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We saw one of the male praying mantises again today, and it has grown quite a bit ! We think it grew so fat on our Japanese beetles for they have disappeared completely out of our garden already. Well, have a look at the pictures if you like… I rotated two of them, and you know what, these insects look rather otherworldly if you rotate the picture.
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The canning season has begun, quite obviously… We started this year with hot peppers in oil, about 6 pints of them. We used green chili peppers, Hungarian Wax peppers, and a few Romance and Bell Peppers too. Here is the recipe:
 HOT PEPPERS IN OIL
Mix and boil together:
- 1/2 water and
- 1/2 vinegar
- 1/4 cup salt
As for the amount of water and vinegar, you need enough to cover the amount of peppers you have.
Cut peppers into rings, and it helps a lot to wear gloves when cutting up the hot varieties. Put the pepper rings in a large sauce pan or a Turkey roaster. When the mixture boils, it over the peppers, and let the peppers stand in the liquid for 24 hours.
The next day, drain well, but do not rinse. Put the peppers in canning jars, squeeze surplus liquid out, tamp peppers down and layer with garlic, oregano and basil. Then add oil to rim, and insert a wooden spoon handle between peppers and jar to release trapped air, moving the spoon around the jar. Add more oil if needed. We used olive oil fro one half of our jars and vegetable oil for the other.
The peppers will keep without processing. Enjoy 
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We are using this book a lot… Maybe you will find it useful too if you are new to the whole homesteading business or are just looking for something that sums up everything you need to know in times such as these…
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We just wanted to share a picture from our garden
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Via: iStockAnalyst .com
Water thoroughly and deeply
Watering can be the biggest task in August particularly if the weather gets hot. Vegetable gardens, most flowering plants and the lawn all need about 1 inch of water every week to keep them green and looking nice. Be sure to water thoroughly and deeply each time. When possible, do your watering in the morning or early afternoon so the soil has a chance to warm up before the cooler evening hours set in. Deep watering will induce the plant’s roots to grow deeper, where they are less likely to dry out. The added benefit is deep roots anchor the plant into the ground better. Light, surface watering actually wastes water, because the water never actually reaches the root zone of the plant, and the moisture rapidly evaporates from the top inch of soil. The best way to tell if your plants are receiving enough water is to take a trowel or shovel and dig down a few inches. The soil should be moist at least 3 or 4 inches deep to ensure that the water is reaching the root zone of the plants. Of course, if you planted drought-resistant plants in your garden, you won’t have to water as often, but the principal of deep watering still applies.
Gathering herbs
As your herbs mature, gather them for drying regularly. Harvesting once per week is ideal. Keep your basil deadheaded. For most herbs, a well-drained soil will give the most flavor and scent. Do you know the difference between a herb and a spice? A herb is from the foliage of a plant, while spices are from the seeds, bark or other parts of a plant; some plants supply both herbs and spices.
Fruit care
Strawberries should be thinned out before fall. Remove all but two or three runners from your main plants for abundant, large fruits. If you have diseases on your fruit trees, get rid of the affected fruit. Don’t let them sit under your tree as sources of infection for next year.
Finding late bloomers
Mid- to late-summer blooming trees can be hard to find if you move beyond crape myrtles. Some shrubby plants work well when pruned into small trees at providing height and later season interest. The old stand-by, PeeGee hydrangea with its large white snowballs makes a showy and distinctive small tree if trained upright when young. Butterfly bush can also be trained to a single trunk and grown as a tree. Look for vigorous-growing larger varieties such as Opera rather than the more compact Nanho forms.
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Via: JS Online
Mix them in with flowers to save space, add texture
When you think of a dramatically colorful garden, vegetables might not enter your mind.
Waves of flowering perennials and annuals create visual excitement in the landscape, but the thought of a tomato plant mixed in with the flowers just doesn’t work. While, indeed, a tomato plant may be a bit too rough around the edges for a flowerbed, many of today’s other vegetable and herb introductions look lovely enough to eat — literally. Their stems, flowers and fruit are equally as showy as any flower you could grow.
Vegetables have, in fact, been grown alongside flowers for centuries.
In sustenance gardens of immigrants and farmers in both the United States and Europe, flowers and vegetables mix and mingle together. Think of farmhouse gardens along country roads. There is often a row of gladiolus, zinnias or marigolds next to beans and corn. Even further back in history, cloistered monks grew flowers with medicinal properties in the same gardens as herbs and vegetables.
The concept is not new, but what is new is a crop of vegetables and herbs that transcend their lowly origins to become works of art.
Along with new vegetable introductions, there seems to be a change in the way Americans garden.
Read On
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After all the leaves had been pruned away from our infected zucchini, new leaves grew quickly, but the fruit that was already growing seemed to disappear… So we pruned away all the whithered and moldy fruit too, and continued spraying leaves and stems with baking soda / soap mix, and this morning we harvested the first nice proper zucchini. Looks like for us, the baking soda / soap mix saved the plants.
Here is the recipe again, for 1 gallon of water:
- 4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp soap (we used dish liquid)
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It might behoove us to learn how to cook without pots and skillets, not necessarily because we find doing the dishes a pesky chore, but because there might be no skillets and pots to cook with soon. Be prepared, people !
This article has originally been published in Countryside Magazine.
By Tom C. Tabor
Montana
Food always seems to taste better when it has been cooked in the outdoors and especially while camping. What can possibly be more tantalizing than the aroma of a good steak being charred to perfection over the campfire? Or, maybe your favorite might be an ear of corn that has been browned and roasted right there in the campfire and accompanied by a superbly baked golden brown potato with copious amounts of melted butter running down the sides. But in many cases these outdoor culinary delights come with a downside-black, greasy, sooty mess on your pots and pans. Nevertheless, you need not restrict your dining to scorched hot dogs and marshmallows drooping from an alder stick. There is a way to cook these great dishes without the mess.
In order to prepare a steak in an easy and succulent way without the need of a pan or grill a little preparatory work is called for. First, you will need a block of firewood that has a clean, flat surface. The best piece of wood has a flat area on one side, possibly 10″ to 12″ across. From the end of the block it should be close to a perfect 90 degrees, or to say it another way-looking from the end of the block it would appear like a 1/4 of a circle. It’s probably better to prepare this block at home, because two or three holes will need to be cut along the top edge of the block. The easiest way to accomplish this is with an electric drill before leaving home, but in a pinch the holes can be carved out with a sharp knife point. I simply make it a point to have a “cooking block” with my camping items at all times.
The holes must be large enough to firmly hold short lengths of limbs or sticks having a diameter around 1/2 inch. The branches should be a little larger than the holes in the block and about six inches long. Green branches are best as they are less likely to catch fire. Once cut they should be sharpened on both ends and stripped of bark.
A word of caution is probably called for here; you should use only the species of wood that you are thoroughly familiar with. If you should happen to be unfortunate enough to select, say cascara wood for example, as a source of your cooking block or sticks you could receive more than just a good meal. Cascara contains a natural cathartic and if used, you may spend much of your time in the bushes clutching tightly a roll of toilet paper, or maple leaves (whichever you prefer). Maple, willow or alder will work fine.
An interesting side note about cascara is that some people believe that black bears understand about the effect of ingesting cascara bark and when coming out of hibernation actually seek out a cascara tree in order to eat the bark. By doing so this provides an easy and effective way to “clean themselves out” after their long winter’s sleep.
If your wood is dry-it should be thoroughly wetted in order to discourage it from catching fire. You might even want to submerge the block in a nearby stream, as long as the stream is clean and unpolluted, or douse it thoroughly with water. Next, you should drive the stakes tightly into the holes, after which your meat can be impaled or pierced and allowed to hang. The block is then placed around the outside edge of the fire. The radiant heat emitting from the fire will cook your steak to perfection. For the most even cooking have your fire hot and arrange the cooking block as perpendicular as possible to the heat. You will need to watch it closely because grease will run off and sometimes attempt to catch fire. Once browned on one side the meat should be turned over. The bottom will probably cook quicker, so it is a good idea to rotate top to bottom as the meat is turned.
For side dishes, how do baked potatoes and roasted corn on the cob sound? A large potato wrapped in two layers of tin foil and placed in the coals will cook thoroughly in about 45 minutes, if your coals are good and hot. In order to accomplish this the campfire should be started well in advance of dinner time. You should have a roaring, hot fire going at least an hour before you plan to start cooking. This will produce the necessary coals needed for cooking. Once a good bed of coals exists the fire should be pulled apart and a hole dug under the fire. The potatoes can then be put into the hole and covered with the coals. The fire should then be rebuilt over the top.
Corn on the cob can be cooked in the same manner as the potatoes. In order to do this the ears should be carefully opened and the silk removed. The corn husk should remain attached. Once the silk has been removed the ears can be washed. Don’t worry about extra water on the corn-it will simply help to steam the corn in the cooking process. After washing, the husk should be pulled back into place.A pat of butter inside will help keep the corn moist while roasting and add greatly to the flavor. Now wrap the individual ears in two layers of tin foil and place it in the coals to cook. With a good hot bed of coals corn will generally roast in about 20 minutes. It is important to keep in mind that in both the case of the potatoes and the corn they should be covered thoroughly with ashes and coals in order to keep them from scorching.
Kids always love to cook hot dogs and marshmallows over the fire, but have you ever tried to cook an egg in a similar manner? This is great fun, especially for the kids. In order to cook an egg, first wash an egg, then use the point of a knife to carefully carve out a small hole on each end. Next, insert a small branch, twig or wiener stick through one hole and out the other. The egg can now be roasted much like you would a hot dog or marshmallow over the blaze. Cooking an egg by this method will usually take five to seven minutes and will taste similar to a boiled egg, but with a smoky favor.
The smoky flavor of campfire cooking is nothing short of a culinary triumph, but possibly even better than the succulent edibility of these dishes is the fact that there are no greasy pots and pans to deal with afterwards.
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Well, the baking soda/ soap mix has a drawback after all: It covers the plant leaves with seasoning for the deer who hitherto were uninterested in our vegetables and rather ate the young maple leaves.
Especially the cucumbers must have been a delicious addition to family deer’s diet for when we inspected our garden this morning, several of our cucumber plants were completely leafless, in others the foliage was a little less severely decimated.
So tonight we put up a deer fence of our own making: We hung a few sheets of plastic (an old shower curtain cut in two, to be precise) in front of the cucumber bed and in front of that we drew another line of string and fastened tin foil to it to further deter our nightly visitors.
Really, as nice as it is to live in a place where you can watch all kinds of wildlife from your living room window, you’d rather not want them in your yard, be it deer, raccoon, or even rabbits, especially when you need to rely on your garden or when you practice for ‘gardening when it counts’.
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After a pause yesterday I sprayed again today and am pleased with the result…
I know you should not count your chickens before they are hatched, but it looks as if the zucchini and all the other infected plants are doing really good now ! No new mildew, but plenty of new foliage growth, and the fruits are growing too, so… I dare say the baking soda / soap mix, and the pruning, worked. Stay tuned for more though, we will report how things are developing.
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Via: Countryside & Small Stock Journal
By Jerri Cook
Countryside Staff
I discovered that drying is a fast, economical and safe way to preserve food. It wasn’t long before dried fruits and vegetables found a place in the pantry. Tucked beside the jars of French-cut green beans and corn were one-gallon plastic bags full of corn, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, apples, strawberries, raspberries, leeks, summer squash, dried beef and fruit leathers galore.
Dried food takes up considerably less space than canned food. It wasn’t long before the number of Mason jars in my pantry waned, and the shelves begin to fill up with bags of dried food. I began seeing less of my pressure canner and leaving the screen door unlatched more often.
Read the whole article here
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Via: Countryside & Small Stock Journal
(…) If you’ve got a garden plot rolling already you’re in good stead. While we normally have a long growing season here in southwest Missouri, we are about a month behind schedule because of the massive flooding and late frosts—but we’ll still give it the old college try.
If you don’t have a garden, help out the folks who do this for a living (CSAs, produce farms, etc.) and buy some of their stuff on bulk sale. You’ll be happy with your bargain and they’ll be happy to sell their perishable stuff while it’s still fresh.
Over the past decade, Jimmie and I at Timberlakes Farm grew veggies to supply upscale restaurants plus our own household’s yearly needs. But, as many of you already know, when that flush of zucchini, other squash, peppers and tomatoes ripens, you’ll feel there’s enough fresh produce to serve the entire armed forces! Most growers, like us, prefer to sell it at a “fresh” bulk-discount price to someone who can take advantage of it and feed a family, than to let it spoil and get dumped onto a compost pile or go to waste.
In either instance, the biggest question that always raises its ugly head is: how much do I have to grow (or purchase) to supply my family’s food needs throughout the year? Since I’ve done this for so long (first to feed me and the two kids [as little tykes] and eventually just the two of us seniors—Jimmie and me), I’ll give you the best average to yield a year’s supply of stocked food for a household of four. (I am saying “average” because of the varying ages, appetites, and menu preferences that come into play.)
Full Article
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 Last night we dug up our early potatoes, the dark red Norland, and they turned out very well. we got roughly 10 lbs and will eat the small ones tonight with salted butter and poached eggs.
No idea how to make poached eggs ? Here is how (plan 2 eggs per person):
- Fill medium size skillet with water, 3 inches high. Skillet should have a lid
- Set heat on high, bring water to a boil
- Crack eggs individually in small containers (cups, for example)
- When water boils, add 1 tbsp of plain vinegar and some salt to the water
- Let the eggs slide into the water by lowering the lip of the egg-cup 1/2 inch below the water surface and then tilt to let the egg slide out, put lid back on quickly and shut off the heat
- Let sit for 3 minutes for medium-firm yolks
- Remove lid, take out poached eggs. If you don’t like the taste of vinegar on them, put them in a bowl of cold water first to stop the cooking process and wash off the vinegar
- Enjoy with buttered toast or, like we will, with wonderful new dark red Norland potatoes.
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After heavy pruning and spraying yesterday, our zucchini looked much better this morning. There seems to be plenty of new foliage growth already, and the few leaves that still had a little mildew on them don’t seem to have developed any more mildew on them this morning.
The acorn squash that looked really bad last night seems to have recovered a little too.This morning I sprayed them all again with the baking soda/ soap mixture as it seems to work well.
Stay tuned for how things are continuing here. Tonight we will burn the leaves I pruned away yesterday morning.
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We started fighting the powdery mildew not last night, but this morning since we read online that watering and/ or fertilizing plants in the evening could be one of the reasons why they get powdery mildew in the first place. Not only did we find affected leaves on zucchini and pumpkins, but also on the acorn squash and on our cucumbers. The luffa gourd that grows right next t the zucchini remained unaffected, which came as a surprise.
So this morning we first cut away all the infected leaves and then sprayed the baking soda/ soap mixture on the remaining leaves and the stems, and now we are waiting for the results.
We also read online that a mixture of 1 part of water and 9 parts of milk would work well against powdery mildew, but we decided to try the baking soda/ soap mix first.
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