i will be answering questions / providing resources regularly on this blog about cooking, gardening, food preservation, herbalism, etc. while we’re all staying home doing our thing & tryna thrive! send me an ask or a dm or reply to one of the posts :) no question too small

what is a physically accessible way to make bread?

this is one of my favorite bread recipes - i guess more of a modality than a recipe lol, it requires a fair amount of time at the beginning but after that the whole schtick is it only takes 5 minutes a day. no kneading is required at any step of the process and the only special equipment you might need is a heavy cast iron pan or baking stone, but i’ve had totally fine results on a regular baking sheet. not quite the same, but you could also make these very delicious and easy skillet flatbreads or, if you happen to have an electric mixer, this focaccia :)

stuff to do with pickle juice?

Big Big #1 Use is just make more, different pickles! put new veggies right in the jar and leave it for a couple days and you will have pickles. could try this with carrots, onions, or beets. you can also use pickle juice as a yummier substitute for vinegar in recipes (salad dressing! marinade! gazpacho!); add it to the water when you boil potatoes (esp for like german potato salad); take a delicious pickleback shot to take the edge off your anxiety or make this sexy compound butter

how do i sprout dried legumes?

GREAT question and a great thing for people to be doing at home!! sprouts are a vegetable that almost anyone can grow with resources they already have in their own home, and they are delicious. sprouting legumes/grains/seeds also makes them significantly easier to digest! here is a slideshow demonstrating how to sprout, and a chart (below) of sprouting instructions for different kinds of legumes and seeds.  a couple notes: - don’t sprout kidney beans, or if you absolutely must, make sure they get boiled for 10 minutes before you eat them - they are toxic otherwise - wash your shit really well before you sprout it unless you bought things that were produced specifically for sprouting, just because the cleaning standards are different and nobody should get sick with anything avoidable (salmonella, e. coli) right now. no need to worry too much, just wash thoroughly. if you feel really strongly about it, again, boil your sprouts for a sec when they’re done - if you wanna go next level you can feed lightly sprouted stuff to your chickens or throw it in a dehydrator and make sprouted grain flour :0

stay safe :*

(source)

We don’t know how long this situation is going to last or how existing infrastructure will cope with it as time goes on. Regardless of what happens, having extra fresh food to share with your neighbors will absolutely be important going forward. If you’ve ever wanted to grow food, you should do it now

Gardeners are thinning their seedlings and trying to distribute their extra seeds as we speak, and they’ll be thrilled to share if you want to get started. I’ve been doing this myself, giving away seedlings as much as I can. Talk to your friends, look up local gardening groups, visit the house in your neighborhood with veggies growing in the front, whatever. My local mutual aid list even has a urban farming tab for these kinds of offers and requests, with lots of gardeners and local farms offering seeds, advice, even labor. Check your local group, and put a call out asking for them - you might get some offers!

You can also grow certain veggies from food scraps you might already have around. And needless to say, you can save the seeds from your produce as well

You should also start composting ASAP. I made a post recently with a dead-simple guide to get started - it’s not nearly as hard as you’ve heard, it doesn’t take any skill, special materials, or really much care. There are also resources in that link for getting your organic materials to others who are already composting, if you don’t have the space to do it yourself

I have a whole tag full of gardening resources. There’s soooo much in there. And if you need any more help getting started and don’t have any local connections, DM me and I’ll be happy to answer your questions