You CAN Homestead

GROW TOMATOES IN BUCKETS FOR A LONGER SEASON AND HEALTHIER PLANTS  COMFREY; IT’S MAY BENEFICIAL USES AND HOW TO GROW IT YCH#32 Why in the world would one grow tomatoes in buckets one may ask.  Well, here’s the thing.  In my area we have had about 40 inches of rain this year and today is only […]

Dehyrdrating Food For Fun And Storage I’d like to start with a little history on dehydrating.  We may consider it new, but dehydrating has a long history  for storing food.  Every culture has dehydrated some type of food.  The earliest known practice is around 12000 BC. in the Middle East and Asia.  Dehydrating (drying) food […]

USEFUL APPS FOR HOMESTEADING, SLUG CONTROL,YCH #30   VTRee ID is an excellent tree identification app from Virginia Tech. You can use this app to identify trees – starting with region. There is even an Ask Dr. Dendro to send to a question about trees. I found some usefully APPS for identifying trees, wildflowers, Insects, and weeds […]

Today we talk about: Squashing Squash Bugs Gardening with Permaculture Composting Berkeley Style Sheet Mulching Forest Gardening Plants to Attract Beneficial Insects Cooking Eggplant with Indian and Filipino recipes.  

The difference between taro and elephant ear, an interesting link: http://www.mauijungalow.com/2012/03/taro-vs-elephant-ear-telling-them-apart.html Malanga Groundcovers

BENEFICIAL INSECTS FOR THE GARDEN What benefits can insects have?  The 3 P’s:  Pollination for more and bigger harvest, Products such as honey, wax, silk, and medicine.  Predation on pests. GROUND BEETLES:  These bugs hide under rock, stones, groundcovers, and logs and feed on cutworms, slugs, snails, Colorado potato beetle larvae, root maggots.  They can […]

10 reasons Everyone Should Grow Edible Perennials And 15 Great Perennials to Grow   After initial planting perennials are less work.   Once established perennials can survive neglect, whereas annuals with their shallow roots need much more care and attention.  This is great for “lazy” or “busy” gardener like me.  Perennials don’t need much watering (once […]

  After getting this adorable 8 week old Dwarf Nigerian goat, we had to learn fast.  He was supposed to be weaned.  However when my son went to pick him up he noticed him sucking the fingers of the man selling him.  When we got him home, he wouldn’t eat, but he would nuzzle for […]

LATIN FOR BOTANY One may ask, “Why bother to learn any Latin?” I would like to learn it to help identify plants. Latin names give information about plant histories, native habitats and how to grow them.  A plant may have many common names, but only one Latin name.  This is it’s true botanical name.  One […]

Today we talk about wood sorrel – identification, uses as an edible and medicinal uses. Kiwi, I started but will finish info on this plant on the next podcast. Perennials Shitake mushroom. How delicious it is, medicinal uses, and substrates to grow it on. Milk thistle and other thistles. Noxious weed or wonderful herb?  How […]

Here is a link to 2 great free videos on identifying wild mushrooms: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlKhBX-cmhs  The seond video is slow in the beginning but lots of great info! YOU CAN GROW MUSHROOMS!! Growing mushrooms is easy and fun.  Before we get started lets learn a little.  We talk about: History of mushrooms Classified in 3 groups: Mycorrhizal, […]

Today we talk about growing potatoes, different ways and varieites Growing and processing sweet potatoes – how to make them sweeter FBI moneypak virus Oca the wonderful little known tuber Ideas for land management – Ancient Inca style National Acadamies Press – free books and lots of them Nematode control naturally

I  have an update on growing blueberries.  Companion planting.  what plants grow well with blueberries.  Well, they have to be acid loving plants, and here is a list: Wintergreen a good ground cover. Landscape plants: rhododendron, comptonia, juniper, heath, blue hydrangea, holly (winterberry), petunia, pansy, azalea, viola, cranberry, bleeding heart, stokes aster, camellia, foxglove. I […]

An interview with Greg Harvey, we talk about maple syrup and how to do it.  What is happening on his homestead, pigs, goats, guinea fowl, pig tillers, an ice house, gardening with wood chips and hugel beds. I had so much fun yesterday.  I made my own chap stick and deodorant. The chap stick is absolutely […]

The acid heads of the garden, very powerful antioxidants and on the dirty dozen for pesticides in non organic foods.  But who can afford organic blueberries; not me!  I have a link to a wonderful little kindle book I got for free.  I hope you can get it too!  http://www.amazon.com/Blueberries-Your-Backyard-Antioxidant-ebook/dp/B0085YNZD2/ref=zg_bs_292975011_f_22 So, why would we want to grow blueberries?  […]