In my garden, I love growing heirloom beans. Besides the wide range of varieties and sizes and colors that the bean world provides, they can further be divided into categories based on when they are picked. This week, I started to harvest my dried beans. Green beans, or snap beans, are the type of bean most commonly grown in the garden. These are harvested at a young age, where the bean is just barely developed, and the shell is the main food item. Shelling beans are still young, but the bean has developed and is eaten fresh, with the shell discarded. Dried beans are beans that have completely developed and have dried out on the plant. When cooked, the shell is discarded and the seed becomes the type of beans that you use in chili, or burritos, or a billion other ways. These are the ... View Post
This Vanilla Pear Jam Will Change Your Life
I have a weird relationship with pears. Like figs, I can't stand them fresh- they have a weird texture but I love the flavor. So each year when the neighbor's and our back-40 ancient pear trees start raining down fruit, I turn to preserving to take advantage of the bountiful fruit. My favorite way, and a staple in my homestead pantry, is vanilla pear jam. This pear jam recipe was originally inspired from this Vanilla Pear jam recipe from Food in Jars. I've made several batches over the years, and have played around with the sugar quantity and used Pamona’s Pectin, and have arrived at what I consider the perfect jam. It can be eaten with fancy cheese, plain on toast or a scone, or with the humble peanut butter & jelly sandwich. Seriously, this jam is amazing. I have never had ... View Post
The Best Annual Plant that Attracts Butteflies
I grow many flowers in my garden to attract butterflies and bees. Right now I have sunflowers, cosmos, zinnias, bee balm, black-eyed susan, coreopsis, echinacea and bachelor buttons blooming. But by far, the very best annual plants that attracts butterflies in my garden are the Mexican Sunflowers, or Tithonia rotundifolia. Seriously, these plants are going INSANE with all the butterfly visitors. So far, I've spotted Monarchs, Skippers, Swallowtail, Gulf Fritillary, Mournful Duskywing, Painted Lady, Buckeye, and a handful of others I haven't yet been able to identify (like a tiny white, blue and brown one, that's about the size of nickel- anyone know?). Tithonia is in the Asteraceae family, and the large flower heads make great landing spots for the butterflies- a crucial ... View Post
Exploring the Many Methods of Food Preservation, to Keep up with the Harvest
I love the summer edible garden, particularly July. Everything is overgrown, everything is colorful, and I have a constant supply of fresh produce. The general chaos of things makes it difficult to weed, and the heat of the day makes it difficult for more intense projects like digging or building. So in summer, the main homestead project consists of keeping up with the harvest. My counters are filled with freshly picked produce, and my meals are rich with fresh ingredients. But I can't eat all of it fresh. To make sure that nothing goes to waste from my bounty, I utilize many different methods of food preservation. Really, the idea of preserving food when you're gardening in Sonoma County is ironic. We are lucky-there isn't a single month of the year when you can't have something ... View Post
Variety Review: Dragons Egg Cucumbers
One of the best parts about edible gardening is trying out new varieties of veggies that you'd never find at the store. Every year, when I'm planning my garden, I grow tried and true varieties, but I dedicate space for one or two new things. This year, in addition to my standard Boston Pickling, I'm trying out a new cucumber I wanted to share a review for: Dragons Egg cucumber. I got the seeds from Baker Creek, my go-to source for heirloom seeds. They describe the cucumber as: Beautiful cream-colored fruit are about the size and shape of a large egg! Mild, bitter-free and sweet tasting, this little cucumber set massive yields in our gardens. So fun to grow, and very unique looking; great for children and all who like delicious cucumbers. We were sent this new favorite by Reinhard Kraft, a ... View Post
Using Clear Plastic to Kill Weeds: a homestead experiment on solarization
When we bought our home three and half years ago, we had a decent looking front yard of a standard lawn. It didn't last long. We stopped watering it, let the weeds grow in in full force, and have used it as a driveway and a landing pad for almost a 100 yards of compost and wood chips to be delivered on. In winter and spring it would be green, and depending on how often we'd weed whack (not frequently) or providing we didn't have a tarp spread out or a giant pile of dirt, it could be passible as decent. But basically, most often, our front yard looks like shit. I can only assume our neighbors look at our house as blight of the neighborhood and wondering what the hell we are doing. But this weekend, I took the first step to my landscaping the front yard, and solarizing the area by using ... View Post
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