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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 →

I did not even sell tomato seeds at first. It is not that I don't grow and really love to eat them. 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... 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 →

We've made some changes to the layout of the homepage as well as some improvements to the way the navigation bar works. The homepage now includes a more complete story of our business and our philosophy. The website has grown considerably these past couple of years, so we've sorted the articles and links into categories for easy navigation. As always, please contact us with any questions or comments here. Read more →

When I was a young girl, Spring was ushered in with freshly caught rainbow trout and dandelion salad. My dad and I got up early on the first day of fishing season and caught our limit. Mom would have some tender young dandelions already picked over so she could put them together in a salad. Oh what a wonderful lunch that was! I still love the taste of fresh young dandelions. Picked early in the season, they are tender and mild and delicious in a salad or steamed. The flowers... Read more →

The photo gallery has been updated to load faster. As always, feel free to contact us with any questions or comments at Contact Us Read more →

Carrots and parsnips are both excellent served as boiled vegetables and cooked in soups and stews. They are hearty sources of carbohydrates as well as vitamins and minerals. This is very important to anyone who is actually hungry. We live in a time when diet foods are constantly promoted for having few calories. That is good for couch potato TV watchers, and those whose life's 'work' is behind a desk. When we need to be more active, we will need to eat more calories. Carrots are easy to grow, but... Read more →

I love all the members of the onion family, and the tastes they bring to our table. Claims are made they improve our health, and help our bodies fight disease. So why aren't I selling them, you ask? Onion seed has one of the shortest lifespans of any garden seed. Germination rates fall by the second year, so it cannot be kept for long term storage, no matter what you do to preserve it. Bulbs or cloves cannot be stored reliably for more than one year either. Onions and garlic... Read more →