For me its probably Gaming - I’ve been trying to master civ 6 and Dots 2 lately and I also enjoy reading - Been trying to read the Singularity is near, but this book is just very academic and its taking a while lol

  • marx2k@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Fermenting. Kraut, pickles, cauliflower, hot peppers to make my own hot sauce, horseradish, garlic honey, etc

    Kombucha, water kefir, milk kefir.

    Sourdough. Made my first caraway seeded sourdough rye today. Chefs kiss.

    Growing mushrooms of the legal and illegal kind.

    I’m doing a first attempt at brewing beer as well as wine right now.

    Just put some mj seeds in a paper towel. Decked out the basement for a full grow.

    Raising chickens for the eggs, a lot of which I also pickle.

    Gardening with my wife. We mainly only ate our own back yard goods this summer and fall.

    I’m going to try to make soap this weekend hot a mold kit and some sodium hydroxide.

    Growing plants in a kratky hydroponics system. We made so much pesto this year from that.

    And I still somehow work a 40 hour week :D

    • MigratingtoLemmy@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I would like to learn more about your garden and hydroponics setup. Do you have a blog/post/comment detailing it? I would like to reach somewhere close to self-sustainance myself, from my own garden/hydroponics setup.

      Thanks!

      • marx2k@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Decided to take a picture of the basil i have going right now.

        I forget the types but it’s 4 of one type, two of another. These are in the grow tent i plan on doing the mj in one those seeds pop

          • marx2k@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Kratky is pretty much dwc without the air. I’m pretty impressed. If you ever get into the hobby, look into the method

      • marx2k@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Kratky method hydroponics - https://www.epicgardening.com/the-kratky-method/

        It’s pretty much set it and forget it for the life cycle of the plant. Of course it depends on the plant and the size of the bucket. I’ve successfully grown lettuce, bok choy, basil and mint so far in 5 gallon buckets and a fluorescent grow light panel. I have 3 plants growing per bucket.

        With the back yard, it’s just a large back yard and the wife used a sod kicker to remove grass all along the fence and we put in raised beds. We have about 8 raised beds, each about 4x4, that e grow in and then we also have trellises around the yard that we grow things like squash, cakes, beans, etc on, directly out of the ground

    • marx2k@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Forgot to mention we also do run a weekly microgreens harvest which makes for all year kickass salads

      • marx2k@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I find that every hobby I have, I’ve learned from endlessly scouring other blogs and forums, so really me creating another blog would just be adding noise.

        Also, I think for anyone getting into it, my main advice is that a lot of the fun is failing, learning from that failure and making small improvements the next time. Once I get a routine down and a workflow down, it’s cool but also becomes boring and I seek something else to do. That’s probably how I ended up with so many things going on :D

    • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Hey another hot sauce person! I’ve been into that a couple years now I love it. I really enjoy spicy food but most really hot store sauces taste like burnt assholes, so I learned how to make my own. I’m processing a bhut jolokia sauce this week I have to wear a respirator so I don’t gas myself x.x

      Would you be okay sharing some of your ferment ratios/recipes?

      • marx2k@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Ahoy! For the hot sauce I make, I’m pulling whatever hot peppers we have growing so it’s mostly jalapeños, chili and habaneros.

        I slice them and stuff them into a half gallon jar. I do a 4% salt brine. I don’t weigh them down. I instead use a vacuum lid for the jar. Specifically https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B517637R

        After a week to 10 days i empty the brine into a cup. i add back a half cup of brine, add a half cup of vinegar. I use an immersion blender to get the sauce to proper thickness. I pour it into hot sauce bottles.

        That’s it ;)

        I think your can also boil the hot sauce before pouring into bottles but i haven’t and haven’t really had any issue.

        You?

        • Ms. ArmoredThirteen@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          Ooooh, those lids look fantastic! You don’t have any mold issue or anything by not weighing them down when you use those? I keep getting floaters especially seeds that like to mold out even when I weigh things down (I’ve gotten better at it but still happens often enough to be a bummer). Immersion blenders are magical things.

          Most of the time I’m making habanero batches, followed by jalapeno or thai peppers. My hometown has a great farmers market so if I visit and happen to be there during pepper season I’ll make it a point to grab fistfuls of peppers. I use a 5% brine most of the time because the math is easy to do in my head. I was doing 7% for a while but it stalled out the ferments too often. I like long ferments; usually 2 weeks minimum up to about 10 weeks, average I’d say is 4 weeks. I’ll put at least peppers and garlic in all my ferments. Onions are common, I’m trying carrot for the first time, pear a couple times, and mango once. Sometimes I make a little cheese cloth baggy filled with mustard seed and peppercorns too.

          After fermenting I’ll add in honey, lime juice and/or apple cider vinegar, some of the ferm juice, fresh peppers (usually bell of a matching color), caramelized onion, and a pinch of MSG. Usually ends up being about 15% total weight is ferm juice and 25-30% total weight is acid (lime/vinegar). For the honey I typically use a garlic or pepper fermented honey. I was adding a drizzle of oil in during blending to help emulsify it but I think I’m going to stop doing that it only kinda works and with all the garlic I’m worried about them botching out.

          I do tend to keep some of the ferm juice on hand and then before bottling I’ll boil them and add ferm juice as needed to keep the thickness correct. Pour them in the woozies while hot and flip the woozy upside down to seal/sterilize the lid better. I design and print little labels too!

          Here is one of the ingredients/ratio lists for one of the ones I made a while back that was a crowd favorite, I think this one was a 4 week ferment but I forgot to write that part down…

          • marx2k@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Hey thanks for that. That gives me a ton of great info to go on. I especially love the idea of the garlic fermented honey since I have a lot of that.

            Definitely bookmarking this comment.

            No issues with the lids. They come with a little vacuum pump so no air is ever present during lactoferment. No air, no chance for bad molds to show up so I usually don’t weigh things down. I might for things with a lower salt brine but 4% and above or when using vinegar (like when pickling eggs), no need. I love these lids