Grow your own food

[ALPHA ROMEO UNIFORM]

Doing it already own veg and herbs, fruit trees, nuts, advacados, plums, apples,peaches,pears,blueberies No chemicals.

 

[Heidi Lemmer]

Doing it already own veg and herbs, fruit trees, nuts, advacados, plums, apples,peaches,pears,blueberies No chemicals.

Tell me some advice, what are you figuring out thats working /what's not. I haven't dived in yet, delay of game till next year...but this winter I'm going to read up on whatever I can.

 

[Charlie Prime]

Why is it "holy" for some caveman to do GM, or some farmer 300 years ago, or some scientist in a lab in 1965, and suddenly unholy, now?

Because they don't fully understand what they are doing, and thus are playing with fire.

Let's apply your reasoning to chemistry.

"We found this chemical that relieves nausea in pregnant women".

"Here lady, take this. It's no different than the natural chemical reactions to suppress nausea you get from eating ginger. It's all just chemistry".

Ooops.

 

[ALPHA ROMEO UNIFORM]

Tell me some advice, what are you figuring out thats working /what's not. I haven't dived in yet, delay of game till next year...but this winter I'm going to read up on whatever I can.

Agree Heidi read up on organic gardening and permaculture you have to be interested in subject regarding maintenance. Preparation is 90% of the hard-work. Compost bin and all waste of veg,fruit,paper, lawn cuttings with cow manure for the start in compost bin with slab base. Turn over breaking down waste with fork when placing new cycle method. Above ground garden beds easy management and dwarf fruit trees which suit climate. Water wise system and pest control using cloth bags for fruit fly, old beer in cups for slugs, snails. Planting different flowers which trick pest and companion planting. Happy gardening .

 

[flipper]

Tell me some advice, what are you figuring out thats working /what's not. I haven't dived in yet, delay of game till next year...but this winter I'm going to read up on whatever I can.

I know that your not asking me but I am hoping that you will not mind if I chip in:

1. have a look at the sites of my first post
2. herbs are east to grow in pots, they are basically weeds, our deck is full of potted herbs. I recommend starting with a good vegetable potting soil
3. If you have enough space you can have a raised garden. Gene could if he wanted to put one on top of his gravel. I built my first one this year. It is two feet high by three feet wide by eight feet long. There is little bending over and some protection from bugs and animals. We have grown in this small area, Swiss chard, beets, cucumbers, peas and cabbage. Did you know that you can freeze the leaves of the cabbage when it is growing and put it in soup. Also you can build vertically on your raised garden: http://www.amazon.com/Vertical-Vegetables-Fruit-Gardening-Techniques/dp/1603429980
4. In the fall and spring I will put on a glass top using glass from door and window that someone threw out. If you want you can build a green house using this technique.
   
5. You may want to start with plants that have already been started if your new to this but it is important to not to buy anything that is GMO. We have found that GMO`s have taken over the grociery stores. If you grow from seeds you can keep harvesting and growing them every year.
6. potatoes are easy to grow, just stick them in the ground and you will have a new plant.
7. If you compost you will be surprised at what can grow up from the compost
8. berry bushes and fruit trees are easy to grow
9. join Pinterest (for gardening)
10. garlic makes an excellent fall and spring crop

Pinterest Guide to Growing Sprouts! « The Mountain Rose Blog
Food Preservation Videos from Simply Canning
You can buy Kefir and yoghourt starters
Buy Kefir - Kefir
Common Sense Homesteading - Using Sound Judgment to be Self-Reliant
Sprout Master, Your Source for Quality Organic Sprouting seeds, grains and Supplies
You may want to get a load of top soil depending on y0ur need

 

[technomage]

My wife and I grow the following food:

• Onions (Spanish and Egyptian)
• Eggplant (Black Beauty; Ichiban in previous years)
• Tomatoes (Cherokee and Beefsteak, cherry in previous years)
• Peppers (Yolo and Hungarian hot peppers)
• Fennel
• Dill
• Parsley
• Oregano (Greek and Culinary)
• Thyme (English, German, Lemon)
• Cucumbers (racked by disease every year)
• Melons (racked by disease this year)
• Squash
  
• Red Lettuce (bolts very easily)
• Sage (from last year)
• Blueberries (new plants from last year; only some fruit and not sweet)

 

[Heidi Lemmer]

Awesome stuff guys, thank you!!! Thinking maybe I'll start this fall getting a compost area set up. I'll have to limp along on suggestions simply because of finances but this gives me time to consider how I'll cook what I grow and learn canning. A friend brought some surplus over a few weeks ago and I realized that trying to eat all this food fresh made me sick of it. I need some new ideas of cooking and to start learning to can. The other obstacle is deer. Nice to see this thread come alive!

 

[technomage]

We get organic non-GMO seedlings from this company:

Sweet Corn Organic Nursery

They also have good products to help your plants along. We also got a seed germination station, which we will be using soon. Also, we're looking into turning a whole room into a hydroponics room.

We haven't done composting, sprouting and some of the other stuff mentioned.

We found that most things grow very well in our soil (we're in NJ). We've only had consistent problems with cucumbers and melons so far.

 

[flipper]

Awesome stuff guys, thank you!!! Thinking maybe I'll start this fall getting a compost area set up. I'll have to limp along on suggestions simply because of finances but this gives me time to consider how I'll cook what I grow and learn canning. A friend brought some surplus over a few weeks ago and I realized that trying to eat all this food fresh made me sick of it. I need some new ideas of cooking and to start learning to can. The other obstacle is deer. Nice to see this thread come alive!

The best website:
Home Canning and Preserving, Meat, Vegetables, Fruits, Jam or Jelly.

 

[Burnt State]

The other obstacle is deer.

Well, if you're feeling positive about harvesting from the forest you can always shoot the deer for delicious venison stew and allow the veggies to grow freely. Deer browsing is a non-starter for vegetables unless you are willing to fence in the garden.

Gardening is often about compromise and learning to live and work with the limitations imposed upon your growing space & your budget. i have a massive black walnut tree growing next door to me which has made some things difficult and others impossible. All my tomatoes must be grown in pots. To grow blueberries i had to build a large container 2 feet above ground two years ago with old cedar rail fence, lined with plastic and i cover it during berry season with netting to stop the birds from stripping the bushes. This has also made it difficult for rabbits to browse them in winter. Now I just have to defeat the chipmunk that moved in and is taking tomatoes from me daily. Hope he's enjoying his daily dose of lycopene.

For those with slug issues making container gardens with copper tape circling the whole thing will defeat them and allow those early seedlings and lettuces to survive past spring. Growing vertically with poles from tree branches, or whatever you can find (old baby cribs are great for this), can help you if space is an issue. Beans, squash, cukes and vine tomatoes will happily grow up and minimize square footage occupation in your yard.

 

[flipper]

For years I have looked forward to buying Ontario Field tomatoes. This year I bought a basket of what looked like Ontario field tomatoes but was not. The tomatoes I bought had no taste and were GMO. Our choices are becoming less at the store. GMO foods are altered so that when your body makes them a part of you, the immune system attacks those cells that have GMO DNA in them. It does not recognize that the cell is part of you. It is why we have so many auto immune diseases.

 

[flipper]

Well, if you're feeling positive about harvesting from the forest you can always shoot the deer for delicious venison stew and allow the veggies to grow freely. Deer browsing is a non-starter for vegetables unless you are willing to fence in the garden.

Gardening is often about compromise and learning to live and work with the limitations imposed upon your growing space & your budget. i have a massive black walnut tree growing next door to me which has made some things difficult and others impossible. All my tomatoes must be grown in pots. To grow blueberries i had to build a large container 2 feet above ground two years ago with old cedar rail fence, lined with plastic and i cover it during berry season with netting to stop the birds from stripping the bushes. This has also made it difficult for rabbits to browse them in winter. Now I just have to defeat the chipmunk that moved in and is taking tomatoes from me daily. Hope he's enjoying his daily dose of lycopene.

For those with slug issues making container gardens with copper tape circling the whole thing will defeat them and allow those early seedlings and lettuces to survive past spring. Growing vertically with poles from tree branches, or whatever you can find (old baby cribs are great for this), can help you if space is an issue. Beans, squash, cukes and vine tomatoes will happily grow up and minimize square footage occupation in your yard.

Well, if you're feeling positive about harvesting from the forest you can always shoot the deer for delicious venison stew and allow the veggies to grow freely. Deer browsing is a non-starter for vegetables unless you are willing to fence in the garden.

Gardening is often about compromise and learning to live and work with the limitations imposed upon your growing space & your budget. i have a massive black walnut tree growing next door to me which has made some things difficult and others impossible. All my tomatoes must be grown in pots. To grow blueberries i had to build a large container 2 feet above ground two years ago with old cedar rail fence, lined with plastic and i cover it during berry season with netting to stop the birds from stripping the bushes. This has also made it difficult for rabbits to browse them in winter. Now I just have to defeat the chipmunk that moved in and is taking tomatoes from me daily. Hope he's enjoying his daily dose of lycopene.

For those with slug issues making container gardens with copper tape circling the whole thing will defeat them and allow those early seedlings and lettuces to survive past spring. Growing vertically with poles from tree branches, or whatever you can find (old baby cribs are great for this), can help you if space is an issue. Beans, squash, cukes and vine tomatoes will happily grow up and minimize square footage occupation in your yard.

Now is harvest time for Ontario tomatoes. So I thought that I would post this for (forgive the sexist language) my fellow Ontarian and others who may be interested. If you have an over abundance from your garden or purchase extra tomatoes from a farmer at the farmer's market then you can freeze them. Plum tomatoes after being frozen should be made into tomato sauce while stake tomatoes can should be made into soup because they have seeds. You may know this already but this is my first year freezing tomatoes so it is on my mind.
Freezing Raw Tomatoes with and without Skins, from Cook it Quick, UNL Extension | UNL Food | University of Nebraska-Lincoln

 

[Burnt State]

Thanks flipper for that link! I've a got lots of em coming in at odd times with no time to make much sauce this year.

My favourite way to use excess tomatoes by way of a nice simple vegetarian Mexican cookbook: Toasted Garlic Soup

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil (use less if you like)
1 whole head of garlic, cloves peeled separatated and coarsest chopped
1/2 a baguette or other length of slim crusty bread cut cross wise 1/4 inch thick
2 ancho chiles steamed, seeded and coarsest chopped = 1 oz (or you can just add some chili sauce, tabasco etc. to your taste)
4 medium tomatoes coarseely chopped into half inch chunks = 1 lb (you are supposed to peel and seed them to be pro but it takes way too long for me)
7 cups vegetable stock (or light broth of choice)
3/4 teaspoon salt (or less to taste)
1/2 cup thickened cream/sour cream if you're good with that kind of diet - I skip that part.

Fry garlic in the olive oil on high heat until a little crispy & golden. Remove garlic and transfer to plate. Fry up bread slices in oil and then set aside.

Place tomatoes, garlic broth, salt and chilli into the pot and cook it up for twenty minutes (I like to get the handblender in there for a bit afterwards but you can purée or not). Top soup with of some your crusty fried bread and a small dollop of cream or not - delish! A great way to combine the recent harvests of garlic and tomotoes.

I always like recipes that combine garden harvests as they ripen i.e. apricots and blackberries - make a jam out of that to go to heaven for a bit.

 

[stonehart]

Thanks flipper for that link! I've a got lots of em coming in at odd times with no time to make much sauce this year.

My favourite way to use excess tomatoes by way of a nice simple vegetarian Mexican cookbook: Toasted Garlic Soup

Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil (use less if you like)
1 whole head of garlic, cloves peeled separatated and coarsest chopped
1/2 a baguette or other length of slim crusty bread cut cross wise 1/4 inch thick
2 ancho chiles steamed, seeded and coarsest chopped = 1 oz (or you can just add some chili sauce, tabasco etc. to your taste)
4 medium tomatoes coarseely chopped into half inch chunks = 1 lb (you are supposed to peel and seed them to be pro but it takes way too long for me)
7 cups vegetable stock (or light broth of choice)
3/4 teaspoon salt (or less to taste)
1/2 cup thickened cream/sour cream if you're good with that kind of diet - I skip that part.

Fry garlic in the olive oil on high heat until a little crispy & golden. Remove garlic and transfer to plate. Fry up bread slices in oil and then set aside.

Place tomatoes, garlic broth, salt and chilli into the pot and cook it up for twenty minutes (I like to get the handblender in there for a bit afterwards but you can purée or not). Top soup with of some your crusty fried bread and a small dollop of cream or not - delish! A great way to combine the recent harvests of garlic and tomotoes.

I always like recipes that combine garden harvests as they ripen i.e. apricots and blackberries - make a jam out of that to go to heaven for a bit.

I want to like this twice! yum!

Good idea for excess tomatoes and I have that every year from my little garden.
Speaking of which we have an early spring here so I am planting all the things!

Peas, beans, cucumber, corn, Broccoli, Cauliflower, garlic, carrots are in already and my Tomatoes are sprouting as well. Way to early so I hope I don't get a nasty surprise frost.
Going to try and grow Avocado.. will be hit and miss I guess as I am just a bit to far south in New Zealand I think.

 

[boomerang]

Some good more good news

Study: You Have 'Near-Zero' Impact on U.S. Policy

More or less the average person is fucked.

Most thinking Americans don't need experts to tell them that. Somewhere over the last 40 years or so the essence of a collective American spirit has been either lost or anesthetized. Hence, perhaps, the curren

I know that your not asking me but I am hoping that you will not mind if I chip in:

1. have a look at the sites of my first post
2. herbs are east to grow in pots, they are basically weeds, our deck is full of potted herbs. I recommend starting with a good vegetable potting soil
3. If you have enough space you can have a raised garden. Gene could if he wanted to put one on top of his gravel. I built my first one this year. It is two feet high by three feet wide by eight feet long. There is little bending over and some protection from bugs and animals. We have grown in this small area, Swiss chard, beets, cucumbers, peas and cabbage. Did you know that you can freeze the leaves of the cabbage when it is growing and put it in soup. Also you can build vertically on your raised garden: http://www.amazon.com/Vertical-Vegetables-Fruit-Gardening-Techniques/dp/1603429980
4. In the fall and spring I will put on a glass top using glass from door and window that someone threw out. If you want you can build a green house using this technique.
   
5. You may want to start with plants that have already been started if your new to this but it is important to not to buy anything that is GMO. We have found that GMO`s have taken over the grociery stores. If you grow from seeds you can keep harvesting and growing them every year.
6. potatoes are easy to grow, just stick them in the ground and you will have a new plant.
7. If you compost you will be surprised at what can grow up from the compost
8. berry bushes and fruit trees are easy to grow
9. join Pinterest (for gardening)
10. garlic makes an excellent fall and spring crop

Pinterest Guide to Growing Sprouts! « The Mountain Rose Blog
Food Preservation Videos from Simply Canning
You can buy Kefir and yoghourt starters
Buy Kefir - Kefir
Common Sense Homesteading - Using Sound Judgment to be Self-Reliant
Sprout Master, Your Source for Quality Organic Sprouting seeds, grains and Supplies
You may want to get a load of top soil depending on y0ur need

Great post flipper, but you obviously don't live in central Texas. It's a little harder here. Not impossible. Just less return for more work, and many plants are near impossible to grow. And to boot, water becomes a little more precious every year.

 

[Burnt State]

I want to like this twice! yum!

Good idea for excess tomatoes and I have that every year from my little garden.
Speaking of which we have an early spring here so I am planting all the things!

Peas, beans, cucumber, corn, Broccoli, Cauliflower, garlic, carrots are in already and my Tomatoes are sprouting as well. Way to early so I hope I don't get a nasty surprise frost.
Going to try and grow Avocado.. will be hit and miss I guess as I am just a bit to far south in New Zealand I think.

Ah - the envy i have. The idea of growing avocados for real, and not just to watch a stick with big leaves unfold in my living room over winter, is like some kind of paranormal fantasy. The most exciting fruit we can grow here in Southern Ontario is the native pawpaw - it's somewhere between an avocado and banana in terms of flavour and texture, not really a cousin of the other tropical pawpaw.

I wish I was getting ready for spring myself right now instead of fall but to each their own season. Good luck on the growing, Stoney. Does playing Floyd outside to the plants help things grow?

I've been consciously saving tomato seeds to keep certain heirloom varieties at work in the yard as they are expensive to get as a seedling, a good economic practice. Though many of the cherry tomatoes, and some others, seem to freely seed themselves around - very handy, as they produce the late bumper crop.

 

[flipper]

For those of us in the Northern climate can grow our own greens without any special equipment during winter. These are just some containers we did not use on the barbeque. I planted these speckled peas less than a week ago. We harvest the shoots and can make a fresh salad. These peas grow beautiful shoots 4 -6" and are best grown in soil. I include the sight were I got the peas but I am sure that there is someone selling them closer to you:
Sprouting Seeds and Grains

 

[Charlie Prime]

Friends the time to start your garden is NOW. Fresh food without chemicals that increase your independence is a big part of The Good Life.

Burpee provides this handy planting calendar. Enter your zip code, and it will tell you the best day to poke your seed into Mother Earth...

Growing Calendar - Burpee's Home Garden Advice, When to Grow, Sow, Plant and Harvest atBurpee.com

77 degrees today in my locale.

My electric tiller is in the mail...


http://www.greenworkstools.com/lawn-...ivator-tiller/

 

[Charlie Prime]

My tiller arrived in the mail yesterday.

Yes, it is awesome.

 

[mike]

A good quality hoe is a must too. Nice low tech time tested tool

Hoe and Garden Pictures: The Entire Hoe Collection!

You want a heavy head, but not too wide so you can get it between plants.

This one looks good

There are two schools of thoughts re weeding

One is of course to use the hoe once a week to disturb and displace weeds, this leaves the nutrients and water for the plants youve planted.
But another school of thought says native pests are used to eating native weeds, leaving them in place is the go since they will target the weeds, not the introduced plants

Leaving a few weeds in the garden...on purpose - Cottage Garden Forum - GardenWeb

I cant overstate the better quality of home grown food, the phrase "tastes like the ones we had as kids" is common.

Weve been pickling zuchinis and cucumbers this week, our bulk store looks great with jars and jars of these, and the taste......