When we moved into our house last year, I had no idea where the sun lay throughout the day. That’s a big problem for a gardener because you obviously want to put your plants where the sun shines.
Luckily, this is easily solved for under $10 and a little bit of technology… Read the rest of this post…
Awhile back, I started up making cheese again. It started with a lead on a Facebook group about raw milk available in the area. Raw milk is superb for cheesemaking because it keeps its natural bacterial cultures that pasteurization kills off. Further, many of the world’s best cheeses are made with raw milk, so if I wanted to duplicate them, I needed good source materials. Keep reading to find out how the process goes.
Gardening is a long-term learning process. I’m never perfect at it. It’s got a great force-feedback. The work you put in is directly what you get out of it. This is a list of the things I wish I had done this past summer, and what I’ll do in the future.
I get a lot of questions about composting. People assume there’s a science to it and lots of ways of doing things wrong.
You can’t go wrong composting. Everything eventually returns to the earth. People fret so much about whether they’ll doing it “right” that they don’t get to composting.
You don’t need an expensive bin, either. I set up this (ugly) bin for $20, and in this post I’ll tell you how I did it and how I maintain it.
Sugar snap peas love to climb to great heights. Get them off the ground and they’ll have more air circulation, better pollination and more sunlight. The pea pods won’t suffer blight or mold. Building a frame is pretty easy, too, as long as you have a few power tools on hand. Here’s how to build your very own trellises, very cheaply. Read the rest of this post…
You’ve gotten your apples in the mail. If you’re like me, they came on a tremendously bad day to plant. What to do? If you’ve got to wait two days, keep them balled up and in a dark place. If you have to wait longer, rearrange your schedule to plant the damn things or go out at midnight and start digging holes! In this post, I’ll go over how I planted my trees. Read the rest of this post…
You don’t need to talk to me for long to know how much I like mushrooms. I grew them on the kitchen counter recently and I am always looking for more ways to get choice gourmet mushrooms on the cheap. Problem is, most of the really good mushrooms only grow in conjunction with tree roots. Good thing, though, because I just planted my micro-orchard of apple trees. Read on to see how I stacked the deck to get a chance at porcini…
Looking for Part Two? Here it is.
Along with asparagus, I have had a dream of having a few apple trees. I’m interested in drinking them, not eating them, though. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and raw apples give me an allergic reaction. No, the thing to do with these is make a sharp and tasty cider, then ferment it down into something… harder. My brother is a good beer brewer and I always viewed making cider as something fun we could do together. Mostly I’d be doing the grunt labor and he’d do the brainy things like sterilizing everything. Want to plant your own orchard in your back yard? Read more to see how I planned mine out.
I’ve been gardening off and on since I was sixteen. All that time, I’ve wanted to grow asparagus. The problem is that it takes three years to get established before you really get to harvest it. I went from high school to college to postgrad to married life in an apartment, and nowhere in there could I devote three years to a plant. Most of that time, I didn’t even have a yard! It was with great joy that I could plant asparagus for the first time in my life this year. Let me tell you how it went. Read the rest of this post…
I’ve been exploring Mexican food again with Rick Bayless’ Authentic Mexican cookbook.It’s a good season for something fresh, spicy and vegetable-focused. To that end, I’ve been using chipotles now and then. You can get chipotles in a can in the Mexican aisle, typically with at least eight to a can. However, most recipes only call for one. What to do?