Becoming a Seed Saver

With each passing season Jacob and I are becoming more and more proficient gardeners. We learn something new every time we throw a new seed into the ground. In an effort to become even more Self Reliant in the area of gardening and food production we knew that it would be very important for us to learn how to save seeds. Yes, seed is fairly cheap and we can buy seed, but our goal is to move closer and closer to becoming completely self reliant. We really want to be prepared so that if there comes a time when we have to depend on ourselves to grow our own food and seed is not available to purchase we will have the skills and knowledge needed to provide for ourselves and our family. I have really loved learning the art of seed saving. There is really so much to learn because all seed cannot be saved in the same way.  One of the websites I have utilized in my efforts to learn this skill is the site for the International Seed Saving Institute. It gives basic seed saving instructions for 27 common vegetables. I will also be documenting the things we are learning about seed saving, so you can use our blog to help you in your efforts to learn how to save seeds as well. Good Luck!

The Power of Garlic and Onion

If this hadn't happened to me I probably wouldn't believe it, but I was desperate enough to try it and I am sure glad that I did.

Have you heard about the antioxidant and antibacterial properties of Garlic?  I have heard some people talk about how they would eat raw garlic when they had a cold or sinus infection to help it clear up more quickly. I will admit I was a bit skeptical about it.

I ate about 4 tsp of this to cure my ear infection.

But last week the whole family got sick.  I had three children with ear infections and Jacob ended up getting Pneumonia and cracked ribs from coughing. After hauling everyone to the doctor and getting antibiotics, shots, and a chest x-ray (for Jacob), and prescriptions for everyone, I was starting to get a bit worried about the doctor bill that will be coming to our house next month.  I am sure it won't be pretty.  As everyone was starting to get better I could feel myself getting sick.  I had finally succumbed to what everyone else had been suffering with.  After several days I knew I had an ear infection (they are not uncommon for me) because I had an excruciating ear ache and I could taste the infection running down my throat. I know gross huh! The thought of another trip to the doctor was just not an option, we just can't afford it. So that night I decided I would give the garlic a try.
I had read online about a guy that claimed if you put a sliver of garlic wrapped in tissue into your ear overnight or a few drops of garlic juice it would take away your ear pain and combat the infection.  The only garlic I had in the house was a bottle of pre-minced garlic packed in water.  I didn't want to stick that in my ear but I also learned through my research that onions have similar healing properties to the garlic and I have loads of garden onions right now so I thought I would try that.  So I gobbled down two big heaping teaspoons of the minced garlic. Then I cut a sliver of onion wrapped it in tissue and stuck it in my ear through the night. Don't stick it clear down in there, make the garlic sliver about the size of an ear plug, so it will just sit right inside the ear canal.
Somehow through the night a miracle occurred and I woke up with no ear pain.  I could still taste a bit of the infection and my throat was still a bit sore, but my symptoms were greatly improved.  So the following day I put down 2 more teaspoonfuls of garlic and ate a bunch of raw onion on my Navajo Taco that night and by the next morning all of my symptoms were gone.  Ear ache gone, sore throat gone, the congestion that I had was gone, and no more nasty infection running down my throat.  I was completely amazed. All it took was 4 teaspoons of garlic and a little sliver of onion.  That beats a trip to the doctor any day.
Since that time I have researched some more about the amazing properties of garlic and I think I am going to start eating at least a teaspoonful a day. Garlic is actually the most powerful antioxidant in the world.  The key is you have to eat it raw, and it needs to be minced or cold pressed to expose as much of its powerful compound, allicin, as possible. Cooking the garlic destroys this compound.  Garlic has been know to be beneficial to reduce the risk of heart attack and cardiovascular disease, it boosts the immune system, fights off infections, and may have anti-cancer properties. I also read an article that says fresh garlic contains more allicin than bottled garlic, so although I haven't had any luck growing garlic in my garden yet, I am definitely going to work harder at it and hopefully my fall garden will be full of it.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary. . .

We are so thrilled with how are garden is coming along. I can't stress enough the importance of planting things on time! We were very careful to follow the planting date guidelines for our zone this year and we are having great success. If you are not sure what the planting schedule for your zone is check with the Cooperative Extension Service in your area.  You can also use an Internet search engine to find various planting calendars. Many things can and should be planted a lot earlier than you might think. Check out how our garden is growing. . .

Parsley

 We have a ton of parsley right now. I harvested about 6 bunches today. Check back in a few days to see what I am doing with it. . .

Zinnias in Bloom

Baby Butternut Squash

Tomatoes - Ready to pick

Beets - Ready to Harvest

We were so excited to enjoy our first garden tomato last night - It was DELICIOUS! Along with a giant head of romaine lettuce.

Baby Green Tint Scallop Summer Squash

Cucumber

Snow Peas

Baby Crookneck Summer Squash

Artichoke

Marigolds

Diakon

Scarlet Runner Beans

Scarlet Runner Bean Blossom

Baby Jalapeno

Purple Cabbage

Blueberries

                 

































We tried several new things in our garden this year that we are very excited about including the "Green Tint Scallop Squash" and the "Diakon" pictured above.















We have also had luck with our berries this year and can't wait to harvest them! Yum!

Raspberry

Blackberry

For all of our Loyal followers in Utah here is the link to a planting calendar from the USU Extension Service (scroll down to page 8). Hopefully you are already planting your gardens because many, many things should already be in the ground! For those of you that live in East Texas with us here is a planting calendar for you.  The time for planting spring gardens here is pretty much gone, but it is a good time to get geared up to plant your fall garden, so start preparing now!             

Be sure to check out our Garden Totals so far for the year! We are so excited about this adventure of weighing and keeping track of our harvest. The kids think we are a bit crazy, I am always saying, "No, don't eat that yet! I have to weigh it first!"  Look on the sidebar to see our running total.
Happy Gardening Everyone!               

Sweet Potato Slips; Simple Method

Potato about 3 weeks after starting

You are probably wondering why I am posting another Sweet potato slip post.  Well I wanted to better explain the steps in a simpler way, I learned a more surefire way to get them going. 
In effort's to save money I set out to start my own Sweet Potato Slips, I have had some mixed luck starting out. I now have narrowed down the best way to start your sweet potato slips for home garden use.  I had some troubles along the way leading me to this method.  I am still using a jar of water to get it started.  The first one I tried with this method had roots and slips starting in just 2 days!

Same Potato as above only "Eye" side sprouting

South Side window sill

Break off Slip, root in water and then plant

1. Store bought sweet potato; no bruising or soft spots. (local varieties have done better for me)
2. Cut sweet potato in half.
3. Insert tooth picks to keep at least 1/2 above water.
4. Put potato on top of jar and fill with water.
5. Put in a sunny warm spot (I used an outside window sill on the south side of our house)
6. Make sure water stays up in contact with potato (change out water every week or so)
7. It will sprout roots and eventually slips.
8. When slip is 4+ inches tall break it off at the potato and place in water.
9. When small roots appear on slip.  Don't let the roots become too large to avoid transplant shock
10. Water daily for the first week and regularly week 2 on.  After it is established it can handle some dry spells.

 It turns out that one end of the sweet potato has eye's that will produce slips.  On some of the sweet potatoes it was not obvious which end had the eyes, so cutting them in half ensures you are not dunking the wrong end in the water.  (I believe this was my error before with the Okinawan and garnet's in my first Sweet Potato Slips post).  My latest trial with the Garnet I still used a whole potato because, the eyes were pretty obvious. And I have small but reluctant roots starting.

After you harvest off your slips, put your potato back in the water, it will keep producing slips.  Keep it going until it gives up producing more. On my first one, I have already harvested off 8 slips and there are about 8 more under way, nearly ready to harvest off again.  I plan to share my extra slips with gardening friends.

The issues with grocery store sweet potatoes are: you don't always know the variety you are buying and some are treated to prevent sprouts (slips) from growing.  So it can be a gamble, one I have lost on a few.  I hope still to start slips on the Garnet (the darker colored one in the picture above), I just might have to buy slips next year for some other varieties like the Okinawan (purple) variety.

Sweet potato plant in the ground about 2 weeks.

Remember you can plant these in your "flower gardens" as an ornamental that will later give you some good food.  Most variety produce vine and create a very pretty ground cover.

Editorial note:  The "non eye" end did eventually sprout slips but after we had planted the slips off the other side, so don't throw it out. --Jacob

Turkey and White Bean Chili

So, I really had a hard time getting a picture of this that actually looked good. Please don't judge this recipe by it's picture. It is actually really good! We enjoyed it very much and it helped me to utilize a bean that I don't use very much - White Beans.


1 lb. Ground Turkey
1 Cup Chopped Onion
1 Cup Chopped Green Bell Pepper
1 (14.5oz.) Diced Tomatoes, undrained
2 Cans (15oz.) Great Northern Beans, drained, and rinsed
2 Cans ( 11.5oz.) Tomato Vegetable Juice
1 Tb. Chili Powder
1/2 tsp. Ground Cumin

In a skillet brown ground turkey, onion, and bell pepper. In a large saucepan, combine turkey mixture, undrained tomatoes, beans, tomato juice, chili powder, and cumin. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat to low; cover. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This recipe comes from www.hunts.com.

As with all bean recipes that call for canned beans you can always use dried beans. Also, check out my post on how to make ground turkey taste really delicious. Hope you enjoy the recipe!

Grow your own Sweet Potato Slips

Sweet Potato Slip

Our family loves sweet potatoes.  We eat them almost as much as regular potatoes.  Sweet potatoes are actually not a potato at all, but is a tuber in the morning glory family.  Until we moved to Texas we had only ever had candied sweet potatoes, you know the stuff full of brown sugar and covered in marshmallows.  Now our most favorite way is baked in the oven drizzled with olive oil and season salt (I have never really enjoyed the candied ones).


Sweet potatoes are similar to regular potatoes nutritionally.  They offer up a more Vitamin A and slightly more Vitamin C.  7 Ounces of each offer about 200-220 calories each.  So they are a good staple vegetable and grow easily.  They grown in the heat of summer and are pretty resilient to drought and love high temps.  They are either bushy or vinney.  We see them planted all over the place down here as just ornamentals.


Sweet potatoes are not planted like regular potatoes.  They are planted from slips, slips are

The Texas Sweet Potato, covered in new slips.

young shoots that grown off of a sweet potato and are broken off and develop roots, then they are planted.When you start looking into buying sweet potato slips you will find that they are kind of pricy $1.00 to $3.00  for each slip!  So I started looking into alternatives or ways to grown them yourself.  I found many resources on the internet and you tube.  It is pretty easy but I have had mixed results.

I started out with three sweet potatoes from the grocery store.  One local Texas potato, one "organic" Garnet, and one Okinawan which is a purple fleshed sweet potato.   I have heard that store bought sweet potatoes even "organic" ones are often treated to avoid sprouting.  This is a real problem if you are trying to start your own slips.

Garnet, Texas & Okinawan

To start slips you take tooth picks and insert them into the tuber in the middle.  Place it in a jar of water, keeping the bottom 1/3-1/2 submerged.  After a few weeks you should see roots start to form and the top should start to sprout.  The water should be changed at least once a week to keep it from getting nasty.  I placed mine in a south facing window until the temperatures got hot enough for them to sit outside on the window sill.  I waited until the night time temps were in the 60's.

Rotten Garnet

I had some problems with the Okinawan and the Organic Garnet.  The first garnet rotted, the second had some small nubs start but also rotted and really stunk!  The Okinawan never took off, I also tried another one of them after the first rotted.

The root system is like 4' long!

Once your slips have grown and are a 3-6 inches you simply break them off at the base.  Set them in water for a few days to a week.

Freshly broken off slip

Slips in a cup of water

 

Take all of your slips and place them in water, after a few days you will start to see little roots form.

Planted slip.  Looks a little anemic it sat a few days to long in water.

   Take these out and plant them in your garden or flower beds.  Sweet potatoes are a really nice looking ground cover in flower beds.

I ended up with 7 slips off my first batch.  Set them in water and one week later they are ready to plant.  The sweet potato looks to still have life in it so I will keep it watered and hope to get more slips off of it.

I am currently trying a different method. I am hoping to still have luck with another Okinawan.  I will keep you updated on the progress.  

Another Amazing Use for White Vinegar

A gallon of White Vinegar costs $2.38.

 

 

 

 White vinegar is a natural deodorizer, absorbing odors instead of covering them up.

Get cleaner laundry! Add about 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar to the last rinse. The acid in white distilled vinegar is too mild to harm fabrics, yet strong enough to dissolve the alkalies in soaps and detergents. Besides removing soap, white distilled vinegar prevents yellowing, acts as a fabric softener and static cling reducer, and attacks mold and mildew.

This works so well! When I started using the Homemade Laundry Detergent , Jacob and I noticed that a few things, namely his undershirts, still had the smell of sweat to them, especially around the collar area.  I am sure that in the past with other detergents we didn't notice this because of the perfumes found in the detergent were simply masking this odor rather than removing it.  We have been really happy with the cleaning abilities of the Homemade Laundry Detergent, but this smell was something we had to find a solution for. So I began using White Vinegar as a fabric softener and it has been working amazingly, absorbing the odor out of his undershirts, plus I really have noticed that it works well on some of the stains I haven't been able to get out.  I usually add about 1/2 cup for the load with the undershirts and 1/4 cup for other loads. I simply put it right into the fabric softener dispenser. Give it a try! I have been so happy with the results and it is LOADS cheaper than the commercial fabric softeners.

Click here for some cost comparisons for the Homemade Laundry Detergent and other Homemade Cleaners.