I got into beekeeping last year (after putting it off for 20 years) and part of my final impetus was that nearing 50 means my physical capability will eventually restrict the amount of hobbies I can meaningfully engage in since I’m not getting any younger. (unsurprisingly 🤦♂️)
As a result, I’ve started thinking more intentionally about developing hobbies that I can continue well into old age. Beekeeping has been a great addition because it gets me outdoors, gives me something to learn, and provides a tangible reward at the end. But what about making beef jerky? Is it similar to beekeeping in that it yields a tangible reward but only incidentally and not guaranteed to be pleasing/edible until you’ve mastered the flavor and safety techniques?
Part of me sees it as a hobby because there seems to be a lot to learn: selecting cuts of meat, experimenting with marinades and seasonings, mastering dehydration techniques, food safety, and constantly refining recipes. I can imagine spending years (possibly decades) trying different approaches and enjoying the process. I saw an old youtube account of mine recently that had a 15 year old video of me making Cuban sandwiches, which I’ve been honing/improving over the last 18 years and have never lost the obsession!
If beef jerky making is a hobby then I plan to pursue it. If it’s more akin to a culinary skill, then I plan to go on a deep dive to the back bottom corners of my closet to find my rock wool cubes and plant 20 hydroponic tomato seeds before the end of this weekend. (I have a ton of hydroponic equipment but it’s all been sitting in my closet unopened for the better part of 8-10 years)
Imo, preserving is its own hobby. Beef jerky, biltong, pemmican, sauerkraut, kimchi, fruit leather, jams.
My reasoning: brewing beer is considered its own hobby by most. But it could technically be part of culinary > preserving > fermenting (yeast) > beer.
Sourdough is also in fermenting (yeast) as is wine, but people don’t expect a hobby beer brewer to try them out as well.
So within preserving we have fermenting (yeast), fermenting (lactobacillus), drying, canning, pickling, smoking,?salt brining, etc.
Culinary is so big, it’s like art. If I want to learn calligraphy, do I have to do portraits, photography, music and poetry too? Just a thought.
I would love to make pemmican sometime, would be a great excuse to force my family to go hiking
Any skill can be a hobby if you’re acquiring it just because instead of because you need it.
Ngl, and I don’t think you are a bot, but this feels like one of those astroturfed askreddit questions that come from bots.
Like who cares other than you as to what you feel like you should do with your weekend be it make jerky or plant tomatoes?
Ngl, and I don’t think you are a bot, but this feels like one of those astroturfed askreddit questions that come from bots.
I have terrible social skills in real life, I guess that bled into my online persona too. 🤦♂️
Its fine. Just be who you are and we’ll adapt to you.
On the topic, whats important to you about a hobby versus a skill or technique?
On the topic, whats important to you about a hobby versus a skill or technique?
I spent the first 30 years of my life in front of my computer. All my hobbies were computer or video game related. I also was immobile about 5 years ago (bedridden, over 400 pounds). It feels wasteful to not utilize my newfound mobility and do stuff outdoors. I can go back to all my old childhood hobbies when I’m old & senile.
I’d vote for the tomato, but as an avid and semi-pro grower, I don’t recommend starting with 40 tomato starts.
Maybe grow 4 tomatoes. In large, at least 5 gallon pots. And don’t start your own. Its late in the season. Go to a garden store and buy established plants and soil, then transplant.
I met another local gardener through an online board game but he was unable to offer advice on wilt disease prevention. Do you have any actionable advice on how to prevent fusarium wilt and/or verticulum wilt? I’m inexperienced with Lemmy so if you can’t view this screenshot easily, I’ve transcribed it below:
I had a gardening question if you grow tomatoes
I have tried about 12 different tomato cultivars (medium to large sized, for sandwich slicing) and they all die halfway into their life cycle due to the 2 common wilt diseases in Florida’s hot humid weather
My best attempt was with better boy hybrid but I only got about 8-10 tomatoes and they were not big & healthy but undersized due to the struggling plant
I can do fine with cherry tomatoes (supersweet 100s and Everglades tomatoes) but I’ve never been a successful tomato gardener and have tried all the tips such as well draining soil, mixing in compost, watering at the base so the leaves don’t get wet, etc…
I have not bothered with hydroponic soil-free substrate but I bought 2 giant boxes of it a few years ago and still have it (coco coir and perlite) but it seems too much ongoing effort even if I got 50 tomatoes or more per plant
I also bought 200 rockwool cubes and might consider starting them in soil-free substrate and then transplant them when they are a foot tall, so they have a head-start at dealing with wilt funguses
So I’m not in Florida, but I am in the tropics. But we do have similar challenges, and I’ll use Florida growers if I’m looking for something.
This video would be a good review, but I’m sure you’ve already done this level of research.
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=vpMtjNVGfJQ
A few things I can start you with, some are going to be specific to tomatoes, some are going to be just general growing tips.
First, we want to separate out few things.
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Starting plants and getting healthy starts is a skill all unto itself. Its why I don’t recommend people starting with seeds if they are just getting started. There is no shame in just going to a garden center and buying a few starts, or even some established tomatoes. If you’ve struggled with a plant type before, this is a good starting point. Simplify the problem by making it smaller, and cutting out a very challenging step like starting and establishing the plants perfectly acceptable.
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The best prevention of disease among any plants is health. A healthy plant can usually shrug off most things if its a strong and healthy plant to start with, which is another reason to buy a good quality start from a reputable grower. Not starting with healthy plants is not setting yourself up for success. It sounds like you’ve even keyed in on a few varieties. That’s great. The video I put up top also mentioned some other good varieties that do well in high heat and humidity.
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We’re still really talking about health, but tomatoes are heavy, heavy feeders. And fertilization is key. Lots of nitrogen, tomatoes just eat it right up. To the point you can struggle to get fruit if you feed to heavily (at least too much N) but N is critical to getting them established and health.
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Tomatoes need AIR and lots of it. Aggressive pruning of suckers and leaves to provide more airspace so that the area around the plants local leaf environment is less humid. This helps especially with fungal diseases. Also, avoid getting any soil on, or have any leaves touch the soil if soil borne diseases are an issue. The key to any commercial operation is sanitation. Commercial nurseries will scold you if you dont disinfect your tools between any interaction with plant tissue to the point that wiping them down becomes second nature. Fusarium wilt and vertiulum wilt are both soil borne diseases. Now maybe its in your soil, but if you live in an area with lots of ag, it could be soil getting blown onto where your tomatoes are planted. Here in Hawaii, its not fusarium, but a type of tropical fruit fly thats our biggest issue, and it attacks young growing fruits by laying its egg in them. Because of this we use mesh on our tomatoes and often bag the whole plant in a fine mesh. But this mesh can also prevent diseases that come from blow soil landing on their leaves.
After reading your case and responses, my suspicion, and I might be wrong, is that you are trying to do a lot, and would benefit from breaking the process down into smaller parts, and then just trying to do one part well (growing the tomatoes part). Don’t worry about starting the plants or hydroponics until you get some small successes overcoming these disease and health issues. Hydroponics won’t help if the actual issue is that your neighbor has some plant harboring the disease nearby, and just spores or dust is being blown in. I don’t want to be patronizing because I see and acknowledge you’ve already put a lot of effort into seeking success here.
What I would recommend is simplifying the problem down to the most basic possible case, and when that is working, then build up from that. 4 five gallon pots, and pick 4 varieties that are known to work in your environment. Buy fresh, bagged garden soil, not yard soil for this. Get established plants from a reputable grower. Cut out all the possible places it could go wrong.
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Grow tomatoes! They are a rewarding plant, and it will be a great way to develop your skills
My beginner recommendation is always two cherry types (a red and one other color), both vining, and two slicers, usually one heirlooms funky one and one stereotypical slicer, but they need to be bush type.
Biggest tomato mistake is going big without knowing the details about bush vs vine, etc…
You’ll make a gardener for life if you set them up for success.
Why do you need other people to decide that for you? It is both culinary skill and hobby. Life does not fit in categories described by single words.
Why do you need other people to decide that for you? It is both culinary skill and hobby. Life does not fit in categories described by single words.
Mainly FOMO (fear of missing out on a more “valid” hobby) but also to get others perspectives, including those I might disagree with because I’m often wrong in my initial judgment about stuff. I don’t want to look back 20 years from now and realize I deluded myself into counting something as a hobby that isn’t one, when the opportunity cost might be a better hobby that I’ve also been putting off getting started for the past 5-10 years (hydroponic gardening, wall/rock climbing, telescope star-watching, etc.)
Nobody’s going to call the hobby police. Do what you want.
You have my permission to call whatever you’re interested in a hobby, if you feel like you need it.
You are massively overthinking it.
Just do what you enjoy and it is a hobby. You can always have more than one hobby if you have the time and can afford it. You can even switch between hobbies that you focus on at any point in time!
Why don’t you consider culinary skills as hobbies?
I think learning how to make jerky is a perfectly fine example of a hobby one can take up. My father once went on a journey to make the best salmon jerky he could. He spent years trying out different smokers, different cuts of fish, different times, different wood chips, etc. I definitely consider that hobby activity!
I don’t have anything constructive to add, so here’s this:
Hey everyone…
We are live from my back yard where I am
Smokin’ these meats
Meat like a brisket
I’m makin’ meats now
Someone asked me, do I smoke meats?
It’s gonna be delicious
Yeah, I smoke meat
That’s what I’m talkin’ about, yeahGimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Say my name, baby
Gimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Smokin’ meatsHello to you
Thanks for hanging out with me
In my backyard
While I’m smokin these meats, tooThe thing about smokin meat is it takes a long time
Sitting around with my WiFiI like racing
Grilling meats, um, racing cars are
Two of the most fun things that you can doManual transmission, um, I enjoy that
Do I hunt, um, yeahSmokin’ these meats
Meat like a brisket
I’m makin’ meats now
Someone asked me, do I smoke meats?
It’s gonna be delicious
Yeah, I smoke meat
That’s what I’m talkin’ about, yeahGimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Say my name, baby
Gimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Smokin’ meatsYou smoke lemon chicken, smoked salmon
You’ll love it
Bison sirloin, ribs and sausage
We got some more of it
Pork ribs, we got a brisket
You don’t, you don’t, you don’t want to miss itWe have just applied the Sweet Baby Ray’s
I want my baby back, baby back ribs
You know, it’s a weekend man;
break out the purple shirt
I wear the grey shirt to workWhile I was smoking meats earlier in the day
I started a triathlon
Swam about a mile, it’s a long way
Biked about twenty miles
And then… I had to go deal with something
So I had to abortSmokin’ these meats Meat like a brisket I’m makin’ meats now Someone asked me, do I smoke meats? It’s gonna be delicious Yeah, I smoke meat That’s what I’m talkin’ about, yeah
Smokin’ these meats
Meat like a brisket
I’m makin’ meats now
Someone asked me, do I smoke meats?
It’s gonna be delicious
Yeah, I smoke meat
That’s what I’m talkin’ about, yeahGimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Say my name, baby
Gimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Smokin’ meatsGimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Say my name, baby
Gimme the Zucc, gimme the Zucc
Z-U-C-C, Zucc
Smokin’ meats, babynearing 50 means my physical capability will eventually restrict the amount of hobbies I can meaningfully engage in
That’s largely due to lack of mobility training. I would highly suggest making that one of your hobbies.
…
Drying meats is a hobby sure. I wouldn’t consider it a culinary skill.
I love growing hydro. I would definitely suggest doing that regardless if you decide to learn to dry jerky.
That’s largely due to lack of mobility training. I would highly suggest making that one of your hobbies.
Already on it 💪
Hell ya! Good work!
Just make sure you’re throwing some specific mobility training in there as well tho. Weak muscles are only half of the problem, the other half is neural connection.
If it’s more akin to a culinary skill, then I plan to go on a deep dive to the back bottom corners of my closet to find my rock wool cubes and plant 20 hydroponic tomato seeds before the end of this weekend.
So that’s what that is! With a mixture of the title and the image, initially thought this was a “Do you know how much space it takes to make one bag of beef jerky vs “this plant””.
Also, you made me hungry for pişmaniye
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PişmaniyeMy take is a hobby is what you enjoy doing in your down time. Even if you made the exact same recipe the exact same way every week, so long as it’s the thing you choose to do to relax, I’d call it a hobby.
Barbecuing counts as a hobby, as does cooking in general. I think that if you are doing it in a utilitarian fashion - like, in an assembly like exactly the same way each time for the purpose of saving money on beef jeeky - then I think it is just, like, a chore. But if you are doing it for the sake of experimentation or creativity, etc, then it’s a hobby.
Honing your skills to get better versus doing it to complete a task is the difference between a hobby and a chore IMO I think you’ve hit the nail on the head.
You want a hobby that you can take into old age that promotes self sufficiency, raise chickens and ducks. Eggs that taste fuckin amazing compared to store bought. Can set up to support yourself and scale to supply eggs for a whole community without moch added effort. Theyre fun little idiots when it comes to pet quality. Then eat them when youre done with them.
Definitely counts as a hobby. It just happens to be a hobby that requires and develops cooking skills.
Another user already made the point about enjoyment, but allow me to add another one: Every activity can be turned into a hobby if it is pursued with intent and intensity: You can flip burgers and the you can triple-flip burgers, salting them in midair and send them flying into a bun you juggled in your other hand.
Jokes aside, if you enjoy making beef jerky and spend your time perfectioning this particular skill, it is certainly your hobby.
Dude a hobby is anything that makes you happy. If you like meats there is a huge cured meet community. You can learn every on youtube (things I’ve watched at 3am when I should have been sleeping)
A hobby is pretty much anything you do other than what you do for your own or someone else’s sustenance. Getting paid to barbecue for customers paying you? Not a hobby. Grilling some burgers at dinner time because you or your family are hungry? Not a hobby. Spending hours and weekends on end slow cooking a particularly challenging piece of meat? Hobby. Eating an expensive piece of meat (as a treat)? Also a hobby.
