tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3987273793352925802024-03-05T06:11:20.501-08:00Encyclopedia of Country Living blog40th ANNIVERSARY!
This blog is for readers and fans of <em>The Encyclopedia of Country Living</em> by Carla Emery, featuring excerpts and tidbits from Emery's original, comprehensive manual of skills and country wisdom for living on the land.Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.comBlogger203125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-62008502156766184882014-06-16T11:35:00.001-07:002014-06-16T11:35:06.912-07:00The Campfire Kitchen <div class="MsoPlainText">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are you taking to the trails this summer? Complete your
camping experience with the perfect campfire kitchen setup. Follow Carla
Emery's helpful tips for making a tasty meal outdoors, and if you need a dish
to pair with your newfound kitchen knowledge, check out this recipe for
mouth-watering <a href="http://www.sasquatchbooks.com/cast-iron-camp-food/" target="_blank">Herb-Stuffed, Pan-Fried Golden Trout</a>.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You need a good place to build your fire and plenty of
fuel for all its stages. You will be glad for a work table - maybe a plank
between two stumps, so you don't have to set everything on the ground. Anything
that can be cooked in frying pans, kettles, or reflector ovens can be managed
with a campfire. Don't use pans with handles that will burn. Handles that
aren't metal will promptly burn or melt. If they're all you have, let them do
it, and then you can get on with it. Stick to simple ingredients and simple
procedures when you're cooking, because you didn't bring your kitchen. If you
are able to plan ahead to do all your cooking over an open fire, you especially
need one or two cast-iron frying pans, a Dutch oven, a campfire coffeepot, and
a big pan to heat dish and washing water in. A folding grill to hold pans
secure and level is very helpful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Starting a Fire</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Campfire cooking means starting a fire and controlling it
until you don't need it any more. There's a real skill to it, which you'll
acquire with practice. The easiest way to do camp cooking is to pack a proper
wood cookstove, set it up in your camp, and use it. Gather wood on dry days and
store it under shelter to use on wet ones. You can do this in a semi-permanent
camp. If you're living on the trail, start a fire like this: Lay a little mound
of really flammable dry stuff in an open place, on dirt or sand if you can, and
away from dry brush or grass. (Please don't start a forest fire!) Place very
loosely wadded toilet paper, dry grass, the wrappers from tin cans, or one of
my book brochures crumpled up on top of that. You crumple it because paper
doesn't burn well flat. You've got to get air in there. Now make a tipi of very
slender dry sticks over that, then bigger and bigger ones over that. Set aside
some yet bigger ones to add later. Use 3 matches bunched together to start the
fire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Frying</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Try to allow enough time to let a good roaring blaze burn
down to coals. When desperate, though, you can fry on a flame. Have a circle of
big flat-topped rocks around the outside of your fire circle. They will help
hold the heat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Stewing</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Just make a place for your kettle down in there among the
rocks. Some tribes of native Americans cooked their meat by digging a hole,
lining it with a hide, filling it with water, and then adding hot rocks and
pieces of meat. This had to be the first crock pot!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Building a Mud Oven</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you have clay soil, this is a natural. Start by
building a strong, dome-shaped frame of willow branches and sticks about 2 feet
wide by 3 feet long. Cover your branch canopy with a layer of mud 6-12 inches
thick. Cut a square opening at one end to be your oven </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">door. At the top opposite end, insert a large tin can
that is open at both ends; that will be your chimney. After the mud is
completely dry, build a fire inside and burn out all your wooden framework.
Cool and scrape the insides clean. To bake in your mud oven, first build a fire
inside it and heat the mud to red-hot. Then rake out the fire and put in your
sourdough bread, bannocks, stew, or roast. Close the door with a slab of flat
rock, and it should bake wonderfully.</span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-76779319748021453422014-06-09T15:00:00.000-07:002014-06-09T15:03:03.072-07:00The Care and Keeping of Worms: Creating a Worm Bin & Feeding Worms<div class="MsoPlainText">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thinking of adding a worm bin to your home? Worms are
great for fishing, recycling kitchen wastes, and for your garden soil. The
Encyclopedia of Country Living has a wonderfully comprehensive section on
building a worm bin and general care and keeping of your new friends. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Start from the very beginning! Learn about buying worms
<a href="http://encyclopediacountryliving.blogspot.com/2009/07/healthy-soil-part-2-worms.html" target="_blank">here</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Materials</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Your worm bin can be made of wood, metal, or plastic. All
are equally good, but if you use wood it should be exterior-grade and not
aromatic, because aromatic woods (redwood, cedar, etc.) are hard on the worms.
Wooden worm boxes wear out. If you let the box dry out once in a while, it will
keep longer; building 2 boxes and alternating them allows for that. Painting
the wood with something like polyurethane varnish or epoxy also helps protect
the wood. Otherwise a wood box will last only 2 or 3 years. If using a ready-made container, be sure it was not used to hold
pesticides. Thoroughly scrub any plastic container you use. You can build or
place your bin outdoors if you live in a mild climate.</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Size</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The container should be no deeper than 12 inches; 8-12
inches is a good size. The worms tend to stay on the surface, so a deep
container is unnecessary and will only encourage the growth of smelly
microorganisms, which live where there is little or no oxygen. The width of
your bin depends on how much organic garbage your household produces, if you're
using the worms to recycle garbage. Your bin should have 1 square foot of
surface for each pound of garbage you'll be adding per week. (An average person
produces about 2 lb. of garbage per week.) So for a family of 2, a 2 x 2 x
8-foot bin is generally good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p>Basic Worm Care</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The less you mess with the worms, the better. Feeding them once or twice a week is sufficient. While feeding, note whether their bedding is staying moist and any other changes. As the worms eat the food and bedding, you'll see more castings. This higher proportion of castings to bedding is not the best thing for worms. If your worms are for bait, get them out of there before they start shrinking instead of growing. On the other hand, if your goal is to grow rich humus for your garden and house plants rather than fishing worms, you can let the worms stay in the bin longer.</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Worm Beddings</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Worm beddings not only provide moisture to the bin but
also give you a place to bury the garbage. If left a long time, the bedding
would be entirely converted into castings by the worms. (You won't leave the
worms in the bin that long, though.) The lighter the bedding, the easier it is
for the worms to make their way around the box.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Worms in nature enjoy living in organic material such as
decaying leaves and rotten logs. Soil is not a necessary bedding ingredient,
although you might want to add a handful to the bedding to help the worms'
gizzards break down the food. But soil is heavy, and too much makes your bin
difficult to move around. Powdered limestone is also a good addition: It adds
grit, reduces acidity, and provides calcium for worm reproduction. Or you can
use pulverized eggshells for calcium.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">NOTE: Do not use slake or hydrated lime. It will kill
your worms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Worm Food</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Too much food will "sour" your worm bed; the
worms won't be able to keep up, and it'll smell bad. If you give them too
little food, your worms will start getting smaller, and some will die. This
happens if your worms have reproduced more worms than your garbage or other
feeding schedule can handle. Their population will stabilize at the amount your
food for them will support. Over time you'll get a feel for how much to feed.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Growing bait worms and harvesting them regularly calls
for regular feedings. Worms for vermicomposting can get fed as much kitchen
garbage as you have. You can let it build for a few days and give it to them
once or twice a week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>How to Feed</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoPlainText">
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> As you dump the food out on top of the bin, don't always
put it in the same place. In fact, try to put it in a different place each time
on about a nine-day feeding cycle. Dig a shallow hole, put the garbage in it,
and cover with 1 inch of bedding. Covering the bin with a plastic sheet holds
in moisture.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Worm Food Mix </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 1 part screened topsoil and 1 part vegetable matter
(grass clippings, kitchen waste, etc.). Peat moss is more water-absorbent than
food scraps. If the manure is fresh, add more topsoil to prevent heating.
Heating forces the worms to the bottom of the bin, where they won't eat or
breed. The topsoil also absorbs odors and adds body to the mixture. Add chicken
mash or cornmeal to provide the carbohydrates, protein, and fats the worms need
for nutrition and to help in the formation of egg capsules. Mix very well.</span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-90405718445013025582014-03-20T13:51:00.001-07:002014-03-20T13:51:54.366-07:00Using a Cloche for Early Spring Gardening<br />
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<b>Cloche</b>: A cloche (pronounced "klosh") is a lightweight covering for a plant or plants that can easily be moved. A cloche is the simplest cover to build and use. It can easily be moved to different parts of the garden to cover different plants. When the cloche is put on over tender young plants in early spring, it's called a "hot cap." Unlike cold frames, cloches allow light to reach a plant from every direction. </div>
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You can reuse cloches to cover as many as 3, 4, or more crops in the same year. Cloches are especially well suited for use in the maritime Northwest, where plants need protection from excessive rain and cold winds more than from very low temperatures. The weaknesses of cloches are their vulnerability to heavy wind and their inability to keep plants as warm as cold frames or greenhouses.</div>
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<b>Cloche Materials.</b> A cloche can be made of anything that transmits light, so the possibilities for design are nearly limitless. They can be made of cheap materials - cheaper than those needed to make a cold frame or greenhouse. </div>
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To cover a row of plants or a section of garden, you can build one large cloche or a series of modular cloches that link together. The word "cloche" is French for bell. In Europe, gardeners have covered plots for centuries, and in the 1600s, French market gardeners used a glass jar in the shape of a bell to cover a plant. Now cloches for individual plants may be made of waxed paper, plastic, fiberglass, or glass. Or your cloche may be a big, plastic-covered tunnel or tent that covers entire rows of plants. A wide variety of cloches are available commercially, with an equally wide range in prices. When open-air gardening begins in the summer, wash your cover material, dry, and store in a shady place until needed in the fall.</div>
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<b>Homemade Cloche Design.</b> You can scrape together a cloche by making half-circle hoop rows out of old coat hangers and then covering them with plastic. Or cut out the top, bottom, or side of any 1-gal. plastic or glass jug. To cover a wide raised bed, use sections of hog-wire fencing curved to fit the beds and covered with plastic.</div>
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<li>Tunnel: In general, the tunnel style is made by stretching 4-mil polyethylene plastic sheeting over a line of half-circle hoops. The hoops are bent and fastened to strips at the top and bottom sides so they will stay put. For example, you could put the plastic over 6 x 6-inch mesh concrete-reinforcing wire. The reinforcing-wire cloche looks like the tunnel style except the wire is arched from where it is nailed to a 10-foot lumber plank over to the other side, where it is nailed to a parallel plank. Then the plastic is put over that. The 2 end openings are covered with more plastic.To ventilate a tunnel cloche, on cloudy days you open the end away from the wind. On sunny days you can open both ends. A breeze is created by the warm air leaving the cloche. As the weather gets warmer, you'll be able to leave one end open continuously. When the weather gets hot, of course, you take off the plastic and put it away until fall, when the weather gets cold again.</li>
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<li>Tent: This cloche is lighter, portable, and easier to build than the tunnel. It has 4- or 6-mil polyethylene plastic sheeting stretched over an umbrella-tent-style support.</li>
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<b>Using a Cloche.</b> Cloches can be placed over any area of your garden, large or small, that you want to protect. To water, weed, and harvest, you lift the cloche off the bed, tilt up one end, or take off the plastic. If your cloche has no natural opening, you must remember to ventilate by propping up one side.</div>
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Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-48499092462351786592014-02-11T10:20:00.000-08:002014-02-11T11:21:54.851-08:00Homemade Treats for Valentine's Day <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This Valentine's Day, don't worry about buying flowers or
making dinner reservations — show your love with these thoughtful homemade (and
delicious) gift ideas from Carla Emery.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Kisses: </b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Beat 2 egg whites stiff. Add a pinch of salt, 1/2
cup of powdered sugar, and 1/2 t. vanilla. Drop from a teaspoon onto a lightly
oiled cookie sheet. Bake in a 300 degree F oven about 30 minutes until firm and
dry. Variation: Add 1/4 cup coconut, or 1 square chocolate, melted and mixed
in.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Brandied Cherries:</b> Boil 5 cups sugar with 2 cups water
for 12 minutes, or until you have a clear syrup. Pour that syrup over 5 lb.
cherries (the small sour kind) and let stand over night. Drain off the syrup
and boil it again. Add cherries and boil about 5 more minutes. Take out cherries
with a skimmer (the kind with holes to let the juice drain away) and put the
cherries into canning jars. Boil the syrup down 15 more minutes. It should be
getting pretty thick. Add 2 cups brandy. Remove from heat. Pour over cherries
and seal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Rose Geranium Cake:</b> Sift together 2 cups flour, 1/2 t.
salt, and 1 t. baking powder. Cream 1/2 cup butter and 1 cup sugar. Add
alternately the flour and 2/3 cup water. Finally, add the unbeaten whites of 4
eggs. Whip hard for 5 minutes. Line a loaf pan with buttered paper and rose
geranium leaves. Pour in batter. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes.
Pull the leaves off with the paper when the cake is done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-51869992360525941312014-01-27T14:20:00.000-08:002014-01-27T14:22:04.060-08:00Feeding the Team: Cornbread and Chili for Super Bowl Sunday<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Are you feeding the 12th man (plus some) on Super Bowl
Sunday? Try Carla Emery's recipes for a simple and delicious cornbread and
chili that will keep everyone full and happy until the final field goal.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>CORN/WHEAT BREAD</b></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Combine 1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup home-ground (or whole)
wheat flour, 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 tablespoon baking powder in a bowl.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In another bowl, stir together 1 egg, 1/2 cup honey, and
1-cup milk. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ones and stir together.
Add 2 tablespoons of melted butter (or lard). Stir a moment more, but don't
over stir, because you don't want to stir your bubble out.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div class="MsoPlainText">
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pour into a greased 8-inch square-baking pan. Bake at 425
degrees for about 25 minutes.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><div class="MsoPlainText">
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>KIDNEY BEAN CHILI</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soak 2 cups dried kidney beans overnight (or use canned
kidney beans).</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next day, pour off water. Simmer beans with 2 onions
and 2 peppers (both chopped), 6 crushed garlic cloves, 1 pound skinned, chopped
tomatoes, 2 cups tomato sauce, and 2-4 cups water, depending on how soupy you like
it.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seasonings could be 1 tablespoon each of chili powder and
soy sauce (tamari). Optional ingredients are 1/2 pound slices mushrooms or
1-cup corn kernels (add those just a few minutes before serving). Simmer all
for about 2 hours before serving.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-63049854194614956502014-01-09T10:32:00.000-08:002014-01-09T10:53:39.786-08:00How to Start a Fire in a Wood-Burning Stove<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether you live year-round in a home with a wood-burning stove, or if you're just cozying up in one for the winter, be sure to follow Carla Emery's step-by-step instructions for starting a fire in your stove. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You want the wood just dry enough at burning time. It takes 6 months to a year to dry wood for burning. So spring-cut wood would be burned the next winter. Freshly cut (green) wood is about 50 percent water. It's heavy and burns "cold" (because all the energy it takes to evaporate that water). It also deposits a lot of flammable creosote in the chimney. Even well-dried wood is still 12-20 percent water. That's just right for burning. It's still damp enough to be a calm and manageable fire. If the water content is under 10 percent, you have to "tinder-dry" wood. This makes great kindling because it burns fast and hot. To burn tinder-dry wood you may have to damp down the airflow regulators to reduce the oxygen supply to keep from overheating the stove, or your home, and that lack of oxygen for the fire also tends to deposit creosote.</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">STARTING A FIRE:</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On very cold mornings, if there is no other heat, I let the children build the fire. It keeps them occupied while the house is warming up. Otherwise, they just stand around the cold stove and complain. The basic idea is this: You strike a match to get enough heat to light paper, which will burn and create heat enough to light kindling, which will burn and create heat enough to ignite bigger, and then bigger, hunks of wood, which will burn with enough heat to kindle coal. That's because each thing has its "kindling point," meaning the lowest possible temperature that has the lowest kindling point (the match) and work your way up.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Laying Burnables into the Stove.</b> Separate sheets of newspaper. Wad them up individually and put them into the firebox. Or use any discarded papers or paper containers. Add some of your most finely cut kindling on top of the paper, then a few bigger chunks of wood on top of that, then a couple of yet larger sticks on top of that. Arrange all the wood in as open a style as possible, not pressed together so that lots of air can get in there. Not only does the fire in general need air, but at first every individual stick needs an air supply. I carefully arrange them log cabin or teepee style to ensure this. Once it gets going you needn't be so particular. And start with plenty of sticks. One stick of wood never burns well alone. (There's some profound philosophy there if I ever get time to ponder it--a sermon even.) Now light the paper with a match as near the bottom as you can.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Adjusting the Dampers. </b>Fire travels up. Always start your fire with all the dampers wide open. As the fire gets going, keep it supplied with fuel of the appropriate size for the stage it's at. As it gets going better you can gradually cut back on the draft. You will waste fuel and have a hard time heating your stove and oven if you let all your hot air go directly up the chimney, which is what it will do with all the dampers left open. So when your fire is going really well, cut back the draft--by turning the damper in the stovepipe--until it starts smoking. Then turn it back enough so you have no smoke. If the chimney damper is shut too tight, you'll have smoke all over the place. If it's open too wide, the fire will roar and consume like crazy--but it won't make the room warm. Close the damper at the back or to the side of the firebox, shut or almost shut. Adjust your front damper to the point that the fire's health seems to require. The hotter your fire the more dampening it can stand. If your fire is too slow, give it more air. If your fire still isn't burning well, try loosening up the pile of fuel.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>[Adapted from the "Wood Heat" section of Chapter 6: Tree, Vine, Bush & Bramble. Other topics include: Managing an Existing Stand of Trees; Reforestation; Harvesting Wood; Air Pollution; Stove Shopping; Repairing a Wood Stove; and Cooking on a Wood Stove. </i><i>Illustration </i><i>copyright 1994 by Cindy Davis.</i><i>]</i></span></div>
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Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-69541589374954372952013-12-23T11:40:00.000-08:002013-12-23T11:40:49.911-08:00Winter Weather Beverages: Spiced Cider, Mulled Red Wine and More<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hosting a holiday gathering? Keep your guests full of Christmas cheer with Carla Emery's recipes for delicious mulled beverages. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can mull any juice by adding sugar and spices and heating to a boil. Then simmer 10 minutes, strain, and serve hot. Grape juice, orange juice, cider, and red wines mull especially well. Spices invariably include cloves and cinnamon sticks. Whole allspice, nutmeg, and ginger are other possibilities. Lemon juice and lemon slices are good too. Sweeten with your favorite sweetener. Be sure to strain unless all will be consumed immediately. The longer the whole spices are in it, the stronger the drink gets--and it soon becomes too bitter to enjoy!</span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">SPICED LEMONADE</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Put 2 qt. water, 4 T. sugar, 3 cloves, and about 2 inches of stick cinnamon into a pan. Bring slowly to a boil, strain, add the juice of 4 lemons, and reboil. Serve with a slice of lemon in each glass.</span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MULLED RED WINE</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Use the cheapest red wine you can find (it will still be good). Heat 1 qt. wine and add 1 stick cinnamon, juice of 1 lemon, 1/2 c. sugar, 8 cloves, and 1/2 lemon sliced into sections. Strain. Serve with a slice of the lemon in each cup. Good for the old, cold, weary, and disheartened--a medicinal substance. Mull port or sweet wines without adding sugar.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>MULLED CRANBERRY CIDER</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mix 4 c. cider (or grape juice) 4 c. cranberry juice, 6 cloves, 1 stick cinnamon, 4 whole allspice, and 1/2 c. brown sugar. heat until the sugar dissolves, and serve hot.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>SPICED CIDER</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mix 4 c. cider, 2 whole allspice, 2 whole cloves, and about 3 inches of stick cinnamon, and boil 5 minutes. Add 1/2 c. brown sugar, boil 5 minutes more and serve hot. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>CIDER PUNCH FOR A CROWD</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Squeeze 1 orange and 1 lemon. Combine the chopped peels, 1/2 c. sugar, 1 stick cinnamon, 1/2 t. whole allspice, and 4 c. water. Boil gently 30 minutes. Strain; add the orange and lemon juice and 2 qt. cider. Reheat and serve.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>MULLED GRAPE JUICE</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Combine 4 c. grape juice (dilute if it is very strong), 4 sticks cinnamon, about 1/4 c. sugar, and a dash each of nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and powdered cinnamon. Bring to boil and serve hot.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>HOT SPICED TEA FOR A CROWD</b></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Combine 3 qt. boiling water, 3 T. tea leaves, 2 sticks cinnamon, and 1 t. whole cloves. When your tea is strong enough, strain and add 3/4 c. sugar, 1/2 c. lemon juice, and 1 c. orange juice. Reheat. The "tea" leaves can be whatever kind you prefer--raspberry, strawberry, rose hip, etc.</span></div>
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Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-52094805573417254902013-11-07T12:01:00.000-08:002013-11-07T12:01:49.065-08:00Preserving Your Halloween Pumpkins<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Halloween may be over, but prime pumpkin time is just
beginning! Carla Emery offers a few tips for enjoying your pumpkins and squash after October 31st using different methods of preserving and cooking. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Preserving Squash or Pumpkin</span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Freezing.</u> Cut open your winter squash or pumpkin. Remove stringy fibers and seeds (save them for seed or
snacks). Cut into pieces and cook until soft in as little boiling water as
possible. Or steam in a pressure cooker or bake in the oven. You can bake a
whole big squash; it takes about 2 hours. Then you cut open, remove seeds, and
mash. Or bake or boil sections and, after the squash is cooked, scrape off the
rind and mash the insides (use a masher or rotary colander or push through a
sieve). (Using a masher is by far the easiest way.) Then package and freeze.
There's no good way to cool it, so just don't put more in the freezer than it
can handle each day. I thaw a bag of frozen squash in a frying pan with a
little water, butter, and honey. Mix well and serve hot.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Substitute for sweet potatoes on Thanksgiving or at any
other time. Around here, squash is much cheaper and easier to grow than sweet
potatoes. You can use it in pies or add it to bread dough. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Drying.</u> Pioneer Americans dried pumpkins a lot. Their
method was generally to slice the pumpkin around in circles, scrape out the
seeds and strings, peel it, and let the circles hang in the air, out of direct
sunshine, until they were dried. Another method: Cut into small pieces, seed,
peel, cut into 1-inch strips, and cut those 1⁄4 inch thick. Or shred it. Dry until
tough. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Squash/Pumpkin Leather:</u> Cook and puree. For each 2 c. puree, add 1⁄2 c. honey, 1⁄4 t. cinnamon, and 1⁄8 t. each
of nutmeg and cloves. (Other options: Combine with apple puree. For spices, substitute ginger and pumpkin pie spice. Sweeten with white or dark corn syrup rather than honey. For each 1 c. steamed squash, pumpkin, yam, or sweet potato, add 1 c. mashed banana, 1 t. pumpkin pie spice, 1⁄2 t. vanilla, and 1⁄2 c. chopped nuts; dry like a fruit leather.)
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Canning.</u> Wash; remove seeds. Cut into chunks and peel.
Cut the peeled chunks into 1-inch cubes. Add just enough water to cover. Boil 2
minutes. Optional: Add salt. Put chunks into clean canning jar. Pour cooking
liquid over, leaving 1 inch headspace. Caution: Do not mash or puree before
canning. Process pints 55 minutes, quarts 90 minutes, in pressure canner only.
If using a weighted-gauge canner, set at 10 lb. pressure at 0-1,000 feet above
sea level; set at 15 lb. at higher altitudes. If using a dial-gauge canner, set
at 11 lb. pressure at 0-2,000 feet above sea level; 12 lb. at 2,001-4,000 feet;
13 lb. at 4,001-6,000 feet; 14 lb. at 6,001-8,000 feet; or 15 lb. above 8,000
feet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Cooking Squash and Pumpkin:</b> Basically you start any
recipe by boiling, baking, or pressure-cooking the flesh. If you then mash,
you've got the equivalent of the canned pumpkin that is called for in most
recipes. Just substitute from there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Boiling.</u> Halve the fruit and scoop out the seeds and
stringy fibers that are mixed up with them. Peel and cut what's left into
cookable-sized pieces. Boil until tender (a half hour or so). To pressure-cook,
cook the peeled pieces 15 minutes at 15 lb. pressure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Baking.</u> Arrange your peeled pieces cut side down in some
sort of baking pan. Bake about an hour at 400˚F. Then scoop out the part that
stayed soft and mashable. Another system is in Ruth's Vegan Squash Pie recipe a
bit later on. Of that one, Lane Morgan says, "That's how I always prepare
my pumpkins for pies, except I scrape out the seeds before I bake because I
don't know how good they'd be for roasting after being cooked in all that
moisture. You don't have to peel or chunk the pumpkin, and I hate peeling
pumpkin. Don't use a rimless baking surface because the pumpkins will 'weep' as
they cook. I save that liquid to get the puree going in the blender." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Instant Mashed Squash/Pumpkin.</u> Blend 2 c. cut-up pumpkin
with 1⁄2 c. water until smooth. If you aren't going to use your puree in a
recipe where it will get cooked, you can cook it plain in a pan, but you have
to stir constantly to prevent burning. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-10450448409058824552013-09-25T09:05:00.000-07:002013-09-25T09:05:52.452-07:00From Coop to Kitchen: How to Find a Good Egg, and a Giveaway!<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Carla Emery is an expert on
raising chickens, so it’s no surprise that she has a few tricks for spotting a
bad egg. Here she offers tips for gathering eggs and testing egg quality. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But what to do with all the
eggs you gather? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
GIVEAWAY: We’re giving away 2 books perfect for any chicken farmer — a copy of
Carla Emery’s <b><i>Encyclopedia of Country Living</i></b><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"> and </span><b><i>Put an Egg on It</i></b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>: </i></span><b><i>70 Delicious Dishes that
Deserve a Sunny Topping</i></b><span style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;">.
Carla Emery’s extensive country wisdom pairs perfectly with this delightful
cookbook filled with egg-ceptional recipes. Use the link below to enter!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/SasquatchBooksSeattle/app_158086484245654" target="_blank">Coop to Kitchen Giveaway! ENTER HERE</a></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Finding Eggs: </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">A basic principle for gathering eggs from any
poultry is this: the more you take, the more they lay, and the less they go
broody. And you should gather every day to make sure the eggs are fresh. If
your birds are confined in a hen house, it’s easy to gather regularly and
gather often. If not, it can be an adventure. All hens like to lay where there
are already eggs. That’s helpful. But they’ll often pick a new nest spot if you
keep emptying it completely of eggs. Then you’ll have to discover it all over
again. So leave an egg in there marked with a pencil so you won’t let it get
too old before gathering that one and using a new one. Homestead mail-order
suppliers often offer wooden or plastic “eggs,” or a smooth white stone can
serve the purpose. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The biggest trouble with
letting chickens run loose is that sometimes you never do find the eggs — until
mama shows up with a family, or you discover a heap of woefully overripe ones.
The best way to keep free-running chickens laying in the hen house (besides
shutting them up completely, which would probably throw them into a molt and
decrease production), is to feed them in there generously last thing in the
afternoon when it is about their bedtime (well before true dark), and then shut
them up for the night (keeps out night predators, too). They will tend to lay
their eggs first thing in the morning. Waiting a few hours after their rising
hour to open their door gives you extra security. Then you can let them go on
their foraging way. It also helps if you have a roomy, nice chicken house with
lots of nesting boxes made the way hens like them, and plenty of clean straw
bedding inside. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Various Eggs: </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Your home-grown eggs may vary considerably in size,
color, and freshness. Pullet eggs are smaller than those the hen will lay
later. You can tell when a pullet starts to lay eggs because she gets broad
across the behind (same thing happened to me having babies). If you have a
small and varied flock you’ll learn to recognize each hen’s egg — they are a
unique combination of size, shape, and color. Then you’ll know who’s laying and
who isn’t. (But the heredity will be an undesirable mish-mash.) <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Bizarre Eggs: </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">You may get an egg with 2 yolks. It’s fine to eat — just
trying to be twins. You may get an egg covered with chicken poop — just wash it
off. Your egg yolk may be darker in color and stronger in taste and the egg
white thicker and firmer — the whole egg held together more firmly — than store
eggs. That would be because your chickens have had access to a richer, more
natural diet than commercial layers, which are required to do their most with
the least (and the egg shows the difference). Your home-grown egg may have a
speck of blood. That’s a hereditary characteristic in some chicken lines and
doesn’t affect the edibility in the least. The egg may have a distinguishable
white speck. In that case, it was a fertile egg and, given the right
conditions, could have become a chick. Such an egg is also fine to eat. Your
egg may have a weirdly shaped shell. </span>It’s good to eat, but don’t
incubate such eggs because you don’t want that hereditary trait passed on — besides,
they are less hatchable. Your egg may have an egg inside an egg, a curiosity
caused when an egg backs up in the oviduct for some reason and thus goes
through the last couple production stages twice. The only obviously undesirable
egg is one that has a half-developed chick in it or is full of rotten gunk.
Otherwise, if you’re in doubt, you have to test for freshness.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Note: Use cracked eggs only
if it’s just the outer shell that is cracked and the inner membrane is okay.
The membrane is okay if there isn’t any egg oozing out the crack. But just to
be on the safe side, cook such eggs thoroughly or use them in foods that will
be cooked.</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Fresh or Rotten? </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">If you discover a nest where some hen(s) hid and
laid 25 eggs, then the problem is to distinguish which eggs are still fresh
enough to use: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>The Bowl Test.</u> The simplest way
to determine freshness is to put eggs on the menu. Start by examining the eggs
carefully. Usually you can tell a bad egg without even breaking it clear open.
It’s hard to crack because the membrane inside the shell has become tough. It
may smell bad, and if you just start to crack the shell, yucky stuff may come
oozing out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Okay, those you toss. Then come
the marginal cases. You have to shell them into a bowl to find out for sure.
You’re bound to get surprised sometimes: an egg that looks dirty and old will
turn out to be just fine, and vice versa. If the egg in your bowl doesn’t have
a funny smell and looks average, I’d say go ahead and use it. So pour it out of
the small bowl into your mixing bowl, and go on to the next egg. Incidentally,
if the last egg was a rotten one, be sure and rinse your testing bowl well
before you pour another egg into it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Float Testing.</u> If you want to
know about the egg without opening it — which, once you’ve encountered hydrogen
sulfide, is understandable — use the float test. Put the eggs in a pan of
water. Fresh eggs will lie on their sides on the bottom of the pan. If an egg’s
a few days old, one end will tip upwards. If stale, an egg will stand on end.
If plumb rotten, it will float. This is all because an egg contains an air cell
at the large end of it. Eggshells are perforated through by tiny holes that
would be needed by the chick for breathing. Thus, with time, a part of the
liquid content of the egg evaporates, the white and yolk shrink, and the
resulting new space is filled by an enlarged air space. But, like life, this
float test is not 100 percent dependable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-35111332921086922462013-09-10T12:45:00.000-07:002013-09-10T12:45:01.687-07:00A Fond Fall Welcome to Apple Season<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">September means apple season. Just over the mountains, Eastern Washington apple orchards are brimming with fruit. Washington state grows the best apples in the world (though I suppose I’m a little biased).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Maybe you are lucky enough to have access to these beautiful orchards, or maybe you’ve just noticed apples on sale at the local grocery store. Either way, now’s the time to stock up on delicious Washington apples. With some clever preserving techniques, you can find yourself eating local apples all year long.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Canning Apples<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wash, peel, core, and quarter or slice your apples. Drop into a solution of 2 T. salt and 2 T. vinegar per 1 gal. of water. That prevents darkening. Then drain, rinse, and boil them for 5 minutes (in either thin sugar syrup or plain water). Then pack your hot fruit into hot, very clean jars, leaving 1⁄2 - inch headspace. Pour boiling liquid from the cooking over up to your headspace limit. Put on lids. Process in boiling water — for either pints or quarts: 20 minutes at altitudes 1,000 feet and lower; 25 minutes at 1,001–3,000 feet; 30 minutes at 3001–6,000 feet; and 35 minutes at above 6,000 feet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Canned Applesauce (and Other Fruit Purees)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I make lots of applesauce. It’s a good way to preserve apples that wouldn’t keep otherwise. Cut large fruit into pieces. Simmer until soft. Add a small amount of water, if needed, to prevent sticking. Put through food strainer or mill. Add sugar to taste. Reheat to simmering (185–210˚F) and pack hot into hot jars, leaving 1⁄2 - inch headspace. Adjust lids, and waterbath can. From sea level to 1,000 feet altitude, process pints 15 minutes, quarts 20 minutes; from 1,001 to 3,000 feet, process pints 20 minutes, quarts 25 minutes; from 3,001 to 6,000 feet, process pints 20 minutes, quarts 30 minutes; above 6,000 feet, process pints 25 minutes, quarts 35 minutes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Freezing Apples for Pie<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For apples to use in making pies and so on, just wash, peel, core, and slice them. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About 50 lb. of apples will make about 35 frozen pints. To keep them from turning dark, quarter (or slice) them into a solution of 1⁄2 c. salt per 1 gal. water. Or else dunk them into boiling water for 11⁄2–2 minutes. Then drain the apples, rinse them under cold water, and drain again.</span></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Method 1:</b><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Scald, drain, chill, cover with a thin syrup (1 c. sugar per quart of water plus 1⁄2 t. ascorbic acid), leave headspace, and freeze.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Or <i><b>Method 2:</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mix 1 qt. apple slices evenly with 1 t. ascorbic acid and 1⁄2 c. sugar. Then put into plastic bags or freezer boxes, seal, and freeze.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Or <i><b>Method 3:</b></i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">No sugar. Just pack ’em plain. The slices break apart quite easily while still frozen for making apple pie or crisp, or you can add a small amount of water and make applesauce.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Or <i><b>Method 4</b></i><span style="font-style: normal;"><b>:</b><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Freeze whole apples, unpeeled. Just wash, put into plastic bag, seal, and place in freezer. To use frozen whole apples, thaw under cold running water until they can be peeled. Then remove the core and slice. (Work fast; an apple that thaws before peeling darkens.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Freezing Applesauce<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Applesauce turns out nicer, I think, canned than frozen, but you can freeze it by just making it, then cooling, packaging, and freezing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Drying Apples<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You have to slice them; they aren’t dried whole. Fully ripe sweet apples are ideal. Usually they are peeled and cored and what’s left is made into doughnuttype rings about 1⁄4 - inch thick to oven dry, 1⁄8 - inch to sun dry. Let the slices fall into cold water while you are working to prevent “rusting,” 1⁄4 c. lemon juice or 1 t. ascorbic acid per 2 c. cold water. If your apples are small, wormy, or too mealy to make into doughnut rings, cut into slices of whatever shape you can. Old-timers then strung them on a thread and hung them in the sun, but now we usually just spread them out on a surface. Using an oven or dehydrator, dry them at 140˚F on a cookie sheet — turning once in a while — until they are leathery<i>.</i></span></div>
Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-33393033928461818862013-08-21T12:49:00.000-07:002013-08-21T12:49:51.437-07:00Harvesting Grain the Environmentally-Friendly Way <br />
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Gas-powered mowers and machines aren't the only way to mow your lawn or harvest your grain. Carla Emery shares tips for picking the right environmentally-friendly tool to use in your yard and field. </span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Sickle. </b>You can cut grains and grasses with a sickle. (The sickle-bar tractor mowers used to cut hay aren’t suitable for grain because they run over it, shelling out some of your grain.) Lightweight hand sickles are available at most hardware stores. The sickle is best for short, rough, or patchy growth. It has a short handle and a long blade, which may have a straight or a serrated edge; serrated is better for grain cutting. The sickle was humankind’s first harvesting implement, but even a very strong and hard-working person couldn’t cut more than half an acre a day with one. It a misery to the back to use it for very long because for each cut, you have to bend over in order to cut near ground level: grab a clutch of grain heads with one hand; put in the sickle blade with the other, starting on the opposite side of the grain stalks from you and pulling it toward you with a sawing motion. The goal is to cut the stalks with such a gentle motion that you minimize the loss of grain to spillage. If you can cut the heads higher up on the stalk, it’s not so hard on your back, and that’s the way it’s done with a “harvest knife.”</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The Harvest Knife. </b>An Asian version of the sickle is the harvesting knife. It’s small. You hold it in your hand, bend your finger around the plant stem, and sever it. You continue holding the grain head in your knife hand and cut new ones to add to it until you get a handful, which is then transferred to the other hand until it’s holding a bunch large enough to bundle or put in a container. The blessing of this method is that it works very well with grain that has fallen over or that has unevenly ripe areas in the field or on various parts of the plant itself.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Scythe.</b> A scythe is far better than a sickle for harvesting grain. There are different styles of scythe for grain, weed, or bush mowing. A scythe has a handle about 6 feet long, called a “snath,” and a long, gently curved blade, which is the “scythe” proper. The snath has a handhold on it that enables an easy, comfortable, swinging motion, each arc swinging into the grain in front of you and cutting a swath about 2 feet across. (Trying to go wider can do more harm than good to your motion.) The scythe’s blade should come against the grain at about a 45˚ angle rather than squarely, at a 90˚ angle. Cut the stalks about 3–4 inches above ground. If there is no cradle, just let them fall in that long swath.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With practice you’ll soon get a natural, rhythmic, unhurried but steady motion with it that you can keep up for a long time and actually enjoy. You’ll discover that scything in different varieties of grain differs as stalk stiffness differs. In general, barley and rye are easier to cut than wheat. In old-time harvests, mowing (what scything is called) was done by a group of men moving through the field of golden grain side by side. Their carefully measured movements were subtly synchronized so as to cut all the grain in front of them and yet not collide with each other, like the motions of a well-trained rowing crew. An experienced scyther can cut 1 or 2 acres a day, laying the grain evenly in a swath. For a beautiful description of how to use a scythe, read “Grow Wheat in Your Garden,” Organic Gardening, January 1972. For more on how to mow hay, chop weeds, and bring in small grains using hand tools, get The Scythe Book by David Tresemer (1980).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Scythe with a Cradle.</b> This works best of all. The “cradle” is 4 fingerlike wooden rods, which look like oversized fork tines, attached above the blade of the scythe. The scyther is now called a “cradler.” The cradle catches the wheat in its fall as the scythe cuts it. The motion of the scythe and cradle’s swing causes the wheat to form a pile. After several strokes of the blade, the cradle gets full of cut grain and is emptied into the bundler’s arms or tossed out in one heap for you to come back later and make into a sheaf. To dump the cradle, bring it back and up in order to let the grain slide gently into a neat pile on the ground. You can buy a scythe from Cumberland General Store or Lehman’s (they also offer replacement snaths and hardware to put them on: 888-438-5346; www.lehmans.com). It’s important that either sickle or scythe be kept sharp. Lehman’s also sells sickle grinders for this purpose. The old-timers say that for grain, you should whet the blade with a rough stone; for grass, use a very fine-grained one.</span><br />
<br />Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-80890531663819169532013-08-05T13:00:00.000-07:002013-08-05T12:59:50.377-07:00Berry and Fruit Picking Tips & Tricks<br />
BERRY PICKING<br />
When you pick berries that have thorns, wear long stockings with the feet whacked off--not nylons--or some similar heavy protection on your arms so you won't get too badly scratched. A leather belt around your waist with a half gallon can hanging on it is handy, and then you can empty the berries into a big bucket when the little one is full. Don't worry about leaves and such when you're picking. You can put the berries in water when you get home, and leaves will float to the top; you can just scoop them away.<br />
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<br />
SECRETS OF FRUIT PICKING<br />
1. Pick on a dry day because damp fruit is more likely to spoil.<br />
2. Store fruit in a cool place soon after it is picked.<br />
3. For safety's sake, pick into something that leaves your hands free. This could be a bucket hanging from your belt, or a fruit-bag that fastens around your waist and hangs like an apron down your front.<br />
4. For least bruising and best condition, pick each fruit by hand.<br />
5. Bend the fruit upward. Twist gently to fee it from the branch. A ripe fruit should easily separate. Keep the stem in the fruit. If pulled out, rot can develop in the hole.<br />
<br />
PRE-TREATMENT FOR FREEZING FRUIT<br />
Fruit can be packed for freezing without a sweetener or liquid. Fruits that will be eaten raw or used for pies or jams after thawing will be fine without a sweetener. Just slice or crush them in their own juice, or even freeze them whole.<br />
<br />
<i>["Berry Picking" and "Secrets of Fruit Picking" excerpted from Chapter 6: Tree, Vine, Bush and Bramble. Illustration copyright 1994 by Cindy Davis. </i><i>"Pre-Treatment for Freezing Fruit" excerpted from Chapter 7: Food Preservation.]</i><br />
<br />Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-10887971957489468132013-07-15T11:56:00.000-07:002013-07-15T11:56:44.725-07:00Secrets of Proper Plant Watering <div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span class="Apple-style-span"><i>Do</i><i>n't risk losing your summer crop by improperly watering your plants — Follow Carla Emery's secrets for a healthy, well-hydrated garden. </i></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">1. Plants can absorb food from the soil only if it is in solution. So in effect, plants must have damp feet in order to eat.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">2.
A desert is usually rich farmland that happens to be lacking water. If
you add water by irrigation, those arid lands will bloom. Only land
whose topsoil has eroded or that has poisonous materials in the topsoil
is true desert. Water supply and temperature are the two great
determinants of what plants can be grown where.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">3.
The best time to water is in the morning. Plants do most of their
growing during the day and need the water for photosynthesis. Watering
in the morning also allows plants to dry out by evening, which reduces
the chance of mildew and rot.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">4.
Mulching helps to keep soil moist as well as to suppress weeds. (But
wait until the ground gets thoroughly warm before putting on mulch.)</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">5.
Plant species differ a lot in water requirements. Vegetables need a
lot of water; most vegetables are about 85 to 90 percent water.
Flowers, trees, and bushes can all survive longer without water than
vegetables.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">6.
Erosion happens when wind or water moves soil. If you garden or farm
on sloping land, you risk erosion. Grass planted in strips across
slopes, summer mulches, and winter cover crops help prevent erosion.
Strategically placed diversion ditches also help.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">7. Watering must be faithful. If stunted by water shortage, many vegetables never grow normally again.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">8.
Watering needs to be generous. Almost all vegetables produce much more
with abundant water than with a skimpy supply. For a minimum, your
garden needs about an inch of water a week, from either the sky or your
irrigation system.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">9. Surface runoff, puddling, and evaporation are all wastes of water.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">10.
For newly planted seeds, water often enough to keep the soil
continuously moist—morning and evening, sprinkling every day until they
are up. You want them to come up as fast as possible. The moist ground
also helps discourage wild birds and the family poultry from digging up
the seeds and eating them.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">11.
Once your plants are well started, give them a good soaking rather than
morning and evening sprinkles. Light sprinkles encourage shallow root
systems because unless the soil gets wet to the level of the deeper
roots, the shallow roots develop at the expense of the deeper ones. But
those shallow roots can’t do as good a job of finding soil nutrients.
Because the surface of the soil dries out faster than the deeper soil,
shallow watering also creates a vicious cycle in which more frequent
watering is needed to keep the plants from wilting. Deep soakings, on
the other hand, encourage deep root systems, and deep roots don’t have
to be watered as often.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';">12.
For that “deep” watering, you want to water until the soil is wet to a
depth of 4 to 6 inches. How long that takes depends on how fast your
irrigation system delivers water and how fast your soil type absorbs it.
When the soil gets dry, water again, to a depth of about 4 inches.</span>Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-34932157266423324792013-07-01T12:32:00.000-07:002013-07-01T12:32:08.809-07:00Celebrate July 4th with Homemade Popsicles<div class="p1" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<i>If you're expecting a sunny 4th of July, you'll need some cool treats to help you celebrate until the evening's fireworks. Carla Emery shares her recipes for easy and delicious homemade popsicles. </i><br />
<br />
These are cheap, easy, and even more fun for children
than going to the store. Children like strong, sweet juices like grape
and cranberry for popsicles—but when kids are hot, anything will do. My
little ones enjoy goat’s milk popsicles. Popsicle making is a nice way
to use leftover juices from canned fruit, too.</div>
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<b>OF HANDLES AND MOLDS</b></div>
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You
can use wooden sticks for handles and sturdy small bowls or cans for
containers—work up a collection. Or buy popsicle molds; Tupperware and
Back to Basics carry them. If you have a big family or lots of small
friends, I recommend getting at least 2 molds so you can have one
freezing while they are consuming the other. You can even make parfait
popsicles by freezing a layer of one color and then a layer of another
color. My plastic holders soon got lost or fell apart, but then we
substituted sticks in a bowl or can and were fine. Fill the molds not
quite full, insert your holder, and freeze.</div>
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<b>UNMOLDING</b></div>
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Don’t
let the gremlins pull the holders until you’re sure the center of the
popsicle is solidly frozen and you have loosened the sides by running
hot water over the back of the mold. Otherwise they might pull out the
holder prematurely, leaving a hole that it won’t freeze back into. You
don’t have to unmold all the popsicles at once. Just loosen as many as
you need. Refill the emptied units and return to the freezer.</div>
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<b>BASIC FRUIT POPSICLES</b></div>
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Puree
1 cup any kind of fruit or a mixture of fruit and mix with 1 cup water.
Pour into your ice cube tray. When they are starting to freeze, add a
wooden stick or toothpick to each section. </div>
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<b>PUDDING POPSICLES</b></div>
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Susan
Staley was in Germany when she sent me this recipe. She said, “If your
children love the Fudgsicle-type popsicle, you can easily make them.
Just make up a batch of pudding and freeze it in your popsicle molds.
They’re delicious and you can make different kinds beside chocolate.
Butterscotch is very good. In fact, any flavor of pudding your children
love hot, they’re bound to like cold in hot summer weather.”</div>
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<b>ANY FRUIT ICE</b></div>
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You
could juice pomegranates or barberries or red currants, or cook and
strain quinces, or grate pineapple, or boil and pulp apples or
rhubarb—whatever you have. Sweeten to taste, add lemon juice if the
flavor needs it, and freeze.</div>
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<b>GINGER ALE JUICE</b></div>
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Combine
¾ cup sugar and 2 cups water. Heat and boil 5 minutes. Cool. Add 1 cup
orange juice, ½ cup lemon juice, and 2 bottles ginger ale. Freeze.</div>
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Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-44736677216976499292013-06-13T10:28:00.000-07:002013-06-13T10:28:14.640-07:00Early Summer Harvest: Beets! <br />
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<i>It's
been a sunny June in the Northwest, and beets are popping up everywhere
— on restaurant menus, at farmers markets, and hopefully in your
garden! Carla Emery shares tips on canning and preparing, and a few
recipes for enjoying your beets. </i></div>
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<b>Canning: </b>First scrub roots very well. Then precook by
either baking or boiling because raw-packing is not recommended for beets. <span style="font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<ul style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<li><u>Precooking by Baking.</u> Cut off tops and roots. You can put
beets of any size together in the oven (conventional or microwave). They're all
cooked when the biggest one is done. Then pour cold water over the hot, roasted beets, and
you'll be able to slip off their skins. Dump the water. </li>
</ul>
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<li><u>Precooking by Boiling.</u> Remove the entire beet top except
for the closest 1-2 inches of stem. Leave the roots on; that keeps them from
"bleeding" (losing nutrients). Sort beets according to size, and boil
similar sizes together so they'll get done at about the same time. When
fork-tender (in about 30 minutes), move them into cold water. Slip off skins,
stems, and roots. </li>
</ul>
<ul style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<li><u>Cutting Up.</u> You cut up beets to improve and even out heat
penetration in your jar. If baby beets are smaller than 2 inches wide, they can
be left whole. If they're larger, cut them into 1⁄2 - inch cubes. Or slice 1⁄2
inch thick, and then quarter the slices. </li>
</ul>
<ul style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
<li><u>Packing and Processing.</u> Pack beets into hot jars. Cover
with boiling water, leaving 1⁄2 inch headspace. Optional: Add 1⁄2 t. salt/pt.,
1 t. salt/qt.; add 1 T. vinegar/pt., 2 T./qt. to preserve color. Process in a
pressure canner only: pints for 30 minutes, quarts for 35 minutes. If using a
weighted-gauge canner, set at 10 lb. pressure at 0-1,000 feet above sea level;
set at 15 lb. at higher altitudes. If using a dial-gauge canner, set at 11 lb.
pressure at 0-2,000 feet above sea level; 12 lb. at 2,001-4,000 feet; 13 lb. at
4,001-6,000 feet; 14 lb. at 6,001-8,000 feet; or 15 lb. above 8,000 feet. </li>
</ul>
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<b>Pickled Beets</b><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b>:</b> Start by carefully scrubbing 7 lb. of beets (2 to 2 1⁄2 inches in diameter) to remove all dirt. Now
trim off beet tops, leaving on 1 inch of stem and roots to prevent nutrient loss. Wash well. Sort by size. Cover size-grouped
beets with boiling water and cook until tender (25 to 30 minutes). Drain and discard liquid. Cool beets. Trim off roots
and stems and slip off skins. Slice into 1⁄4 - inch slices. Peel and thinly slice.
</span></div>
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Combine 4 c. vinegar (5 percent), 1 1⁄2 t. canning or
pickling salt, 2 c. sugar, and 2 c. water. Put 2 cinnamon sticks and 12 whole cloves in a cheesecloth bag and add to vinegar mixture. Bring to a boil.
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Add beets and 4 to 6 onions (2 to 2 1⁄2 inches in diameter). Simmer 5 minutes. Remove spice bag. Fill pint or quart jars with hot beets and onions, leaving 1⁄2 inch headspace.
Adjust lids. Process either pints or quarts in boiling-water canner. At up to 1,000 feet above sea level, process 30 minutes; at 1,001–3,000 feet, 35 minutes; 3,001–6,000 feet,
40 minutes; and above 6,000 feet, 45 minutes. </div>
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<b>Pickled Whole Baby Beets </b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Follow above directions, but use beets that are 1 to 1 1⁄2 inches in diameter. Pack whole; don’t slice. You can leave out the onions.
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<b>Preparing</b></div>
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<u>Eating Baby Beets.</u> Thinning beets has a really good side.
You can eat the thinnings. Eat the tops like greens. If they're big enough to
have roots of any development, eat both tops and roots together. I boil top
greens and bottom root with bacon and add butter at serving time. Delicious! I
like beets best of all at the "baby" stage - that's around 1 1⁄2 to 2
inches in diameter, about the size of a radish. Baby beets are also nice for
eating, freezing, canning, or pickling. </div>
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<u>Precooking Beets to Eat Fresh.</u> Cut off tops. You may or
may not leave a stub (leaving it prevents nutrient loss). Cover with boiling
water, and boil until the beets are slightly soft to the touch. Another way to
precook beets is to bake them in the oven. The bigger they are, the longer it
takes. Drain and slip off the skins; no peeling is necessary. Cut off any remaining
root tail and the stalk stub. </div>
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<b>Recipes</b></div>
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<u>Quick Beet Soup</u>: Combine 2 c. milk, 1⁄2 c. beet juice, and seasonings. </div>
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<u>Cold Beet Salad:</u> Cook 1 lb. beets until tender. Cool, peel, and slice thinly. Combine 4 T. vinegar, 4 T. water, 1⁄2 t. sugar, 2 1⁄2 t. caraway seeds, 1 chopped small onion, 1 t. ground cloves, 1 bay leaf, salt, pepper, and 4 T. oil. Pour over
beets and let marinate several hours before serving. </div>
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<u>Orange/Beet
Juice:</u> From Ruth of Bonaire: "Make fresh orange juice - enough to fill the blender two-thirds full.
Then add 1⁄4 c. peeled, cubed raw beet. Blend and then pour through a strainer, a bit at a time, mashing pulp with a spoon to extract the maximum amount of juice. You can eat the pulp-it's sweet! This juice looks and tastes like red Kool-Aid!"
<br />
<br />
<br />
NOTE: Fresh garden beets have more color than most digestive systems can absorb, so your resulting bowel movement may appear to have “blood” in it. That’s just beet color. Eating beets is absolutely not harmful — on the contrary, beets are very nourishing. And they’re not harsh to digest, only startling to view in that manner.</div>
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Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-61094699908422432792013-05-20T09:36:00.001-07:002013-05-20T09:36:57.317-07:00Creative Solutions for Keeping Pests Out of Your Garden<div style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">
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If you grow it, they will come. Critters don't understand property rights. Gardens are often and disastrously lost to predators unless the owner takes garden defense seriously. Identify the predator, or potential predator (the one that gets into the neighbor's garden). Then act to prevent the problem, or you'll risk losing what you're working so hard to grow. </div>
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One general deterrent for deer, dogs, cats, and raccoons
is the "garden cop," a sprinkler that sprays 3- to 4-second bursts of
water when its electronic sensor detects an animal (or person). After
squirting, it automatically shuts off and continues to scan the area for the
next perimeter violation. "Garden cops" connect to your garden hose
and are available from garden suppliers.</div>
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Birds, wild or tame, love to eat corn, bean, and pea
seeds right after they sprout and before these plants are up a few inches. If
birds are a risk, plant the seed extra deep and don't leave any showing. Firm
the planted kernels so they stay down there until they germinate. A well-made
scarecrow that moves in a breeze may keep them away, especially if it wears
real people clothes, has shiny foil hanging strips for "hands," and
has a foil face.</div>
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Gophers make a horseshoe-shaped mound with an exit hole
on one side. A wide variety of traps, poison gases, and poison baits are
available from garden supply companies to deal with gophers or moles. Or you
could try chewing gum. Dig down to a part of the hole under the mound. Unwrap
the gum (don't touch it and leave your scent), and puts 2 sticks down in the
hole. Use large leaves (or paper) to cover the hole where he dug down, and puts
dirt on top of that. (Block the light, but don't cover the gum with dirt.) Only
one kind of gum works for this. It's "juicy" and "fruity."</div>
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Slugs and snails will eat stalks and leaves of tender
plants. A thick growth of prostrate rosemary makes a border they will not
cross, seeming to dislike its sharp foliage. To collect them, put out a saucer
of beer, or of milk mixed with water, set down into the ground so that the
dish's edge is at ground level. They'll crawl in and drown. Or save eggshells,
dry, and finely crush. Then sprinkle them on the garden ground where the
slimers go. The shell fragments stick to them and kill them. Don't use the
salting method of slug murder because salt kills both slugs and garden veggies.</div>
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Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-16184577727316455172013-05-07T12:15:00.000-07:002013-05-07T12:15:48.613-07:00Do-it-Yourself This Mother's Day<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<i>Just in time for Mother's Day, Carla Emery offers
some recipes for homemade pampering for the wonderful women in your life — or
for yourself!</i></div>
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NOTE: To prevent allergic reactions, test a small
quantity of any unaccustomed substance by rubbing it on the underside of your
arm. Then wait 24-48 hours to see if a rash develops. </div>
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<b>For Your Face </b></div>
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<u>Face Masks.</u> A mask consists of a "binder"
(which makes it adhere) and other ingredients mixed in with the binder. Choose
your binder according to whether your skin tends to be oily or dry. For oily
skin, use yogurt or egg white as a binder. For dry skin, choose lanolin, honey,
sour cream, or egg yolk. Experiment with the other ingredients. You can blend
vegetables and fruits and combine them with your binder, or use any of the
recipes below. </div>
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Wash your face clean before applying the mask. Don't ever put a
mask onto the area around your eyes. Rinse off after a half hour or as soon as
the mask dries. (While you're waiting, it's a good time to take a nap.) To
remove the mask, use a washrag and warm water. Then use cold water to close
your pores. NOTE: If you feel any irritation, rinse off immediately!</div>
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<ul>
<li style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><u>Oatmeal Mask:</u> Mix together 2⁄3 c. oatmeal and enough honey to make a pasty consistency. Optionally, add 2
t. rose water. </i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></li>
<li style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><u>Honey/Lemon Mask</u>: Mix 2 T. slightly warmed honey with 1 t.
lemon juice. Put the mixture on your face and leave for about a half hour.</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></li>
<li style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><u>Peaches and Cream
Moisturizer:</u> Blend together 1 ripe peach and heavy cream. Refrigerate. Massage onto your skin wherever needed once per day.
</i><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></li>
<li><i style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><u>Homemade Lip Gloss or Rouge:</u> Mix a drop of food coloring with a fingerful of petroleum jelly. Kids have fun with this, and it won’t hurt their skin.</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></li>
</ul>
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<b>For Your Body</b></div>
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<b>Herbal Bath.</b> Make a strong tea by pouring boiling water
over your chosen herbs. Let steep while you draw your bathwater. Then strain
into the water. Or just put herbs right in your bath water - either loose or in
a little cheese- cloth bag. Let them steep 10 minutes; then join them in there.
Good herbs for bathing are chamomile, lemon verbena, mint, peppermint, and
rosemary.</div>
<ul>
<li><i style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><u>Herbal Bath Salts:</u> With Epsom salts, mix sage, thyme, and pennyroyal; lemon balm and peppermint; lavender, rosemary, and pennyroyal; or another herb or herbal</i><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-style: normal;"> </span><i style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">combination that pleases you. Or use Epsom salts with a few drops of your favorite fragrance or herbal oil mixed in. When bottled attractively, this makes a nice gift.</i><span style="font-style: normal;"></span></li>
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<br />Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-54930134554230460902013-04-19T10:13:00.000-07:002013-04-19T10:13:34.373-07:00How to Plant a Tree<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
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<i>To celebrate Earth Day next week, we'd like to share Carla Emery's instructions for planting a tree. Emery loves trees, and is an enthusiastic advocate for <a href="http://encyclopediacountryliving.blogspot.com/2011/09/guerrilla-tree-planting.html" target="_blank">guerrilla tree planting</a>.</i> </div>
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In general, the best time to plant a tree is in the early
spring or the late fall, but research your specific plant in case of
exceptions. Where to plant is the spot where the tree will have the amount of
sunshine it needs - full or partial, as specified; full if not specified. And,
if it isn't hardy, plant it where it will have shelter from the wind. Plant big
deciduous (shade) trees on the south side of the house where they will shade in
summer and let warming light enter your windows in the winter. Conifers do well
as winter windbreaks on the north or windy side of the house. (Wisely placed
trees can improve your home's heating/cooling situation a lot!)</div>
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<b>Digging a Hole:</b> Dig planting holes wide and shallow, no
deeper than the rootball's size, and make them wider than needed to accommodate
the tree's spreading roots. The larger the area that you dig up around the hole
in preparation for planting the tree, the easier it will be for its roots to
spread and find food and water. Remove any grass for 3 feet in diameter. </div>
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<b>Planting the Rootball</b></div>
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<li><u>Unpot the Tree.</u> Speed matters. Don't let the roots or
rootball dry out. Care matters also. Don't let the roots or rootball break.
Your plant either will be "bare-rooted" and wrapped in some sort of
protective substance or will come with the roots in a ball of dirt in some kind
of container to hold it together - a peat pot, burlap, wire basket, or bag. If
it's a metal pot, cut off the pot with tin snips. Tear it off if it's made of
paper. You have to get as much of the wrapping off as possible without actually
harming the rootball. This may have you struggling with knives, wire cutters,
etc. Untreated burlap can, if necessary, be planted with the tree. </li>
<li><u>Double-Check Hole Depth.</u> Do this by setting the tree
in the hole to see how it fits. The "collar" (or "crown" or
"root flare") should be just at soil level or a little above (to
allow for mulch). Usually it's easy to see because you'll be looking for the
same soil line that the tree had at the nursery. Trees planted too deep can die
within a few years, or develop problems as many as 15 years later. </li>
<li> <u>Set Tree in Hole.</u> Then spread out the roots. If you
see any girdling, damaged, or circling roots, cut them off. Try to lay the
roots out in a way that they make good, straight contact with their new soil. </li>
<li><u>Fill in Dirt. </u>Place dirt over and around it. Don't add
anything to the dirt you're going to put back into the hole to cover the tree
roots - not peat moss, not fertilizer. It does more harm than good to spot
fertilize a newly planted tree. This is because it tends to make the soil
around the tree roots of a significantly different composition from the soil
next to it. Water doesn't move normally across the difference. The result is a
tree that's liable to be abnormally wet, or too dry. Don't bury incompletely
decomposed organic litter around the seedling tree either. This can mess up the
pH, the nutrient balances, and the populations of microscopic soil creatures.
On the other hand, fully composted organic material that is evenly distributed
across the top of the ground in your young tree's area could be helpful. Stomp
dirt all around it to be firm and create a depression into which water can
settle. </li>
<li><u>The First Soaking. </u>When soil is dry, watering the tree
as soon as possible after planting is critical for its survival. Use water also
for the final settling of the soil. If additional settling occurs, add more
soil, but don't step on the wet soil around the tree. </li>
<li><u>Mulch.</u> Mulching the surface of the soil around your
newly planted trees 2-4 inches deep does help them by controlling competition
and gradually releasing nutrients. In nature, trees mulch themselves every
fall. By keeping weeds away, retaining water, and moderating the soil
temperature, mulch improves the chances of survival for your tree. But never
let mulch pile up against the trunk. After mulching the planting pit, brush
back the mulch that is in contact with the trunk.</li>
<li><u>Avoid Staking.</u> Natural flexing is necessary for the
plant to develop a normally strong trunk and roots. Use staking only if needed
to hold the tree up until the roots have become established (usually within a
year). To stake, use 1 or 2 wooden stakes (pipe or rebar are too hard to pull
out), which have been pounded firmly into undisturbed soil. Place the tie about
a third of the way up the tree in order to allow maximum trunk movement. Use
soft, flat tie material (inner tube, flat soaker garden hose, commercial
products). Never use straight twine or electric, or any other type
of wire, against a trunk. Remove stakes and ties as soon as possible. Trees are
frequently girdled by ties that people forgot to take off. </li>
<li><u>Prune.</u> But do not prune the tree top to
"compensate for root loss." That's a myth. You may prune to take off
broken, rubbing, and weak branches, but try not to remove more than 1⁄5 of the
branches. </li>
<li><u>Dirt Dam.</u> Build a circular dirt dam to create a
basin effect around the outer edge
of your tree planting area to
retain water. Trees need water that soaks in deeply to establish good
root systems. Water trees a lot the first year or two and during a drought. Let
the root zone dry out between waterings unless your tree is a swamp variety.
Five to 15 gal. a week is typical. </li>
<li><u>Care After Planting.</u> Young trees benefit if they are
irrigated, fertilized, and weeded, being a crop like any other. Water them at
least twice a week. Regularly rescue them from weed and grass competitors. Or,
easier and better yet, mulch around them so thoroughly the competition doesn't
get through. If your trees don't grow well and aren't an obviously healthy
green color, they need fertilizer. Spread some manure from your barnyard. However, there's
such a thing as too much nitrogen, so spread it in reasonable amounts. For
long-term care, young urban trees are most at risk for being bashed by cars or
lawn mowers, or vandalized. </li>
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<br />Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-83943454606201123942013-04-05T16:00:00.000-07:002013-04-08T12:19:46.134-07:00 Planting and Growing Quinoa<style>@font-face {
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<i>Quinoa is a small, hearty and delicious grain similar to millet. Though native to the Andes Mountains, its resilient nature allows it to grow in certain parts of the U.S. as well. Here are few tips from Carla Emery on growing, harvesting, and cooking quinoa</i><b><i>. </i></b><br />
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<b>Climate:</b> Colorado and New Mexico are good places to grow
quinoa. It thrives in the 6,000-7,000-foot zone in the central Rocky Mountain
area, in northern California and northward near the Pacific Ocean, and in the
interior Northwest as well. Extremely hot weather actually holds back the seed
setting process of this crop. According to Steve Solomon, "Its seeds
sprout in chilly soil, and its frost-hardy seedlings may tolerate night
temperatures in the low 20s."</div>
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<b>Planting:</b> Sow in spring in fertile soil as soon as the
soil is warm (April or May). Steve Solomon again: "Quinoa must be sown
early while there remains adequate soil moisture... early sowing - leading to
the earliest possible harvest when weather is most likely to be dry - is
essential... One organic farmer in the dry highlands of eastern Washington's
Cascade foothills grows quinoa like wheat, because when crowded and under
competition, the plants don't branch, but instead concentrate the harvest into
a single seed head that can be harvested with a combine like wheat. I think the
gardener will do better planting in rows about four feet apart, the seed
sprinkled thinly in the row and gradually thinned to about eight inches in the
row... Far less than an ounce of seed will sow 100 row feet, yielding 25 to 50
pounds of seed." </div>
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Keep the seedbed damp until it has germinated. You can
eat the young greens you get from thinning the plants; they're nutritious and
tasty. Quinoa will grow about 4 feet high. Steve Solomon wrote, "Keep
quinoa well-weeded to allocate all soil moisture to the crop. With only a
little fertilizer, quinoa grows fast to a magnificent six or seven feet tall,
with numerous bushy side shoots."</div>
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<b>Harvesting and Using Quinoa</b> </div>
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<b>Harvesting:</b> About mid-summer, it grows a sizable seed
head heavy with tiny seeds. Harvest when dead ripe. You can thresh out the
grain directly from the field, but threshing will be easier if you harvest and
then dry the plants indoors a while more before the flailing. Steve Solomon:
"The main hazard is rain. Should the drying seed be moistened, it will
sprout right in the head; so if rain threatens once the seed is drying, the
plants should be cut, bundled, and hung to finish under cover...When the heads
are dry, thresh the seed by walking on the stalks, spread on a tarp. Clean by
pouring the seed back and forth between two buckets in a mild breeze." </div>
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<b>Of Quinoa and Saponin:</b> Steve Solomon: "The seed coat
contains a bitter, somewhat poisonous soap or saponin that prevents insect
damage and bird predation, but also must be removed before we can eat the
grain. Fortunately, the saponin
can, with patience, be soaked out at home; commercially grown quinoa, which is
beginning to appear in health-food stores, conveniently has the saponins and
seed coat mechanically removed." Wash only as much quinoa as you're going
to cook and eat very soon. The saponin coating needs to be on if the grain is
to be stored. </div>
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<li><b>Steve Solomon's Saponin Soak-Out.</b> "Soak a pint of
dry seed overnight in a half-gallon mason jar with a screen lid such as is used
to sprout alfalfa, then drain and refill. Continue soaking the seed and rinsing
with cold water two to four times a day. Some varieties have harder seed coats
containing more saponin than others, and the hardness of your water will
regulate the effectiveness of soaking. The foaming saponins may be removed in
36 hours at best; when the water stops foaming when rinsed, the seed is ready
for cooking. If 72 hours of rinsing and soaking pass with no end to the
foaming, bring the seed to a boil for only a moment, pour off the hot soapy
water, cover again, boil rapidly again for only a moment, and pour off the
water a second time. Now the seed is ready to cook." </li>
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<li><b>Other Saponin Wash-Out Systems.</b> Blend about 1⁄2 cup of
quinoa with cold water at lowest speed. Keep pouring off the foaming water and
adding fresh water. Repeat until the blending doesn't release any more foam.
Another system is to make yourself a quinoa-washing bag out of a loose-weave
cloth like muslin. Then put in the grain, tie the bag shut, and wash in a
series of cold-water baths until there's no more foam released. </li>
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<b>Cooking Quinoa: </b>Steve Solomon: "Add enough water to
just about cover the soaked grain; simmer for 20 minutes or so. The cereal is
good any time of day. Nutritionally it is oil-rich, and leaves you feeling
satisfyingly full for a long time, much like oats." Quinoa grain has a
delicate flavor and twice the protein of rice. Substitute in any rice recipes.
Quinoa will expand to four times the original bulk in the cooking, so 1 cup of
the uncooked grain will give you 4 cups to serve. </div>
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Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-11523119178637704002013-03-22T10:30:00.000-07:002013-03-22T13:55:43.894-07:00Cloche Use for Early Spring Gardening <div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<b>Cloche</b>: A cloche (pronounced "klosh") is a
lightweight covering for a plant or plants that can easily be moved. A cloche
is the simplest cover to build and use. It can easily be moved to different
parts of the garden to cover different plants. When the cloche is put on over
tender young plants in early spring, it's called a "hot cap." Unlike
cold frames, cloches allow light to reach a plant from every direction. </div>
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You can reuse cloches to cover as many as 3, 4, or more crops
in the same year. Cloches are especially well suited for use in the maritime Northwest,
where plants need protection from excessive rain and cold winds more than from very
low temperatures. The weaknesses of cloches are their vulnerability to heavy
wind and their inability to keep plants as warm as cold frames or greenhouses.</div>
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<b>Cloche Materials.</b> A cloche can be made of anything that transmits
light, so the possibilities for design are nearly limitless. They can be made
of cheap materials - cheaper than those needed to make a cold frame or
greenhouse. </div>
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To cover a row of plants or a section of garden, you can build
one large cloche or a series of modular cloches that link together. The word
"cloche" is French for bell. In Europe, gardeners have covered plots
for centuries, and in the 1600s, French market gardeners used a glass jar in
the shape of a bell to cover a plant. Now cloches for individual plants may be
made of waxed paper, plastic, fiberglass, or glass. Or your cloche may be a
big, plastic-covered tunnel or tent that covers entire rows of plants. A wide
variety of cloches are available commercially, with an equally wide range in
prices. When open-air gardening begins in the summer, wash your cover material,
dry, and store in a shady place until needed in the fall. </div>
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<b>Homemade Cloche Design.</b> You can scrape together a cloche
by making half-circle hoop rows out of old coat hangers and then covering them
with plastic. Or cut out the top, bottom, or side of any 1-gal. plastic or
glass jug. To cover a wide raised bed, use sections of hog-wire fencing curved
to fit the beds and covered with plastic. </div>
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<li>Tunnel: In general, the tunnel style is made by stretching
4-mil polyethylene plastic sheeting over a line of half-circle hoops. The hoops
are bent and fastened to strips at the top and bottom sides so they will stay
put. For example, you could put the plastic over 6 x 6-inch mesh concrete-reinforcing
wire. The reinforcing-wire cloche looks like the tunnel style except the wire
is arched from where it is nailed to a 10-foot lumber plank over to the other
side, where it is nailed to a parallel plank. Then the plastic is put over
that. The 2 end openings are covered with more plastic.To ventilate a tunnel cloche, on cloudy days you open the
end away from the wind. On sunny days you can open both ends. A breeze is
created by the warm air leaving the cloche. As the weather gets warmer, you'll
be able to leave one end open continuously. When the weather gets hot, of course,
you take off the plastic and put it away until fall, when the weather gets cold
again. </li>
</ul>
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<li>Tent: This cloche is lighter, portable, and easier to build
than the tunnel. It has 4- or 6-mil polyethylene plastic sheeting stretched
over an umbrella-tent-style support. </li>
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<b>Using a Cloche.</b> Cloches can be placed over any area of your
garden, large or small, that you want to protect. To water, weed, and harvest,
you lift the cloche off the bed, tilt up one end, or take off the plastic. If
your cloche has no natural opening, you must remember to ventilate by propping
up one side. </div>
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Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-70045234956700268312013-03-07T09:00:00.000-08:002013-03-07T14:52:26.244-08:00Principles of Choosing Seeds<br />
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<ol>
<li>Look for early and late varieties to extend your growing season. Remember that varieties which do well in the spring may not be as successful in the fall.</li>
<li>Be picky about the firms you give your business to. Don't be seduced by color pictures and imaginative promises. Most seed-selling houses are brokers. They place orders for seeds all over the place and then resell them to you. Many of those seeds come from foreign countries, but some houses grow their own. If they do, they'll probably say so. I favor small, regional companies that follow organic principles.</li>
<li>Every area has different growing conditions. Ask gardeners who live near you what varieties they have best success with. Your local extension agent is another info source. Order from catalogs directed to your particular climate zone.</li>
<li>Note info on new varieties, characteristics of plants, and instructions for growing them.</li>
<li>Look for varieties that are resistant to whatever problems are prevalent in your area.</li>
<li>The same variety is sometimes sold by different companies under different names. Latin names are the best guide to what species you're getting. Patented names give you precise variety identities, but it's illegal to save seed from a patented plant.</li>
<li>You have to evaluate all the characteristics of various varieties: earliness, tolerance/resistance, flavor, compactness, yield, etc., and then choose one or several. Each one has advantages and disadvantages.</li>
<li>Store seeds in a dry, cool room. (They are living but dormant.)</li>
<li>If you plan to save your own seed-once you have your first mature plants-buy "open-pollinated" rather than "hybrid" varieties. Don't buy patented.</li>
<li>When buying seeds by mail, order early to get the best selection and avoid the delays associated with peak sales periods.</li>
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Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-2282981097413488372013-02-22T14:52:00.004-08:002013-02-22T14:55:37.692-08:00Secrets of Getting the Most from a Small Garden<br />
Knox Cellars is dedicated to discovering how to do intensive gardening on city lots. They grow dozens of fruit trees by the espalier method and pollinate them with their own colonies of Orchard Mason bees. Their website, <a href="http://www.knoxcellars.com/" target="_blank">www.knoxcellars.com</a>, features the most recent issue and several back issues of <i>Urban Farmer</i>. Most people pay their way onto the mailing list by buying something from them: bees, a book, or audiotape. They write an <i>Urban Farmer</i> from time to time, when the mood strikes, sharing interesting things they have learned about bees, bugs, or gardening.<br />
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<ol>
<li>Make use of semi-shaded areas unsuitable for tomatoes or root vegetables by growing leafy vegetables like lettuce, chard, mustard, or endive there.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></li>
<li>Don't over plant herbs. Two parsley or chive plants can quite likely produce all you need unless your family is large.</li>
<li>Avoid sprawling varieties. You can plant 6 rows of carrots, beets, or onions in the same square footage that one row of squash would take because squash simply will spread out all over the place, but root vegetables don't. So limit or refuse summer squash, winter squash, cucumbers, watermelons, muskmelons, cantaloupes, and corn, because they take more space than they're worth. Or use the recently developed compact "bush" kinds of melons, squash, cucumbers, and pumpkins.</li>
<li>Consider interplanting so that fast-maturing vegetables use the space between slower-maturing ones that will later spread; for instance, plant radishes or lettuce between vine plants like squash or pumpkin. They mature so fast that you get a crop before the vines need that space.</li>
<li>Give preference to continuously bearing vegetables; for instance, choose chard over spinach, because spinach has a brief period of productivity but then is done for the whole summer. Chard will keep making harvest for you until frost kills it. Other continuous bearers are tomatoes, broccoli, kale, lima beans, squash of all sorts, eggplant, peppers, cucumbers, chard, and brussels sprouts.</li>
<li> Use wide-row and succession planting methods to give you the most vegetable productivity per square foot. For instance, peas have a relatively brief production season, but they produce heavily while they are at it, and then you can till up the ground they were in and plant something else. Succession planting works best with a long growing season, but in most places peas, lettuce, radishes, beets, and carrots mature quickly enough that you have time for a second crop if you plant as soon as the first is harvested.</li>
<li>Harvest daily in season. Broccoli, cucumbers, summer squash, beans, and chard, for example, will stop producing if they aren't harvested. But if you keep them faithfully and regularly harvested, then they keep producing and you maximize their production.</li>
<li>Encourage your garden to grow up rather than across: Try climbing beans (pole or runners) or cucumbers trained to grow up something. Use a big vine such as runner beans, kiwi, or grapes to screen out an ugly area, make shade, or hang from a basket.</li>
<li>Plant tall crops such as corn or sunflowers on the north end of the garden so they don't shade other plants.</li>
<li> Practice deep watering; it allows you to plant closer together because the roots will go down instead of spreading sideways.</li>
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[Excerpt from The Encyclopedia of Country Living, Chapter 2: Introduction to Plants. Other topics include Laying Out the Garden, USDA Plant Hardiness Zones, and Garden & Farm Philosophies.]<br />
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Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-54071596443115966392013-02-04T17:11:00.000-08:002013-02-04T17:12:31.377-08:00Starting Transplants<br />
To do serious self-sufficient gardening, including starting early and growing late, you'll need to grow your own transplants. Commercial seedlings are usually not available except during the times of peak consumer demand. I set out cabbages, tomatoes, green peppers, and eggplant every year. It's cheaper to start your own sets from seed than to buy them from a local nursery. Try not to mail-order them.<br />
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Eggplants, green peppers, tomatoes, and cabbage have to be started in the house and then transplanted to the garden. I think head lettuce is better off raised from seed in the garden, although I've seen recommendations to start it indoors. But this depends on your climate. Start your plants for transplanting about 2 to 21⁄2 months before you plan to set them out. They will germinate easily indoors, where the<br />
moderate temperatures that are comfortable for humans are generally perfect for seed germination too. Make your soil mixture in the fall, before the ground gets too wet: 1 part well-rotted compost and 2 parts dirt. Fill your containers to the top with dirt.<br />
<h4>
Sunshine</h4>
<h4>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Start your seeds in the house or greenhouse rather than in a cloche or cold frame, because most seeds require much warmer soil to germinate than they need to grow. Inside you can give them ideal conditions in their tender early stages. They don't need much space. You can grow your transplants on a windowsill that's sunny at least part of the day. For more plants, make shelves across </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">your window. Remove anything underneath that could be harmed by dripping water.</span></h4>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Water</span><br />
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You'll want to water the plants every other day or whenever they look dry. Several light waterings beat one big flood, which has a tendency to go right through, leaving the plant still dry.<br />
<h4>
Containers</h4>
<h4>
Milk Cartons. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Mary Ann Shepherd, Del Mar, CA, wrote me, "I use milk cartons as collars to blanch celery, around my new lettuce seedlings to discourage cutworms, and to start all sorts of cuttings (both flowers and vegetables) and seeds. For collars, cut off tops and bottoms. For all else, cut off tops (or open up) and use a tri-cornered beverage opener ('church key') to cut a drain hole on all four sides at the bottom (not in the bottom itself). When I go to transplant I slit the sides and bottom and plant the whole </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">thing - the carton eventually disintegrates and you don't disturb the roots that way. My pine seedlings take about a year to germinate and grow to about 4 inches tall, and they have lived happily in milk cartons for up to 2 years before I've transplanted them." </span></h4>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">Cardboard Boxes. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">I sometimes start the plants in "seed flats" (for me, that means a cardboard box with dirt in the bottom) and then transplant to tin cans. If I don't get them out of there pretty fast, the bottoms get too soggy.</span></span><br />
<h4>
Cans. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">Cans of any size are good. I like those big tins that canned hams come in, and gallon tins are great. You have to punch small holes in the bottom. Big containers of dirt are better than small ones. I use 1 plant to 1 soup can or peat pot once they are started in the seed flats, or about 6 to</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"> a ham can.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></h4>
<b>Peat Pots. </b>Plants in peat pots dry out fast and have to be watered every day. Set them out, pot and all, or you'll be breaking off roots that have grown right into the pot side. Tear off the part of the rim that's above ground to prevent it from acting as a wick and causing the plant to lose water. Other than that, and the fact you have to pay for them, peat pots are great.<br />
<br />
<i>NOTE: Be sure to label each flat with the variety of plant in it.</i><br />
<h4>
When to Transplant? </h4>
The best time to set transplants out is the beginning of a cloudy, rainy spell. Cabbage sets are hardy and can go out in the garden when you plant your green onions. But in my garden, if I plant too early I<br />
risk losing my plants to cutworms. A little later is perfect. Tomato sets can go to the garden when you're positive the frosts and near-frosts are over. Green pepper and eggplant sets should wait till the nights are not cold at all. Because plants I set out too early may be wiped out by cutworms or cold, I first set out a sampling and then wait a few days to see what happens before setting out the rest. Or you can harden off . . .<br />
<h4>
Hardening Off</h4>
<h4>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">You can do this by setting your containers outside during the warmer hours of the day, longer </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;">each day, before actually transplanting them into the garden. Or you can do it by transplanting your tender young plants from the house or greenhouse into a cold frame, where they will stay 2 or 3 weeks, gradually getting used to cold air and chilly nights before they go out into the regular garden in yet another transplant. For hardening plants, leave the lid of the cold frame up a bit more each day - unless you need to protect the plants from a spell of cold weather.</span></h4>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;">How to Transplant? </span><br />
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To set out plants with dirtless roots, make a mud bath to plant them in. It's cold, dirty work. If they have their own dirt - for instance, plants in a peat pot that you'll plant pot and all - give them a wet hole to sit in and plenty of good water for the next few weeks. A hot, dry spell, even in May, can wipe out new, unwatered sets because their root systems haven't yet had a chance to get normally established. To set them out from a can, dig a hole and shake the plants out of the can (it's easier if the soil is soaked ahead of time). Separate them, keeping as much dirt on the roots as you can, and try not to damage the roots. Set a plant in your hole, pack dirt in around it, and give it a good soaking. Give tomato plants plenty of room to spread. They get big.<br />
<h4>
For Easy Spacing</h4>
From Earthchild Marie: "Your garden tools-shovel, rake, hoe - can be marked with a 3-corner file at 6-inch intervals for ease in setting transplants at the proper spacing. Trowel handles, marked every 3 inches, are convenient for smaller seeds and for setting transplants into the soil."Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-3604123744740766722013-01-18T14:37:00.002-08:002013-01-18T14:40:56.487-08:00Grinding Your Own Grain<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">If you’ve never eaten food made from freshly ground grain, you’ve never realized how flat and insipid the flour you’re used to really tastes. You can home-grind all the grains, including rye, wheat, corn, rice, barley, and oats, as well as soybeans, chestnuts, peanuts, lentils, and dried peas to make a variety of flours. In the old days you took your grain to a mill and had the miller grind it. For payment, old-time law stipulated that the miller was entitled to one-tenth part of what he ground — except for corn, in which case the cut was one-seventh. That’s because </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>corn is the hardest of all </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><i>grains to grind. </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">When you’re shopping, keep in mind that some mills can handle anything but corn. The basic tip is to make sure your food is dry before you put it through.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Storing Home-Ground Flour</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Don't make all your grain into flour at once. Whole-grain cornmeal or wheat flour or any other flour ground at home loses quality— flavor and vitamins — almost literally every hour it waits between the grinding and the baking. Home-ground flour and cornmeal has a higher lipid (oil) content and is not degerminated or bleached. It’s therefore better food for you and any other form of life, so it won’t keep like store bought flour — unless you freeze it. As soon as your grain is ground, the oxidation processes begin; ultimately they will turn the fat in it rancid. Rancid fat is not deadly poisonous; it’s merely slightly harmful to eat and unpleasant to taste. Weevils and other insects are also more inclined to get into and be a noxious presence in flour than whole grain. Home-ground flour can also absorb odor and dampness, so it’s best to store it in an airtight container — for a small quantity, a glass jar; for large quantities, one of the 5-gal. metal or plastic cans that you can buy with fitted lids. Best of all is to grind the flour just before using it. If you plan to keep it more than a week, freeze it!</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Buying Your Grinder</span></span></h3>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Shop around, comparing prices and available models. Because there is such a confusing array of choices, tell the grinder salesperson you size of household; what grain or seeds you plan to grind, shell or crush for oil; and if you'll also be grinding feed for livestock, how many and what kind. Health food stores or co-ops sometimes have grinders for sale, but they're not</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> as likely to be able to give you expert advice. Grinders are </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">now available that can operate either by hand or by electricity</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> at the flip of a switch.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Nonelectric Grinders</span></span></div>
<h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Mortar and Pestle</span></span></h3>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">You can use a mortar made of a hollowed block of wood, with a heavy chunk of wood for a </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">pestle, but stone works better. Find a flat, smooth rock with a center depression large enough to grind on and a smooth rock to grind with.</span><br />
<h4>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Hand-Cranked Models</span></h4>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A typical home grain grinder sets on a tabletop. There is usually a large screw clamp to provide firm attachment to a bench or table while you are grinding. The hand models work as long as you have the strength and will to turn the crank. Hand grinders come in various sizes. The Family Grain Mill, made in Germany, provides the best-quality flour of any of the grinders— bread quality with only one grinding! It is not too hard to turn and is reasonably priced (about $130). </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">With the small, bargain hand grinders, it is hard work to get grain fine enough so as to not have chunks in it. The worst of the manual grinders produces a “fine meal” rather than a “flour” on the first grind. In order to get a flour grind, you have to crank very hard and put it through more than once. Then sift out the “grits” and put through again, and so on until you are satisfied with your flour. Feed the grits to your livestock, or cook for cereal.</span></div>
<h3>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Powered Grinding</span></h3>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Electric grinding is easy and quick, and blenders are easy to buy. They will work to grind a small amount of grain at any one time, such as the grain for your day’s cooking needs. But grinding is hard on blender blades, and they can’t handle bulk jobs. In most commercial mills today, flour is made by crushing the grain between a series of rollers, much like a wringer washing machine. The expensive electric models for home use can put out around 10 to 16 lb. of flour per hour, depending on size, and cost several hundred dollars. They are kitchen appliances. You plug one in and pour your grain in the hopper, and it grinds your baking flour. One or two quarts of grain at a time is about right for a small family.</span></span></div>
<h4>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Stone Mill</span></span></h4>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“Stone grinding” means that the grain is reduced to flour texture by rubbing against a stone surface in a manner similar to the old-style water-powered gristmills. Stone wheel mills, whether electric- or hand-powered, cannot be used for soybeans because of the oil from the beans, but they will produce a fine flour. Incidentally, the more a grinder grinds, the better job it does, because the stones grind themselves into a better and better fit.</span></span></div>
<h4>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Burr Mill</span></span></h4>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This type of mill crushes the grain between a stationary heavy wheel and a revolving one. These are good for people who want to grind feed for livestock as well as their own meal and flour. A burr mill grinds finer than a hand-cranked household mill, although you may need to</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">run it through more than once — maybe 3 times for baking flour. A burr mill is also the answer for folks who want to grind flour in larger quantities than household mills can handle. The drawback of a burr mill is that it grinds any grain fine but will not grind unthreshed grain-straw combinations. Incidentally, don’t run the burrs on empty. It wears them out faster.</span></div>
<h4>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Roller Mill</span></h4>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">You can buy an attachment for some household mills that will make rolled oats, wheat, or rye flakes ($99 attachment for the Family Grain Mill). Or get the Marga Grain Roller/Flaker, which has three hardened steel rollers and can be adjusted to make different grades of either flour or flakes, $70 from the Urban Homemaker (see “Buying Your Grinder” below). A roller-type mill is the best for rolling and flaking grains, but it’s not good for making flours. They are less expensive than hammer mills and require less power. They work by mashing the grain between two clothes-wringer-type rollers. You can set a roller mill to hull, crack, and grind grain. The grain will be quite fine, but not fine enough for baking. A good roller mill with crusher rollers can chop corn or grain on the stalk, wet or dry, into silage. A roller mill is what you need if you want to grow one of the grains that doesn’t thresh clean and must be dehulled after threshing and before grinding (such as oats or barley).</span></span></div>
<h4>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Hammer Mill</span></span></h4>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Hammer mills do big grinding jobs. They also use a lot of electricity and cost a lot. The hammer mill basically grinds anything. You can put whole grain right on the stalk into a hammer mill, and it will turn out a fine livestock feed that includes roughage and avoids threshing. You can mix the feed beforehand and then mill it, and grind corn on the cob. In some cases you can adjust these grinders to make cornmeal, too, but usually a hammer mill</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">always lets some coarser material through and won’t make a baking-quality flour.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6f3c1b; font-family: Trebuchet, 'Trebuchet MS', Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><i>[Adapted from the "Grinding Your Grain" section of Chapter 3: Grasses, Grains, & Canes. Other topics include: Cereal, Fighting Pests in Grain, and growing grains. </i></span></span></div>
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<br />Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-398727379335292580.post-44577757595419659782013-01-04T08:00:00.000-08:002013-01-04T08:00:00.745-08:00Seasonal Eating: Homestead Menus Throughout the YearAt any particular time of year you'll have a different set of fresh foods coming out of the garden and root cellar to complement what you have frozen and canned. Winter, cloche, cold frame, and greenhouse gardening enable you to have at least a few varieties of garden-fresh vegetables year-round. Even in chilly November, in a basic temperate-zone garden and with some attention to protection, you might be able to harvest broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, collards, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, carrots, escarole, kale, leeks, lettuce, parsnips, salsify, spinach, rutabagas, turnips, and winter radishes.<br />
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<b>Homestead Menus Throughout the Year:</b> Here are some menus from back in '72 and '73. Those were my banner years for home growing and good cooking. It wasn't "gourmet" or "health food" cooking. But we raised it ourselves without poisons and had plenty of food and plenty of variety. We dried fruit in our front yard. Mayonnaise was homemade. Butter was from our own churn and bread from our oven. Bacon or ham was home-cured, and sauerkraut was out of our crock, as were pickles. The root beer and ginger ale were homemade, too. We always had milk and usually an herb tea on the table.<br />
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<b>Breakfasts.</b> (If your chickens aren't laying, leave out the eggs.)<br />
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<ol>
<li>Cornmeal mush; bread, butter, honey; soft-boiled eggs</li>
<li>Toasted sourdough bread; pork chops; applesauce; scrambled eggs</li>
<li>Homemade grape nuts with cream; sliced fresh peaches; poached eggs</li>
<li>Cornmeal mush; home-canned fruit; elk sausage (1/3 pork meat); fried eggs</li>
<li>Leftover boiled potatoes (sliced and fried); elk sausage; home-canned tomato juice; fried eggs</li>
<li>French toast (bread sliced and dipped in an egg-milk mixture and fried); honey and butter to go on the toast; fried pork side meat; wild plums</li>
<li>For a summer breakfast cooked outdoors: pancakes; goat's butter, honey; stewed wild apples; fried pork side meat.</li>
</ol>
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<b>Lunches.</b></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>May lunch: scrambled eggs; leftover boiled potatoes fried with chopped green top-set onions; cooked, buttered asparagus spears</li>
<li>Fried leftover cornmeal mush with butter, molasses, or honey; blackberries, fried meat; bread and butter</li>
<li>Hamburger, sliced fried leftover boiled potatoes; tomato ketchup; bread, butter, jelly</li>
<li>Leftover stew, extended with some fresh vegetables; bread, butter, wild plum sauce; mint tea with honey</li>
<li>Ground leftover ham and pickle sandwiches; cottage cheese (we eat it with milk and honey--except Mike, who prefers it with salt and pepper)</li>
<li>Sandwiches of herb bread and sliced cold venison roast; canned juice; pickles</li>
<li>A special lunch: cold leftover steak in strips; fried potatoes and onions; hard-boiled eggs; canned applesauce; bread and butter; iced wild strawberry leaf tea</li>
</ol>
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<b>Spring and Summer Suppers</b></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Potatoes; bread; creamed onions; stewed dandelion greens; fresh raw asparagus</li>
<li>Dandelion greens and (real) bacon bits; roast ham and gravy; potatoes; stewed rhubarb; radishes</li>
<li>Leaf lettuce salad; radish roses; potatoes; fried meat and milk gravy; strawberries on leftover bread with cream</li>
<li>Leftover sliced cold roast; bread and apple pudding (crumbled bread crust baked with milk, sliced cored apples, beaten egg, honey, cinnamon); warmed-up leftover gravy extended with milk (to go on the meat); boiled Swiss chard</li>
<li>Chicken stew (made from an old layer, with carrots, potatoes, onions, turnips) and dumplings; blackberry apple bread pudding (berries, apples, milk, bread crust, and honey, baked and served with cream); iced herb tea</li>
<li>Corn on the cob; sliced fresh fruit; roast; mustard greens; potatoes; half-cured crock pickles</li>
<li>Carrot sticks; boiled peas; boiled new potatoes; fried chicken and gravy</li>
<li>When you're hot and tired: potato salad (made ahead and chilled); barbecued meat (cooked by husband); tossed green salad (made by children); raspberry ice (made ahead); bread and butter</li>
<li>Picnic: Fried chicken; potato salad; leaf lettuce salad; raspberries in whipped cream; ginger ale</li>
</ol>
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<b>Winter Suppers.</b></div>
</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Boiled sliced turnips; roast and gravy; baked potatoes; pickles; bread and butter; junket pudding</li>
<li>Elk roast and gravy; sage dressing; baked squash; spinach; mashed potatoes; mincemeat cookies</li>
<li>Pork chops; gravy, boiled peas; yeast biscuits; boiled potatoes</li>
<li>Steak and gravy; mashed potatoes; cole slaw with homemade dressing; cream-style corn; crumb bread and cherry jelly; canned apricots</li>
<li>Stew made with meat, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage; raw turnip slices dipped in herbed sour cream</li>
<li>Leftover sliced cold roast; bread and apple pudding; mashed boiled turnips</li>
</ol>
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<b>Snacks. </b>Snacks are for company, for husband or children famished between meals, for an afternoon tea break or a bedtime family treat. Lots of old-time farm families have a regular midmorning and midafternoon mini-meal for the working men in summer, when they are putting in long days. Maybe we take sandwiches and a gallon of cold tea out to the field and the work stops for a few minutes. </div>
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I blacklisted store-bought cookies, potato chips, pop, and candy. But I don't fight snacks that are home-grown and home-prepared: fresh, canned, or frozen fruit; dried fruit, pickles, popcorn; homemade popsicles; homemade crackers; jerky; bread with homemade jam or honey. </div>
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Leftovers like cold sliced roast or cold boiled potatoes are good with some salt or butter. My husband Mike doesn't like to eat leftovers, except potatoes and meat, so if somebody doesn't snack them up, the chickens or pigs get them--except for bread, which metamorphoses into bread pudding or lunch dishes that I serve when it's just me and the children.<br />
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<i>[Adapted from the "Menu Making: 365 Independence Days" section of Chapter 7: Food Preservation. Other topics include: Seasonal Eating; Use What You Have; and A System for Menu Planning. </i><i>Illustration </i><i>copyright 1994 by Cindy Davis.</i><i>]</i></div>
Sasquatch Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16737301294929483671noreply@blogger.com0