I've Moved!

Hi Friends!

I wanted to let you all know that I've moved my blog over to a new site in order to have a little more freedom than what the platform here offers. I hope you'll all click over there and keep up with what we're up to in our neck of the woods.

I've kept the name of the blog the same, so just head over to growpraybuild.com and have a look around. It's a work in progress, but my smarty pants husband is helping me learn the ropes of designing and keeping up a blog in a self-hosted capacity. He's great like that. :)

A North Eastern Fall Garden

It's time to start thinking forward to cooler weather already! Most of us northern gardeners are still patiently waiting for our tomatoes to start turning red. My cabbage is just starting to form heads and I saw the tiniest little broccoli crown today. As I've said  before, gardening in cooler climates is a true test of patience.

Lots of Fall garden articles are geared toward people who live in warmer clients. But the truth is, there's a lot that we can do in the north, too. 

Where I am, I don't have time for a second crop of cabbage or broccoli. They're typical Fall garden options, but really not practical for my climate. They just wouldn't have enough time before a hard frost hit. Sure, I could speed things up by starting them under lamps inside, but grow lamps are expensive and I'm really a no-muss no-fuss kind of gardener anyway. 

I'm going to be sowing a cover crop in my large garden bed this year to try and get some nutrients back in the soil for next year. I got the Peas/Oats blend from Botanical Interests. I may block out a small patch for some carrots. I haven't decided if I'll do those in the raised bed or not. I'll use my 2 4x8 raised beds to try out a winter/fall garden this year once they've cleared out for the summer. I have some old leftover windows that I'm excited to use over the raised beds to form a kind of green house- you know, to extend the season a bit when temps start to drop.

This chart on the Mother Earth News website is so helpful. I refer to it constantly! 

Here's what I'm going to be planting in my Fall/Winter garden this year. I'll start these plantings in the next couple of weeks (early-mid August). My plan is to direct sow everything. I could be a nice gardener lady and be gentle to my little seedlings and start them inside, but .... ain't nobody got time for that. I'll be starting the garlic from bulbs.

Fall Garden (All Heirloom Varieties):

- Mesclun (Gourmet Baby Greens from Botanical Interests)

- Beets (Gourmet Heirloom Blend from Botanical Interests)

- Carrots (Little Finger and Calliope Blend from Botanical Interests)

- Garlic (Music from Baker Creek Seeds)

You may have noticed a trend. I love Botanical Interests for all of my seeds. I first heard about them from an awesome blogger, Mavis, over at One Hundred Dollars a Month. I've been so happy with their products that I now purchase almost everything from them. Seriously almost perfect germination rate. If you've never tried their heirloom seeds, I highly recommend ordering a catalog for next year!

That's it! I have a TON of kale in my garden, and last year it stayed alive and continued to produce until late November when we got our first real snow. So I'll have that and the beet greens for our leafy greens. Nothing fancy. I tend to need a bit of a break after several months of intensive gardening over the Spring and Summer. I like to take it easy and keep it simple in the Fall. 

Here are a couple of other ideas:

- Collards

- Fennel

- Cilantro

- Radishes 

- Scallions

- Spinach

- Rutabaga

Things to be aware of:

Two of your biggest concerns when planting a Fall garden are going to be pests and scorching temperatures. The temperatures are less of an issue for where I am, but if they were, I'd probably handle this by figuring out a way to start the seeds indoors. High temperatures and low rainfall are not ideal for germinating seeds.

Pests, on the other hand, is an issue I am dealing with this year. The best way to battle this is through summer weight row covers. This will help keep butterflies and moths from laying eggs on and around your plants, which then hatch into nasty little caterpillars (cabbage worms) that will consume your tender young brassica seedlings in no time. The best way to deal with these pests, especially on vulnerable little plants, is prevention. 

Tip: If you don't manage to prevent them, some organic options for controlling cabbage worms that I've had success with are Spinosad and a 1:1 combination of baking soda mixed with all purpose flour and sprinkled on the invaded plants. The catterpillars will eat the flour mixture, bloat, and die within a day or so. I had more success with the Spinosad. It completely wiped them out. But before I found Spinosad, the flour mixture did significantly decrease the cabbage worms.

When to Plant a Fall Garden: This is going to depend on your average first frost date. Use this chart to check. Then follow the instructions on your seed packet. Most of them will say you can plant a particular seed X weeks before/after last frost, up until X weeks before first frost.

Tip:

Your soil has been working hard all summer, having nutrients used up by your Spring and Summer crop. Give your Fall garden its best shot by giving it a good dressing of quality compost when you do your Fall planting.


This is a list of some of the awesome sites that I occassionally link my posts at. They're all great blogs about anything from parenting, simple living, cooking, homesteading (backyard and large scale), gardening, Christian life, frugal living, etc. Check them out!
The Chicken Chick, The Prairie Homestead- Homestead Barn Hop, Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth- The Art of Homemaking, Homestead Bloggers Network- Tasty Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection, Growing Home- Growing Homemakers, Wildcrafting Wednesday, So Much At Home, Hope in Every Season, Green Thumb Thursday, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday, Simple Meals Friday, Better Hens and Gardens.

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Glazed Buttermilk Biscuits

This has become one of my family's favorite breakfast treats. Healthy? Not even close. Delicious and warm and gooey and comfy? You bet.

They're so good. So, so good. Try them. You won't regret it. Promise.

Recipe makes 9 biscuits with a 3 inch biscuit cutter.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 6 Tablespoons COLD butter, cut into cubes
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

   For Glaze:

• 6 Tablespoons butter
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
3. Cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter until resembles course meal.
4. Mix in buttermilk until combined.
5. Turn out biscuit dough onto a floured surface and pat (don't roll) flat to about 1/4 inch thickness.
6. Sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over the dough, and fold it in about 5 times.
7. Pat our flat again and cut into biscuits with your biscuit cutter.
8. Place biscuits in your baking dish (I used my 12 inch cast iron skillet) and bake 15-20 minutes depending on your oven.
9. To make the glaze, melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan, then whisk in powdered sugar and vanilla until all is combined and a smooth consistency is reached. 
10. Serve biscuits warm with glaze drizzled on top.

Tip: To get fluffy biscuits, you want to keep that butter as cold as possible until it goes in the oven. Those little bits of butter will melt in the oven, causing little steam pockets, resulting in deliciously fluffy biscuits. So touch it as little as possible, because the warmth of your hands will start to melt it prematurely!


This is a list of some of the awesome sites that I occasionally link my posts at. They're all great blogs about anything from parenting, simple living, cooking, homesteading (backyard and large scale), gardening, Christian life, frugal living, etc. Check them out!
The Chicken Chick, The Prairie Homestead- Homestead Barn Hop, Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth- The Art of Homemaking, Homestead Bloggers Network- Tasty Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection, Growing Home- Growing Homemakers, Wildcrafting Wednesday, So Much At Home, Hope in Every Season, Green Thumb Thursday, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday, Simple Meals Friday, Better Hens and Gardens.

Plantain Tincture

What's Plantain?: Plantain is an herb that grows just about everywhere and it's easy to recognize. For this reason, it's a great starter for the novice herbalist. It's been used for hundreds and probably even thousands of years to treat a number of different ailments from dandruff to upper respiratory infections (source).

Of course, you should always consult your physician before using any herbal/natural remedy!

How Do You Recognize It?: There are a few different varieties of plantain. The one that grows most in my yard, and with which I'm most familiar, is the broadleaf plantain (Plantago Major). It has very distinct Broad Leaves. The veins on the leaves start at the base and extend outward. Plantain also has very distinct flowers (pictured below) and the leaves will usually grow around the base of the flowers (as seen in the middle picture).

How Do You Use It?:

• The leaves and juice from the leaves can be used to treat sunburns, bug bites, and minor scrapes and burns. Plantain contains antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, think of it as a natural Neosporin.
• It can be made into a tea or tincture to help tummy troubles (diarrhea, indigestion, ulcers).
• The same tea can be used as a hair rinse to treat dandruff.
• Plantain is rich in tannins, which can be an aid in stopping bleeding.
• A tea or tincture applied externally can reduce the itching that comes from poison ivy, poison oak, bug bites, or rashes. 

What's a Tincture?: Tinctures are basically extracts of a particular herb. This is usually done with alcohol. It can also be done with vegetable glycerin or apple cider vinegar, but alcohol (vodka or grain alcohol no lower than 80 proof) will create the strongest tinctures, with the highest concentration of that herb's extract.

Here is a really great article on Herblore.com that goes into more depth *in plain English* about tinctures. It includes dosing guides as well. Actually, it's a really awesome website all together.

NOTE: If you're harvesting plantain yourself rather than purchasing it dried, be sure to harvest from an area that you're certain hasn't been sprayed by lawn treatments, other chemicals, or ... ahem ... your dog (or other animals).

I'll be making my tincture with fresh plantain. This stuff is everywhere in our backyard, and there's a little patch in the corner where no one really bothers to go.

What You'll Need:

-A good bunch of fresh plantain leaves. How much depends on the size of the container you'll be using.
-A mason jar with a lid
-Vodka or grain alcohol (80 proof or higher)
-At the 2 week point you'll want to transfer your tincture to a dropper bottle, so either buy some now or plan to buy some within the next two weeks.



What to do:

1. After you've harvested your plantain leaves, give them a good cleaning to remove any dirt. Then chop give them a good chop. Alternatively you could chop them in a food processor. Just don't over do it. We're not making plantain pesto here. :)
2. Put the chopped plantain into your jar.
3. For every one part of chopped plantain leaves, add in 2 parts alcohol. Make sure all leaves are covered to prevent any mold issues.
4. Put the lid on and label with what it is and when you made it. Give it a good shake! Store in a dark cabinet.
5. Shake the plantain daily for two weeks.
6. Strain with a mesh colander or some cheese cloth, and store in a dark glass dropper bottles. Label and store in dark cabinet.

Aside from the uses that I mentioned above, this article has some neat and specific dosages for different uses for plantain tincture, as well as some of the other herbal preparations that can be made with it.

This is a list of some of the awesome sites that I occassionally link my posts at. They're all great blogs about anything from parenting, simple living, cooking, homesteading (backyard and large scale), gardening, Christian life, frugal living, etc. Check them out!
The Chicken Chick, The Prairie Homestead- Homestead Barn Hop, Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth- The Art of Homemaking, Homestead Bloggers Network- Tasty Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection, Growing Home- Growing Homemakers, Wildcrafting Wednesday, So Much At Home, Hope in Every Season, Green Thumb Thursday, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday, Simple Meals Friday, Better Hens and Gardens.

July Garden Update

Time for another monthly garden tour! 

This year is definitely shaping up a bit differently than last year. We're having much more in the way of pest issues. In fact, I believe those cucurbit beetles may have infected one or two of my zucchini plants with bacterial wilt. :( For now, they're still producing, but the leaves just do not look happy. I expect that they'll be finished off within the next few days if my suspicions are correct. So sad. 

Ye trusty ole kale. Something seems to be snacking on it a bit, but I can't figure out what it is. It's not doing too much damage, though. Thankfully.

The mesclun mix in my pallet raised bed is growing slower than molasses!! I don't know if it's a sunlight issue or a soil issue. I think I'm going to replant some in the main bed somewhere. Otherwise we won't have any lettuce until Thanksgiving time at this rate.

When I went outside to take pictures for this post, I realized that something is also snacking on my cabbages. Probably the same thing that's munching on the kale. For now, growth doesn't seem to be impacted. We're having a lot of rain right now, but when it stops, I'll go out and sprinkle some diatomaceous earth and see if that helps.

Peppers are starting to come in!

And our tomatoes. Here we have brandywine, san marzano, and black chery.

Who doesn't love the look of a squash blossom!?

I think beets are my new favorite thing to grow. I love root veggies, especially in the fall. I planted half of a raised bed with beets in early spring as a trial run. We're enjoying them so much that I'm planning to plant a full raised bed next month in order to have a Fall harvest. Beets and Fall just go together, in my opinion. Do you have any favorite beet recipes?

We planted these black raspberry brambles last year. Only two of them survived our very harsh winter, but those two little brambles have produced about 4 cups of berries so far! Not exactly enough to make into jam, but the kids are having fun snacking on them anyhow. I'm hoping to plant some more next year. We didn't get around to it this year before I realized that half of them had died.

My mom planted this sweet potato in an empty space in my garden. Our climate here is too cold for it to actually produce, but she's having fun watching it grow. She cut the top off of a sweet potato, set it in a dish of water by a sunny window until it sprouted, and set it in the soil! Neat little experiment ...

The pumpkins and butternut squash are doing well, as are the cucumbers, so long as those cucurbit beetles don't come back. On my post about getting rid of cucurbit beetles, someone commented about using Neem Oil to get rid of them. I ordered some *just in case* those pesky bugs come back.  Hopefully I won't have to use it, but I figure it can't hurt to have more than one tool in your gardening arsenal!

Oh, and my broccoli and cauliflower are growing well, too! :)

How's your garden doing so far this year? Any major successes? How are you battling pest issues or nutrient deficiencies that have snuck up on you?

This is a list of some of the awesome sites that I occassionally link my posts at. They're all great blogs about anything from parenting, simple living, cooking, homesteading (backyard and large scale), gardening, Christian life, frugal living, etc. Check them out!
The Chicken Chick, The Prairie Homestead- Homestead Barn Hop, Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth- The Art of Homemaking, Homestead Bloggers Network- Tasty Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection, Growing Home- Growing Homemakers, Wildcrafting Wednesday, So Much At Home, Hope in Every Season, Green Thumb Thursday, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday, Simple Meals Friday, Better Hens and Gardens.

Healthy No Bake Energy Bites That Actually Taste Good

I know there are a lot of no-bake cookie recipes out there, but I've never been impressed with any of them. Some of them are "okay". Others I would rank as "edible". I never saved any of the recipes for them because I just wasn't terribly impressed.

THESE, my friends, are something different. THIS no-bake snack tastes good. Really good. They whip up quickly. You don't have to bake them, obviously, which is great for summertime when you don't want the oven heating up the house. You actually store them in the freezer, so they're a great cool snack (just set them out for 5ish minutes so they soften up a bit).

Plus ... check out those ingredients. Healthy! I may or may not have served these things for breakfast a couple of times. I found the base recipe from Amy's blog at Plain and Not So Plain (great blog for larger families, by the way). Amy says that having these energy bites on hand was key while she was losing 70lbs. When she was craving something sweet, she grabbed one of these instead of gorging on something unhealthy.

I tweaked the recipe ever so slightly based on our tastes and what I had on hand. I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:
2 c. Old Fashioned Rolled Oats (Quick Oats would probably be fine)
1 c. Peanut Butter (Or your favorite nut butter- almond, cashew etc.)
2/3 c. Honey (Local, if possible!)
2 c. shredded unsweetened coconut
1 c. ground flax meal.
1 c. chocolate chips (alternative: dried fruit, butterscotch chips)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper. Combine all ingredients and roll into little balls (this is easiest to do with slightly damp hands). Put the energy bites onto your lined cookie sheet, and put them in the freezer. Once they are frozen solid, you can transfer them to a ziplock bag and store them in the freezer. When you're ready to eat them, just pull them out and let them sit on a plate for 5ish minutes to help them soften up a bit. Enjoy!


----This is a list of some of the awesome sites that I occassionally link my posts at. They're all great blogs about anything from parenting, simple living, cooking, homesteading (backyard and large scale), gardening, Christian life, frugal living, etc. Check them out!----
The Chicken Chick, The Prairie Homestead- Homestead Barn Hop, Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth- The Art of Homemaking, Homestead Bloggers Network- Tasty Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection, Growing Home- Growing Homemakers, Wildcrafting Wednesday, So Much At Home, Hope in Every Season, Green Thumb Thursday, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday, Simple Meals Friday, Better Hens and Gardens.

How to Get Rid of Cucumber Beetles Naturally

So, I was out in the garden one day weeding. I looked over to my left and saw this little beetle. It was quite flashy. Yellow and black stripes. Being the naive, novice gardener that I am, my reaction was, "Oh! That's a pretty bug! Hi, little bug!." Something in the back of my mind thought that, since I'd never seen this bug in my garden before, maybe it wasn't really supposed to be there. I only saw one of them, though. So, I didn't think too much of it. I made a mental note to look it up.


Two days later, I saw five of them. So now I knew they were invading, and I really needed to research. I thought I might have cucurbit beetles, but wasn't sure.


Two more days ... there was no denying it. I have a cucumber (cucurbit) beetle problem. Cucurbit Beetles will attack anything in the cucurbit family (squash, gourds, cucumbers, melons), which includes about 1/3 of my garden. They'll eat the leaves of your plants, but perhaps more menacing, they carry a bacteria in their intestinal tract that can cause bacterial wilt. Bacterial wilt can wipe out an entire crop in a matter of days. Bad news!

You won't find me using invasive pesticides in my garden. So I'm always going to search for a homemade or natural remedy.

First I tried a garlic hot pepper spray. I honestly only tried this for about 6 hours before I decided it wasn't working. The beetles stayed on the leaves, totally unscathed by my spritzing them with garlic and hot pepper. Maybe I wasn't using hot enough peppers (I just used cayenne pepper from my pantry, while some people actually got habaneros from the grocery store and blended those in). This could totally be user error on my part. In fact, it probably is. I'm going to buy some habaneros and try this again as a preventative spray, perhaps? I'll update once I've tried it.

Next I tried food grade diatomaceous earth. I've read time and time again that it doesn't work on cucurbit beetles, but I figured I'd try it since I already had it on hand. Diatomaceous Earth is a totally non-toxic substance that can be used as pest control in your graden (and even on pets for flea control!). It's a powder made from the pulvarized fossils of diatoms (algae) and basically looks like shards of glass under a microscope. It works by being physically abrasive to the insects which come in contact with it. Imagine trying to crawl through shards of glass. Insects won't become immune to physical control the way that they can become resistant to insecticides.

Source

Verdict: Success!! A applied a substantial coating of DE to the leaves, stems, and around the roots off all plants in the curcurbit family (all of my squash and cukes). I wasn't shy with this coating at all. My cuke and squash plants were all white, to give you an idea. I only had 1 open blossom on any of my plants yet, so I wasn't too worried about my bee friends. The next day, there were still a few stubborn guys hanging around, but by day 3, not a single beetle in sight. I'm keeping an eye on the plants and will reapply as necessary. Keep in mind that any rain or even a heavy morning dew will render the DE ineffective. So you'll need to reapply any time it gets wet.

Good Luck! I hope this helps keep your squash and cukes safe this gardening season.

This is a list of some of the awesome sites that I occassionally link my posts at. They're all great blogs about anything from parenting, simple living, cooking, homesteading (backyard and large scale), gardening, Christian life, frugal living, etc. Check them out!
The Chicken Chick, The Prairie Homestead- Homestead Barn Hop, Strangers and Pilgrims on Earth- The Art of Homemaking, Homestead Bloggers Network- Tasty Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection, Growing Home- Growing Homemakers, Wildcrafting Wednesday, So Much At Home, Hope in Every Season, Green Thumb Thursday, Home Acre Hop, From the Farm Hop, Farmgirl Friday, Front Porch Friday, Simple Meals Friday, Better Hens and Gardens.

Simple Tips for Growing Awesome Tomatoes

(Some of my posts may contain referral links. That means that if you clink through one of my links and then purchase something, I get a small commission. Thank you so much!)

"Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to garden, and the whole neighborhood gets tomatoes."

True story.

By now, most of us already have our tomato plants growing in the ground. Up here in the north, I'm starting to see some beautiful little green tomatoes replacing the blossoms. Once a few of them get large enough, I'll harvest some for fried green tomatoes. Mmmmm.

Here are some of my favorite tomato growing tips. I keep it as simple as possible. Like most of you, I don't have the time to research fancy solutions, nor the money to spend on them. So if I can find a solution using what I already have on hand, that's the route I take. If I can't, then it honestly probably won't get done. 

I hope these tips help your maters grow and yield generously. :)

1. Prune the suckers: These are the small shoots that grow in the crotch between a stem and a branch. These growths will never produce fruit, so many gardeners will pinch them off. No sense in letting them use up valuable nutrients! This is especially true for indeterminate varieties of tomatoes.

2. Coffee Grounds and Egg Shells: I keep a bowl on my kitchen counter collect the used coffee grounds and egg shells from the day. At the end of each day, I carry them out to the garden and lay them at the feet of my tomato plants. The coffee grounds work as a great mulch and a fertilizer, as they can contain nitrogen and other nutrients. The crushed tomato shells can be put into a hole before you plant the tomato, or it can be crushed up and laid at the bottom of the plant. This can help add calcium (to prevent blossom end rot), and will also deter slugs from trying to snack on your hard work.

3. Epsom Salts: Dilute 1 Tablespoon of Epsom Salts in 1 Gallon of water, and water your tomato and pepper plants if you suspect a magnesium deficiency. Some researchers are starting to "dispel myths" and claim that there is not, and never has been, sufficient research to claim that this is relevant to home gardeners, but for intensive crop plantings where there's a proven mineral deficiency in the soil. I'm no expert, so I won't form an opinions on this. I think it's worth reading up on what different experts do have to say. However...if my 'maters start showing signs of magnesium deficiency, I'll be all over that epsom salts, myth or not. A gal can get a little desperate when something threatens her babies plants, and she'll try anything that Pinterest says will work.

4. You could also try whispering sweet nothings into their foliage. I won't judge you for serenading your plants in a desperate attempt to convince them to grow. We've all been there. 


When all else fails, powder them in a thick-ish coat of diatomaceous earth and pray. It's working for me (so far).


What are your favorite tips and tricks for growing awesome tomatoes?

Pressure Canning Beans

I got a pressure canner for my birthday! I've been wanting a pressure canner for years. Ever since I started waterbath canning 4 years ago, I've wanted a pressure canner. I've also been sort of terrified of pressure canners, though. I have a story much like everyone else's. A grandma of a friend's uncle's nanny had a pressure canner loaded with beans explode in her kitchen. Not only could someone have been maimed for life, but the poor woman was scraping black beans off of her ceiling for months. (I'm being  a little bit dramatic here, in case you couldn't tell).

One of the things that I was most looking forward to pressure canning was beans. We eat a lot of beans, and I try to buy them dry in bulk because it's what's most affordable. But then I always forget to soak them. I tried precooking them and freezing them, but our freezer is full with 1/4 steer and 1/2 pig. So freezer space is limited. Plus...I always forget to pull them out to thaw anyway. Having them canned is just so much more convenient. I read this post from one of my favorite homesteading blogs about canning beans, and consulted the instruction manual that came with my pressure canner (<referral link). And I did it! I might have nested nervously in front of the thing while I watched for any signs of pending explosion. But I did it. And now we have a pantry full of beans, cooked and ready to heat up and eat.

You might notice that my jars don't have the metal rings on them. After the canning process is done, I remove the rings and store the jars with just the sealed lids. I've had rings rust on me, making it difficult to remove them and even ruining some of my jars. Removing the rings also makes it easier to see if a seal has broken.

Supplies:

• 2 lbs dry beans (black, pinto, kidney)
• 7 pint size canning jars with lids and rings
• water
• a pressure canner

 (You can can beans in quart sized jars, too. For the sake of measurements, I found that my 2 lbs bag of dried black beans gave me exactly 7 pints of canned beans)

Directions:

• Pick through beans to remove any shriveled beans or non-bean objects (sometimes I find pebbles!).
• Soak overnight
• Drain and rinse with fresh water (this helps get rid of the enzymes that can cause you to feel bloated after eating beans).
• Put beans in a pot and cover with water about 1-2 inches above the beans.
• Bring to boil for 30 minutes.
• Ladle hot beans into clean, hot jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. You don't have to sterilize beans when you pressure can, but they do need to be clean and hot to prevent cracking.
• Pour in some cooking liquid, being sure to leave that 1 in headspace. 
• Put lids and jars on and place into canner.
• Can at 10 lbs pressure for 75 minutes for pints, 90 minutes for quarts. (If you live at a high altitude, you may need to can at a higher pressure. Check here for that information)
• Allow canner to cool according to manufacturer's instructions. Once completely cooled and depressurized, remove jars and let sit on a towel or board overnight. The next morning, check seals, wipe jars clean of any residue (which can mold if left on the jar!), remove the rings and store.

I still plan to keep dry beans in storage. I think it's one of those staples that everyone should have in case of an emergency. They're easy to cook, healthy, and very filling. I know we've had times of financial hardship, or times right after a baby was born or during bad winter weather when getting to the store was either impossible or just really difficult. Having some basic staples stocked up makes life a lot easier! 

Do you "do" food storage?

I've linked this post at:
The Prairie Homestead
Little House in the Suburbs

A June Garden Update

Sometimes as a northern gardener, it can be really frustrating to see blog posts of southern gardeners harvesting zucchini as mine is only just getting its first set of true leaves. Or seeing green tomatoes being harvested, when I'm only just seeing my first tomato blossom! Ah well. Could be worse, right? I watch the show Alaska: The Last Frontier and can only imagine how difficult gardening must be up there ... but they still do it, and they do it well!

So here's a picture update of what's going on in our garden these days. I had some root maggots attack my radishes. I purchased some beneficial nematodes, diatomaceous earth, and some of this stuff and applied all three. Maybe it was overkill, but I kinda panicked. I ended up just pulling up all of the radishes. I have some beets and other veggies planted nearby that root maggots would just love. So I decided to err on the side of caution. So far I haven't seen any evidence of them since pulling up the radishes and applying the nematodes. We'll have to wait and see!

Here we have rhubarb in a pot, peas almost ready for harvest, beets, and one of the 4 types of peppers plants I have growing:

Here we have butternut squash, apples, and a little tomato blossom!

And here some purple cabbage, cauliflower, and zucchini:

This isn't everything. We also have blackberries, strawberries, pumpkins, kale, broccoli, green cabbage, asparagus, cukes, cow peas, blueberries (still too young to produce at 2 years old, but growing well!), a total of 3 varieties of tomatoes (san marzano, black cherry, and brandywine), and 4 varieties of peppers (sweet bell, jalapeno, cayenne, and hungarian hot wax) and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. 

Aside from the root maggots in the radishes, we haven't had any major pest issues (yet). Last year we had a miraculously bountiful harvest and no pests to speak of. I'm a little nervous about what this year will have in store for us ... what are the chances of us having such an uneventful and plentiful garden again this year? 

Next post I plan to chat about some of the things I've learned about growing tomatoes ... every gardener's favorite topic. 

Organizing Spices and Herbs with Mason Jars

I’m always trying to find ways to use what I have on hand to make my home more organized or to give it that homemade comfy feeling. I don’t do a lot of decorating. I find that it usually just adds more for me to dust and more for me to pack if/when we move. I try to keep it simple. So when I do decide to have something displayed in my home (spices/herbs in this case), I really try to make it functional, practical, and pleasing to the eye.  

I have this shelf in my kitchen that doesn’t really have a purpose. At first glance, it appears to just scream, “SPICE RACK!”. The odd thing, though, is that the previous owner had installed a pull out spice rack inside one of the kitchen cabinets. Did they have two spice racks or something? I’m not sure. As our family has grown, though, I’ve realized that this unclaimed shelf in my kitchen functions better for me as a spice rack than the small pull out option. I like to buy my spices and herbs in bulk, meaning that I need space for larger containers. Mason jars are usually perfect for this purpose.

I saw this post on Keeper of the Homestead, and just had a lightbulb moment. I’m really pleased with how it has turned out. Everything is right at my fingertips while I cook and bake, and I had all of the materials on hand. I just used various mason jars, and made little labels out of card stock cut into 1in by 1.5 inch rectangle, and then covered them with packaging tape. I love it! For the small 4oz jars, I taped the label to the lid. There’s a quilted texture on these jars and I couldn’t get the tape to adhere very well. The jars with corks are from BJ’s. They came with organic spices in them and hold quite a bit.

Is there something in your house that you could make more practical or beautiful to look at without spending any money? Even better if it's something that will make your life easier or save you time while you work around your home. 

Ideas:
- Could your laundry area be better organized? 

- What about your gardening tools? Are they scattered about (I'm guilty!) or are they stored somewhere that's easy to access as you head out to the garden, and easy to put away so that they don't get left out and lost by curious little "garden helpers"? I need to work on this one.

- What about cleaning supplies (rags, sprays etc.)? I could definitely work on organizing them a little better so that they're within reach when I need them.

This post is linked over at:
Little House in the Suburbs: DIY Link Up
The Prairie Homestead: Barn Hop

Spring Cleaning Planning with Evernote- Kitchen

Admittedly, my gusto for spring cleaning has sort of peter'd out. Between some health drama that cropped up last month, a minor surgery last week, and the fact that it's beautiful out and I just want to play in the garden ... cleaning house is the LAST thing on my mind. Thankfully I had this list done before the snow melted, so I'm able to just check items off as I complete them. As unmotivated as I feel about cleaning right now, it really does feel good to get some things done that I've been meaning to get to! Here's my Spring Cleaning- Kitchen Edition list (You can find the bathroom checklist right here):

Spring Cleaning Planning with Evernote - Bathroom

We’re past the midway point in the month of March, and this is the time of year when I start getting antsy to be outdoors. Unfortunately, it’s still extremely cold here, although the snow does seem to be starting to melt some. Yesterday the hubs was able to get outside with the kids and clean up the yard a bit since it was around 40 degrees. He got a bon fire going and burned some of the brush and branches that have either been trimmed, or fallen of its own accord. It’s kind of a huge embarrassing mess right now. Living in the suburbs, there’s a bit of pressure to have your yard looking presentable. Reason #2123432 why we don’t belong in the ‘burbs. Who has time to keep a clean yard with small kids, house work, homeschooling, volunteer work, homeschool co-ops, extra curricular activities and … oh yeah, trying to grow as much of our own food as possible. People! I belong in the country where a messy yard is not only acceptable, but kind of expected. But, this is where God has planted us. And so we will do the best we can. :)

The messy yard has me thinking about spring cleaning. We’re going on vacation at the end of next month, and I’d like to come home to a nice clean house (and yard), because when we get back, I’ll be diving right into gardening season (a few things will be planted before we leave, but mostly it’ll ramp up after we get back).

I use Evernote for a lot of my planning, including lesson plans, grocery lists, meal plans, garden notes, so I think I’ll use Evernote to plan a Spring Cleaning checklist for myself. My house is different from yours, so your Spring Cleaning may look slightly different, but I can post my checklists here in order to help spark your minds for your own homes. 
 

So what about you? Doing any spring preparations?

Technorati Tags: Spring Cleaning,Cleaning,Organization

Homemade Hamburger Buns

I think bread making in general is one of those basic skills that every wannabe homesteader tackles at some point or another. I know that, for me, it was a long road with many failures before I finally got it right. It was really almost laughable. I couldn’t get a dough to rise to save my life! But once you figure it out, once you know the feel of a good dough, the possibilities are endless! Here’s a really easy hamburger bun recipe that I’ve been using for years. It yields 12 buns, which is great for a larger family!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup water
• 2 T. butter
• 1 T. white sugar
• 1 1/2 t. salt
• 5 1/2 c. all purpose flour (feel free to sub in a few cups of whole wheat flour!)
• 1 envelope of dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 T. water

(BIG T = TABLESPOONS. little t = teaspoons).

Directions

• In a medium saucepan, combine the first 5 ingredients. Stir to combine so that the sugar doesn’t just settle to the bottom. Bring to a boil, and then remove from heat to cool until lukewarm. A temperature of about 105 degrees F to 110 degrees F is good. Any hotter and it could kill the yeast.
• In the bowl of your stand mixer, stir together the flour and yeast. Pour in wet ingredients and stir until the dough starts to pull together. With your hook attachment, knead the dough for 8-10 minutes (if you’re just learning the art of bread making, I recommend kneading by hand on a floured surface. It helps you get familiar with the way everything should feel). You can stop kneading when the dough feels smooth, not too sticky, and when you poke it, it bounces back at you a bit.  Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to coat. Cover with a damp towel to rise for 1 hour OR until the dough has doubled. The doubling of the dough is more important than the time. So if it takes longer than 1 hour for it to double in size, that’s okay. Patience. ;)
• Punch down the dough and divide into 12 portions. Make tight balls by pulling the dough down around itself and pinching at the bottom. This helps the gluten develop ---> good texture. Put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Let them rest for about 10 minutes, and then press down to flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. Cover once again with a damp towel to rise for about 40 minutes OR until doubled in size.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix egg yolk and water in a small bowl and brush onto the buns. Bake for 10-12 minutes. They’re done when they have a nice golden brown color and they sound hollow like a drum when you tap them with your fingernail.
• Now slather those babies with some butter and enjoy. I mean … wait patiently until the burgers are done grilling and make sure you share.

(Original Recipe Source)

I've linked this post over at: Frugally Sustainable's Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways

Saving with a Pellet Stove

I know that among homesteaders, a wood stove is generally the way we want to go. You can harvest your own fuel, and woodstoves don’t require electricity. The thing is that they’re also extremely expensive to have installed, especially if you don’t have the know-how to do it yourself. We had a quote done, and found out that it would cost us upwards of $7,000 to have a stove installed (including the stove, parts, and labor). I would be okay with investing that much into a house we’d be staying in forever, but we hope to move within the next five years. So, a pellet stove was much more reasonable for us at this time.

My grandparents offered us their pellet stove which they no longer use. We installed it for a little less than $250 worth of supplies and 3 hours of labor. I was also able to find a nice hearth pad on Craigslist for $80, which saved us another $300 or so. Installing a pellet stove is much less involved than installing a wood stove. Much more newbie friendly. It’s so easy that my husband and I were able to do it ourselves. That’s saying something, especially since neither of us are particularly handy. We’re learning, but it’s a process. How did we learn to install such a thing? YouTube of course! What can’t you learn on YouTube? Here’s the video that we followed:
Part 1: http://youtu.be/blZHAsDmVMc
Part 2: http://youtu.be/4IVHbXlbUDg

Cool. But do you really save money?
This year has been extremely cold. We’re in NY, so a harsh winter is a given, but the subzero wind chills are happening to a greater degree, and more frequently than typical thanks to these polar vortex thingies that keep coming down. With that in mind, we’ve been saving $60-$100 per month off of our utility bill, including figuring in the cost of pellets ($4.50/bag, and we use about 1 bag per day).  So, yeah! We’re saving! On the sub zero days, the pellet stove acts as a supplement to our furnace. It doesn’t get quite as warm. On the days when it’s in the 20’s or 30’s, our house 1,800 sq ft house gets up to 77 degrees with just the stove, no furnace. I’ve been impressed!

What if the electricity goes out?!
We actually have a converter on our van that would allow us to run the stove using our van as a power source. We also have a huge generator. This should get us through a few days if needed, though we don’t typically lose power for more than 12-16 hours a time. The last time we had a long term power outage in my area must have been 1991. Hopefully the S doesn’t HTF before we move onto a dream homestead with a wood burning stove.

I'm linked over at the Prairie Homestead Barn Hop and at Frugally Sustainable's Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways.

2014 Garden Plan and Hopes for Spring

“The best place to find God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

---

Here is a list of what we will be growing in the gardens this year. In addition to this, I also have some blueberry plants and some blackberry brambles. I’d like to find a place for a dwarf peach tree, perhaps. I'll start winter sowing sometime this week. Last year I'd already begun by now, but it's been a crazy few weeks. Another advantage of winter sowing is that you have a little more wiggle room in your planting times.

(P.S. I figured out why I couldn't upload pictures before. Technical issue resolved. Regular stunning sub-par photography will resume moving forward.)

We have had a great deal of snow and freezing temperatures this year. It’s not abnormal for New York, but I think we’ve been colder and snowier than recent years for sure! Thankfully we’ve had bits of sunshine to help keep our moods up. The children and I have enjoyed sitting by a sunny window watching the winter birds out by the feeders. We’re working on learning to identify common birds. We’ll start reading the Burgess Bird Book and following along with the Great Backyard Bird Count in a couple of weeks. Even winter has opportunities for enjoying God’s creation around us!
 
 
Cool Weather Crops:

• Mesclun
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Kale
• Radishes
• Carrots
• Cabbage 
• Peas

Warm Weather Crops:

• Butternut Squash
• Zucchini
• Cucumbers
• 3 varieties of tomatoes (a beefsteak, a paste, and a cherry)
• Peppers (Bell, Hungarian Hot, and Jalepeno)

Herbs:

• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Basil
• Lemonbalm
• Cilantro

 

Flowers (these plans are still coming together):

• Calendula
• Nasturtiums
• Sun Flowers
• I'm thinking I'll order the Cottage Garden flower mix from Botanical Interests
• Maybe more? I might have my hands full already with the veggie garden. I might keep the flower garden small.
• I would LOVE to do a Mary garden in the front yard, though. Hmmm…..

I posted here and here about how to create a garden plan.

The biggest little doing some nature sketches from a sunny window

I shared this post at the Prairie Homestead Barnyard Hop and Frugally Sustainable's Frugal Ways, Sustainable Days Blog Hop.