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Today, I will be sowing my Beefsteak Tomato seeds.I start my tomato seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before the last frost date. Several weeks ago I started Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage, California Wonder Peppers and Parsley seeds. Those plants are now ready to transplant into 3"X3" pots. Pepper and Parsley seeds take longer to germinate than tomatoes or cabbage.Tomatoes and peppers are very frost sensitive but cabbage and parsley can take a light frost. All of these factors must be keep in mind when starting seeds. Read more →

Native Americans all across the USA planted these three crops for a very good reason. By combining them in there diet they had a base of complete nutrition. It is not just any kind of beans. corn and squash. You need to grow mature dry beans, corn as a grain and winter keeping squash. String beans, sweet corn and summer squash will not do. Neither beans or corn develop protein until fully mature and dry. Summer squash has almost no calories and not that much in the way of vitamins.... Read more →

If you are saving seeds to plant in next years garden you do! For example - All squash varieties are outbreeding which means they are insect pollinated. Squashes are divided into 6 different species and different varieties within the same species will cross readily. Crossing however does not occur between the different species. So what in the world does that all mean? O.K. say you plant Buttercup and Hubbard squash in your garden, you carefully save the seeds from each variety and plant them next year. Ouch what is that??... Read more →

I like both pumpkins and squash as Winter vegetables because they keep without canning, drying or freezing. Only a cool dry room is needed to store them. Use our Small Sugar Pumpkins first, they keep past Christmas. Waltham Butternut Squash keeps here into the early Spring. Combined you have dark orange colored vegetables for six months of the year. Squash and Pumpkins are not hard to grow in large hills. You should harvest at least eight to twelve fruit from each hill. Plant 5 seeds in each hill. Sow... Read more →

Once you have your place to garden or homestead, there are a number of kinds of food you can harvest from beds or plantings which are relatively permanent. For example, I have been cutting asparagus shoots for weeks now, and the rhubarb is ready as well. Dandelions grow wild in our lawn and fields, but if they did not we could establish a small bed just for them. You could do the same for Cow Slips if you have an area wet enough. I grow strawberries in a garden... Read more →

Dry Beans are the best source of protein you can easily grow in your garden. In order to cook dry mature beans, they are normally soaked over night, and boiled until they are as soft as you want to serve them. This could be one or two hours, depending on what variety of bean you are cooking, and how soft you like them. Seasoning with salt, sugar or anything which contains some acid, such as tomato or lemon interferes with the beans softening, and should be added after boiling is... Read more →

Be sure to stop by our "Videos" and watch "Harvesting Flint Indian Corn at Seed for Security". From the home page just click on the word 'Videos' in green lettering to see a list of all of them. Our corn is ripe for the harvest. I began collecting dry ears three days ago. Around October 7th is my usual harvest date but this year the crops are about one and a half weeks early. How do you know when the corn is ready? The stalks will be brown and... Read more →

Sometimes called the Cole crops, this family of cold hardy vegetables also includes Kale. They readily cross pollinate, so if you want to save seeds, you MUST choose only ONE variety of ONE of these crops in the entire family. The flowers do not form to pollinate until the second year of growth. You must Winter over at least a half dozen plants from the previous year. The second year is when you have to be concerned about cross pollination. For details about saving seeds, my favorite web site is... Read more →

Tomatoes do require starting indoors here in the North. That is not usually a project for beginning gardeners. They are very tricky because they are vulnerable to plant diseases, and need to have just the right amount of heat and water. Artificial light or a well heated greenhouse are needed too. When times are tough, providing these things will be much more difficult. If you master starting tomatoes indoors, you should have no trouble selling some plants if you like. In fact it would be an ideal Cottage Industry. It... Read more →

We live in a time of plenty. Foods are brought to our local stores from far and wide. When times get tough, what foods will we NEED to eat? Now we often look to our garden or a produce department to provide vitamin rich fresh foods. Colorful salads look great, but we need foods which provide the energy to keep us going. Our bodies need protein to maintain them. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies won't matter much if we have already STARVED to death! Grains, starchy vegetables and fruit all... Read more →