Grow light kits from garden specialty brands are way too expensive. With a few basic parts from the hardware store (and no tools or special skills), you can build your own grow light stand and grow up to 720 beautiful transplants for this spring’s garden.
A strong tree is not afraid to bend when the wind compels it. It is secure in the strength of its roots. I dedicated my February to building a stronger foundation upon which to grow.
After spending many hours (and frankly, several years) searching for native plant information, seed sources, and plant sources, I created this document filled with book recommendations, tools, links to seed and plant providers, and more. I hope this resource will make it easy for you to jumpstart your own projects!
Nut butter is a staple in my house. It makes a quick snack when spread on fruit, blended into smoothies, or spooned straight out of the jar. It lends richness to soups and stews and contributes to sweet and savory sandwiches. Although you can buy nut butter in almost any grocery store, the homemade version is more affordable, fresher, and tastier.
Indiana has a native wild strawberry, but it’s not the one you think it is.
If you think you’ve had a wild strawberry, but it didn’t taste like a strawberry, you may have been fooled by an invasive lookalike plant! The true native strawberry is wildly delicious. Read the full article for the whole story.
Dear friends, welcome to this glorious new year! We survived. We made it this far. There is some really good stuff on the horizon. Yes, there will also be challenges to face, limits to test, and burdens to bear; there always are. But the sun is going to shine. Plants are going to grow. Birds are going to sing! And this year, my resolution is joy.
Most of the usual garden veggies (such as tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce) can be sown directly into warm, moist potting mix in the spring, and they will germinate and begin growing within a couple of weeks. However, many of the wilder plants such as native plants and medicinal herbs require special pre-treatment before they will begin to germinate and grow. One such treatment is called cold stratification. Cold stratification is a fancy-sounding term which only means that the seed must experience winter before it will germinate (sprout).
Nut milks are delicious, nutritious, dairy-free beverages that have myriad uses. They can stand in for dairy milk in baking recipes, in smoothies and coffee drinks, on cereal, and as a standalone beverage. Nut milks are easy to make at home, and the fresh homemade version is so much more delicious than store bought! Try this easy, flavorful, nutritious recipe made from raw hazelnuts.
The American Hazelnut (Corylus americana), also known as American Filbert, is a small tree or shrub in the Birch family. Although our native hazelnut is a different species than most hazelnuts available commercially, it is widely reported that the nuts produced by our native tree taste very similar to the more widely available European species. Read the full article to learn more about this amazing native food plant!
I’m doing a lot of unusual things on this farm, but by far the most unusual and most controversial feat I have attempted is raising roosters. That is to say roosters, plural, indefinitely, for non-meat purposes. In this article, I share five lessons I have learned about rooster care from my quest for the truly cruelty-free egg. These tips come from my 5+ years of lived experience raising roosters for non-meat purposes. My roosters provide compost for my gardens, feathers for my art projects, education and humility for my own character development, as well as entertainment, music, and joy. Read the full article to learn more!
