butter, ricotta and feta this week that went into homemade ravioli

Follow up to this nocino-making post. I used a cloth to catch all solid bits while letting the liquid part through. Result: 1.5L of pure nocino.

Still, I was not satisfied, so I decided to experiment some more and split it into 1L of pure nocino, and .5L to which I added 1L of milk to make nocino cream (same ratio I used for meloncello last year).

I am storing the pure liqueur in the root cellar, while the cream is in the freezer. Tradition demands that I wait until the winter holidays at the very least, but I already had a shot of the pure liqueur and it was phenomenal, with a strong taste of walnut that I never before tasted in store-bought products (or it may just be placebo effect).

I will keep you posted.

Retired out of construction six months ago, moved to a small property south of Atlanta, and figured building raised garden beds would be the easy part. I have framed houses. I have poured concrete. I cannot, apparently, build a raised bed that drains properly.

Put them directly on clay Georgia soil, did not break up the base, filled them with a mix I thought was solid. First heavy rain everything compacted and sat waterlogged for days. Lost most of my early spring starts. Real proud moment for someone who spent twenty years telling crews how to do things right.

What got me was assuming the raised bed itself would handle drainage without me touching the ground underneath. It will not. Learned that late.

Now I am looking at either pulling everything apart and laying hardware cloth with some gravel underneath before I replant, or just mounding the soil higher and hoping for the best. The mounding option is the dumb option, I already know that

For people gardening on heavy clay in the southeast, is breaking the clay pan underneath actually worth the extra work, or do you just build the beds taller and live with it? Curious what actually worked versus what only sounded good in theory. Skipping that step cost me a full season, so take that for whatever it is worth

I have a small orchard of 10 trees. Most were planted two years ago, two last year. Early next spring I'm going to do 8 of their first trimmings. I've done a bunch of research already, with some conflicting advice. Was wondering what all of you suggest. My idea was to trim conflicting branches off of the large tree, and find the best leaders for the other bigger ones. They've all had a bunch of tall growth this year. Any advice for which would be the best leaders? And is there anything else you suggest I do next early spring? Thank you!

UPDATE: After reading all of the excellent responses, I picked up a shiny new LEM. Thanks to everybody who took the time to chime in!

I was at Walmart tonight, and my sporting goods section is getting ready for dear season (archery starts in just a couple weeks! Now I've just got to let this heat dome pass so the whole thing doesn't spoil...). As such, they've put out a few new meat grinders (second picture), and have their "old" grinders on substantial clearance (first picture, with a yellow tag on one of the better stocked shelves).

My question is simple: are any of these a good buy, especially at the substantial clearance prices?

My family usually put 3-4 deer away per season, and I usually did all my own processing. Up until now, I've borrowed my in-laws' grinder/sausage stuffer. Unfortunately, my significant other decided to participate in other stuffing activities with someone else while I was out on the road providing for everybody, so no more significant other or in-laws, and I figure I need to get my own (between my kids and I we'll still probably put back at least 3 deer this fall).

I understand the difference between the "numbers," but also appreciate that it's a balance between other considerations of size, motor strength, sharpness and reliability, etc. I do not recall my in-laws' grinder number (and we're not on speaking terms, sadly) but do recall it was a "consumer grade" LEM with the mighty-bite, and I never had trouble with it- it looks like currently the only LEM grinder with Mighty Bite is the #8 (the #12 goes by BigBite), so unless that's a recent change I was probably dealing with a #8 (and while I'm not sure how old it was or how many hours it had, their grinder was also used by at least two or three other hunters per season besides them and myself).

Anyway, the candidates are:

New models listed:

Mossy Oak by Westin #8 ( $119) and #12 ($149)

Clearance Models:

Mossy Oak by Westin #12 $61(!), down from $127 (or $149 from current model)

LEM #8 with MightyBite $119, down from $227

Which, if any, of these should I go back to get? My gut feeling is to go with the LEM based on personal experience, reviews and a better warranty, but I'd love to learn from your experiences with these (and hey, if it turns out that the Westin is of better quality than I thought, and I can get a larger through-put grinder for sixty bucks, I wouldn't complain!).

Probably a dumb question but is it true that this tote can be used to store water for showering and dishes when cleaned out

It had a chlorine solution

Dug into the hillside on the back of the property last September, lined the walls with concrete block, put a basic insulated door on it. Temperature stays somewhere between 38 and 48 degrees depending on how cold it gets outside, which seemed reasonable. Humidity is where I'm losing sleep. It swings more than I expected and the potatoes in there are starting to look questionable earlier than they should.

Ventilation is two fourinch PVC pipes, one low one high, which is what most of the builds I looked at used. Starting to wonder if that's actually enough, or if there's a drainage issue I haven't tracked down yet. The floor is packed gravel and it feels damp after heavy rain.

The onions I pulled in August are holding up fine. Squash looks good. So it's not a total failure, but the potato situation is nagging at me

I haven't done any humidity control beyond a cheap gauge and hoping for the best. Wondering if anyone has actually gotten a root cellar working reliably year to year and what made the real difference. Not looking to tear it apart and start over, just curious what people found actually moved the needle

I just got an IBC Tote. I was told it is food safe but I can't find anything on it indicating that it is. Where would it be on the tank? What can I use this for if not for water?? I don't want to poison my plants or animals. Can't use it for compost? The only thing I can think of is putting weeds in it to discard.

Its a 300L tank. If I sold it, what would be a reasonable price? Its entirely functional but has a small crack at the top.

There's more information in the comments.

I went out after rabbits on the farm this morning and took the ATV along the edge of the field. The ground looked firm but it absolutely was not like that as can be seen in pic 😢

So now I have two nice ruts to fill before the next rain. Rookie move, ikik, go easy on me I already spent my afternoon fixing it. I do have HeloKeep 26M at home, but I haven't tried it on the wet ground yet. Now I'm wondering if the fat tires would have actually left less damage, or if I would've just made two narrower ruts.

So do we have any redditors here, using a fat-tire e-bike on hunting property? do these make a noticeable difference on wet grass, or does soft ground win either way?

I was given 40 ears of sweet corn and am running out of ideas! I have frozen/canned a bunch, eaten it fresh but still have more left and don't want it to go to waste. Any recommendations on what else to do?

Don’t repost much but hopefully you can see the question here?

Mulberry grove inbound