Traditionally, families preserved food during winters through gardening, animal husbandry, and various preservation methods. Today, these skills are declining, yet interest is reviving among younger generations. Prepping involves storing what you eat and rotating food supplies. Growing your own food can provide security, as emphasized in “The Survival Garden.”
Category Archives: Growing
There’s a Medicine Cabinet in My Backyard
The workshop introduced medicinal remedies found in the local area, emphasizing that they are not substitutes for professional medical care. Common herbs like broadleaf and narrowleaf plantain, elderberry, Rose of Sharon, and juniper have various health benefits. Participants shared their experiences, and the workshop will include a hands-on tea-making session next week.
Enjoy Fresh Green Beans this Week
A year’s worth of snap green beans from two 4×8 beds. Excess canned last year; now growing enough for fresh consumption and to share at the farmers’ market. Recipes for green beans and new potatoes, stir-fried garlic green beans, and rice cooking technique. Author of several vegetable gardening books available on Amazon.
Three Survival Garden Vegetables, This Week’s Garden Focus
The author highlights three essential vegetables for a lasting winter garden: garlic, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. The garlic has been dried for storage, and potato harvesting has yielded 50 pounds of Norland potatoes, with more growing. Additionally, the author is planting sweet potatoes and harvesting other produce, emphasizing the sustainability of their homegrown food.
My Garden Supermarket
The author shares a bountiful harvest from their garden, opting to use fresh produce instead of canning or freezing. They enjoy a variety of homegrown vegetables and plan to use or preserve them efficiently. The post also includes information about the author’s books on gardening. They highlight the benefits of fresh, homegrown vegetables and provide resources for starting a vegetable garden.
Seven Ways to Save on the Grocery Bill
Rising post-pandemic inflation has doubled grocery bills, prompting creative purchasing strategies: buy clearance items, track rotating sales and holiday specials, and purchase in-season fruits and vegetables. Save long-term with bulk staple purchases and grow your own food. Preserve your harvest and cook from scratch to avoid preservatives. Lastly, foraging and hunting complement the savings.
Beans, Planting, Canning, and Harvest
The author recently finished planting their summer garden, including pole beans next to the previous year’s tomato area. They explained the benefits of canning dried beans and detailed their canning process. The author shared plans for the garden’s future and offered helpful gardening books for those interested in starting their own vegetable garden.
We Couldn’t Pass These Up!
Even though blackberry plants were not on our radar this year, we found such a great deal on them that we couldn’t resist picking up five healthy plants to plant. At the farmers market last week, one of the Amish families was selling blackberry plants that they had dug up that morning. The blackberry plantsContinue reading “We Couldn’t Pass These Up!”
Planting the Main Garden
In the Ozarks, the arrival of blackberry winter marks the time to plant garden mainstays like tomatoes and peppers. Preparing transplants involves gradually exposing them to sunlight and ensuring ample water. After the last frost, the author plants various vegetables and herbs in prepared garden beds, managing the process despite uncooperative weather. If interested in vegetable gardening, the author offers helpful books on Amazon.
The Fruitful Corner Behind the Barn
Behind one of my sheds is a patch that I don’t have to plant, weed, or fertilize anymore. It can’t even be called a bed because it’s just a collection of plants that are growing as companions to one another. Every one of these perennial plants has a use. Some are for food, some for flavoring, and some for eating either fresh or cooked. In this small space, there is a plant that I can use for the next several months.
The Perpetual Homesteader 