Some of the links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate I may receive a commission at no cost to yo if you make a qualifying purchase. Thank you for your support!
Food For Life Garden Update!
Inspiration
“A garden returns 50x the investment you put into it. Not just food, but joy, peace and a real connection with creation. A spiritual retreat from a noisy world and hurried people. Grow a garden.”
Unknown
Wow, it's June already. Amazing how fast time goes by these days. Life is like a flash. The garden is moving along and I'm so excited to have some great greens this year, where I didn't have any last year. I did start earlier this year, which helped. And I totally expect this to change soon, once the bugs start moving in. Already the air is full of cabbage moths. Thankfully, I had planted some in my only raised bed and a few days ago I made a hinged hoop cover for it. I had it covered with fabric before, but it was hard getting in and out of it, since it was all pinned to the ground. Now it's easy to open and close when I want to get some chard or collards.
How cool is that?! Some healthy looking cabbage in there on the right, and I already preserved a bunch of collards and chard on the left, so it looks a little picked over. Having a cover for the cabbage plants is a game changer for me!
June brings Father's Day! To all you dads, you're so important for your family and children. Being a dad is not something that can be taken lightly and it can be a heavy burden to bear all the responsibilities. All you great dads, you deserve a great day of honor and I salut you and wish you a Happy Father's Day!
Update On Breeding Chicks: I'm a couple of weeks into this incubator project. It takes 21 days for the chicks to hatch. So a little over 1 week to go. I'm not very confident that this will work out. It is super hard to control the humidity and keep it steady. And one day I ran out of electricity, because it's been cloudy and raining here for over 6 weeks straight. I forgot to check on my batteries one day and hadn't run the generator. So this incubator got down to 85 degrees before I could get the electricity going again. That was a stupid mistake I made. So, I'll update you all here in my next newsletter. And hopefully there will be good news.
Cheese Making: I have not been able to write up the promised cheese cake recipe made with quark, but I did post another delicious German strawberry quark dessert since it's strawberry season. More about it below. The cheese cake is in the queue for next time.
Soda making: In the last newsletter, I posted the link to my naturally carbonated fizzy lemonade recipe, a probiotic home brewed version. I've since added a new article on making a soda bug from scratch. There is a ginger bug recipe that I posted last summer, but since ginger is hard to get sometimes, I decided to use a local weed to make a new soda bug that I can always have access to. You can get the recipe below!
If you're interested in growing onions, read all about onion varieties and how to grow onions from seeds (It's too late this year for starting bulb onions, but you can still get green onions started, and save this information for next spring!).
Shallots going to flower
If your garlic is growing flower stalks, they need to be broken off to grow bigger garlic bulbs, that can be stored. You'll find recipes below for using those stalks.
Read more about growing garlic and get prepared to plant your own this fall.
Garlic scapes on hardneck garlic
Preserving herbs: You might start to see some culinary herbs growing faster than you can use them. Check out my guide for freezing basil and use the same method for any herbs.
Salt-curing cilantro
My favorite way to preserve herbs is by salting-curing the herbs and keeping them in the refrigerator. This old-timey method works great at keeping fresh herbs handy year round or even longer. This works perfectly for parsley, dill, cilantro, papalo, basil, and other herbs.
If you are still looking for a great Father's Day gift, you might want to check out this cool Father's Day Gift Guide by the diaryofaselfhelpaddict.com. I was running out of time and didn't get to put one together, although I have lots of great suggestions. But Kelly has a great list of gift ideas for any dad, and you might find just the thing for yours. For the outdoorsy, camping lovers you might try Gifts for Outdoor Enthusiasts by my friends in Florida. They are experienced campers and I trust their recommendations!
Just as a reminder, and if you got my previous newsletters, you already know this, but...
Don't forget to make compost to nourish your soil and plants throughout the year! You can make great compost in just 3 weeks, and use it for side- and top-dressing your planted garden thoughout the season. And if making a huge compost pile isn't your thing, there are lots of other ways to compost!
Don't miss my guide for starting a medicinal herb garden! Not only will you have herbs to use for your herbal home apothecary, but many are great for seasoning your foods, to attract pollinators, and deter pests.
Herb Seed Collection! Here is a great deal I found for a herb seed starter pack from Amazon. A collection of 36 herbs for just over a dollar a packet. I got one for myself and had good success with germination. This contains most of the seeds to grow the herbs I mention in my medicinal herb garden post.
Your source for information about gardening, planting a food forest, permaculture, farming with animals, growing meat, and milking goats. Learn about making cheese and sourdough bread, preserving your harvest, traditional homestead recipes, off-grid living and more! Visit foodforlifegarden.com
New On The Blog
What To Do With Garlic Scapes And Bolted Onions.
When Life Gives You Garlic Scapes And Bolted Onions, Make Pesto: Use your garlic scapes, onion stalks and green onion leaves, and herbs to make pesto! Check out my new post about using green onions and bolted onion flower stalks and the garlic scapes that grow from hardneck garlic. You can create amazing pestos from your garden 'discards'. And there are many other recipes and ideas for using your green onions and garlic scapes too. I was not happy about my bolted shallots, but after I made this pesto, and used them in a stir-fry, I was feeling a lot better about it. Everything turned out super delicious! So get your ideas for using green onions and garlic scapes in my new article.
Another new article that I just finished yesterday is about fermenting garlic scapes. I have posted the recipe and instructions to preserve garlic scapes with a brine-fermentation. This will not only add probiotic, gut-healing lactobacilli for better health, but it will preserve your scapes for at least a year in your refrigerator or cellar for convenient access year round. In my opinion, fermenting is the best way to preserve any vegetables for long-term storage and the many added health benefits. Check out my new recipe for fermented garlic scapes!
Dandelion Soda Bug For Homemade Naturally Carbonated Sodas!
Maybe you have heard of using ginger rhizomes to make a ginger bug. If you're not familiar with a ginger bug, it is a starter culture for making naturally carbonated, traditional sodas from scratch. Old-fashioned root beers, birch beers, cherry bark sodas, or ginger beers were made using a wild fermented starter culture like the ginger bug or other root bug. This method produces a healthy, probiotic soda that's refreshing and excellent for your gut-health.
Well, you can make such a starter culture using dandelion roots. Dandelion roots are everywhere and grow naturally, probably in your backyard. Dandelions are packed with health benefits from root to flowers. If you need to do some weeding, save a few dandelion roots, wash them well and let’s make a dandelion bug for your next home-brewed fizzy batch of sodas!
Make your own healthy, delicious fizzy lemonade for hot summer days! Or brew your own traditional ginger beer or root beer, using this dandelion bug or a ginger bug. I've also posted instructions on how you can get creative with different flavors when making a soda from the dandelion bug. Get started today and once you have the starter going, you can keep making sodas any time you like.
If you got my last newsletter, you'll have seen that I posted a recipe for quark, the famous German cheese that is used in countless recipes, but for some reason is very hard to find here in America. However, it's super easy to make, and once you make quark there are just so many things to do with it.
So this week I posted a new recipe for using quark. You need to try German style quark desserts to appreciate the wonderful versatility of this German, Austrian and Swiss staple. Strawberry Quark Cheese Mousse is a creamy dessert and a delicious, healthy treat you will love!
Strawberry Quark Cheese Mousse
You can also try this with cottage cheese or greek yogurt. It won't be the same, but it will still be very tasty! Get the recipe and instructions for making quark and strawberry quark cheese mousse on the blog!
And, here are a few gifts for gardeners or for yourself. Check out this handy Gardener's Shopping Bag that proclaims your passion! And get the matching Life Is Better In The Garden Mug which comes in many color choices and two sizes.
If you would like to support my website, you can get this beautiful Logo Mug, available in a dozen colors and 2 sizes at my Etsy store! All Store Items Are On Sale For The Month Of April!
I'm glad you stopped by here! Hit reply and tell me what you're planting in your garden this year, or ask any questions about gardening, preserving foods, or raising animals for meat, eggs, and milk! And if you're curious about anything homesteading or off-grid, just hit reply, drop me a note, and I'll get back to you!
Greetings and Happy Homesteading!
Live Is Better In The Garden
Create A Food Forest
A printable, downloadable quick reference guide. Starting a food forest from scratch. With illustrations and charts.
Some of the links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate I may receive a commission at no cost to yo if you make a qualifying purchase. Thank you for your support! Food For Life Garden Update! Inspiration Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”– Lauren DeStefano Such a cool turtle hanging out in my garden! October is ending and we've had our first light frost here...
Some of the links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate I may receive a commission at no cost to yo if you make a qualifying purchase. Thank you for your support! Food For Life Garden Update! Inspiration “Autumn glows upon us like a splendid evening; it is the very sunset of the year,” – Mary Russell Mitford, “Our Village” Marigolds I can't believe how fast the time went since my last newsletter. I try to not let this much time pass, but I got a bit behind with so much going on...
Some of the links below are affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate I may receive a commission at no cost to yo if you make a qualifying purchase. Thank you for your support! Food For Life Garden Update! Inspiration “It was August and the fields were high with corn. In the orchard the last of the peaches clung to their branches and the apples were showing their first pinkish blush. The vegetable garden overflowed with produce: peppers, green beans, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash.”...
