Ah, new life. There is something so exciting about planting seeds and watching them come to life! Every year after the holidays I get excited to plan what I will grow. Each year we add something new to the mix. One of my favorite places to buy seeds is Baker Creek. I buy almost all our seeds from them. I love looking through their catalog. I also save some seeds to use for the following year. If you are a little on the ”wild” side and don’t mind leaving plants in the garden after the season is over, you can end up with lots of wild plant babies in your garden without the work of planting. I purposely leave some plants to go to seed such as lettuce and mustard greens. I might leave a few chives and garlic too. I find wild plants all around because I leave them to spread on their own. Bonus food.
Why start your own seedlings you ask? Great question! You can purchase seedlings. That is just fine. BUT, there are many benefits to starting your own seedlings. Variety is a big reason for me. I like to grow things I can’t find at stores and markets or that are expensive to buy. More diversity in your diet and oh how I love all the colorful food! That leads me to another great reason. Cost. Seeds are very inexpensive. You can reuse many of the supplies for years. Another reason is you know exactly what went into your plant if you grow your own. The soil, fertilizers, etc. You control how many plants you have. There are places out there that sell nice seedlings but I encourage you to give seed starting a try. At the very least, check out the amazing varieties!
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This is the set up I have been using since 2017. I have a special grow light that covers everything I grow. I put down a tarp down to protect the floor and everything goes right there. I have used these little green houses for years. The same ones. I also use greens containers for some things. Growing can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. I use a grow light to keep the plants strong and not getting ”leggy” from having to reach for light. The image below shows what comes with it. When I first started I had it up high like this. It worked fine but since then, I have hung it closer to the plants. I wanted to give you another view of how it looks for set up.
I use 72 cell trays which can be found locally usually. I have been using the same ones since 2016. I prefer the type you fill with potting soil rather than the type that expand similar to the one below. Mine pictured are the Jiffy brand. I found them at my local Agway.
I usually use one of the two types of soil below for potting seeds. When I have something outside to pot, I use my compost. The potting mix can be found at Agway or Tractor Supply.
These are baby tomato seedlings.Pictured here are those tomato plants after growing a bit (bottom), peppers (top right), sweet potatoes (center top). I start sweet potatoes by slip. I will try to get another post out on starting slips. This is what happens when you start too many seedlings. You have to put in an entirely new area. I did this at the beginning of covid. I thought others might need food. So, I grew a million tomato plants?! You know, because you can live off tomatoes…it’s the thought that counts right? The year after this, I turned this space into a new raspberry bed easily since I had killed off the grass with the thick black plastic. We moved it, transplanted raspberries and sheet mulched in between the rows. If you have time, laying thick black plastic is a fantastic way to kill off grass and such to start a new planting area. It does take time but is much less work than taking up sod or tilling. This is what we used. It can be reused as well. Here are some bigger tomato babies that were planted in the garden with lettuce.These are some of my favorite black cherry tomatoes. I grow them every year. What happens when you plant seeds? You get food. Lots of food. I LOVE walking outside and harvesting fresh produce from my garden for meals and putting up. I will try to get another post up soon for what to do with all the food!
My child was up most of the night with a bad cough. I threw everything I could think of at it. Many different homeopathic remedies. Cell salts, tinctures, teas. I looked for cough drops locally online and couldn’t find anything within a half an hour drive that didn’t have something she couldn’t have in it. I decided to make some. I didn’t have much honey left but my husband just picked up our years supply of maple syrup. I don’t like to use honey in cooked recipes anyway. Seems like a waste to kill good raw honey. I will share with you my experiment. I am not a doctor. I am merely sharing my experience.
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I made an herbal tea. I added mullein, echinacea, chamomile, and gingerroot to a tea infuser. You could just add it to a jar and strain it. Bring a cup of water to a boil, shut it off and pour over herb mixture. Let steep until cool.
Well steeping, prepare molds or surface for the cough drops by sprinkling some slippery elm powder. I used a tea strainer as a sifter. It worked great.
Add 1 cup of tea to a sauce pan with 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 a cup of maple syrup. mix well and put on medium heat. Stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to 300 degrees. You will need a candy thermometer. It takes a while to get to that point but all of the sudden it moves quickly so don’t walk away!
Once it reaches temperature, remove from heat and stir it until the bubbling calms down. Pour into prepare molds. I needed a third mold which was not prepared ahead. If using these molds, prepare 3 ahead. You have to move quickly because the mixture with harden.
I used a tablespoon to pour from the pan. It worked well.
I sifted more slippery elm powderover them. These hardened so quickly that I was able to take them out of the molds shortly after pouring. Do be careful, they will be hot!
They popped out beautifully from the molds. Way easier than chocolate.
I popped them out directly into this cute chunky jar. They fit perfectly.
My daughter said they were good. She only tasted the maple syrup. It smelled heavenly as it bubbled away on the stove top. The combination I smelled most was of chamomile and maple syrup. Enjoy!
The cool weather of fall brings the beautiful scent of ripe grapes. As a child, I remember going to the farmer’s market with my mother and getting the delicious seasonal treat of Concord grapes. I loved them. They were definitely a favorite of mine. When we had the opportunity to grow them, we planted 36 vines of which were mostly Concords and Niagaras. We also planted a handful of seedless varieties for dehydrating. In addition to fresh eating, I wanted enough juice for the year. At the time, we were purchasing grape juice for kefir soda regularly.
Grapes are a quick turn around plant to invest in. I say start with your fruit when you ”land” as it takes the most time to produce…but, not all fruit takes a long time. Grapes are pretty quick. And when you taste your first grapes…they will be well worth the investment!
We bought our plants from Double A Vineyards. Before the plants arrived we prepared. I designed the layout. We removed sod. We marked and dug holes. The holes were not sufficient for the massive roots on the plants we received. We had to dig the holes much deeper. I was very pleased with the plants.
This is my version of a modified Munson system which is much like a clothes line. Wires were put into the horizontal piece at the top. The grapes hang down from the top wires for easy harvesting.
Grapes can take a few years to produce which is a short wait when compared to fruit trees. Some vines can produce for well over a human beings lifetime. This makes planting grapes a very good investment. Planting them is simple. We did nothing to the soil. We dug holes and planted at the recommended spacing and provided them with something to climb on. We do not fertilize them nor do we use any sort of pesticide or herbicide on them. We prune them in early spring and sometimes a little in the summer if the vines get in the way of other plantings. Some of our vines are in a bed that has been sheet mulched. Some are not. We simply weed whack around those only for our ease of picking. Grapes are VERY hardy in general. We don’t water them with the exception of the year we planted them. Because the roots are so deep, once established, they do not need watering here in the north eastern United States. Depending on where you live, they may.
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Once you have established grapes, you can eat them! And eat them….and eat them. You can also get yourself a steam juicer and make yourself some juice. Steam juicing is incredibly simple. We use a large harvest basket to gather the grapes. We fill it once, then pluck grapes. I do not like the taste of the juice as much when leaving the stems on. I have some nice stainless steel bowls with lids that I pluck the grapes into. That way I can pop them in the fridge if I don’t have enough for a juicer load. Once done with that basket load, I start juicing.
So, how does one steam juice you ask? My steam juicer has three chambers. One for water (bottom). One for collecting juice (middle). One for your fruit or vegetables (top). To start you put water in the bottom of your steam juicer. Put the juice capturing chamber above that. Pour plucked grapes into the top of your juicer. Cover with lid and turn on the burner. Before long, your home will smell amazing! The best part is this…the juice comes out piping hot. I prepare my jars as usual for canning. I run a small amount of juice through the tube, and dump it back in the top to sterilize the tube. After that, I fill my jars to about 1/4 inch from the top, wipe, place lid & screw top, put on cooling rack. Done. No water bath necessary. If you were canning something non acidic, other methods would be needed. I have been doing this for several years and have had no problems. I love the ease of it. I have a Cook N Home 11 quart steam juicer. Do be sure to check the water in the bottom chamber every now and then. If it runs out the juicer can get damaged and the taste of your juice can be affected.
I place a stool next to the cooktop and place a dark colored towel down to catch any drips of juice that go where I don’t want them to go. It happens and it stains particularly well with concords. I then get a prepared jar one at a time as I fill them. I prefer regular mouth quart size (32oz) canning jars for juice. The regular mouth is easier to pour than the wide mouth. I sometimes do a few half gallon jars for gatherings. I place them on a cooling rack upside down to drain after washing so no dust, etc gets inside. I prefer Ball canning jars. They are made in the USA.
Steam juicing is a simple way to put up juice to enjoy all year! I have also used my steam juicer for apples. Apples are nice to use because when you are done juicing, you can run the pulp through a mill and have sauce. Double duty. I hope you are inspired to juice some fruit! Enjoy!
I just love books. I thank my father for my love of books. I remember going to this used book warehouse when I was a kid. There were SO MANY books! I also remember him taking me to the library. I was in awe of all the books. I have carried on the love of books with my children and will share some of those which we have added to our home library and what we think of them. What makes a good book could very much be up for debate but this will be based on my opinion of course.
I love story time. There is something so special about snuggling up with the kids and reading a story. THAT is the good stuff. Moments like those will stay with our children. Maybe not every detail of every story time but the love and the coziness…that feeling will be remembered. So light some candles and grab some of these books to enjoy with your family. We like doing this during the cold months.
We recently stumbled upon these sweet books from the Smithsonian Institution called Smithsonian’s Backyard. If you are looking for books for young ones to introduce animal studies, these are really nice. They tell about an animal in its habitat but with a story line in a simple way and have nice illustrations that appeal to children.
We often preview books before purchasing. Usually from the public library. If we really like it, we buy it.
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