Finding Out What Corn Smut Tastes Like

It’s mid season summer and the corn is going nuts! I was determined not to let the raccoons eat all my corn this season like they did last. I was sick of messing around and it was time to install an electric fence. So I set up a three wire fence. It was much simpler and cheaper to do that I ever thought it would be. It remains to be seen if I’ll get a full crop of corn. Raccoons are wily and determined little creatures. But while I was waiting for the corn to get sweet, some of the ears started busting open with wild deformed kernals–an infection of huitlacoche, or corn smut. But not wanting anything to go to waste I decided to see what it would taste like to eat corn smut. It definitely has an earthy taste and it was slightly bitter. But since I didn’t have any corn to harvest yet, it was worthwhile making use of it. And it might even be more nutritious than just eating corn.

13 Years Living in an Ecovillage

Our entire economy is based on finite fossil fuel resources and wholesale destruction of the environment in the interest of providing for an ever growing human population. Of course, most of the “wealth” created by this economic model goes to a small fraction of the human population, so essentially we are destroying our planet to make a very small segment of the human population so rich they don’t even know what to do with all their wealth. But there are some who are trying to change the way humanity interacts with the planet.

I’ve lived in a model for a more sustainable way of living in community for over 13 years now. My impact on the planet is about a tenth the impact of the average American. It’s taken a while to get set up to live this way, and living this way hasn’t been easy. It’s a struggle to try to live in a way that mostly defies everything every American has come to depend on to make their lives easier. Technology provides many sustainable alternatives to replace fossil fuel equivalents. But inevitably living sustainably requires harder work and doing things the old fashioned way. Having lived this way for 13 years, I have a story to tell. Sustainable living may be a different way of life in many unrecognizable and unimaginable ways to the average American, but the average American might not imagine any of these could be positive on a personal level. They can only imagine negatives in a life without luxuries and conveniences they have become utterly dependent on, but there are so many benefits to living this way above and beyond the direct and indirect ecological impact. It’s a holistic way of living that doesn’t just apply to reducing your environmental impact, it restores your energy and life force in many ways on a daily basis.

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How Sustainable Living Prepared Me for a Pandemic

I return to Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage for this video to talk about what awaited me on my return and how I was appreciating sustainable living systems I have set up because they have also prepared me in many ways for a pandemic. I have rainwater catchment, solar power, perennial fruit plants, seed supplies, renewable fuels, lots of food stores, some I grew myself and some purchased, and of course TP.

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Do THIS to your Fruit Trees in the Spring for a HUGE Harvest

I’m posting this video a little ahead of the season but it will help you hit the ground running. In a time of pandemic, we need to do all we can to ensure our food security and get a bigger harvest, so it’s no time to neglect your fruit trees. If anything it’s a time to planting more of them in your yard. Every year I spend a little extra time doing a simple maintenance task for my fruit trees and it not only makes the fruit a lot bigger, it reduces insect pests and produces more perfect fruit. Some people scoff at thinning fruit trees because they think it’s too much work, but it can make a huge difference in the harvest and in controlling insect pests and disease.