Harvesting the wild: acorns by Jackie Clay When I was just a little girl, I used to collect acorns by the boxfull as they fell in the fall. I didn't know why. They just felt nice in the hand and somehow a big bunch of them felt satisfying. And those bright, shining round acorns are very good for you, besides tasting great. Health benefits of acorns Acorns have been tested and found to be possibly the best food for effectively controlling blood sugar levels. They are rich in complex carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins while they are lower in fat than most other nuts. An additional benefit from eating acorns is in the gathering. But acorns taste bitter! One of the first things I learned as a little girl harvesting acorns was that they tasted awful. Generally, the best acorns to harvest are those of the white oaks, such as the swamp oak, Oregon white oak, and burr oak, as they contain less bitter tannin. From the mighty oak Acorns are one grain that literally grows on trees. We hunted, called, and scoured the woods for days.
The Experiment | unlocking the air Last summer I heard about potato boxes and decided to try using one this year. When growing potatoes in the traditional way, you plant a seed potato and as the plant grows you keep hilling dirt up around its base, because new potatoes all grow above the seed and below the top of the dirt; hilling maximizes the vertical space available for the potatoes to grow in. The idea of a potato box is to increase the vertical space even more, by planting in a box and then raising the level of the dirt and the box's sides simultaneously. There are a number of plans for such boxes online; there's a good example here. I decided that I wanted to build something that could be easily disassembled. Some people pile up old car tires and fill them with dirt, which is certainly minimal in effort required, if not aesthetically delightful. So ease of assembly/disassembly and the ability to access from the bottom without disturbing the upper growth is important. Here's what the basic structure looks like:
Plangarden Vegetable Garden Plan - Design Software Companion_Planting Companion Planting Guide Anise - Plant anise and coriander seeds together. They will both germinate more quickly. Keep soil moist and separate when seedlings have grown a little. Apple - If planted with chives there is less chance of apple scab disease. Asparagus - Becomes more vigorous if planted with parsley. Basil - Basil repels white fly and makes a good companion to tomatoes, in the garden & the kitchen. Beans - Less likely to suffer from beetles if petunias also planted alongside. Beans (Bush) - Plant with sunflowers, they like partial shade and the sunflowers attract birds and bees. Bee/Lemon Balm - Plant with tomatoes, it improves growth and flavour. Beetroot - Grow better if planted with onions, kohl rabi, basil, beans, lettuce, cabbage and tomatoes. Bergamot - Attracts beneficial honey bees. Borage - Plant with strawberries to increase crop. Broccoli - Planted with dill or mint grows better. Cabbage family - Cabbage butterfly is repelled by planting rosemary or sage with cabbages.
How to Grow a Pineapple Top Indoors Once roots appear, plant the pineapple in a fast draining potting soil such as a Bromeliad or Cactus Potting Soil mixed with a third perlite. An eight-inch porous clay pot with bottom drainage is ideal. Layer about two inches of stones in the bottom of the pot prior to putting in the soil/perlite mix. The picture to the left illustrates the materials needed (the two pottery shards in the front are to put over the drainage holes; these came from an extra clay saucer that I broke up). The first step is to cover the drainage hole with the pottery shard. layer of stones followed by the soil and perlite mix. In terms of watering, the soil should always be slightly moist; not wet (which will promote rot) and not dry. After about two months, the pineapple should be supporting itself as a new plant. At this point you should notice that the original leaves of the pineapple will begin to die and turn brown, with new leaves beginning to grow at the center.
How to Grow 100 Pounds of Potatoes in 4 Square Feet On many occasions, we've been tempted to grow our own potatoes. They're fairly low maintenance, can be grown in a pot or in the ground, last a fairly long time if stored properly, and can be very nutritious (high in potassium and vitamin C). Here's more incentive: according to this article, you can grow 100 pounds of potatoes in 4 sq. feet. Learn how after the jump... According to this article from the Seattle Times, potatoes planted inside a box with this method can grow up to 100 pounds of potatoes in just 4 square feet. Lumber Seed potatoes Soil Careful attention to watering The Times' guide for building a potato growing box yields up to a 100 lbs. of potatoes in a mere 4 square feet is shown below: Plant as early as April or as late as August 1, with an approximated 3 month till harvest turnaround time. Here are some pointers from the article: Cut apart larger seed potatoes, making sure there are at least two eyes in each piece you plant. Seattle Times via LifeHacker.
Malaspina College Bake Oven Assembly Sequence with Richard Dakin Architect: Phillip Van Horn Oven Design Consultant: Norbert Senf Plan Front Section Back to the Brick Oven Page When Man Makes Creative Use From Natures Resources When man (or woman) takes a natural resource and does something creative with it, this is what comes out: (Work by: Andy Goldsworthy, original source here with more pictures.)
17 Apart: Growing Celery Indoors: Never Buy Celery Again Remember when we tested and shared how to grow onions indefinitely last week? Well, at the same time, we've been testing out another little indoor gardening project first gleaned from Pinterest that we're excited to share the successes of today — regrowing celery from it's base. We've figured out how to literally re-grow organic celery from the base of the bunch we bought from the store a couple weeks ago. I swear, we must have been living under a rock all these years or just not be that resourceful when it comes to food, but we're having more fun learning all these new little tips and tricks as we dive deeper into trying to grow more of our own food. This project is almost as simple as the onion growing project — simply chop the celery stalks from the base of the celery you bought from the store and use as you normally would. In our case, we had a particular homemade bean dip that needed sampling! Update 2: Here's how we are looking at almost 3-4 weeks of growth: Discover More:
My Collection of Funny Emails. Send funny emails to your friends! Reynolds Wrap has lock in taps to hold the roll in place The color on the bread tab indicates how fresh the bread is And those colors are in alphabetical order: b, g, r, w, y. You can divide and store ground meat in a zip loc bag. If you place a wooden spoon over a pot of boiling water, it won't boil over. Marshmallows can cure a soar throat. Stuffing a dryer sheet in your back pocket will repel mosquitoes. You can freeze cupcake batter for later use. You can paint upholstery You can make your own laundry soap. . You can dye plastic buttons. You can run a paper bag through your printer. You can print directly onto fabric. A dry erase marker can be used on most desk tops. You can mail anything that will take a stamp and weighs less than 13ounces without a box? If you break your blender jar you can replace it with a mason jar. Cereal canisters make the perfect trashcan for your car. Medicine cabinets are NOT the safest place for medicine
Heather Bullard: Our Chicken Coop Well, here's the chicken coop we've been working on. Please take note this is a very long post. I tried to share as many photos (click to enlarge) as possible and will address all the details at the end. Hopefully I won't forget anything. And keep in mind if I say "we" at any time during this post I usually mean him...THE MAN. The only real part I had in building it was in the design process, the painting and Home Depot runs. The egg door swings down for easy access to the nesting boxes. The barn doors below the nesting boxes are for storing supplies and such. I completely love how the copper plated cupola turned out. The front barn doors open on the top and bottom. In the photo below left, you can see their roosting perches that were built at varying heights and the trio of arched entries to their nesting boxes. To let them into their pen a sliding door & pulley system was added with access from the outside of the coop. This is the only rooster allowed on the premises.
Traditional Scouting: Boy Scout Adventure Activities Boys B-P Scouts Scuba Diving Merit Badge Grow Your Own Cooking Oil There are two basic kinds of sunflowers, confectionery the kind you eat, and black oil. the kind you feed to birds. The black oil sunflower seed is the kind you need. These have twice the amount of oil as the confectionery. These seeds are easy found at almost anywhere. i bought this 40 pound bag. for $14.00. This is enough seeds to grow as many sunflowers as you need.