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blueandyellowmakes

Author • Speaker • Homesteader
Executive director @theutopianseedproject
Communications manager @sowtrueseed
My book: The Whole Okra.

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@lieswine was right. The chicken coop is a great child containment area.
#homeschoolinghacks

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How quickly they grow up.
Also, these mushrooms are being grown on dead pasturized plants. Literally old tomato vines and okra pods, some shredded paper from the office and some sawdust from a construction project! CRAZY 🍄

#oystermushrooms #mushrooms

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Zoe has a basket of chickweed, sochan and cilantro, destined for pesto. Emily prunes muscadines in the background.

#homesteading

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Best review yet! Left on a @sowtrueseed order. They're working hard to make sure you get the seeds you need.

#TheWholeOkra

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Grow babies, grow!
#oystermushrooms

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It's been a great couple of weeks for shiitake harvest.

#shiitake #shiitakelogs #growyourownfood

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Emmy and I went garden foraging (basically harvesting edibles we didn't plant!). #eatyourgreens

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A couple of important things about this photo. First, babies cannot dive headfirst into your buckets if they are full of pasturized yard waste. Two, if you innoculate that yard waste with oyster mycelium then mushrooms will grow from holes in the bucket.
#babyproofyourbuckets #growmushrooms #oysters #oystermushrooms

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I explained Trump's Covid-19 response to Trouble.

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While Covid-19 is running around doing its thing, Shingles snuck in the back door and took me down.

After my longest and possibly worst headache and backache ever (7 days before easing), I turned my attention to a small painful rash and everything clicked into place.

Later that day, for about 30 minutes, I lost all ability to form coherent sentences and articulate what was in my head. It scared the shit of me (and @lieswine). Bell's Palsy if you're interested. I'm ok.

But today, as I keep an ear and an eye on the debates and the most ridiculous healthcare system I've ever experienced, I realize the most scary thing is America. Here healthcare is not a fundamental right, but a privilege. Barbaric, I know. It makes me sick, both figuratively and I'm sure literally.
I grew up with the NHS, which is far from perfect, but it meant I didn't have to debate with my wife over the value of getting checked out vs. $650 ER copay. And that's me, with a reasonable job AND insurance.

You're either selfish or stupid if you think this system works. And I'm done with intelligent ignorance.

#healthcare #shingles #iwantbernietobemynurse #butbelleisprettygoodtoo

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Spring is springing.
#spring #maple #dafodils #garlic

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As okra season approaches I wanted to let you know about a few things:

1. I'm teaching a class on okra on Saturday and Sunday at @organicgrowersschool THIS weekend. There's lots going on, so if you're looking for a great educational weekend then this is it.

2. I'm working with @slowfoodavl on their Heritage Food Project which is spotlighting Aunt Hettie's Red okra this year. Launch event on March 30 with lots of okra stuff happening. If you love okra then you should come!

3. As much as I hate to admit it, Amazon Reviews (good ones) really help the exposure of my book. If you've read it then please go and review it. It's worth heading over to Amazon just to check out my (hilarious) 1 Star Review 🌟

#okra #thewholeokra #InDefenseOfOkra #heritagefoodproject #okra2020

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These seeds were planted at the end of Jan and then left in my shed by a sunny window and pretty much ignored. They went through low teen temps, infrequent watering, and low winter sun. I'm pretty amazed how good they look!
#amazingseeds #seedstarting #springgreens #growyourownfood

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As my pickled okra stock runs low, I'm heartened by the longer days as this season accelerates towards spring. I used to experiment with okra pickle recipes, but stopped when I came across @hseanbrock's recipe in his amazing book, Heritage. He allowed me to republish that recipe in my book and @ptpix captured this great photo. That yellowness is the secret - turmeric - the true taste of summer, caught in a jar to help fight the winter blues with every bite.
#thewholeokra #indefenseofokra #okra #okrapickles #turmeric
Book link in my bio.

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A gin with my name on its name. Perhaps this would feel more special if my name was?

#gin #ginandtonic #quinineagainstmalaria #thereisnomalariaintheUK #dontcontradictmeinpublic #maybeyoushouldlayoffthegin #maybeyoushouldlearntousehashtags

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Yesterday we said goodbye to my Taid, and showed his granddaughter the beach we all loved. Taid is Welsh for grandfather, which is a fact I proudly repeated to all my school friends whenever a visit to Rhyl was on the horizon. Each summer our parents would drop off my brothers and I on the shores of North Wales for a couple of magical weeks with our grandparents.
We wrote our names in giant letters on the beach and ran along the shoreline with a dog called Whiskey yipping at our heels. On cold summer days we would dig the deepest holes, play in the sea and run from the waves, and then Taid would wrap us in towels as we walked barefooted and shivering to the bungalow on Burns Drive.
Taid had Skye TV and he let us watch all sorts of things we shouldn’t have been watching. I think my little brother may still be traumatized by early exposure (he was 8) to films like Terminator, Aliens and Predator. These late night films were filled with chocolate and sweets and fizzy pop and all helped reinforce the impression that we had the world’s best grandfather.
From odds and ends in Taid’s garage, we built a giant ramshackle go kart and rode it down the street, unfettered by fear. Taid had a certain way of making us feel like nothing bad could happen. He drove us down country roads like a rally car racer and gave us our first experience of 100 miles per hour on the A55, ever susceptible to our pleading to go faster and faster. Taid encouraged us to jump from cliff sides, wade across streams and climb trees. It was Taid who taught us to hold back the sea with fortified sand castles, and when they were washed away, to try again. These are lessons we didn’t know we were learning, and I’m not sure if Taid knew he was teaching.
Taid taught me to juggle with rolled up socks and skim stones under a bridge in St. Asaph. Taid taught my little brother to shave, when he was about 6yrs old, but this was really a case of my little brother wanting to do what Taid did because Taid was the type of person you wanted to grow up to be.
These little things are signs of a grandfather who loved us, who would roll on the floor and be children with us, who laughed with light in his eyes.

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Going to grow some beautiful runner beans this year. One aim is to harvest an edible potato like root.
#runnerbeans #edibleroots

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I have an okra mystery... Three pods, all with the letters 'RW' written on their stem. Sadly I have no recollection of what that means and don't have a variety I can recall with those initials. I've been grateful to receive a lot of varieties over the last few years and this is the first I've lost track of. Does anyone remember giving these pods to me?! #okra #seedsaving #okrapods

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The wall of mushrooms has a new poster 🍄

#mushrooms #ilovemushrooms

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We should all leap from heights higher than ourselves.

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Michael Twitty (@thecookinggene) contributed the foreword and a wonderful vegan okra soup recipe to my book. The soup has deep culinary ties to the west coast of Africa and is almost certainly the original inspiration for the early forms of gumbo. Winter is a grand time for making okra soup with dried okra, such was the tradition.
This recipe and a deep dive into the history of gumbo is part of my chapter, Embracing the 'S' Word. You can get your signed copy via the link in my bio.

#okra #embracetheslime #okrasoup #gumbo #TheWholeOkra #driedokra

Always a massive thanks to @ptpix for the incredible photography.

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Making dandelion wishes with a backdrop of nasturtiums and sorrel!
#sowingseeds #dandelions #iwishtobeafairy

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I missed these little hooligans.

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These larger lemons make my limes look little.

#largelemons

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Just checking out some awesome looking cabbages in Oregon.
Also it's a wet, penetrating cold, with rain that isn't actually falling but just hanging out in the air. Kind of like England.

#homesick #britishweather #cabbage #croptrials

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My trip to Oregon begins with complimentary gin and tonics (unlimited, I think) and some light reading.

I'm very excited that @organic_seed_alliance granted me a scholarship for their biannual seed growers conference and that Southern SARE have supported me with travel costs.
I promise to learn a lot and bring that knowledge back to the Southeast.
While I'm thanking people... the wonderful @lieswine is looking after our little okra pods with the help of @henricrawford - thank you!
Another gin and tonic and I might start thanking the Queen.

#alwayslearning #alwaysgrowing

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Harvesting limes in Western NC.

#elevateyourginandtonic #limes

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On these rainy winter days, especially after talking about okra all weekend at @georgiaorganics, I get hungry for okra season.
Luckily I tend to keep a large jar of dehydrated okra kicking around for times like these! Dried okra in soups, stews and gumbos is the BEST.
Eternal thanks to @ptpix for capturing so many of the beautiful shots in my book (including this one). #thewholeokra #indefenseofokra #OkraLoversUnite #driedokra #okra #dehydratedokra #eatokraallwinter #okrafanclub #okrasoup #gumbo

Book buying link in my bio!

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I think it's a mini-me. She's even got the same hat as me.... #hatstealer #geneticsarecrazy #daughterofmine #babyz

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A turmeric heavy, kimchi-ish, kraut. Pretty excited about how this one turned out.
#delicious #turmerictastesofsunshine #kimchi #fermenting #saurkraut

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It was 65F in Asheville last week and snowing in Georgia today. Luckily snow in Georgia proves that global warming isn't real... #snow

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Tough task this weekend at @georgiaorganics ... I've got to be @ira.wallace and myself 🙂 @southernexposureseed sponsored a table and shared it with @utopianseedproject
I'm teaching seed saving tomorrow morning and okra in the afternoon.

#seedsaving #thewholeokra #OkraLoversUnite

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Processing a bunch of 'good genetics' paw paw seeds! These are from wild large fruiting stock and pawpaw's are pretty good at passing on traits through their seeds.

#pawpaws #seedsaving

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