Homesteading can be pretty expensive; I’m not going to lie. In order to get many of the things we need or want (without spending a fortune, because it’s easy to do here and there!), I had to find a few loopholes. Some of these methods are obvious, others take a bit of experience…. All of
Tag: Saving Seeds
As I discussed on our Facebook page (for those who haven’t seen the post or “liked” us, find us here!), I was contemplating a customized, printable series which could be incredibly useful should internet access be lost. You can find nearly anything you need on the internet information-wise. But what if you could no longer
For some plants, bolting, flowering, and producing seed is a bad thing for the gardener. Unless they’re saving seed, that is. Everyone dreads finding out that their lettuce or spinach has started to bolt; every year, we risk encountering bolted greens when spring arrives. Bolting is commonly associated with woody tubers, bitter greens, and reseeding.
All of the leaves have disappeared from sight. The days are reaching their shortest length, and the chickens are our strongest evidence. We’ve had very few eggs for weeks; the primary chicken run is a muddy pit more often than not. The garden weeds have long been brown and dry; many already falling to the
New baby? Just bought your homestead? Still grinding through college? Whether your finances are tight or you’re simply adopting a frugal lifestyle, you can garden without spending money! Standard gardens do require a good bit of preparation and investment: building beds and buying pots, amending soil, purchasing seeds, buying pest control, adding garden tools…. it
Tomatoes are one of our most important crops that we grow! I’m sure you can agree, as they are used for so many different foods including: Tomato Pasta Sauce (paste tomatoes) Marinara and Pizza Sauce (paste tomatoes) Salsa (slicing tomatoes) Ketchup (slicing or cherry/grape tomatoes) Salads (cherry tomatoes) Sandwiches & Burgers (slicing tomatoes) …. We’ll
We tried out some White Nighting corn this year, a wonderful variety that reigns from Alabama. This corn variety was offered by Baker’s Creek, but they no longer have it available for sale. Thus, we shall save seed every year just in case we cannot find it again- because we enjoyed it! For us, we
Melons are delicious little presents that we anxiously await from our garden. While other gardeners and homesteaders were busy focusing on watermelons and cantaloupes, we decided that we were going to take on Sakata’s Sweet Melon. You won’t find too much information about experiences elsewhere; however, we’re about to lay it all out on the
If you have a nice little bed for greens on your homestead (like many of us!), you’re probably finding out that spinach can be a very finicky, hard to grow plant. I’m going to guess that you either lost your entire spinach harvest last year due to bolting, or you are currently dealing with bolting
Strawberry seeds can require a bit of work in order to get started. They aren’t as simple to grow as other seeds, such as tomatoes or squash. As a matter of fact, growing strawberries from seed is one of the more difficult tasks that a home gardener might tackle. Want to know what you’ve done
Seed Starting: It’s exciting. It’s liberating. It’s the best late winter tradition. When all else is cold, dead, or dormant, while the sun hangs behind the gloomy winter clouds, starting our seeds indoors or in the greenhouse gets us homesteaders pumped for the incoming growing season. But… What if I told you that sowing a
Growing strawberries from seed is extremely exciting- I should know! While I didn’t exactly stratify my berries in my experiment, they did sit in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. This might have been all of the stratifying that they needed; so, chances are, your local grocer has already taken care of this. But to be
I’m sure you’ve tried to save seeds from some of your favorite tomatoes, melons, or squashes. Perhaps you decide to look back on your home grown seed stash only to find that MOLD has taken over, probably destroying your seeds! This will feel rather devastating; especially if you don’t have additional fruits to save seeds