techniques. It was a good time meeting new folks too.

Oooh, that sounds like fun!

[Eric Krewson]

I saw my first tomato horn worm damage yesterday; I couldn't find the worm but I have a surprise for it tonight when I get out my UV light and look over my tomato plants.

For those of you who don't know, a UV light makes the horn worms glow like a lime green glow stick after dark and are very easy to find or so I thought.

I found the worn that did the damage, it was a darker color variant and didn't glow under the UV light, this is the first one I have ever seen with this coloration and hope it is the last.

[Eric Krewson]

I haunt the Facebook market place, every now and then a particularly good deal comes up that I have to jump on. I bought a Griz hobby lathe, I picked up a $9 set of Chinese lathe chisels that were probably not worth what I paid for them to use until I got something better, that was 15 years ago.

Saturday a guy put the three craftsman chisels on the market place for $10 which is a good deal, I told him I would take them. As I was headed to pick them up, he said he had more lathe chisels if I wanted them, this set was Great Neck, American made as well. I bought all the chisels for $20.

When I got them home and looked over them closely, I found that they were new under the light rust and had never been sharpened.

[uwe]

Hi,
At the moment I`m working on a few Osage bows. Short ones, plains style.
Will see, whatthey`ll be.
Cheers Uwe

[YosemiteBen]

Nice find on the lathe tools!

We celebrated the 4th with a wildfire around our little town! It was hot and fast. Google French Fire, CA if you wanna take a look. We had no commercial power for two days. Thank goodness for a generator. Major highway was closed for a bit. I think containment is going up. If things had been a little different, we could have lost parts of our town.

[Muskyman]

Not the kind of fireworks people would want for sure. From what I’ve read it seems they have a handle on it, for now anyway. Also read that no one has been injured badly.
Hopefully the firefighters will get it put out soon.
Still hoping to make a trip out there soon.

[Eric Krewson]

I have been reading and watching videos about using poke berries to eliminate arthritis, I have a trusted friend who has used them with great results.

I eat poke salat every year but have shied away from the mature plant and its berries. I am going to try this folksy remedy cautiously by eating only one berry first to see how I tolerate them.

I started gathering the berries a few days ago and freezing them, most of the berries are still green but I found a few plants that had some ripe ones.

[Pappy]

Never heard that Eric, we eat the salad but was always told the berries were poisonous , we did paint of faces with them as kids.  Let me know how that goes, got plenty around here.
  Pappy

[Eric Krewson]

This guy has a bunch of videos about poke berries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DylV62ARLdg

[GlisGlis]

As far as I know berries are poisonus for all the mammals. Not for birds

USDA site reports:
"The entire plant is poisonous causing a variety of symptoms, including death in rare cases. The berries are especially poisonous. Young leaves and stems when properly cooked are edible and provide a good source of protein, fat and carbohydrate. Regional names for the plant include poke, poke sallet, poke salad, and pokeberry."


https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/phytolacca_americana.shtml

there are sites reporting the use as anti rheumatic in the past but the conclusion is:

"The entire plant is considered toxic and its ingestion produces burning sensations in the mouth and throat, salivation, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, drowsiness, tingling and tingling throughout the body, dizziness, spasms, convulsions, and coma."

staying in the bothanical field i'd try the stinging nettles propertis as anti rheumatic weel before fiddling with Phitolacca

[Eric Krewson]

You can't believe everything you read because it leaves out proper handling.

My lunch yesterday, I have eaten the same thing hundreds of times, I know the proper way to turn the toxic leaves into food. It is a rare backwoods southerner who hasn't eaten poke salat, most of us for all of our lives.

Poke Salat sautéed with butter and onions with an egg thrown in just about the time it is done cooking.

[Eric Krewson]

I pick it in the spring, lots of it, blanch the leaves properly and freeze it in single serve portions to enjoy all year.

[GlisGlis]

My attention was on poke berries
I do believe they could have anti rheumatic properties but they could have also other consistent negative effects
I do not buy the theory of the ancient remedy they dont want you to know
If something really works the human kind use it. And it's even more true if this remedy is almost free.
if it is very seldom used usually it means it has some adverse side that make it not so desirable

As for the leaves do you boil and rinse them several times?
Never tried poke salad
may have a go at it if I find young enough plants

[Eric Krewson]

As I understand it, the berries have a strong anti-inflammatory effect among other things.

I pick the new growth in the spring until the plant starts putting on small white berry clusters. I break off only the tops of the plant, after you pick the first time it will sprout new growth in multiple tops that are also good to pick and eat.

Boiling the leaves and dumping off the water three times will render the greens free of toxins and make them edible. I freeze my blanched poke unseasoned and season it when I cook it to eat it, it is very bland without some seasoning. I always use garlic salt and pepper as well as real butter for seasoning. The added egg is optional but the standard way most people cook poke. I may leave out the egg and add pieces of summer sausage or other meats.

Poke tastes a lot like cooked spinach.