Curing before storing, melons and general-chaos

 

Nobody told you curing was a step. They just sold you a refrigerator.

For centuries, harvest was only half the job. Before any root or bulb went into storage, it spent days or weeks in controlled heat and moving air. That process is called curing, and it is why cellar food lasted until spring.

POTATOES: 50-60F for two weeks seals skin cuts and stops rot before it starts.

SWEET POTATOES: 80-85F for ten days converts starches and hardens the skin for months of storage.

ONIONS: warm dry airflow for two to four weeks dries the neck completely and locks out mold.

GARLIC: three to eight weeks at 70-80F tightens the wrapper and pushes viability past six months.

WINTER SQUASH: ten days at 80-85F hardens the rind so it holds through midwinter without softening.

This knowledge did not vanish because it stopped working. It vanished because the cold chain made it unnecessary for people selling food at scale. Wholesalers cure before shipping. They just never taught you to do it at home.

What replaced it was the assumption that the refrigerator handles everything. It does not. A sweet potato cured correctly at harvest and stored at 55F will outlast an uncured one in the fridge by three months. The fridge is not a substitute for a process that changes the vegetable at a cellular level.

Cure your harvest this year. One shelf in a warm room, a box fan on low, and ten days of patience will do what no appliance can replicate. Source

 

Information supplied by the Tireless Lucas Machias.

Watermelons

I thought this guy's putting his melons in nursery pots was a good way to slow down damage from rabbits and woodchucks. Throwing a bit of sawdust or wood-shavings in the bottom of the pot will keep it from sitting on a wet-spot after a rain. His video explains that you can make a solid judgment regarding the ripeness of the melon by looking at the tendril that is opposite the fruit. If it is completely brown, the fruit is ripe. If it is still green, give it more time. Four-minute run-time.

Women's greater susceptibility to social pressure

As a population, women appear to be more sensitive to certain types of social pressure than men do.

Whether it is due to DNA or social conditioning is not important. It simply IS.

Most observers of human nature would bet that it was a combination of both nature and nurture.

From an evolutionary biology standpoint, women had much more to lose then men when being pushed to the edges of the herd. They are slower than men. And, when they are carrying children or caring for them, they are much, much slower than men who were rarely encumbered with family duties before the Industrial Revolution.

Reformers who obstinately attempt to over-write DNA and deep social conditioning with patterns that conform to their ideology are idiots. 

Taleb in his book Antifragile discusses how a "dumb-bell" investment strategy can exploit chaos. The benefits of asset rebalancing are totally dependent on different asset classes having surges that are off-set in time and/or having different volatility characteristics.

Men are responsible for most technical innovation because the greatest risk-seekers are men. Orville and Wilbur would have never invented heavier-than-air flight if they craved social approval through conformity. Many Most Nearly all innovations were created by men who didn't give a rat's ass about the approval of the mean-girl's club.

Women foraged for most of the day-to-day food. Men brought home "windfalls" of protein and fat. The two modes of food production were complimentary. 

Ukraine-26

My source of information about what is happening in the Black Sea region informed me that the escalation of targeting continues on both sides. Ukraine is almost completely sealed off in terms of bulk-shipping. Their major ports on the Black Sea are shredded. Since July 23, 2026 there is only one rail-line that still connects Ukraine to the west and it remains vulnerable to Russian attack. Vessels carrying Russian wheat and other agricultural commodities are being attacked by Ukrainian drones on the high seas.

The fact that foreign markets for wheat and barley is being denied to Russian and Ukraine means that the local prices for those grains will quickly be driven down below the cost of production, according to my expert. 

Historic wheat prices. Circled region marks start of Uke-Rus war

Both Ukraine and Russia are trying to strangle each other's access to currency and arms. Both countries get hard-currency by shipping food via the Suez Canal (which has its own issues) to Africa which is paid for by Western aid money. They also get hard-currency from India and Pakistan, both big consumers of wheat products. The bottom line is that a real shit-storm is brewing in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It is unlikely that the African chaos will interest western journalists but the South Asia tension will get lots of press because it could go nuclear.

There is also the likelihood of Indian and Pakistani ex-pats going at it in places like London and Toronto and Vancouver and San Jose as calories back-home get scarce, so watch your six.

I get the sense that the same targeting escalation is happening in the Iran war. 

Who knew that Universe-25 was code for Ukraine 2026? They only missed by a year.