Aashes X Elutheros Verld

I harvested these in my container garden today.

Aren’t they beautiful? With these, and the ones I harvested indoor today, I managed to fill a full tray in the dehydrator. :D

Steamy, fluffy rice, spring rolls and natto. Easy, affordable, tasty and very nutritious!

Only 10 more and I’ll have my first 100 subs!

As I don’t really have a home of my own, there are always people around. But now I finally have some time to myself. And I am not sure what to do. Due to my living situation, I haven’t really relaxed in over five years, probably closer to nine. That’s not good, I know. I know it’ll change when I have a proper place that is my own, but yeah…

I still need to water the mushroom beds, seedlings, fertilise and harvest a few things today. All part of my daily routine. The irrigation system does the rest, so even all that won’t take more than 15 minutes. A little more if I take breaks to watch the stars.

I don’t have anything to preserve today and while I have a lot of mushrooms growing indoor and outside, there are none that’ll be ready today.

I’ve baked enough bread to last me two months and it’s too soon to make my birthday cake. I cleaned everything there is to clean and did all of the laundry earlier this week, so I have no chores either.

I do have some sewing that I need to do, but I can do that while watching a movie later. This is my first day in so, so long where I don’t have a long to do list to get through and there’s no one here to stress me out.

The sound of silence

It might sound boring to some, but they’d be confusing peace with boredom. I’ve spent the last hour just sitting here enjoying the absence of sensory triggers like lights, artificial smells and noise. It’s so peaceful.

Imagine how good my health would be if I could have peace like this and get to be in a safe space every day. That would be fantastic. Add positive and mindful connections with animals and select humans to that, and that would be a rich life right there.

August is almost here… 🫠

I will start selling my completely sustainable slow fashion designs in August. Same with my art. I am going to start selling my books and digital products again, too.

I will be available for distance reiki healing sessions, intuitive readings, tarot readings and sustainability/self-sufficiency/veganism/solarpunk consultations.

I thought I’d have found some kind of freelance gig by now, but no such luck. I really need to earn around 500 dollars as soon as possible. I’ve been without an income for too long and done my work for free, and I can’t anymore. Not if I want to stay among the living. 🤔 I can cover most of my needs without money, but some things do require money.

Technology

I don’t have a laptop and I need one to work. I need a new tablet too, so that I can keep creating content for my channel. Both second hand, of course.

Healthcare

I’m a bit low on meds and I need to get another aid for my joints called a body braid. I also need to go to the dentist and the eye doctor, but I’m still saving up for those.

Pantry

I need money for certain food staples that I can’t grow.

If I use any and every discount I can get, getting all of that (not the checkups) would cost about 700 dollars. I have some money from filling out surveys etc, so I need to earn at least 500 in August.

If I can sell all of the handmade jewellery pieces, the crochet sweaters and the embroidered boro denim coat I’ve made, that would be more than enough.

I don’t have that many personal possessions left that I could sell, but I’m still going to go through my things and see if I can find something that might be worth something.

If you guys could share my shop/site once it’s up, that would be so helpful. I can take orders now too via PayPal, but the shop may make it easier. Until then, sharing my YouTube channel and my posts here at Tumblr is also helpful.

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These summer nights~

I’m going to go for a quick walk in the woods and then I’ll make dinner. I think I’ll sit outside and then I might watch the new Devil Wears Prada movie.

Tomorrow I’ll post a garden update and show you the adorable mushroom clusters growing from the jugs and bucket.

I cleaned, vacuumed in my room and changed the sheets. I washed the sheets, towels and my own clothes. I ironed everything that needed ironing and put everything back where it belonged.

For dinner I made kimchi hotpot and grilled cheese sandwiches with a cheese from the new batch of pepperjack cheese that I made a few weeks ago. Everything tasted amazing and I get to eat the leftovers today.

I cleaned the bathroom and washed the floor after my bath.

I harvested berries, mushrooms, pickling cucumber, wheat and oats. The mushrooms were dehydrated and packed in mylar bags. The berries were frozen. The grain is drying. The oat grass will be used in my apothecary while the wheat stalks will be cut, dried and used as mushroom substrate.

When I have enough pickling cucumbers, I’ll pickle and can them.

I watered the mushroom beds, fertilised, fed them coffee grounds and removed slugs. The slugs started coming back about two weeks ago and I don’t know why. Due to the weird weather maybe? The slug repellant has worked great until now, so I hope they piss off soon. It’s not fun seeing the slimy babies hang from the leaves and eat through my new seedlings every day. The little pricks are even using my irrigation system to access each container. The nerve... This is why I planted extra of everything, but I still can’t have them frequent the garden like this. I better up my game.

I created the missing June full moon meditation and the July full moon meditation for my channel. Both soundscapes include nature sounds I recorded myself here in Sweden. I hope you guys check them out. If you do, please listen to the whole videos. They’re a little over 15 minutes each. The algorithm doesn’t push videos people stopped watching halfway. :/

The bucket and jugs are now starting their second harvests. When I harvested one of the clusters last time, a small part of the mushroom block came off, so I fed it to my propagated plants. That small part now has an oyster mushroom cluster growing on it. 😅 Am I the mushroom whisperer, or what?

The digestive biscuits I made are seriously addictive. When I get more of my flour blend, I better double the recipe and stock up. You need plenty of tea, warm beverages and biscuits for fall, after all. Though I have a to do-list as long as Santa’s to get through before then. Hope we get a late frost. I need all the time I can get…

Squash & Cucumbers

Now I have gone through all of my containers and made sure there’s only one squash or cucumber plant in each container. I also made sure each one had good access to the sun, as they need 6 to 10 hours of sunlight per day.

I had to find some creative spots for the bonus plants that had nowhere to go. Hopefully they’ll like their new homes and grow well there.

I still hope to grow over 100 kg of butternut squash this year, but to achieve that, they need to start producing asap as it is already July 28th. Now that they have more room, they ought to grow a lot more quickly. It rained a bit yesterday and they received more fertiliser too.

Mushrooms

Most of the containers have produced mushrooms, but some more than others. The less productive ones will get a mycelium boost when I empty my grow jugs.

Two out of three wine cap beds have produced mushrooms. The third is completely white with mycelium, so it should produce soon. I do need to keep feeding it, though.

Beans

Most of the containers have beans growing in them. They’re doing well and I will plant more.

Chinese cabbage

Two are over halfway to maturity. The seedlings and seeds I planted will be thinned out later, but they are growing well.

Taro

They’re doing very well.

Sweet potatoes

The slips are still very small, but growing.

Alliums

Doing well. Most of the garlic has been harvested, but I have some left. I am not sure I’ll have enough extra to plant garlic for next year, so I may need to buy a few. I have harvested a few onions, but most are still in the soil. I need to plant green onions too.

Potatoes

Hope they’ll grow greens soon. When I harvested the summer potatoes, the large seed potatoes were left in the soil so that they could produce an autumn harvest. Fingers crossed.

Herbs

Doing well with regular harvests.

Apples

Doing well and the trees survived the pests.

Berries

Only blueberries, wild strawberries and sloe aronia left. The rest have been harvested.

Tomatillos

Three are blooming and have fruit. The fourth is catching up.

Tomatoes

One is of a good size and close to blooming. The rest of the plants are still small. They haven’t done as well as expected and I think the wild weather had something to do with that. There’s still time, though.

Peppers

The chili pepper had its first harvest. The bell pepper have a few peppers growing, but I want at least six fully grown ones. The baby seedlings are still small.

Aubergine

Two flowers were killed by pests. I’m waiting for more.

Sunflowers

I have over a dozen plants growing. They’ve produced a good amount of leaves for me. None are blooming yet, but they’re almost there.

Oats

I have harvested two thirds and the remaining plants are growing well.

Wheat

The wheat plants are finally entering the next stage. They’ll be ready in late August- mid September.

Sunchokes

They’re growing very well. I hope to get a few kilograms at least.

Other:

New Cuties Have Emerged!

Wine caps are known as garden giants, so I hope at least one of them will grow past 500 grams. There are at least 6 in this cluster.

When I harvest, I bury some stem pieces in the largest bed. Hopefully that will trigger it to start producing… I want the mushroom beds to produce more mushrooms than I can eat. That way I can dehydrate them and really stock up for winter. 🙏🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

In these times, I can truly see how useful it is to know how to do things yourself. People used to be so much more self-sufficient and independent. Today many people scarcely know how to boil water, and that is a truly frightening thought.

My experience

I was born in the 90s, but it wasn’t my parents or grandparents who taught me how to be self-sufficient. I have always been very independent and enjoyed doing things myself and figure out how things work. When I first moved out, I started growing my own food, making what I need and live a sustainable life. I was 21. I couldn’t live exactly how I wanted to while living with my parents, but I made sure to do so as soon as I moved.

Unfortunately, fate had me move back twice, and that has been more challenging than words can express. But I have stayed true to the life I want to lead.

Self reliant skills

I grow my own food, cook everything from scratch and preserve food that I grow and forage. I can make jam, marmalade, syrups, cordials and other fruit preserves.

I know how to water bath can and how to can food. I can also ferment, pickle and dehydrate food.

I make my own tea and herbal medicines, salves, balms, wound care and such. Same with tooth paste, deodorant, hair products, body butter, soap and other hygiene essentials. I don’t spend money on laundry detergent or any cleaning detergent; I make my own.

I make all of my clothes, bags, jewellery, home decor and I’m learning how to make shoes.

I’ve been cutting my own hair for almost a decade and I have followed no poo for 13 years.

As a makeup artist, I can also make my own makeup, should I wish to. I once wanted to be a nail technician, so I am quite good at nail art as well.

My health and joints aren’t great, but I can certainly manage basic repairs and some wood working.

I bake my own bread and make just about everything I eat from scratch.

It wasn’t that long ago when everyone knew how to do these things. People knew how to survive and how to meet their own needs. If there was something they couldn’t do or acquire, they knew who could and bartered with them. That’s how I want to live and indeed how I am living.

Baking

I bake gluten-free 98% of the time, so all of my recipes are gluten-free. I have made several new recipes this year, but there are still a few special ones that I want to try.

I am considering creating a recipe for Marie biscuits. They won’t cost much to make and they go great with tea. I could also experiment with making them with either vanilla, ginger or cardamom.

I will keep researching frugal lessons and recipes from the Great Depression of the last century and modernise them. As well as, when needed, make them gluten-free and vegan.

Right now I need to focus on my ongoing projects, but I’d like to make an even more frugal cookbook in the future. Like an addition to my current cookbook. With recipes that are nutritious and filling, but cost next to nothing to make.

Restocking the pantry

I need more flour for my flour blend, so I have made a cost estimate and I’ll earn gift certificates until I have enough. When the most expensive items are greatly discounted, I’ll make my purchase.

I also need epsom salt, baking soda, turmeric and black salt. So I am tracking the prices. I get notified when the prices go down so that I can buy what I need in bulk for as little as possible. I make bulk purchases for the pantry every other or every third year.

I need sugar and vinegar for canning. The prices will go down in August, temporarily, so I’ll buy them in bulk when they’re at their most affordable.

Shortages are coming

I better get more rice, oats, potatoes and coconut milk this summer. I am tracking the teff flour shops so that I can get it when it’s back in stock. Some more dry yeast and vanilla wouldn’t go amiss either. Better safe than sorry.

I need to make more seasoning blends and I need date coffee.

We don’t know when shipments will stop coming, temporarily or permanently. There are a lot of shortages already and more are coming. The weather and drought have messed up a lot of harvests across the world. Putin burning down fields have ruined even more.

Best to cover your needs before things get worse. Having dry staples in good supply is essential.

Learn how to forage, preserve and get food for free. Make it nutritious and make it last.

Make do, mend or do without

If you have possessions that can be mended and require certain tools or items to be mended, make sure you have them in good supply.

Invest in chargeable batteries and stock up on those.

Learn how to make your own candles and soap so that you’ll never run out.

Learn how to mend and revive shoes, clothing, bags, tech and more.

Start a garden

Be it indoor or outside, start learning how to grow at least some of your own food. Mushrooms, herbs, leafy greens, tomatoes, potatoes, squash and so on. There are many options. You can get growing mediums and seeds for free. Plants too, with some connections.

No matter how and where you live, there are ways to start growing your own food and get food for free.

Get it for free