Dwarf Almond for Urban Spaces

This spring I purchased and planted a few new dwarf fruit and nut trees to replace some other trees and plants that just weren't producing. I finally decided to pull out some pear trees that always suffered from trellis rust and never produced any fruit, in spite of all the pruning and perseverating over.

In place of one of the pear trees, I planted a dwarf almond - something I've wanted to have for years, but just couldn't find something suitable for an urban space. Well, the Nikita's Pride almond tree, developed in the Ukraine, does great in both small spaces as well as in cold environments. It will grow about 10 - 12 feet tall (although I'll keep it smaller) and is hardy to -20 degrees F. They bloom at the same time as peach trees, which helps avoid damage by last frosts.

These dwarf almonds are partially self-fertile. Another reason I bought this tree was in the hopes of making more of my own almond milk, which I started making earlier this year. Buying bulk organic almonds can be pretty cost prohibitive for making milk.

The Nikita's Pride is prized for their profuse, pinkish-white, fragrant flowers. I haven't had it long enough to flower and produce anything yet, but it's grown quite a huge amount just over the summer. When I planted it, it was about 2 feet tall. It's about 6 feet tall now. Hopefully we'll see some flowers on it next year. I have to say, I'm pretty excited about this tree.

Do you have any nut trees growing on your property?

Gluten-free Zucchini Muffins

My zucchini plants produced an obscene amount of zucchini this year. Fortunately, my youngest child has been on a zucchini muffin bender the whole time, so figuring out what to do with it (besides grilling it with olive oil and salt) hasn't been an issue.

And, when the muffins weren't being consumed or made fast enough, I was shredding the zucchini into 12 ounce servings and freezing it for use after the garden stopped producing. I didn't do any other preparation besides shredding and freezing so I wasn't sure if it would work as well as using it fresh.

Well, lucky for us, we have about seven 12-oz bags of frozen zucchini to alternate with gluten-free pumpkin muffins (another favorite). And, so far, using the frozen, shredded zucchini has turned out the same as using it fresh.

This recipe, adapted from King Arthur Flour, results in a muffin that you can't tell is even gluten-free. Why gluten-free you ask? Well, my kiddo has IBS and has less of a problem with non-wheat foods. And the fiber from the zucchini helps as well. This recipe calls for the King Arthur Gluten-Free Multipurpose Flour, but we prefer to use the America's Test Kitchen blend.

Also, if you are looking for uncoated, Teflon-free muffin pans, I highly recommend the Chicago Metallic Commercial II Uncoated 12-cup Muffin Pan. If you have questions about this type of steel, Kitchen Boy does a great job of explaining it. We have two of these muffin pans and use them frequently.

Ingredients

• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups King Arthur Gluten-Free Multipurpose Flour 
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 cups shredded, unpeeled zucchini (about 1 small/medium zucchini)
• 
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F; lightly grease a 12 cup muffin pan (or use compostable, unbleached muffin liners).
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, honey, oil, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
3. Add the flour, salt, xanthan gum, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon, mixing until well combined.
4. Stir in the zucchini and let the batter rest for 15 minutes, then stir to redistribute.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared muffin pan.
6. Bake the muffins for 30 minutes, rotating halfway, until the muffins test done (a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the center will come out clean).
7. Remove the muffins from the oven, and let them cool for 10 to 15 minutes before turning them out of the pan onto a rack.

*Warning - this post contains a link to an affiliate program that might make me money, wherein I use said $ for giveaways and suchlike.

Collard Greens Gratin. With Bacon. And Cornbread.

Collard greens gratin

We're getting to that time of year where the collard greens I over-planted decide they want to produce more than we can possibly and reasonably eat (apparently four plants is too much for two people and the kids aren't interested). So, what is one to do? Turn those giant leaves into a meal, that's what.

I occasionally pick up this magazine called Southern Cast Iron (where I got this recipe from) which, I hate to admit, I really love. It pairs cast iron with a lot of garden-centric meals that tend to be not so much on the lighter end of the spectrum. But, then again, pork fat is good for you, right?!

Anyway, this recipe is a great combination of lots of collard greens, onions, garlic, milk, cheese and a little bacon. Oh, and some cornbread. Which really seals the deal for me. You cook it on the stove top in a cast iron skillet, but it gets baked in the oven for a really amazing, golden, crunchy finish. It's a nice alternative to the standard sauteed greens and it's a meal in itself.

If you're looking for an inexpensive cast iron skillet, we love our 12 inch Lodge pre-seasoned skillet that we use not only for making things like this, but for making cornbread as well.

Ingredients

1. 11⁄2 pounds chopped collard greens, stems removed
2. 6 slices thick-cut bacon, cut into 2-inch pieces
3. 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
4. 3 cloves garlic, minced
5. 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6. 2 cups whole milk
7. 1 cup shredded sharp white Cheddar cheese, divided
8. 1 teaspoon kosher salt
9. 1⁄2 teaspoon ground mustard
10. 1⁄8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
11. 1⁄2 cup crumbled cornbread

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Add collard greens; cook for 4 minutes. Immediately drain, and rinse with cold water. Drain again; squeeze dry.
3. In a 10-inch cast-iron skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon; let drain on paper towels, reserving drippings in skillet.
4. Add onion and garlic to skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Stir in flour; cook for 1 minute. Gradually stir in milk; cook, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 5 minutes. Add 3⁄4 cup cheese, salt, mustard, and red pepper. Add collard greens, stirring until combined. Top with bacon, cornbread, and remaining 1⁄4 cup cheese.
5. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

What's your favorite way to cook greens?

*Warning - this post contains a link to an affiliate program that might make me money, wherein I use said $ for giveaways and suchlike.

Post-Windstorm Harvest and Prepping for the Storm

Well, the windstorm predicted for the Pacific Northwest didn't turn out to be nearly as bad as originally forecast for our area, thank goodness. At the very least, it was a good reminder on how to be prepared for a long-term power outage.

Our big problem is that everything in our house runs on electricity. So, if the power goes out, we are relegated to cooking outside and we don't exactly have a great heating source (except the fireplace). We generally don't have much wood on-hand because we don't use the fireplace very often and I honestly can't remember the last time we lost power. It's been at least 20 years.

Fortunately, it's not very cold this time of year and we're sort of used to Freezing our Buns Off. Additionally, we have a lot of down blankets and other warm and woolies to tide us over. I can always strap Paco to the inside of my wool sweater. He might not like it for very long, but at least I'll be warm.

I was mostly concerned of losing electricity because we have 50+ pounds of salmon in our chest freezer that my brother brought back from a recent fishing trip up in Alaska. We were trying to figure out how to keep that packed with ice. Again, since we don't generally lose power, even in the bad windstorms around here, I can't say a whole lot of planning went in to trying to curb that concern. Plus, salmon party!

Anyway, on to the trees... I was afraid some of my fruit trees weren't going to make it, but fortunately, they all survived unharmed. (I have a few new ones I'll post about shortly.)

I surveyed the backyard this morning and everything was in order. I also managed to harvest a few things:

• some of the last of the blackberries
• a few raspberries
• the last of the green beans
• a big bowl of green tomatoes
• carrots

I'm hoping the tomatoes will ripen inside but, if not, I'll figure out something else to do with them.

The Swiss chard, spinach, green onions, collard greens and beets are still trucking along, but not enough of them to harvest at this point in time. The garlic and fava beans are starting to come up, which is always very exciting!

How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

Raspberry Plants for Small Spaces

Some of our fall raspberries earlier this week, right before I stuffed them all in my mouth...

This year our thornless Raspberry Shortcake plants produced like crazy. They are producing a small fall crop as well. I was really tempted to plant a third plant earlier this year, but the two I have now were producing so much I didn't want to overdo it!

If you have a small yard, these are great raspberries plants to give a try. Not only are they not poky, but they are self-fertile, only grow 2 - 3 feet tall and are hardy down to USDA zone 5. They will work well in containers on a patio or even on an apartment deck. Just make sure they get enough water.

I know this sounds like a freaking sales spiel, but of all the random trees, plants, vines, etc. that I've attempted to grow (and cursed, killed or ripped out) over the years, this is one of the few ones I've been really pleased with.

Do you grow any berries in your garden? What's your favorite? Blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, huckleberries, snozzberries...?

*Warning - this post contains a link to an affiliate program that might make me money, wherein I use said $ for giveaways and suchlike.

Fall Garden Roundup 2016

Our fall garden is plugging along quite nicely. If anything, I'm getting a little tired of growing food and am itching for the garden to go to bed for the year. I'm looking forward to a winter's rest and where I can ignore the weeding and maintenance for a while.

But, I still have a lot of vegetables coming our way. We're still getting a lot of green beans, lettuce, green onions, collards and the occasional tomato and cucumber. I've got a handful of raspberries and a lot of blackberries still on the plants.

I've just finished my last plantings of the year - I put in the garlic and fava beans last week. I am, however, debating throwing some shallots in as well but that will depend on whether I get around to it.

Here's everything that's currently growing/producing:

• Blackberries
• Raspberries
• Tomatoes
• Cucumbers
• Basil
• Swiss chard
• Pac choi
• Green onions
• Carrots
• Radishes
• Rattlesnake pole beans
• French green beans
• Collards
• Parsley
• Russian kale
• Broccoli
• Romaine
• Red lettuce
• Beets
• Chives
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Fava beans
• Garlic

I planted a few new fun fruit trees this year, but that will have to wait for another post!

Are you done gardening for the year or do you still have fruits and vegetables growing in your garden?

Defending Your Chickens Against the HOA

The following is a guest post from Shannon Boling. Shannon was raised in the country and now lives in the city. An aspiring urban homesteader, she spends her time planning events for teachers across California when she's not gardening, canning, crafting, cooking or chasing her chickens, dog and cats.

Shannon writes at the blog, Where is Shannon? Make sure you check it out! And, thanks to Shannon for this contribution!

Defending Your Flock Against the HOA (aka your neighbor doesn’t like your chickens)

Recently, I had the unfortunate experience of having to defend my dear chickens at my neighborhood Homeowners Association (HOA) Board meeting. After numerous complaints from a single neighbor, my husband and I had to attend a hearing in which the fate of our chickens was in the hands of 3 unknown Board Members. Though I won’t go into about the actual specifics about my case, I did realize I had a new wealth of information to share with other folks who may be up against a similar threat. Here are a few tips to help you navigate through the murky waters of HOA rules.

Tip # 1: Do your research

This may sound pretty obvious, but knowing the rules is the most important part of building a case for your chickens. Read your CCRs carefully. Don’t just pay attention to the rules about animals, think beyond the box. Have some knowledge in your back pocket.

•   What are the proper channels one should take when filing a complaint against a neighbor? In our case, the HOA encourages neighbors to resolve issues on their own. Our neighbor never contacted us with her concerns about the noise our chickens made. Knowing that the HOA encourages neighbors to deal with issues on their own shows that she a) doesn’t know the rules, and b)if she knew them, she didn’t act upon them.

• Find out what the proper dispute resolution sequence is (for my HOA, it was having a hearing, then mediation, then arbitration). It’s good to know what steps you’ll need to take in case they deny your case.
• Are there height/dimension limits to any coops built in your yard? Do they need to be a certain distance from your neighbors’ houses? This is important to know. For example, if our coop was another 2 feet taller, we would have had to get approval from the HOA to build it.
•  How much authority does the Board really have? In our case, the Board had the final say on issues – meaning one cannot get a measure put on a ballot for the neighborhood to vote on. Some HOA’s allow members to gather enough signatures to get something on the ballot (how democratic!) This is worth looking into just in case the Board decides against you – you could still get a petition going and leave the vote to the masses. 
• Get your city and/or county’s municipal code, and be sure to include it with your materials. Many CCR’s defer to the municipal code (be sure you don’t have more chickens than you are allowed!) Thankfully for us, our city doesn’t have a restriction on the number of hens you can keep for non-commercial purposes. 
• If your HOA is run by a management company, get to know the person that works with your Board. If they are friendly, use their knowledge of the CCRs to help build your case. This proved to be a great resource for me - I was told there was a 1987 CCR that prohibited poultry in our neighborhood (which changed in 2007). I never would have known that if I hadn’t *gently* prodded my contact. 

Tip #2: Get the support of your neighbors

I can’t stress this one enough. Thankfully in our neighborhood, everyone loves our chickens. It was really easy to pass a document around for their signature, stating that they did not believe our chickens were loud or a nuisance to the neighborhood. If you do get people to sign a document, be sure to include specific language related to the CCR’s. I used “loud” and “nuisance” because there is a rule against loud animals that are a nuisance. This allowed the Board to compare the CCRs with the support signatures apples for apples. Once you get those signatures, create a graphic that shows your house in relation to all that signed your petition. This is a great way of visually showing those who support you in your neighborhood. Finally, if you’ve got great neighbors like mine, you’ll have them come as your posse to the Board meeting. I had 5 adult neighbors (and 1 child) attend the meeting and speak in support of our chickens. Hearing this from others really showed the good impact our flock was making in the neighborhood. (Note: a carton of eggs is a great way to show your thanks)

Tip #3: What have other Associations done?

Google “HOA and Chickens” or any combination of “chickens”, “HOA”, and “CCRs”. You’ll be amazed at what you find. Backyard Chickens has a few great forums with information from other chicken owners and their experiences with HOAs. I found a few promising articles and presented this information to the Board. I think it’s important to highlight that people all over the country have chickens, and there are many different ways of accommodating them in a HOA (whether that means restricting the number of chickens, or how the decision to allow chickens is made).

Tip #4: Are you willing to compromise?

On a personal note, this was the hardest part for me to come to terms with. If the Board votes no more chickens – are you ready to go to the next level (i.e. court) to keep them? Are you willing to give up a few hens to keep the neighbor(s) happy? After taking everything into consideration, I decided to pair my flock down from 6 to 3. Sure, I miss the extra eggs and the sound of a happy coop. But, because I showed the Board that I was willing to compromise, they agreed to let me keep my remaining girls. In the end – totally worth it.

Go to the meeting with confidence and your head held high – after all, you are a steward of this uncharted urban chicken-raising territory!

Hoop Houses and Urban Winter Garden Tour

I was just going to go outside yesterday and take some pictures of the many different vegetables we currently have growing in our hoop houses (as described on The Crunchy Chicken Facebook page), but I decided that I might as well make a video about it.

So, for your viewing pleasure, here's a short video of what's growing in our backyard in late January, 2012. I apologize for the weird camera smudginess at the beginning. I think our camera got some salt water spray on it from our recent trip to San Diego.



To watch the video on YouTube (if you are experiencing technical difficulties), you can see it here.

What do you have growing in your winter garden?

Top 10 Urban Farming books

I wanted to create a list of essential Urban Farming books for those who are just starting out as well as for the more experienced urban farmer. I selected books that don't concentrate on just one topic (like city chickens or vegetable gardening in small spaces), but on a wide variety of topics that range from growing food to raising animals and beyond.

For those of you who live in the city (or the suburbs), I hope this helps!

1. The Urban Farm Handbook, by Annette Cottrell and Joshua McNichols: Here's my review post, this is still one of my favorites.

2. The Essential Urban Farmer, by Novella Carpenter: This one is on my to-read list. I read Novella's previous book, Farm City, and loved it.

3. Urban Homesteading, by Rachel Kaplan: I'll be doing a review/giveaway of this one soon.

4. Your Farm in the City, by Lisa Taylor: This book is put out by my local Seattle Tilth and I can't believe I haven't read it yet! Time to hit the library.

5. The Urban Homestead, by Kelly Coyne and Eric Knutzen: This book covers more than you can possibly imagine and will inspire you to try new things.

6. Urban Farming, by Thomas Fox: From the makers of Urban Farming magazine (Hobby Farms).

7. Urban Agriculture, by David Tracey: I'll be doing a review/giveaway of this one as well in the upcoming weeks.

8. Mini Farming, by Brett Markham: This one is geared towards those who have 1/4 acre to work with.

9. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Urban Homesteading, by Sundari Elizabeth Kraft: This book covers the basics as well as everything from composting to clean energy.

10. The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan: Here's a short review post - this one is geared more towards a larger amount of land than most people have in their urban/suburban backyards, but it's valuable nonetheless.

Consider yourselves warned: There be Amazon affiliate links in this post.

The Urban Farm Handbook review

Do you live in the city or an otherwise urban area, yet yearn for life in the country? Well, quit dreaming and start living! The Urban Farm Handbook is a necessity to prove that you can be (mostly) self-sufficient and not have to move out to the sticks to achieve your goals.

It also will appeal to those of us (my family included) who want the ideals of country living, but still have the benefits of city living - energy efficiency, improved transportation, access to the arts, excellent dining, etc.

The Urban Farm Handbook, by Annette Cottrell (of sustainableeats.com) and Joshua McNichols (who, apparently, lives nearby me), will want to make you grind your own grain, raise mealworms in your house to feed your flock of backyard chickens, make your own chevre from your dairy goats (where legal, of course), dispatch your own bunnies and beyond.

I get a lot of books to review, but I cannot say enough good things about this book. You'll just have to trust me on this one. If you are interested in the local food movement, even if you do live out in the sticks (you lucky bastards), you will really enjoy this book.

Normally, I'd do a giveaway of the books I've read, but this one's a keeper. Sorry, you're going to have to buy it yourself :)

A Bushel of Harvest Posts

Rather than reposting harvest related blog posts from years' past, I thought it would be fun to put together a list of posts that would be appropriate for the fall harvest time of the year. Here are my top 8 favorites:

1. Processing sugar pie pumpkins - How to roast, process and freeze all those lovely pumpkins that you either grew or are buying from the farmers market, farm stand or grocery store.

2. Corn preservation methods compared: I compare different corn preservation methods and let you know how they all turn out.

3. What to do with all those apples: From canning, drying, freezing to making drinks, they're covered in this post.

4. How to ripen green tomatoes: From storing them wrapped in newspaper in a box to putting them in a paper bag, what's your favorite method of ripening green tomatoes?

5. Saucy apples: My favorite apple sauce recipe.

6. Hard apple cider: A link to how to make hard apple cider.

7. Preserving food for the winter: This post has my favorite method for drying apples.

8. Grilled pumpkin with rosemary and sea salt: This recipe is up over on my mostly neglected food blog (and at Mother Earth News). It's one of my favorite things to do with pumpkin.

What's your favorite fall harvest recipe or activity? Feel free to post links to your blogs! If you use the linky tool below, make sure you link to an actual blog URL post. This post part of this week's Homestead Barn Hop.

Hoop Houses for Fall

I was planning on doing the last book club post for today but I'm sick and I spent a couple hours in the ER yesterday with my mom, so I just don't have the energy. Soon, though. I promise.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you a picture of the hoop houses that I have set up for fall. The following picture is looking through two raised beds with floating row covers. They are set up over the top of irrigation tubing that's secured by short pieces of rebar. I've got 3 more raised beds that are planted with fall veggies (one with a hoop house over it).

In the bed in front, I've got:

* Italian Flat Leaf Parsley
* Swiss Chard
* Beets
* Carrots
* Winter Romaine Lettuce
* Brussels Sprouts

In the bed in back, I've got:

* Winter Romaine Lettuce
* Red Bunching Onions
* Mixed Lettuce n Greens

Against the fence in the far back are some of my grape vines. Here's a picture of the grapes growing. This is the first year they've produced. I don't think they'll ripen to the red color they should be.

The other beds hold variations of Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, chard, red bunching onions and carrots. I've had an infestation of cabbage worms and ended up pulling some things. You can see some of the damage in the first picture, but it's really the other beds that have the most damage.

I just planted next year's garlic and fava beans. Our strawberries and blackberries are still (slowly) producing as well as other herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, chives).

So, even though I feel like the main growing season is over, we still have a bunch to look forward to. That and the steady supply of eggs.

Do you have any fall vegetables still growing strong?

This post is part of this week's Homestead Barn Hop

Pumpkin Fail 2011

This spring, I had 30 gorgeous Rouge Vif d'Etamps pumpkin plants that I grew from seed last February. I grew them under our new grow light operation, made sure they got watered and didn't get leggy or funky. They grew into beautiful pumpkin starts. And then I proceeded to screw things up from there.

I was hoping to create a new pumpkin patch in one of our beds in the backyard. I dutifully moved the starts outside to harden them off and then my back went out on me while I was digging up and preparing other parts of the backyard for planting.

Since I was incapacitated, I couldn't prepare the future pumpkin patch area. So, I waited. In the meantime, the pumpkin plants got slightly ignored and maybe not watered as often. May turned into June turned into July and, just as I almost gave up on them, I decided to plant them in some newly made space in our regular vegetable beds.

It took a while for them to recover. But, they did and eventually they started blooming and we got a lot of flowers and a lot of little pumpkins growing. Unfortunately, it was too late in the season for them. So, instead of getting this:

We got this:

They are like large grapefruit. Sigh. At least I can buy some "real" ones at our local nursery for processing. They make fantastic pumpkin puree for all sorts of cooking and baking.

Short of hiring someone to help me out, I don't think I could have done anything differently. But, to be sure, I won't be making that mistake again if I can help it.

Did you grow pumpkins this year? What kind and how did they fare?

This post is part of this week's Homestead Barn Hop and An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party!

Post Harvest Blues

The tomato plants have been pulled. The last of the zucchinis are safely stowed in the freezer. And, the rest of summer's bounty is but a memory. Sure, the ground is being prepared for garlic and fava beans and the hoop houses are still working their magic on the chard, lettuce and carrots but, for the most part, the main season is over.

For those of you who use gardening as therapy, working the soil, tending your plants and enjoying the sunshine when times get tough, post harvest blues can set in.

I, personally, switch gears to baking, sewing, knitting and other projects that make me feel like I'm still producing something. But that doesn't mean I still don't gaze longingly to the backyard, plotting next year's crops and looking forward to another year of fresh fruits and vegetables from just outside.

So, what do you do between the last of the crops and when the seed catalogs start arriving in January, reigniting dreams of another year of voluptuousness in the garden? Do you immediately start planning or put everything aside?

Top 11 Urban Homesteading Tools

Mother Earth News has an old article up in their newsletter about their Top 20 Homesteading Tools. I read through it, thinking that the vast majority of the suggestions just didn't apply to those of us who are urban homesteaders.

So, I thought I'd come up with a list of my own. Here are my Top 11 Urban Homesteading Tools:

1. Garden Cart: I worked for years without one, dragging, hoisting and generally straining my back hauling yard waste and bags of compost back and forth. This year I finally got a wheeled garden cart and I wish I had gotten it years earlier.

2. Heavy Duty Hoe: I reviewed the grub hoe I got last year and, even though it's tiring work, it slices through sod like butter, making quick work of basic backyard digging duties.

3. Shovel and Rake: This is just plain obvious stuff here. I have a flat ended shovel I use for, mostly, moving dirt around. The rake I use fairly infrequently, so I consider it optional.

4. Cordless Drill: I actually hate cordless tools, mostly because they seem to poop out at the least opportune time. But, they are invaluable when building new raised beds and doing any kind of minor construction work around the urban farm. I'm not handy enough to build my own coop or anything so you won't be seeing too much in the way of circular saws or anything in this list, but this is about as fancy as I get.

5. Hand Shovel and Garden Shears: Since most of my "crops" are grown in raised beds, I don't need a ton of different tools. Mostly a hand shovel and my garden shears for trimming plants. If I need anything heavy duty, I'll grab my big shears for trimming fruit tree branches.

6. Water and Pressure Canner: I, honestly, have to admit that I never use my pressure canner. I'm too lazy. But the water canner gets a ton of use.

7. Chest Freezer: Because I'm too busy to spend weekends standing over a canner, we tend to freeze a lot of the produce we buy in season. Then, when I have time, I can do whatever canning or cooking I want. It also allows us to buy in bulk when we ordinarily wouldn't do so.

8. Good Knives: Processing a lot of food, especially fruits and vegetables, is a pain in the ass under normal circumstances. Doing so with crappy knives makes it even worse. Even if you can only afford one decent all-purpose knife, it's worth it. My husband got a Shun knife last year for his birthday and it's pretty much the only one I use.

9. Compost Bin: I got this great spinning composting bin thing this year and love it. It turns my chicken poop and chicken bedding into gold!

10. Reference Books: These are the best tools of all. Books like The Backyard Homestead, The Self-Sufficient Life, Fresh Food from Small Spaces and, of course, The Urban Homestead, are great resources as well as sources of inspiration.

11. Rain Barrel: Although we don't depend on this most of the year, given the amount of rain we get in Seattle, having a rain barrel to help water your food plants can be incredibly helpful in reducing your water expenses. Just make sure you aren't using runoff from composite roofs on your food plants.

What are your favorite homesteading tools?

September Strawberries

Our day neutral strawberries weren't producing anything in June. Or July. Or really even August. But now that summer has finally started in Seattle (as of the first week of September) our strawberry plants are going crazy. I've been picking almost a cup of berries a day and there are still a ton of green ones on the plants. If this warm weather holds out, we'll be looking at more strawberries (and blackberries, for that matter) for weeks to come!

Top 5 Biggest Food Gardening Mistakes

As the main gardening season starts wrapping up, I thought I'd look back on some of the things that didn't work out for me. Or, rather, due to my own negligence, I ended up with subpar, dead, or unfruitful crops.

1. Not watering enough - Sometimes I get a bug in my britches and plant a ton of vegetable starts, water them well and then accidentally forget about them. They generally still survive when I remember to water them again (no, I don't have no fancy irrigatin' system) but they have a rough start and don't do as well as they should.

2. Not thinning - I really can't bring myself to thin out the plants as they mature, which just ends up stunting all of the plants.

3. Forgetting to fertilize - I started out the season all gung ho, making sure I was adding in my stinky fish fertilizer and then, well, I completely forgot to continue somewhere around the end of June. Oops.

4. Letting things bolt - Instead of staying on top of plants and actually eating them, I waited too long, thinking they would last. Instead, the next time I looked at them (broccoli, I'm talking to you, fuckers) they flowered, went to seed or otherwise stretched into the stratosphere in an inedible hard stalk that even the chickens ignored.

5. Not getting things in the ground at the right time - I diligently had my vegetable starts growing in the basement, doing extremely well. But, then I dropped the ball when it came time to get them in the ground. I had grandiose plans for new space, but then didn't have time (or back strength) to prepare the ground for planting. As a result, my tomato plants and all 29 of my precious pumpkin plants were the losers.

Each year, I do similar if not slightly different stupid things but eventually I'll learn. I hope.

What are your biggest gardening mistakes? Do they sound awfully similar to mine?

Growing potatoes in containers

This is a cross post from my blog over on Mother Earth News.

I've been growing potatoes in bins in our backyard for five years now. I started off using large, plastic storage containers that I drilled holes in for drainage and filled with a few inches of compost. As the potato plants grew, I "hilled" them with more soil.

Unfortunately, I have been less than attentive over the years and generally left the potato plants to get a little too tall before hilling them, which just meant that I probably wasn't getting the optimum yield. Last year, I didn't even really bother with getting potato "seeds" from the nursery and just let what was leftover in the bins grow. Needless to say, we hardly got anything from that experiment.

One thing I did notice, however, due to the paltry amount of potatoes, was that the bin got really soggy. The drainage holes I made just weren't doing their job and the potatoes that did grow were squishy and waterlogged.

Using grow bags
Instead of growing the potatoes in the containers again this year (one completely had degraded due to years of weather and sunlight), I decided to try growing potatoes in grow bags. The bags I ended up getting are felt-like and have a porous fabric that allows excess water to drain and the roots to breathe. Quite a difference from their last environment.

Hilling with straw and soil
One additional thing I'm doing differently this year is hilling the potatoes with layers of straw and soil. In previous years I hilled with just soil and it was always a pain digging through all that dirt to get to the goods. Over the years I had read that you can use straw. I didn't fully believe that just straw would work so I decided to use a combination layering technique of straw and soil.

So far, the potatoes are growing like crazy, but they grew like crazy in the old bins as well. I won't know if there's going to be any improvement until I harvest them, but I'm keeping my hopes up.

Do you grow potatoes? If so, do you grow them in bins?

Backyard mini-orchard

This weekend, in addition to harvesting a ton of greens and herbs, I planted some fruit trees and hardened off some plants. I'm doing a long slow hardening off of my tomato plants and need to acquire some more for the bed I built. I also started hardening off the pumpkin plants I started inside a few weeks ago. I think I went a little crazy with the pumpkins because I have something like 24 pumpkins plants going.

As for planting, I planted 6 fruit trees. This is from the batch that I ordered a month or so ago. Two of them didn't come because the nursery deemed they "didn't look good" enough. But, in the end I planted:

1 cherry
1 plum
1 peach
1 nectarine
2 pears

That brings all my fruit trees/bushes/plants to the following:

2 dwarf cherries
2 columnar apples
2 dwarf pears
1 dwarf nectarine
1 dwarf peach
1 dwarf plum
1 Peter's Honey Fig

Plus:
2 blueberries
4 blackberries
30 strawberries
3 grape vines

I also planted some flowers in the front yard. My sunflowers are popping up through the ground and, hopefully, won't get trampled much more by the kids.

Do you have any fruit trees in your yard? What's your favorite?

Salad days and then some

We are well into eating salad every day and I thought I'd share some pictures from around our urban farm that I took this week.

Our first hoop house is going gangbusters. It's growing spinach, two types of lettuce, carrots, broccoli and sugar snap peas:


Our garlic is getting huge. I wish this picture really showed not only how tall they are but how much girth they've got going on:


Our annual herbs are growing nicely. In this shot there's Italian flat leaf parsley, cilantro, dill and oregano (in the background):


Our cherry tree is pretty much done with its blossoms and we have a nice crop of tiny fruit coming along:


The columnar apples are still blossoming:


My potato experiment is going wild. I've already hilled it a couple times. These potatoes (I have two going) are being raised in grow bags and hilled with a mix of soil and straw:


Finally, our strawberry bed is in bloom:



How are things growing in your yard?