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Monthly Archives: January 2012

Windsor Dairy, Colorado

30 Jan

A calf, and future produced of my raw milk.

I’m a huge believer in raw milk. But this spin isn’t on the benefits of raw milk or the recent demonization of raw milk by agribusiness, it’s about a dairy in northern Colorado that provides excellent raw milk, meat, and eggs to their shareholders. I am a herd owner in this dairy, and I’m pleased that the herd share I’ve purchased is in good hands.

Windsor Dairy is owned by two moo vets: board certified dairy veterinarians Dr. Meg Cattell and Dr. Arden Nelson. Their dairy is the only licensed, Grade A certified-organic dairy in the area, and their cattle are all grass-fed. Meg and Arden work to develop a herd of cattle that is adapted to the local environment near the Colorado Rockies. They’ve chosen cows that are adapted to conditions in the Alps (the Brown Swiss and Tarentaise), and graze them on over 1,000 acres of native grassland.

Potential herd shareowners are required to tour the dairy before buying into the herd; this is just one way Meg and Arden ensure a transparent interaction between owners and the animals. If I wanted, I could drive up to the dairy today and check things out, including watching cows being milked. It’s really a fascinating process to watch, and the attention to cleanliness can’t be beat.

Without a doubt, I trust the quality, safety, and taste of Windsor Dairy raw milk over any other milk, hands down. (And, no, they have no idea I’m writing this about them…no kick-backs here!). Every week they test their milk for pathogens — including Listeria, E coli 0157H7, Salmonella, and Campylobacter — at a USDA-certified food safety lab. Mass-produced milk is not held to this high a standard.

Windsor Dairy supplies more than just great-tasting raw milk that beats the pants off of mass-produced milk in taste, nutrition and safety. The dairy supplies eggs from free-range, certified-organic chicken flocks; a variety of delicious cheeses made on-site from their milk; beef; pastured pork; and grass-fed, pastured lamb. They are also working towards building their goat herd for goat milk shares in the future. I’ll look forward to that as another source of raw milk, which I’ll use for cooking, drinking, cheese-making, and soap-making.

If you have stories of a local raw-milk dairy in your area, please share them in the comments!

 
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Posted by on January 30, 2012 in Farm Profile

 

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Decadent Mixed Citrus Marmalade, Cheaper than Store-Bought

27 Jan

Mixed citrus marmalade in the sun (no artificial colors here!)

Marmalade is my favorite! But most store-bought marmalade is too short on citrus flavor and too high on sugar. Marmalade should be thick with citrus peel and fruit, and have a flavor that is almost to the tart side, to reflect the origins of the fruit. I set out to make a mixed citrus marmalade that had all of these qualities, and at a cheaper price than substandard store-brand offerings.

First, let me say off the bat that while I was making the marmalade–which took me five solid hours of work–I thought to myself, “I’m never making this again! This is way too much work!” After I had the marmalade all jarred up and tasted it, however, I said to myself, “I’m totally making this again! I don’t care how much work it is…it’s just too good not to eat again.” Some things in life are worth the work, and good marmalade is definitely one of them.

Let’s talk cost. Marmalade is expensive as far as jams go, even though it doesn’t contain as much fruit as a decent marmalade should. You can pay up for $4.00 for a basic jar of orange marmalade. When you make it yourself, however, you can make a jar of superior marmalade for about $1.85 a jar! And that cost is for all organic fruit and sugar! The recipe below does include a bottle of white wine, which will bring the cost to $3.00 a jar; this is still cheaper than store-bought, and it’s decadent! But you can use water or a fruit juice instead of the wine and you’ll still be paying half for superior marmalade over store-bought when you make it yourself.

For complete photo instruction on making this marmalade visit our photo album on the Rural Spin Facebook Page. This recipe makes a little over 6 jelly jars of marmalade:

INGREDIENTS (6 pounds of citrus)

  • 3 pink grapefruit
  • 2 lemons
  • 3 limes
  • 5 oranges,
  • 1 bottle of Reisling or other sweet white wine
  • 6 cups of sugar
  • 1 tsp grated nutmeg (fresh is best)
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS

Assemble the following tools:

  • A “Y-style” peeler. This is pretty key as many zesters and other peelers will not make you happy while zesting 6 pounds of fruit. (I avoid recommending products, but OXO or Khun Rikon make good all-around peelers that have a place in the kitchen for any peeling needs.) I can tell you this because I used a paring knife to zest, and I’m pretty sure I could have saved TONS of time had I purchased a quality peeler like a friend suggested.
  • Two large bowls, one for your fruit and another for your fruit peels and membranes after you zest the fruit.
  • A heavy-bottomed dutch oven or similar large-sized pot, in which to boil your marmalade.
  • A thermometer, candy or instant-read.

First, wash the fruit well with soap and a scrub brush. You want the rind very clean, and you never know who has pawed what onto the fruit before you popped it into your grocery cart.

Next, cut the zest off of all of your fruit, first making sure to remove any blemishes you see. Be careful not to include any of the white pith. (Did I include some? Yep. I ain’t perfect….) I used a paring knife to do this, but before I make my next batch I’ll definitely be purchasing a Y-style vegetable peeler.

A growing pile of citrus zest is a beautiful thing.

After all the zest is removed (which will take you a good hour using a paring knife on 6 pounds of citrus), chop it with a large knife. How fine you chop it depends upon how large you want your chunks of zest to be in your marmalade. My advice is to leave it larger than you think you want it; it will reduce in size as it is cooked.

Place all the zest in your pot, add water until just covered, and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the zest is tender. Don’t top the water off. After the 30 minutes are up turn the heat off and let it sit.

Now it’s time to remove all of the fruit from the peel and the membrane (reserve a cup or two of the peel). Be prepared for raisin fingers on this one–it took me an hour and a half to de-membrane 6 pounds of citrus. For the lemons and limes, it’s easier to cut the peel and membrane away than it is to use your fingers. With the grapefruit and oranges, however, using the fingers is easier. Place all of your fruit in one bowl, and the peels and membranes in another.

When you are done separating all of the fruit, add all of the fruit to your pot to join the zest. Add the bottle of white wine, two cups of water, your nutmeg and cinnamon, and 6 cups of sugar. Stir, and set heat to medium so it can boil away without burning.

Take the reserved skins and put them into a jelly bag or some muslin. The skins have some pectin in them and will help your marmalade to set. Add the bundle to your pot. How many skins you use depends upon how much room you have in your pot!

Remove the bag of skins after about an hour and start checking your temperature. You want your marmalade to reach the gel-set stage, the exact temperature depends upon your elevation:

  • Sea Level: 220 F
  • 1,000 ft: 218 F
  • 2,000 ft: 216 F
  • 3,000 ft: 214 F
  • 4,000 ft: 212 F
  • 5,000 ft: 211 F
  • 6,000 ft: 209 F
  • 7,000 ft: 207 F
  • 8,000 ft: 205 F

Superior, decadent marmalade at half the cost of store-bought.

Once your jam reaches the gel-set stage for your elevation, keep it boiling for two or three minutes just to set it well. Then turn off the heat and stir the marmalade to make sure the zest is well distributed. Also take some time to admire how shiny and beautiful your marmalade is!

Funnel your marmalade into cleaned jars. At this point you can give them a nice water bath to seal the jars, following standard protocols for that process (we’ll write a future post on canning jams, jellies, and marmalade).  However, this marmalade is present-worthy. I ended up giving most of my jars away, and kept one for myself. It lasted maybe a week before I had eaten it all, and my friends and family reported the same quick demise of this delicious treat.

 
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Posted by on January 27, 2012 in Recipes, Saving Money

 

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Weaving a Beautiful Scarf

25 Jan

I decided to learn how to weave on a whim. No one in my family had ever woven anything and, while I have one sister who is a wonderful crochet artist, no one in my family is particularly into traditional arts like I am. Basically, I just woke up one day and decided I wanted to take a weaving class at a local yarn shop in downtown Lawrence, Kansas (visit the Yarn Barn‘s website!)

After that first class, I quickly took another and was officially hooked. I loved everything about weaving: the fibers, the process, the tedium, the planning and dreaming, the weaving, and the resulting textiles. I started scouring the internet for a used loom and soon scored a used LeClerc Nilus II 45″ loom on Craig’s List. I couldn’t really afford the loom at the time, but it was a great price for such a great loom, which will last a lifetime, and I’ve been weaving ever since.

Here’s a project I wove for my mother for a Christmas present this past year. If you’re not familiar with weaving, this will give you a basic “lay of the land” as to process, and maybe have you seeking out local weaving classes in your area (and no, you don’t need to own such a large loom to weave great things)!

The first step (after you plan your project) is to measure your warp on a warping board. The warp is the vertical threads that will be loaded onto your loom.

After you measure your warp, you transfer it to the loom and start loading your loom by pulling each thread through a slit in the reed. Loading the loom can take longer than actually weaving your project.

After the threads are pulled through the reed, the warp is then threaded through individual heddles.

Yep, one thread per heddle...like threading lots of individual needles. If you do not enjoy tedium, you will find weaving difficult since much of your time will be spent doing this.

After the warp is all threaded into the heddles it is tied off to keep the yarn from tangling!

After the warp is loaded onto the loom, you attach the warp at the loom's front and back beam to secure it. Here the warp is all wound onto the back beam of the loom.

Finally, it's time to weave by throwing the shuttle, which contains your weft (horizontal) threads.

Tamping the threads with the beater and reed.

A basic weave pattern is the strongest weave. The more intricate you get with your patterns, the more delicate the fabric becomes. But it's fun to play with yarn color!

Looking closely at the threads is very rewarding!

The finished scarf is a beautiful (and very warm) thing!

 
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Posted by on January 25, 2012 in Hobbies and Arts

 

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Decadent Cereal, Cheaper than Store-Bought

24 Jan

You can make this luscious, high-quality cereal for cheaper than store-bought.

As we all know, store-bought cereal costs an arm and a leg. A standard box of cereal containing basic ingredients like oat or wheat flakes and maybe some dried fruit can cost close to $5.00. And that cost isn’t even for fancy cereal with organic ingredients, luscious nut chunks, or plump pieces of dried fruit. Let’s face it, the dried fruit they put in those boxes is almost mummified. And the taste? Well, it tastes like mummified cranberry or raisin. Yum.

I refuse to pay so much for substandard cereal when I can make my own cereal for less money, and with far superior ingredients. Below is my staple recipe for cereal that I make on a regular basis. And the cost? I make about two pounds of this stuff at a time, and it costs me $4.00 a pound, a clear savings over the $5.00 for a 15 ounce box of comparable Kashi cereal (not even a full pound). And, I use expensive ingredients (and lots of ‘em) like all organic products; large coconut chips; fresh, aromatic walnuts; and high quality, plump dried cranberries that you just can’t find in a boxed cereal. If you want to economize you can stick with the basics like dried raisins or apples, or non organic ingredients. And if you really want to save money, dry your own fruit and use it in your cereal! And best of all, you family isn’t eating preservatives or fillers: just healthy, tasty food.

I love making my own because I can customize it to whatever I feel like eating. Heck, I’d put bacon crumbles in it if I wanted! And this is good hot or cold. To eat it hot, I just warm some milk until it’s almost boiling, and pour it over my mix. A few minutes of sitting on the table produces a wonderful breakfast for cold winter mornings. Add a drizzle of maple syrup and I’m in heaven.

INGREDIENTS:

  • Grain Flakes (I like oats, but you can use wheat, rye, barley, or a collection of the four)
  • Nuts (I like pecan or walnut halves, but have also used almond chips, peanuts, or whatever I have on hand)
  • Dried fruit (raisins, currants, apples, cranberries, coconut, or whatever dried fruit suits your fancy)
  • Your Imagination (flax seed, ground cinnamon, wheat germ, chocolate chips…if you think it would be good, add it)

You'll never find high-quality ingredients like these laden generously in store-bought cereal. And this costs less!

I put all my ingredients in a large bowl, mix it well, then pour it all into a restaurant-sized storage jar that I bought in a Goodwill store for $1.00 (I scored three of these jars, the other two hold my white and wheat flour). The amount of cereal you make is only limited by where you’ll store your cereal–my cereal jar could hold 4 pounds of cereal. You can make yours on a weekly basis, or enough to last you a month.

There are no drawbacks to making your own cereal: it’s cheaper, healthier, tastier, and takes only moments of your time. Let the kids mix up a batch; they’ll have fun choosing the ingredients, too! Try it, and if you have an ingredient mix you particularly like, feel free to share it in the comments!

 
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Posted by on January 24, 2012 in Great for Kids, Kitchen Tips, Recipes, Saving Money

 

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Collecting and Maintaining Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter

22 Jan

My sourdough starter is six years old and lives in this jar in my refrigerator. The liquid on top is called "hooch" and is perfectly normal.

No, you do not have to buy yeast to make really great bread. In fact, you never have to purchase yeast from the store again if you collect your own wild, local yeast and make your own sourdough starter. After you collect your wild yeast, the sourdough starter lives in a jar in your refrigerator. In fact, it can live there for hundreds of years if you take care of it properly. Here are the basics of collecting and maintaining your own wild yeast sourdough starter.

It’s important to note that not all wild yeasts are created equal. The iconic San Francisco sourdough is a wonderful wild yeast, but it is exceptional. In my last home in eastern Kansas the wild yeast was on the weak side, so while it was great for things like bagels and soft pretzels, it wasn’t the best for a light bread. However, now that I’ve moved to the Colorado Front Range I’m pleased with how wonderful the wild yeasts are and the wonderful light bread they make.

The ultimate goal with this is to have fun and to have another way to cut your tie to the commercial food chain. This is not always easy, and with wild yeast it means that you need to experiment with your starter often to learn the nature of your local yeast. But that’s where the fun is! Through time your wild yeast starter will be like an old friend; one that you can literally pass on to your children and grandchildren. For a video introduction on sourdough check out our video, “Intro to Sourdough.”

COLLECTION

Collecting wild yeast is pretty easy. All you need is a bowl, flour, warm water (about 85F) and a jar in which to store your starter. When you’re first collecting your yeast, white flour seems to work a bit better than wheat flour, but after you have a nice starter going you can add wheat flour as you maintain your starter, and you are free to use just about any kind of flour when baking.

First, take a bowl and mix together 2 cups of flour and 2 cups warm water (about 85F). It’s ok if there are lumps–it doesn’t need to be perfectly mixed. But do not mix in anything else besides flour and water! This is very important. Incorporate air into the mix with some vigorous strokes, however; yeast floats around in the air, so the more air contact your mix has the better.

Next, cover your bowl lightly with cheesecloth or a kitchen towel; never use anything like a plate or saran wrap, as this will prevent air (and therefore yeast) from making contact with your mix. If it’s summer time you can let the bowl sit outside so your mix has access to as much wild yeast floating around as possible. If it’s winter, put the bowl in a warmish, protected spot like in a cold oven. Over the next 24 hours, stir your mix about once every three to six hours just to get more air incorporated.

For a review of the process up to this point watch “Step 1: Collecting Wild Yeast for Sourdough.”

After 24 hours, check your starter and see how bubbly it is. You may not have many bubbles at all–it just depends upon a variety of factors like season and the nature of your local yeast, so don’t feel discouraged if the process takes two or three days. If you don’t see a lot of bubbles, whip the starter with a fork or something to incorporate more air, then let it sit, covered, in a warmish spot for another 24 hours. For more info on this step watch “Step 2: Growing your Wild Yeast.”

After two days, we have foaming and bubbles, proving that we've caught the wild yeast!

It can take two to three days for the yeasts to start growing in your starter. You’ll be able to tell if the bubbles you’re seeing are “active” bubbles or just air bubbles that you’ve mixed in coming to the surface. Check out this video to see what you can expect: “Step 3 Final Step Sourdough.”

Now that your starter is done, you can put it in a quart-sized jar and add another cup of flour and another cup of 85F water. Leave it sit for another day or so, then put it in your fridge where the yeasts will go dormant, ready for you to activate when you bake.

SWEETENING THE POT

The only thing that can really kill your sourdough starter is too much heat or starving it to death, and to prevent the later your starter does require some maintenance to remain happy and productive. Luckily, keeping it happy is easy, and it gives you the chance to share your starter with friends and family. You need to feed your starter once every five or six months, so this is not a time-consuming endeavor. Gold miners of old, who coveted their starters, called this maintenance process “sweetening the pot.” For a video of this process, see “Maintaining Your Sourdough Starter.”

The first step is to remove the jar of starter from your refrigerator. If you haven’t used your starter in several months, you’ll notice there is a layer of liquid at the top. This is called the “hooch” and can simply be mixed back in with your starter.

Grab another jar, which has been cleaned and sterilized, and place half of your starter in the new jar. Add a cup of new flour to this, and a cup of warm, 85F water. Mix until incorporated (lumps are fine) and let it sit overnight so the yeasts have a chance to start eating the new flour. Put your new jar back in the refrigerator until your next baking (or next pot sweetening). That’s all there is to it!

What do you do with the other half of your starter that’s in the original jar? This is your chance to earn some good karma and give it away to friends or family. It will be a great chance to bond with people you care about, and spread some fun and food independence along the way.

Check out our recent post on baking bread using your new sourdough starter: Using Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter: Basic Bread.

 
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Posted by on January 22, 2012 in Fun Experiments, Great for Kids, Recipes, Wild Yeast Sourdough

 

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Step 1 for the Urban Homestead: Dream and Plan

20 Jan

Turning this blank slate of a backyard into a productive space for fruits, vegetables, an orchard, dog run, and chickens will be fun and rewarding.

Last June I moved into a small brown house on the Colorado Front Range. My plans for turning my new backyard into an urban homesteader’s dream started to form before the house was even officially mine. It’s basically virgin territory back there, so I can do what I want. Starting over from scratch in a new house can be a daunting task, but my brain quickly organized the parcel into potential use areas. Now the growing season is moving in and it’s time to nail down these vague ideas into specific plans. I’m impatient, and I want my property to become as productive as possible as quickly as I can manage.

Coming up with a master plan for your garden is always a good idea. A master plan allows you to do three things: 1) it allows you to really think about what your goals and needs are, and plan to those needs through time, 2) it allows you to build and expand as your budget allows while sticking to those plans, 3) it allows you have a lot of fun.

The first thing you need to do when you sit down and start to plan your homestead (big or small) is determine where the sun is. This involves you checking out your yard in the summer and noting where the sun/shade is once every hour. Do this from sun up to sun down for a few days (say, two Saturdays in a row). Vegetables, fruits, and herbs need a solid six to eight hours of sunlight a day, so if you want food plots in your yard their location is 80% dependent upon sun exposure. What’s the other 20%? Access to water. This is especially important if you live in a semi-arid environment like I do. The basic gist is that if you will need to supply supplemental water to your plants, you don’t want to be hauling hundreds of feet of hose around every day; it will soon become a pain and your plants will suffer. But if you get plenty of rain in your area, I am jealous!

Once you know how the sun behaves in your yard, you can decide what you want to include in the whole area and plan their locations accordingly. There are many options for space use, but they generally fall into some main categories, and you can have fun with a rough-drawn plan of your yard and some tracing paper, sketching out locations for different spaces (if you have a plat of survey that’s ideal). Here are some popular use areas and things to keep in mind as you plan out your space:

Animals: If your local city codes allow it (and many do so don’t assume you can’t keep small food-producing animals) adding some protein-producing critters like chickens or rabbits to your urban homestead can bring many rewards in both food and fun. But first do some research to determine what kind of environmental conditions the animal you’re interested in needs. If you want to keep some chickens, for example, you want them located close enough for easy care and in an area where they can get some protection from excessive wind and sun, but maybe you don’t want them right up against your deck. And make sure you include protecting your food plots from foraging biddies.

Cut Flowers: I’m a huge believer in allowing garden space for cut flowers. There’s just nothing quite like being able to go outside and cut some zinnias, sunflowers, salvia, marigolds, or other pretty plants to bring joy into the house. Starting them from seed and growing your own allows you to have fresh flowers in the house all season, at a fraction of the cost of buying them at the store.

River says, "I need space, too." Who can deny such a face? I sure as hell can't.

Dog/pet run; If you have a dog you might consider a way to separate the dog from the garden at times. I love my dog and she’s well-trained; when she and I are in the garden together I have no worries that she’ll rip into anything. But when I’m gone for an afternoon, I feel better knowing she’s in a nice dog run, protected from her own dogness with a barrier between her, the chickens, and the beds. Plus, it’s just an added barrier against her being stolen or escaping the fenced yard.

Entertaining: People tend to underestimate the value of planning formal entertaining space in their yards. This can be deck or patio space, but also allow room for ornamental plantings and maybe things like a fire pit or badminton area if you’re into that sort of thing. You’re putting all this effort into planning your yard space, and you may also want to include areas where you can share it with your friends.

Fruits and Vegetables: People spend most of their time planning these areas. We’ll write more posts on planning how much space is needed to grow food for a family, but you can grow more food in, say, a 4-foot by 8-foot bed than you think. My advice here is start smaller than you think you’ll need until you are skilled at preserving all of your produce.

Herbs: Nothing beats fresh and fresh-dried herbs to season your food with all year long. And let’s not forget herbal teas. Herbs can also be used as ornamentals, and when I worked as a professional horticulturist long ago, I frequently incorporated herbs (and even vegetables) in with regular landscape plantings. An herb garden supplies us with wonderful tastes, smells, and beauty and a well-planned garden should include space for herbs.

Orchard: Don’t think you need acres for an orchard; an orchard can include just two or three fruit trees. And you can incorporate your fruit trees in your larger landscape, overlapping with other uses such as entertainment areas, or the chicken/animal area. For small yards there are plenty of dwarf orchard trees available and with proper pruning, you can maintain small, productive fruit trees in the space you have available.

Allowing space for cut flowers in the garden is well worth it!

Ornamental Plantings: I know there are folks out there who feel that plants that are strictly for ornamental purposes are a waste of space, but to me that’s like saying paintings are a waste of space…or music. Some things are worth having simply because you like the texture of the leaves, or the fall color is exceptional, or the sounds of a water garden. Don’t put beauty on the back burner. Life is too short for that.

Perennial and Shrub Food Plants: These productive plants are planted and stay there, year after year. Not only are asparagus and rhubarb included in this mix, but woody plants like blackberries, gooseberries, and currants are, too. Again, these plants can double as ornamentals, so feel free to incorporate them around your deck or patio, or even your front yard. But once you plant them, they’re there for good (unless you rip them out), so make sure they’re in an area where you can maintain them for full food production.

Utility: Last but not least, your plan must include a utility area for compost or storing tools if you don’t have a garage. But don’t think such an area needs to be hidden away–it doesn’t. In fact, I believe a well-working compost pile is a thing to show off! Healthy compost piles do not smell, and hiding them away will only make them hard to maintain, and they need sunlight, too. You should be proud of everything you plan in your garden, and the utility area is no exception.

If you have any tips or ideas for planning a garden, please share them!

 
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Posted by on January 20, 2012 in Garden Construction

 

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Simple Compost Bins

19 Jan

I love this simple compost bin of stacked wood.

Where I used to live in Kansas, there was a house a few blocks from me that had the most beautiful sculpted concrete compost bins ever. The bin system was perfect: Three bins side-by-side for rotating the baking compost, high walls, gorgeous curved tops with decorative elements formed into the concrete. I figured the cost to build these beautiful bins was equal to what I was investing in new windows for a drafty back room in my 1880-era home.

I didn’t have the money to invest in the glorious compost mecca that my neighbor had, but I did invest in a black plastic job that my City offered for about $10 at the time. I never really could make good use of this bin, though: it was easy to put compost in the top, but I couldn’t mix the compost and it was hard to get the formed compost out of the bottom of the thing. I have similar complaints about some of the black plastic bins I see that can cost $150. They seem more complicated to use than compost requires, and they are not expandable. What happens when you fill that rotating bin up, which I’d do in a few weeks? Do I really want to buy an additional, hundred plus dollar rotating bin? No thanks!

My ideal compost bin is both cheap and functional, but I want it to be nice to look at, too. I don’t think compost needs to be hidden from view at all; in fact, I think a good compost bin is a beautiful thing worthy of a decent amount of showing off! Flaunt your compost, I say!

Cage wire makes an inexpensive compost bin.

My favorite bin of all time was built by a friend on a homestead in central Massachusetts. It was simply a series of small tree trunks stacked in a square, log-home style. It’s a beautiful bin, and you can easily add branches as the pile increases, or remove branches for easy turning. But I don’t have access to such wood so I went with an alternative: cage wire.

Cage wire comes in 10-foot rolls that is easily formed into a circle, and costs about $25. Use pliers to take the loose wires at one end of the roll and connect them to the other side to form a circle. This makes a bin that’s just about the perfect size for compost (the recommended size for a compost bin is between 3 feet to 5 feet in diameter). Simply place the cage on the ground and start adding your raw material! When you need to mix your compost, all you need to do is pick up the cage and move it over, then shovel the compost back in. That’s my solution for a cheap, functional, and nice looking compost bin!

 
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Posted by on January 19, 2012 in Garden Construction

 

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Sumac: A Multi-Season Edible

17 Jan

Staghorn sumac in January (Maine)

Staghorn sumac and smooth sumac (Rhus typhina and Rhus glabra, respectively) are reliable edibles from summer through winter. The plant is easy to identify, but consult a good field guide or someone who knows their plants to make sure the plant you’re looking at is an edible sumac and not poison sumac. Once you see the plants side-by-side, though, you will see there is a big difference between the two.

The edible part of our sumac is the distinctive fruit cluster, which is prominent from summer through winter. The individual fruits are small, but the large heads make gathering them a breeze! Once you gather the heads you make a liquid concentrate from them, which can be used in beverages and in cooking. In winter, when the fruit clusters have seen better days, you’ll need more clusters to get the same effect as the clusters you collected in September, but the results will still be tasty and reminiscent of lemons!

There are two ways to make the concentrate but make sure you don’t use hot or boiling water in either method as hot water will release tannins, which are not so tasty:

Smooth sumac in September (Kansas)

In the kitchen, take several of the fruit clusters and put them in a blender filled with water. Zip the fruits with the water for a minute or so, then let it all sit for awhile (say 15 to 30 minutes). Strain the liquid through cheesecloth or a kitchen towel and the resulting concentrate can then be used in beverages, pies, and jams!

In the wild, you can still enjoy this plant. Take the fruit clusters and place them in a container full of cool water. Use your hands and rub the fruits vigorously to release the juice. Then you just need to strain out the debris and you have a tasty beverage when needed. You can warm the beverage and sweeten it if you desire, but many people like it unsweetened, too.

 
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Posted by on January 17, 2012 in Edible Plants, Kitchen Tips

 

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Grow Your Own Tobacco

16 Jan

Yes, you can grow your own tobacco! But be ready to experiment with what you have on hand, and be patient!

When pondering the Zombie Apocalypse, Mayan Meltdown, Government Collapse, or whatever disaster awaits us, a tobacco shortage is on every smoker’s mind. We don’t smoke at The Spin, but we also recognize that sometimes the things that bring joy to life are not the healthiest habits in the world. We are all free choose our own vices, and there’s no reason why we can’t make it a little healthier. Growing your own tobacco is one way to go!

Is growing tobacco legal? Yep! What is not legal is growing it and distributing it for sale; you need a government license for that. But you’re more than welcome to grow your own tobacco for personal use, and here are the basics:

GENERAL GROWING CONDITIONS

Tobacco grows best in a sunny location. While you can grow tobacco in shadier locales, the plants will be thin and spindly and will not likely make you happy with the results.

The soil needs to be well-drained to avoid rot, and the ideal pH is about 5.8. Once pH gets to about 6.5 and above growth disorders start to occur. Whether this would be detrimental to the home grower probably depends upon a few factors, but it’s not a bad idea to have your soil checked if you are serious about growing your own supply of tobacco.

Tobacco plants can only be grown on a piece of land once every four or five years to avoid disease. And, tobacco is related to tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes, so this means that during the “off” years, these vegetables can’t be grown on that plot, either. Good plants for crop rotation include grasses or other vegetables that are not related to tobacco such as beans or squashes.

STARTING SEEDS AND TRANSPLANTING

Tobacco seeds can be purchased from different suppliers such as The New Hope Seed Company, The Tobacco Seed Company, Victory Seeds, and the Sustainable Seed Company. The sites have an overview of the many kinds of tobacco you can buy, so you can select the variety that will best meet your needs, whether you intend to smoke it or chew it. You can even choose heirloom varieties!

Tobacco seeds are about the tiniest seeds you can plant! Think grains of sand are small? Ha! Because of this seeds need to be planted indoors first so you can keep an eye on things. Mixing the seed with a bit of sand first is a safe way to make sure you don’t plant them too closely.

Start the seeds in a well-drained growing medium indoors about 50 to 60 days before you plan on transplanting outside; you can use plastic flats or even something like an egg carton. Sprinkle the seeds on the surface of the soil  as evenly as possible, and pat them down to get some good seed-to-soil contact.

Water the seeds with a gentle spray and apply a gentle fertilizer. You want the soil to remain moist during germination, but not water-logged. Application of a weak fertilizer that is appropriate for related veggies like tomatoes or potatoes will help produce healthy transplants.

Make sure your transplants get adequate light and heat. The newly planted seeds need to be in a southern-facing window, or you can supply sufficient light using a grow lamp. Keep the seedlings covered with plastic to retain moisture, and make sure they are warm for the best germination. A heat mat is one way to go.

When your plants are 6 to 8 inches tall and all danger of frost is past, it’s time to plant them outside. Plant them in your well-drained soil about 24-inches apart and water immediately.

Fertilize enough to keep the leaves a healthy green color. This will depend upon the fertility of your soil, but what you do NOT want is to fertilize so much that you get huge plants…this will negatively affect tobacco quality.

HARVESTING 

Topping tobacco (photo source at end of article)

Remove the terminal bud of the plant (called “topping”) as soon as the flower buds form, but before they open. This will help the plant produce larger leaves, which is the thing you’re producing the plant for (though the flowers are quite pretty, and there are some species of tobacco plans that are grown for ornamental purposes).

Remove the suckers that will occur after you top the plant, similar to removing suckers from tomato plants. This will increase your yield at harvest. You can just pinch them off or cut them off.

Harvest the leaves at one-week intervals, from the bottom of the plant to the top. You can start doing this soon after you top the plant, when the leaves start to yellow slightly. You can get four to five harvests this way.

CURING AND AGING

Your harvested leaves need to be hung upside down and properly air-cured before they are fit for use as a tobacco product, though some pluck the leaves right off the plant and call it good. (mass-produced curing occurs with supplemental heat, but the home grower is not likely to have this sort of set-up). Tobacco can be cured at temperatures between 60F and 95F, and at humidity levels between 65 and 70 percent. Make sure air circulation between leaves is good to avoid rot and mold. It takes a few weeks to cure tobacco.

Age your tobacco for at least year (or even up to five years), for improved flavor (but, again, this depends upon your taste). Aging requires environmental conditions that do not allow the tobacco to rot/mold nor get too dry and crumbly. You don’t want to dry tobacco like you do herbs…it needs to stay somewhat supple without getting moldy. Unfortunately, each grower needs to experiment with their own home options to determine the best location for aging. Is it a basement or a barn? It all depends upon where you live and what you have available. But have fun experimenting!

For more information on growing tobacco visit: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/aa260

Visit tobacco topping photo source here.

 
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Posted by on January 16, 2012 in Edible Plants, Fun Experiments, Gardening, Hobbies and Arts, Homesteading

 

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Raising the Bed

15 Jan

This raised planter is sturdy and easy to make.

My soil stinks. They don’t call them The Rocky Mountains for nothing. And along with the rock sits clay…lots and lots of clay. When I first moved to the Colorado front range this past summer, I had to sharpen my spade to a knife-like edge just to get through the stuff, and having relocated from the Midwest where the soil is every gardeners dream, it was a rude awakening. Eventually I succumbed to the advice of neighbors and real estate agents and did what I never thought I’d do: I built raised beds.

I wanted beds that measured 4-foot by 8-foot, and I wanted them to be sturdy and deep. While veggies and flowers have their roots in the top 6 to 8 inches of soil, I knew I wanted my beds to be 12 inches deep to happily support root crops like carrots and potatoes. And since crop rotation is a must for healthy plants, I needed all of the beds to be nice and deep.

After looking around at raised bed plans on the magical Interwebs, I came up with a plan for what I thought would be a sturdy, long-lasting, and relatively inexpensive (compared to other options) plan. I used cedar for aesthetic and longevity reasons, and the basic idea was to have four 4-by-4s anchoring a wall of 2-by-6s stacked two high. Here is the material list:

  • Four, 16-inch lengths of 4-by-4
  • Six,  8-foot-long, 2-by-6s
  • 32 3½-inch #14 wood/deck screws

Attach the short ends of the planter walls to the post anchors first.

I had a local home supplier cut the 4-by-4 into four equalish sections, and cut two of the 2-by-6s in half. The cuts weren’t as exact as I wanted, but it was easy and free compared to buying my own saw. Assembly was a breeze and only involved me using my handy electric drill to attach the boards to the 4-by-4s using wood screws (I used three screws for each attachment).

Assembling the short ends of the planter first allowed me to make things as straight as possible. After the two ends were assembled, I attached the long side boards. Throughout assembly I made sure the 4-by-4 anchors were flush with the tops of the 2-by-6s on what would ultimately be the top of the planter, after flipping it over.

Since I just moved to this house last summer, my backyard is virgin territory when it comes to developing a productive garden! I built two of these raised beds late last summer and will build two more in a few weeks. I love the style of them and I’m excited to fill them with a growing medium as soon as I can, and get planting when spring hits.

But before I do so, I’ll add a hoop-house style framework to hold plastic for cold-weather protection or netting for critter control. But I’ll show you that process in a later post!

 
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Posted by on January 15, 2012 in Garden Construction

 

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