Category: Gardening - Our Tiny Homestead

Our E-book is now for Sale! One week only...

1/16/2017

If you saw our blog last week about our first e-book (we're still excited!), we're sending this quick note to remind you that today is the day it goes on sale as part of the:

Back to Basics Living Bundle 2017

Click above if you'd like to purchase it
or get more details.

The e-bundle is available for this week only for $30
and includes 71 e-books,
courses, and videos.

This year’s bundle includes resources about:
- Cooking from scratch using nourishing real food
- Planting and harvesting vegetables
- Learning what it means to live a simpler life without stress
- Creating a wholesome, healthy food storage
- Learning how to create and use natural remedies
- Learning how to live a more frugal life,
do more things yourself, manage a small homestead,
and much much more!

If you didn't see last week's blog, click below for more details about the bundle and our book:

EAT YOUR WILD YARD: SPRING
Growing & Foraging for Wild Edibles in Your Own Backyard
Text & Photography by Theresa & Bear
Graphic Design by Theresa

You can view some sample pages here.

Eat Your Yard Spring: Chickweed, Fiddleheads, Nettle & Ramps

4/24/2016

Our Sunday breakfast was steamed fiddleheads & wilted nettle, which are great with runny scrambled eggs seasoned with chives, and crispy bacon.

Our lunch was chickweed & bulghur salad with carrots and red peppers.

Happy Eating!

From Theresa: It's finally Spring and one of the great things about it is that we can start eating from the yard! Today we harvested chickweed, nettle, fiddleheads, and chives and had them for breakfast and lunch. After the long Winter, these tasty Spring treats provide our bodies with the nutrition we crave.

For information on how to grow, harvest, and eat these Spring treats, see the April/May section of our Eat Your Yard page.

Clockwise from yellow colander: Fiddleheads, chickweek, nettle, chives.

How to Grow Plants from Seed

1/18/2016

I used to have trouble starting plants from seed, but have finally figured out what I was doing wrong. With the addition of some important equipment and easy processes, I am now much more successful, which is great because
seed starting:

saves money and
allows you to grow a much larger variety of plants

Click to see the instructions I've compiled about what I've learned:
How to Grow Plants from Seeds

including:

my seed starting greenhouse
making your own pots from newspaper
pre-soaking seeds to get a head start
how to water and fertilize delicate seedlings
hardening off to prepare your plants for outdoor conditions.

The page also has a downloadable Word file that I use to calculate seed starting dates in my area, that you can modify to your gardening zone.

Happy Growing!
Theresa

Baby Frogs a Hoppin'

7/19/2015

From Theresa: We built our tiny wildlife pond in 2012, and it immediately started to attract wildlife, including dragonflies, snails, water beetles, birds, squirrels, and chipmunks. We built it hoping for frogs, because I love falling asleep listening to their calls. In its second summer we had one resident frog, but there weren't many mating calls. This Summer, we were serenaded for many nights by calls from the American Toad, tree frogs, and a third frog we couldn't identify. And this time it resulted in a pond full of hundreds of tadpoles, which have now become incredibly tiny frogs!!

"We're sunbathing and she's taking pictures of us- How rude!"

Frog with a Duckweed Hat
(Theresa was trying to clean some of the duckweed out of the pond,
and was surprised to scoop up a frog along with the duckweed.):

King of the Mountain:

King looking for a smaller mountain:

They began as tadpoles....

We first noticed tiny tadpoles in our pond on 6-6-2015:

Then the gang got bigger (6-12-15):

By 7-11-15 the tadpoles started to get legs (Bear says we should call them frogpoles):

Then they lost their tails and became frogs!
(Walking on water with the help of duckweed):

This American Toad could be one of the parents (dad or mom, we have no clue):

The Habitat:

This is the wildlife pond we built,
although Bear says it looks like a swamp since it's covered with duckweed.
It's been amazing to sit next to the pond every day
and discover first hand how tadpoles turn into frogs,
knowing that we played a tiny role in supporting new life.

For instructions on making your own tiny frog habitat,
see our page on how we built this wildlife pond:

Yard Shrooming Adventures

6/30/2015

Bear here.... Some of you may recall that Theresa and I bought nine mushroom logs this spring that were inoculated with shitaki spoors last year. We set them up and were ready for the big hauls of edible shrooms, one in late spring and the other in the fall. Let's see how much 80 bucks can save us. During the "mushroom season" in early spring we got... 1 f*ing mushroom, a small one. Theresa picked it and I left the damn thing in the refrigerator too long and we had to throw it away. I was not amused.

This is the unamusing pile of logs. We walk past it often since it's in our front yard and notice fungus that shouldn't be there. Until today. I was talking crap to a squirrel that was on the logs and I noticed something strange...

AMUSEMENT! There was a large mushroom that looked good enough for picking. With further inspection I noticed 5 (yes, count 'em, 5) shrooms that were good enough to harvest and eat. (After Theresa rescued the bugs off of them.) And...

Other spoors were bulging. It looks like we could get many more shrooms in the near future. We will see.

This is a bad picture of other shrooms or fungus on the log. If anyone knows what these are or if they are edible, let us know, thanks.

All you need is patience, and good timing, and good things will come to you. I am frying these shrooms tonight! I have also stopped thinking that these logs would make a nice, large bonfire and am instead waiting to see what the total bounty will be. Type at ya later.

New Life in the Pond: Tiny Tadpoles

6/7/2015

From Theresa:
This is the fourth Summer after we constructed our wildlife pond...
and we're thrilled to see tiny tadpoles swimming around in it for the first time
(see the black spots hugging the rock).
At least we assume they're tadpoles, either that or Bear says they're "sperm dark."

Here's a close up:

This is also the first Summer that we've been serenaded by multiple frog songs as we fall asleep.
Maybe this is one of the parents... Bear met him by our wood pile:

This is also the first year that any plants overwintered in the pond-
we're seeing a lot of native arrowheads popping up (Sagitarria latfolia, which have edible tubers).

This is what the pond looked like this morning.
Click to see how we built our frog pond:

Pop Quiz- Can Bear Identify Today's Harvest?

6/7/2015

From Theresa:
Here's the Sunday morning harvest from our gardens. I've been trying to convince Bear that all the money I spend up front on the garden gets paid back to us in food to eat,
so I asked him to come look at what I brought in.
Just to make it fun, I asked him if he could identify everything I picked.

(Bear here... Tests are fun? Only when food is involved... just sayen.)

1. Here's what we got from our new annual vegetable garden:

Bear correctly thought this was (counter clockwise in the colander):
orange nasturtium flowers, nasturtium leaves, green onions, and lettuce (center).

(From the big guy... Doin the seat dance & showin' off now... uh Huh...)

I harvested these annuals for salads. We're growing them in stock tanks:

Bear wasn't sure about this one from the stock tanks-
and said it was "that weed we've been eating a lot lately"

This is lamb's quarters.
The young leaves are great raw in salads,
or the older leaves are great slightly steamed
and used any way that you would use cooked spinach. We add them to rice dishes.

(Bear here... To be fair... we have been using a lot of LAMB'S QUARTERS lately.)

2. He got this one from our perennial vegetable garden right away (probably because I had pointed it out to him when we were sitting in our bay window eating breakfast this morning):
(Bear here... It still counts as a right answer... so there...)

This is Turkish rocket.
This is the first year we've harvested it, so I am still learning how and when to do it.
You're supposed to eat the flower buds before they flower,
when they look a lot like broccoli, but I am too late this time.
We can also eat the flowers, so I harvested them.
I think this will make more grow back for another harvest.

Here's what the full Turkish rocket plant looks like (this one is 3 years old):

Here's what's the Turkish rocket flower buds look like
when you're supposed to harvest them, before the buds flower.
You use it like broccoli, which it obviously resembles, eating it either raw or steamed.
It feels like broccoli in your mouth, but tastes a lot more tangy.

Bear offered his usual comment to his first bite- "Tastes like plant."
(You know who here...WELL... it does taste like plant...)

3. On the right is more Turkish rocket. On the left Bear wasn't sure if this was parsley or cilantro-
but he said, "Wait a minute," and put a little leaf in his mouth. Then he knew it was cilantro.

(Yep, it's me... Right answer, a little late... Enough said)

4. And here was the real stumper.... Bear blurted out that this was broccoli!!

We got a great laugh out of that, since he knew immediately that he was wrong.
(Me... Duh...)

We've been growing lots of rhubarb around the foundation of our bay window
for a couple years now, where it seems really happy,
but this is the first year we've found the time to figure out how we like to eat it.
Today, I'm putting it in a crock pot with some lamb to make a savory stew over noodles.
Last week we stewed it with brown sugar and almond extract
to make a sweet rhubarb sauce side dish.

It's been wonderful to see Bear get more and more interested
in our gardens as the years have gone by,
because I surely need his help keeping it going
and learning how to cook the harvest.
I'm thankful we're in this homesteading adventure together!

(Me getting the last word... Hah... I got her to blog. Summertime is Theresa's tome to be outside and do the yard stuff. To kinda quote her "Now is the time to garden and take pictures,
Winter is when I can blog about it." Ain't team work grand... Type at ya later...)

Biodiversity Salad -- Extreme Eat Your Yard

5/10/2015

Bear here... Ever wanted a big salad and been out of salad fixings? That kinda sucks. It sucks less if you have weeds in the yard instead of grass. Yep... everything on the cutting board (above) is "weeds" from our yard.

WE HAVE
(above, from left to right)

Violets for the base. Use the leaves and flowers. The stems are soft so I used them too.
Dandelion greens for a little bitter taste.
Creeping Charley for some mint flavoring (Yes, you can eat it, although Theresa says it has a strong flavor, so don't use too much).
Garlic chives and onion chives, yum.
Thyme, because I like it.
I forgot Theresa cut Lambs Quarters earlier in the day or they would have been in the salad too.

Notes:

Make sure you pull out all the plant matter you don't want before cutting. (We found a couple pine needles.... oops.)
Use scissors to cut the plants rough or fine as you like.
If you harvest a lot of plants put the leftovers in a big bowl in the refrigerator. Easy pickings for your next salad.
Crunchy toppings that could be added from our yard include sliced sunchokes, walnuts, or ground nuts. I used pita chips (Not from the yard, but they were too good to resist)
Here's the link for our homemade salad dressings.
Here's the link for our other pages on how to Eat Your Yard.

There you have it. Anybody think grass is the only thing that should be grown in a yard? Heh... look up.

Type at you later.

Lamb & Eggs for Spring Breakfast

5/3/2015

Grill bread and eggs.

Grill marked lamb steaks and eggs.

Bear here... Time to celebrate. Spring is here. It's fertility time. Time to get the seeds in the ground and harvest the early crops. (For more thoughts on the season, see our Celebrate Late Spring page.)

My inner shelf chef celebrates by cookin' decadent breakfasts.

GOTTA LOVE THE DECADENT WEEKEND BREAKFASTS!

Saturday we had leftover grill bread and ambrosia with eggs. Sunday we had "kinda grilled" lamb steaks, eggs, and salad. A quick "how to" section will follow the "shout out" section.

SHOUT OUT TO (aka, Big Thank You!):

Holly, our friend and supplier of lamb and hamburger. Can't cook it if I can't get it.
Our neighbor's chickens for doing the work and the neighbors who are willing to part with the good stuff (fresh eggs with brilliantly orange yolks from happy chickens).
Finally, Theresa who makes great salad dressing and most of the time loves me more than my cooking. :)

The Quick How to:

Grill Bread:

Saturday morning's breakfast was grill bread from Friday night's leftovers reheated in the oven. For instructions on grilling bread, see my Grilled Pizza page. This is Friday's grill bread:

I pushed thyme, garlic chives and onion chives into the bread and started with that side down.

It's a good idea to get the ambrosia or other topping hot before you need it. I used grated parmesan for the cheese.

If doing more than one round have a pan ready with a few coals under it to keep early bread warm.

The herbs were fresh from our garden and the ambrosia was from our freezer. We made it last summer by baking chopped tomatoes and garlic, tossed in olive oil at 375 degrees. Bake until all the liquid from the tomatoes is gone, then use or freeze.

This is the first time we tried reheating grill bread (there aren't usually leftovers). For a crispier crust, reheat at 400 degrees. For a softer crust, try 350. Theresa recommends the crispy crust.

Sunday's "kinda grilled" Lamb steaks:

Marinate the lamb steaks overnight in soy sauce, brown mustard, and lime juice.
Turn your electric burner to med-high. Get the pan really hot, so it will make grill marks, and put a light coat of oil on it. (I use peanut oil because it has a higher smoke point.)
Set oven to 350 degrees and have a pan with a rack in it (or a broiling pan) ready to go into the oven. (You will use it to finish the steaks).
Wipe the steaks dry before you put them in the pan for a better "grill mark".
Remind spouse that smoking pans are a part of cooking... trust me...
Put steaks in pan long enough to get the grill marks, roughly 2 minutes per set of grill marks. It will 4 minutes on one side if you turn it to make a diamond pattern.
When all steaks are marked, put them on the pan with the rack or on the broiling pan in the oven.
Finish heating the steaks in the oven while you cook the eggs and toast and make the salad. How long to cook depends on the thickness and how you like your steaks. For rare I put these in for 10 minutes.
When grill marking the toast, you can reduce the heat in the pan some, but keep an eye on it, bread turns to charcoal pretty fast.
For the eggs, I melt butter in the pan and add freshly ground pepper. Then I fry the eggs over easy and add more pepper.

The cast iron grill pan is your best friend for grillmarks indoors.

Notice... "grill marks" on meat AND toast.

The salad was crisp baby romaine and green onions with Theresa's homemade ranch salad dressing.

Type at ya later...

Eat Your Yard- Nettle Recipes

5/3/2015

One of our nettle patches in early Spring- ready to eat!

Nettle, not just for stinging. We've added a "Eat Your Yard" section (so dubbed by Bear), in which we'll be sharing recipes for eating the wild foods (and weeds) we're growing (on purpose) in our yard.

Nettle is one of the first plants to emerge in the Spring in our yard. It's a natural multi-vitamin. We eat the fresh leaves in Spring and make a nettle infusion drink the rest of the year (which even Bear says he likes better than mint tea). Our bodies have learned to crave the plant's amazing nutrition. Our Nettle page includes information on growing nettle, and recipes for: Nettle Soup, Nettle Pasta, Nettle Quiche, Ramen Nettle, and how to make a Nettle Infusion. Yummm...

Bear likes his nettle like he likes dark beer- he drinks it for the flavor.

Theresa's favorite recipe is nettle soup, with a side of Bear's cheese sandwiches.