Yesterday was great food. We still had porcini left from our foraging the day before, so we had those for lunch. For dinner, I breaded some parasol mushrooms with potato mash from our harvest. In between, a quick trip to the hardware store. And then I just quickly wanted to pick the peaches but kept finding more little gems. Can't all days be this calm and delicious?
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Kate Hildenbrand
@rootsandcalluses@mstdn.social
mastodon 4.7.2Garden coach and activist for regenerative gardening and agriculture, climate change, and biodiversity. Between fascism, capitalism, and social crises, I hardly get to complain about pesticides, destroyed soils and biodiversity loss.
I share my knowledge on growing food, cooking and preserving, as well as ecosystem thinking in articles and videos and help others remotely with their gardens.
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Joined July 01, 2025
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More and more, I see people sharing Google Share links here. I hate it. Now I either have to go to the page myself and search for the e.g. article or I have to accept getting tracked by Google. Can I have the scratchy peep of a 56k-modem back but in exchange, the internet is usable again?
What a day. The fruit press is absolute junk. We'll need a new one. Sad. I hope the fruit lasts.
I climbed a tree. Properly. I shook branches. I turned the press wheel at full strength. I saved a bread dough by making pizza.
I am spent.
After 50 liters of apple juice through the manual press yesterday, today's a rest day. Naturally, this means I just harvested some more hops and cleaned up quite a few things.
This sunflower had it rough. We had to help it with a rope or it would've fallen. It still bears plenty of seeds.
Anything green is turning yellow, though, and the ants haven taken the plant over to farm aphids. They don't touch the seeds, so we'll see where this goes.
I'm curious to see what happens.
I'm so spent, I'm ignoring open messages from at least three people. If I'm ignoring you: I am sorry. I'll get back to you as soon as I have some spoons.
I often wish I wouldn't notice the everyday discrimination everywhere. We're watching a rather chill cooking show on German public TV. It's relaxing, makes me want to cook. But all the casual -isms... One host announces all females as „the dear XY“ while men get just their name. Every time, it's only women left, it is a big deal. Then three men get to the semi final and not a word. Old and young people get patronized. It's sad, really.
And if a nonbinary person ever joins, their brains break.
Great. I've got some ginormous parasol mushrooms prepped and breaded to go onto the grill, and now there's rain and a stormwarning. Well then, to the kitchen. 18-centimeter burner vs parasol...
I used to really like typing animations, so episode titles and such that appear word by word or even letter by letter. Now, I first think of bots... Damn, I hate (gen)AI.
27.5 liters of juice later, I fall into bed. But it sure is the good kind of exhausted.
Why didn't you tell me how delicious elderberries are?
(Do I have to add a warning now that they are toxic raw?)
Boosted by @MaryAustinBooks@mstdn.social
A heap of chickens to fluff up the timeline :)
#KatesChickens
I chopped free an old pear tree last fall. With more light, it is recovering well and carrying dark red fruits. I'm excited!
#gardening
Just a quick reminder: if you want food in your garden this winter, it's high time to think about it.
Some cabbages and other brassica can still be planted, some are a little too late. Chard, radishes, some things will still work.
And while your in your seed boxes: it's soon time for spinach and corn salad.
(And to my friends in the Southern Hemisphere: sorry. I know this doesn't apply to you. On the bright side: you get to start thinking about summer planting instead.)
#gardening
Today, I have to drive 1.5 hours to the MRI examination for my colon, waiting room, actual MRI, then 1.5 hours back. There is an MRI machine about a quarter of an hour away. But the next appointment is in December...
I just listened to a 20-minute interview of a very Christian politician because the FCC didn't want me to see it. Hah.
It was really well done and entertaining. I like the positive spin on the bible, and how he uses it against hate. A bit preachy at times but that comes with the career choice.
Seems quite the opponent for the other guy known for mostly corruption.
(Jimmy Kimmel interviewed James Talarico.)
The neighbor cat starts meowing happily when the car can be heard in the distance. Loudly, very off-tune, but definitely happily, and only for the correct car. I love it.
During the heat wave last week, which was much less extreme here than in other parts, multiple workers at the local grocery store went home because their metabolisms couldn't manage the heat. I don't want to know how many people are close to collapsing but don't stop and go home while no one even notices a thing...
Replying to
@EventOrg@ruhrpott.social @syhr@mastodon.art Mostly shaded and in a corner makes me think salads and other greens. But you can get away with a lot if there is some sun.
Lazy approach: throw in some green manure seeds, let those die off in winter, plant next spring with radishes, salads, anything that's not heat lovers like tomatoes.
ADHD needs action now: pull any weeds, sow some plants now or in fall depending on the temps in that corner, then go to lazy appproach.
1/3
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@EventOrg@ruhrpott.social @syhr@mastodon.art As to the weeds: I personally would leave any that are not blocking access. Walk on them normally. Don't avoid stepping on them. Over time, you'll get smaller green in there. :)
Harder way: pull all of them, get a pack of seeds intended for the cracks, and take care of them for a little bit.
2/3
Maybe I'll just upload my novels to my website as free .epub and call it a day. All those damned shop systems suck in one way or another. I'm not making any money anyway and this way more people might get to enjoy my stories. Hmm.
But if I do that, I really can't justify translating them to German, and I really wanna do that.
Replying to
grumpy swear rant about academia and $
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@BathysphereHat@mastodon.online True. Did this a lot for my BA thesis. Most responded and provided whatever was needed. I got some pretty great interviews, too. Scientists are usually pretty approachable people.
Phew, a simple GP visit really is day-filling... Due to three road closures, it took almost 1.5 hours to get there. Then I waited a while in the sun outside the practice. Almost 1.5 hours back, short stop at the post office. Day over...
But: I felt as if I was listened to. And I got two referrals for further checking. And we have a hypothesis for what's going on.
And I've got my next prescription settled.
A lawyer sends me an ad-filled email with offers for stuff from bankruptcy auctions. Apparently diesel products are all the rage now. How did they get my email address? Well, apparently a US company gave it to them... Data Privacy really is dead...
Replying to
@EventOrg@ruhrpott.social @syhr@mastodon.art As to the worm bin. I would either use it as a worm farm again or as a raised bed depending on construction. Or get it out of there and put a chair in to enjoy the corner once there is green.
3/3
Replying to
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social It's just something that makes it even harder for those already struggling... We are fine, too, but I remember times when a couple hundred bucks would have meant issues with food...
@nxskok@cupoftea.social @maikek@fedifreu.de
Forecast says it'll rain for three days now. So far, the lightest of drizzles. Will we get water this time?
Replying to
@mikecastro@mastodon.world What do I measure?
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@TresFluke@beige.party And some of us are all the colors at once. I'm a rainbow. Somehow reading your list and nodding at each one made me feel seen and included. Happy disability pride :)
I'm rather cynical-sarcastic today. Anyone wanna tell me how cute their pet is?
I have to leave for my old/new GP in an hour. I'll have to tell them things that sound impossible, made-up, like utter nonsense. The solution would be to touch me. Many medical people have refused to touch me before, claiming to believe me, later telling me it's impossible.
I am trying hard to not be too skeptical. This doctor has always tried to listen, to help, to believe. They have not disappointed me. Hopefully, that'll stay true today.
Replying to
@MsDropbear42@blahaj.zone I remember the footage from a pretty bad bout of bird flu on Helgoland a few years back. I've been watching people ignore the problem since... I wanted to record a video on the mud flats near where we lived, and instead ended up recording a video about dying birds... https://video.katehildenbrand.com/w/pr5ZUqqh1xTph46XomNcAQ
It's so sad that it's still spreading further, and no one cares...
Replying to
@JigmeDatse@social.openpsychology.net one of the workers doing our renovation responded to my extreme-heat alert with (translated): „Yeah, everything is extreme weather now. It was this hot in summer years ago.“
When I told him that it is (now was) still spring, he looked confused for a moment, then doubled down...
Replying to
@moriel@chaosfem.tw I can definitely tell you that I only ever feel like I have a social deficit with neurotypicals. Throw me into a room with people on the spectrum, and I'm fine. I mean, except for the noise and the many people. But it's not the social interaction itself that is the issue then ;)
Replying to
@trachelipus@masto.ai We have an area like that, though luckily not the poisonous variety, just ivy and a persistant evergreen. We had a sick tree removed, so we started dumping the wood chips there to smother the persistent invasive evergreen. Neither of us likes the look or feel of wood chips but it is a necessary step in between. When the ivy and that blasted evergreen is smothered, I will replant with forest-soil loving plants like blueberries (the European variety) and some shrubs and trees.
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@Sirablopp@eldritch.cafe @valcurious@lgbtqia.space @alexadeswift@lgbtqia.space You definitely get fish and chips here in Mecklenburg Vorpommern. Backfisch mit Pommes.
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@fedops@fosstodon.org Well if they eat the mushrooms... better than your plants. Slugs haven't become an issue this year yet because it's been way too dry.
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@fedops@fosstodon.org The mushrooms will die soon. The slugs are more of an issue. Mushrooms are a sign that your soil is alive. That's a good thing :)
Could you send some rain here? We need it.
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@trachelipus@masto.ai Or just grow something in the area :) You can still start things off by covering but some nice plant from your area will need little maintenance. To quote the previous owner of this house: „There are no weeds where there are strawberries.“
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@econetwork@mas.to I remember. Very smart plan :)
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@econetwork@mas.to Looking so good!
One can drive for miles here and see essentially nothing but bare dry soil and canola fields. Monocultures and dead soil for as far as the eye can see. The irrigation systems are spraying over canola in perfect rows of perfectly standardized plants. And people think this is pretty...
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@JigmeDatse@social.openpsychology.net Well, we've had warm summers before but neither this hot nor this extended nor this early. I know it is in German but here's a graph showing the number of days above 40 degrees anywhere in Germany. This is not normal.
https://mastodon.green/@VQuaschning/116839901908238494
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@syhr@mastodon.art No problem at all. Let me know if you have questions. @EventOrg@ruhrpott.social
What's the modern equivalent of wearing pants for female-read people to protest gender stereotypes and prescribed roles?
As a male-read person, this would be wearing a skirt, painting your fingernails, glitter, even a pink shirt.
(A big shout-out to the feminists who wore pants when this was protest!)
#nonbinary
Replying to
@crystalvisits@mas.wrong.tools I guess you have bunnies now. I am sure they wouldn't mind if you planted all your lettuces there ;)
Do I install DaVinci Resolve Studio again because I know how to use it or do I try kdenlive?
Replying to
@Gillinger@mas.to Is it maybe the one that gets all the sunlight? Depending on your location, it might be heat damage. Hard to tell from a photo.
Are the damaged leaves crisp or soft? Any smells? How do the stems looks? Any spots? Anything on the bottom of the leaves?
Same variety as the other tomatoes? Same watering? Same soil conditions at the locations?