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Our recent Trials

2011-11-25T14:11:00.000-08:00

So what did you all do when the storms hit and your power failed.. Were you prepared?

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Natural Home & Garden Magazine

2011-09-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

Natural Home & Garden Magazine

How to Create a Zero-Waste Kitchen

September/October 2011
http://www.naturalhomeandgarden.com/recycling/how-to-create-a-zero-waste-kitchen.aspx

By Letitia L. Star
kitchen shelving
Enlarge Image
Photo By Deborah Whitlaw Llewellyn

Stroll into The Kitchen, a community bistro located in the heart of Boulder, Colorado, and you’re in for a culinary treat—rustic food that’s in-season, locally grown and prepared over an open fire. But what’s also noteworthy is that all waste is either recycled or composted, no small feat for a popular eatery. “We moved to zero waste seven years ago and we strive to improve every day,” says Kimbal Musk, chef-owner of The Kitchen (thekitchencafe.com). “Our oils are recycled as biodiesel, and composted foods go to our local farms,” he says. “We also were the first wind-powered restaurant in Colorado, which we see as another form of zero waste.”

Anyone interested in reducing waste and saving money can learn from The Kitchen and others dedicated to making their operations zero-waste, meaning they send nothing to the landfill. Here’s how a few small, easy changes can minimize your footprint while potentially saving you some cash.

Rethink Waste

Planning well is the first step toward a waste-free kitchen. Consider all of the waste your kitchen produces—trash, food waste, water waste—and how you can process it on-site. “Zero-waste is not only a physical kitchen, but a mindset,” says Adela Szpira-Stopka, a green-designated broker with @properties, a Chicago real estate company. “Given that most home waste originates in the kitchen, a green home should definitely include a zero-waste kitchen.”

Musk says it’s not difficult to become conscious of, then reduce, kitchen waste. “With simple new habits you can end up with a very small amount of true landfill garbage, which may mean reduced costs on your garbage bill,” he says. “Home kitchens should use a three-unit system: one container for compost, one for recycling and one smaller unit for nonrecyclable items such as plastic wrap.”

Coffee grounds, onion peels, carrot tops, egg shells and other non-meat food waste can go into a countertop crock, then on to a compost pile in your yard. Or use vermicompost bins, in which worms turn food waste into a nutrient-rich soil amendment. For a list of compostables, and instructions and tips on making compost, read the article "Compost at Home: Tips for Composting and Vermicomposting."

Trash Talk

Today most trash is recyclable, so hopefully your recycle bins will be much fuller than your nonrecyclable bin. As you move forward, examine the items that end up in the nonrecyclable bin. You will probably notice a few specific things that always reappear—most likely food and product packaging. Can you eliminate these items or replace them with alternatives? Perhaps you could rid yourself of plastic wrap by purchasing several reusable glass storage containers with lids.

Buying in bulk can also reduce waste: Choose the largest container of household essentials such as dish soap, and maximize your use of bulk bins. Recycling the cardboard box your spaghetti came in is great, but you could eliminate it altogether by buying pasta out of your grocer’s bin and carrying it home in a reusable organic cotton bag. Blue Lotus makes organic cotton grain and produce bags that double as storage bags that help keep produce fresh.

If you often find your plastic laundry detergent bottle in the landfill-bound bin, consider completely eliminating that waste by making your own. Find recipes for washing powder, stain spray and brightener.

Eliminating disposables is another easy way toreduce kitchen waste. Make the choice to rid your home of paper towels and napkins, plastic bags and wraps, and disposable utensils. Many companies offer reusable, lightweight, travel-ready utensils made from bamboo or recycled materials. Choose glass or metal food-storage containers with lids (reused glass jars work great). Turn old sheets or clothes into rags, or buy biodegradable, reusable cleaning cloths, sponges and scouring pads.

Water Log

Water is used heavily in the kitchen. Though it may not be possible to completely eliminate water waste, you can do a lot to conserve water in the kitchen. Start with efficient appliances, including low-flow faucets (or faucet aerators) and high-efficiency dishwashers. Modern dishwashers eliminate water waste because they don’t require you to rinse dishes before putting them in the machine. Composting saves the water you would otherwise use to wash food down the disposal. You could also come up with clever ways to reuse kitchen water such as hanging a dish-drying rack above windowsill plants.

You might consider a graywater system, which is great for reusing household water as landscape irrigation; unfortunately, because the kitchen is often the site of heavy-duty cleaning products and unsafe bacteria from foods such as raw meat, most experts recommend using water from bathroom sinks, tubs, showers and clothes washing machines, rather than from kitchen sinks and dishwashers.

Waste Reduction Tips

Several steps can reduce the amount of trash, energy and water waste you create.

•End food waste. Enliven leftover food with herbs and spices, or turn it into a new dish. “Never throw out tasty food scraps that could be used for soups or stews,” Musk says. “My favorite is roast chicken leftovers, which make the best chicken noodle soup you’ve ever tasted.” Prevent waste by learning more about food spoilage rates at stilltasty.com. For tips on shopping wisely to reduce food waste and helping food last longer, visit naturalhomeandgarden.com/make-food-last.

• Stop leaks. To spot a slow-dripping leaky kitchen faucet, check your water meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If it changed, you’ve got a leak! Find other water-reduction tips.

• Enhance fridge efficiency. To reduce your refrigerator’s electricity demands, create an organizational diagram and post it on the door. This saves time rummaging around with the door open and makes it easy to see what you’re out of before a trip to the store. If you can see just fine without it, unscrew the light bulb. And make sure your fridge door fits tightly—a good way to test this is to put a dollar inside the door. If you can pull it out without opening the door, you need to replace your seals. A full fridge changes temperature less easily than an empty one; increase your fridge’s interior mass by placing reusable frozen cold packs inside.

• Choose hand-operated. Consider hand-operated kitchen tools that don’t need electricity (or counter space), such as stainless steel hand graters, whisks, glass citrus juicers and manual egg beaters.

• Donate excess. Drop off unused cookware, dishware, glassware and appliances to secondhand stores or homeless shelters: Salvation Army, Homeless Shelter Directory. Recycle your old, second fridge or freezer. Some electricity suppliers offer rebates to customers who recycle their old clunkers and cut their utility bills. Check to see if your local utility offers such a program.

• Stock recycled. Buy kitchen items that already recycled landfill waste before they got to you. Ten Thousand Villages sells fair-trade, handcrafted home items made by artisan communities around the world. Look for recycled paper tableware, floor mats made from flip flops, baskets made from snack bags, bottle openers made out of bicycle chains and much more.

Letitia L. Star is a healthy-living writer and photographer who has written more than 1,000 articles, including many on green living, healthy eating and organic gardening.

New Trend: Municipal Composting

If you don’t have composting space, look for municipal compost programs by searching online for “composting program” and your city name. Some municipal programs offer kitchen pails, green bins and free pick-up. Helpful websites:

• Chicago: Chicago Recycling Coalition

• Denver: Compost Collection Pilot Program

• New York

• San Francisco: Recology

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ooops

2011-06-20T13:21:00.001-07:00

ooops

coming up APN Tristate Campout and meet up

2011-06-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

Nickerson Park Family Campground
the 24th thru the 26th on june.. come join the fun.. $6 a night per camper..from friday to sunday at 10 am..
Going to be a Load of fun!!

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Low-tech Magazine: Pedal powered farms and factories: the forgotten future of the stationary bicycle

2011-05-26T06:37:00.000-07:00

Low-tech Magazine: Pedal powered farms and factories: the forgotten future of the stationary bicycle

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Finding Edible Wild Fruits in the Country

2011-05-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

Finding Edible Wild Fruits in the Country

It is almost that time again..This year I am going to concentrate on foraging for fruits!

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America 2011

2011-05-19T17:23:00.000-07:00

http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/america-2011
What kind of place is America in 2011? Sadly, it is one giant sea of conformity. If you traveled across the United States 40 or 50 years ago, you would encounter a vast array of cultures and you would meet a wonderful mix of people. But today America is slowly but surely becoming standardized. It seems like wherever you go you will find a Wal-Mart and a McDonald's. Thanks to Hollywood and the mass media, people all over the country dress the same and look the same and talk the same. Sure there are various subcultures out there, but even many of those subcultures are virtually the same on one coast as they are on the other. The things that gave flavor to our local communities are dying off in favor of greater conformity and greater profit. Today, most retail stores and most restaurants are corporate owned. Most small businesses that attempt to go up against the Wal-Marts, the Targets, the Burger Kings or the Home Depots of the world have already been stomped out of existence or are in the process of being stomped out of existence. Eventually, if we are not careful, corporate conformity is going to dominate everything from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Some may view this as "progress", but is this really what the American Dream is supposed to be all about? Is this really the "America" that we want to pass down to future generations?

Our society has become so homogenized that we don't really question it anymore. We all watch American Idol, we all buy the same boring looking cars we see advertised on television and we all buy the same mass-produced corporate products down at Costco.

For many Americans, doing something "exotic" means going out to Applebee's on Friday night.

If you are under 40 years of age and you have never been out of the country you should really make it a point to do that. Today there are millions upon millions of young Americans that have no idea what "another culture" even looks like. All they know is how America does things and they have been taught that the American way of doing things is always the best.

Sadly, sometimes we think our way is so superior that it should be forced upon the rest of the world.

When this nation was founded, our founding fathers were extremely suspicious of large concentrations of power. Corporations did not dominate early America. Instead, millions of individuals and small businesses worked together to make this country great. Back in those days a "family store" could be started without fear that a corporate giant like Wal-Mart would come waltzing in to crush it.

When Wal-Marts started to spread across the United States, almost everyone loved them. The prices were lower, the selection was much greater and Wal-Mart brought jobs to the community.

When I would visit family or friends they would always excitedly talk about the new Wal-Mart that was going up somewhere nearby. They saw Wal-Mart as a sign of progress and something that would make their lives better.

Unfortunately, we now know that all of that corporate conformity comes at a very high price.

When Wal-Mart moves into a community, often dozens of local businesses can't compete and are forced to close.

Wal-Mart does bring jobs, but they are really crappy jobs. A very, very small percentage of Wal-Mart jobs will even come close to enabling someone to support a family.

But Wal-Mart is making a ton of money. So where does all of that money go?

It goes out of the local community and into the pockets of the Wal-Mart shareholders.

Wal-Mart is like a giant vacuum cleaner. It sucks the wealth out of our local communities and it transfers it into the hands of the very wealthy.

But don't all of the products sold at Wal-Mart support American businesses and American jobs?

No.

Just go into a Wal-Mart some time and start picking up products. You will notice that the vast majority of them are made outside of the United States.

Americans love to buy stuff made in China. And the big corporations love that because they are more than happy to pay slave labor wages to workers in places like China and India.

But I don't want to just pick on Wal-Mart. The vast majority of our retail establishments are now owned by huge corporations. They all crush small businesses and they all suck wealth out of our local communities.

Most of us have enjoyed the "low, low prices" that the mega-corporations have brought in, but as inflation has gone up faster than our wages, large numbers of Americans have had to go into debt in order to enjoy all of these cheap products.

Today, what the average American family owes is equivalent to 136% of what an average American family makes each year.

We have a national addiction to debt. To the corporations and the banks we are viewed as "consumers" and the goal is to drain as much money out of us as possible. They want us to be completely dependent on them so that we will be snared in the trap of "consumerism" forever.

The fact that corporations have become so dominant in our society is a huge reason why wealth has become so concentrated at the top. Today, the bottom 50 percent of all Americans own just 2.5% of the wealth. In a true capitalist society this would not happen because individuals and small businesses would be able to compete fairly in the marketplace and would be thriving.

But unfortunately, our system greatly favors giant corporations today. In fact, what we have in our country today is much more aptly called "corporatism" rather than "capitalism". The vast majority of Americans work for either a giant corporation or for the government. We even teach our children that they should go to college and study hard so that they can "get a job" rather than telling them that they should endeavor to "start a business" someday.

If nothing changes, wealth and power will continue to become even more concentrated in the hands of the few. Meanwhile, America will just continue to become a giant sea of corporate conformity and a very boring place.

"America 2011" is not nearly as interesting as America was 50 years ago. We are becoming defined by our greedy corporate overlords. We just blindly conform and we let others do our thinking for us.

If our founding fathers could see us today, they would be absolutely horrified.

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35 Statistics That Show The Average American Family Has Been Broke Down, Tore Down, Beat Down, Busted And Disgusted By This Economy

2011-04-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

35 Statistics That Show The Average American Family Has Been Broke Down, Tore Down, Beat Down, Busted And Disgusted By This Economy

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Bee Gardens: Flowers, Fruits and Herbs for a Bee-Friendly Habitat - Modern Homesteading - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

2011-04-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

Bee Gardens: Flowers, Fruits and Herbs for a Bee-Friendly Habitat - Modern Homesteading - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

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You can provide honeybees with year-round nourishment and attract other wildlife to your outdoor space — even in the city! — by planting flowers, fruits, herbs and more that are rich in nectar and pollen. From lavender and tulips to raspberry bushes and tomatoes, find out which plants provide food for bees early and late in the year, get a year-round planting plan of bee-friendly plants, and check out a full list of suggested flowers to create your own bee oasis. A garden or patch devoted to plants that are attractive to bees can be a source of great pleasure for any beekeeper or nature lover, as much for the beauty of the flora as for the activity of the bees.

Prayer's Power Trumps Positive Thinking - cityhomesteader@gmail.com

2011-04-08T09:43:00.000-07:00

Prayer's Power Trumps Positive Thinking
Rebecca Hagelin

Two studies caught my eye this week.

One, released by the American Physical Society, presented data suggesting that religion is headed for “extinction” in nine Western countries: Canada, Ireland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

The scientists’ bold claims were based on a statistical model that tracked, over the past 100 years, the increasing population in those countries that claimed affiliation with “no religion.” Projecting those numbers forward, they believe that “religion will be driven toward extinction,” because people will discover that “the perceived utility of not adhering is greater than the utility of adhering” to a belief in God.

Utility. It’s a sad commentary on modern society that God must prove himself “useful” according to our standards or we’ll box religion up and send it to collect dust in some museum.

But before they proclaim the end of religion, perhaps these scientists ought to check in with their peers. The second study released last week shows that prayer--a fundamentally religious activity--produces social benefits by reducing anger and aggression.

Imagine that. It’s useful.

The groundbreaking study (the first to focus on the connection between prayer and anger) showed that prayer reduces anger and calms aggression in the person who prays. According to the study’s co-author, Ohio State Professor Brad Bushman, "We found that prayer really can help people cope with their anger.” Prayer produced measurable differences in the people who prayed, compared to a similar group who merely thought good thoughts.

But even scientific proof of the power of prayer cannot turn a skeptic into a believer.

Because they cannot prove exactly why prayer reduced the anger and aggression of those who prayed, scientists struggle to find an explanation that doesn’t presume the reality of God. Bushman suggested that prayer “probably…[helped] them change how they view the events that angered them and helping them take it less personally." Shouldn’t peaceful “thoughts” be able to do that?

What Bushman is missing is that prayer is different because it’s a communication with a very real Someone—Someone we need, a person named God, who can do anything.

Unfortunately, this latest prayer study fits a growing pattern. As social scientists pursue greater understanding of the human person, they can’t ignore the power of prayer and faith in people’s lives. So they study it. But even as their own studies prove the benefits of prayer and religious faith, these same researchers cast about trying to explain away the reality of divine intervention—to “psychologize” the power of God.

How to Save Your Family By Affirming Your Family’s Dependence on God

What scientists miss—and what our culture increasingly denies—is that God is real. He’s a person who loves and cares for us. Our concerns are his concerns, right down to the anger we feel or the disasters and triumphs of our day. He cares whether those He loves find new jobs, perform well in a school play, or survive the next deployment to Afghanistan. He cares about his children’s smallest sniffle just as much as a life-threatening cancer.

Prayer “works” because God hears us and responds in love. God—not positive psychology and the power of “good thoughts”—can change our hearts and transform our lives.

But as our culture becomes ever more technical, it’s also becoming relentlessly secular. Science and technology rank higher than God, it seems.

It’s time to reaffirm to our children our belief in the supremacy of God and our dependence on God, our Creator. In practical terms, it’s time to turn our hearts to Him in prayer.

After all, now we know… prayer beats positive thinking any day.

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The Best Homemade Tomato Cages - Organic Gardening - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

2011-04-06T19:19:00.000-07:00

The Best Homemade Tomato Cages - Organic Gardening - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

The Best Homemade Tomato Cages

By Jennifer Kongs

You’ll enjoy a bigger tomato harvest if you use stakes or tomato cages to help your plants grow vertically, saving space in the garden while keeping fruits off the ground, preventing rot. Store-bought tomato cages tend to be flimsy and too small. For a sturdier option, consider building your own. We think these four plans are especially good choices for creating durable, low-cost tomato cages. Find the best fit for your garden and start building! (The cost estimates for each design are based on current prices from Lowe’s and Tractor Supply Co.)
Livestock Panel Trellis

Rigid metal livestock panels (sold at farm stores) make a strong, durable trellis. Simply stand up the panels and attach them to steel T-posts, and you’re on your way to your own wall of tomatoes (see illustration). Livestock panels typically come in 16-foot lengths, but with a pair of bolt cutters or a hacksaw, you can cut them to whatever length you want.

As the tomatoes grow, weave the plants between the openings of the panel for better support. You can use the panels for other crops, including beans, cucumbers and peas. You can even bend the panels to make a trellised archway, which you can cover with plastic for use as a cheap greenhouse or livestock shelter.

Supplies:

* One 16-foot livestock panel
* Steel T-posts (use one for about every 4 to 6 feet of panel)

Estimated cost: about $2 per tomato plant (assumes four T-posts, plus $20 for a 16-foot panel, with 18 tomato plants spaced 2 feet apart on both sides)

Complete instructions: See Vertical Gardening Techniques for Maximum Returns.
Folding Wooden Tomato Cages

These tall, wooden tomato cages (see illustration) add a beautiful vertical accent to your garden and are strong enough to support a bumper tomato crop. They also work well with other vining crops. To construct a cage, build two tomato “ladders,” with three rungs and a brace to stabilize the sides against strong winds. Connect the two ladders at the top with a piece of scrap wood, which you can easily remove to fold the ladders for storage at the end of the season.

Supplies:

* Six 1-by-3-inch wooden pieces measuring about 8 feet long
* One 8-inch 2-by-4
* Two 3-inch deck screws
* About 30 1 1⁄2-inch galvanized deck screws

Estimated cost: about $20 per cage (less if you use recycled materials , or maybe saplings)

Complete instructions: See Woody’s Folding Tomato Cages.
Wire Mesh Tomato Cages

Constructing cages from 4- or 5-foot-wide concrete reinforcing wire (see illustration) is quick and simple — and the materials are cheap, which makes these cages an especially good choice if you’re growing on a large scale. They’re also a good bet for people with little DIY experience, because the only tool you’ll need to put them together is a pair of wire cutters.

Concrete wire mesh is stiffer than most other fence wire, and its openings are large enough that you can easily reach through to pick the tomatoes. Cut sections about 5 to 6 feet long to form circular cages 19 to 23 inches in diameter. To make storage easier, vary the diameters so that two or three cages will nest together, one inside the other.

These lightweight cages will blow over easily unless you stake them, so anchor them firmly to the ground with steel T-posts. You can extend your growing season by wrapping each cage with plastic or row cover. This type of tomato cage also works well as a trellis for cucumbers, beans and other vining crops.

Supplies:

* Rolls of 6-by-6-inch concrete reinforcing wire mesh
* Steel T-posts

Estimated cost: about $8 per cage (based on making 30 cages from a 150-foot roll of concrete mesh, with one steel post per cage)

Complete instructions: See Using Wire Mesh in the Garden.
The Indestructible Tomato Cage

This cage earns the name “indestructible” because it’s made of sturdy plastic pipes (see illustration), which are easy to work with and won’t rot or rust. To construct these cages, drill three sets of corresponding holes in each of three equal lengths of plastic pipe. Form the cages by placing horizontal metal rods (electrical conduit) through holes in the plastic uprights. Make sure the plastic pipes have a large enough diameter to hold the metal conduit you use. The metal crossbars can be removed at the end of the season, making breakdown a breeze and requiring minimal storage space. A bonus: By pouring water into the tops of the vertical pipes, you can deliver moisture directly to your plants’ roots — where they need it most — without providing surface water to competing weeds.

To make drilling the holes in the plastic pipes easier, MOTHER EARTH NEWS contributing editor Steve Maxwell recommends using a step bit. “As the name suggests, a step bit is shaped into a series of steps and designed for use drilling thin metal,” he says. “They also happen to work really well on plastic. Because each level is incrementally larger, they go into the surfaces gently, with little chance of grabbing and splitting.”

Supplies:

* Three 4-foot (or longer) pieces of 3-inch diameter plastic pipe
* 15 feet of electrical conduit

Estimated cost: about $25 per cage

Complete instructions: See Our Indestructable Tomato Cage.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/print-article.aspx?id=2147493659#ixzz1IneangFW

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11 things you should buy organic on Shine

2011-04-06T05:38:00.000-07:00

11 things you should buy organic on Shine

11 things you should buy organic

By Sara Reistad-Long

By now, we all know there’s a benefit to buying some stuff organic. But these days you’re faced with the option of getting everything organic—from fruits and veggies to mattresses and clothing. You want to do right by your body, for sure, but going the all-natural route en masse can be pricey.

So we wondered: What’s really essential for our health? That’s why we came up with this definitive list. Here's what should be in your cart—and what you don’t have to worry about.

Beef
You’ve probably read plenty of stories about the risks of eating chicken. But the most important protein to buy organic may well be beef. "Research suggests a strong connection between some of the hormones given to cattle and cancer in humans, particularly breast cancer," says Samuel Epstein, MD, professor emeritus of environmental and occupational medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. Specifically, the concern is that the estrogen-like agents used on cattle could increase your cancer risk, adds Ted Schettler, MD, science director at the Science and Environmental Health Network.

Though there are strong regulations about the use of hormones in cattle, "not all beef producers are following those regulations strictly, and some studies continue to find hormone residue in cattle," Dr. Schettler says. When you buy beef that’s been certified organic by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), you’re not only cutting out those hormones, you’re also avoiding the massive doses of antibiotics cows typically receive, which the USDA says may lead to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in people.

Health.com: 10 types of food that can make you sick

Strawberries
Strawberries may be a superfood—but they pose a potential risk unless you go organic. In addition to having up to 13 pesticides detected on the fruit, according to an Environmental Working Group (EWG) analysis, conventional "strawberries have a large surface area and all those tiny bumps, which makes the pesticides hard to wash off, so you’re ingesting more of those chemicals," explains Marion Nestle, PhD, a professor of nutrition and public health at New York University and author of What to Eat.

If you can, also skip conventional peaches, apples, blueberries, and cherries, which are typically treated with multiple pesticides and usually eaten skins-on.

Cookware
Your pots and pans are just as crucial to upgrade as the food you cook in them: "Most nonstick cookware contains a fluorochemical called PTFE that breaks down to form toxic fumes when overheated," says Olga Naidenko, PhD, a senior scientist at the EWG. "Those fumes can coat the inside of the lungs and cause allergy-like symptoms."

Tests commissioned by the EWG showed that in just two to five minutes on a conventional stove top, cookware coated with nonstick surfaces could exceed temperatures at which the coating emits toxic gases. Switch to stainless steel, ceramic, or cast iron cookware.

Health.com: 11 kitchen tools that keep you thin

Popcorn
The linings of microwave-popcorn bags may contain a toxic chemical called perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, which is used to prevent the food from sticking to the paper. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), PFOA is a likely carcinogen. "We don’t know all of the hazardous effects of PFOA yet, but we have some evidence of a link to cancer, as well as to effects on the immune, nervous, and endocrine systems," says David Carpenter, MD, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany.

Pick up an air-popper or make your popcorn in a pan on the stove top.

Yard pesticides
Some lawn and garden pesticides contain suspected carcinogens, according to EPA data. Long-term pesticide exposure may be related to changes in the brain and nervous system, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center reports. "Not only are you breathing the chemicals in, but you bring them indoors and onto carpets via your shoes," says McKay Jenkins, PhD, a journalism professor at the University of Delaware and author of What’s Gotten Into Us?

Healthier brands like BurnOut and EcoClear are made from vinegar and lemon juice, and are effective weed-killers.

Heatlh.com: 10 dirty fruits and vegetables

All-purpose home cleaners
Time for spring-cleaning? Using common household cleaners may expose you to potentially harmful chemicals. Ammonia and chlorine bleach can irritate the skin, eyes, and respiratory tract. And some cleaners contain phthalates, some of which are endocrine disruptors, meaning they interfere with normal hormone activity, says EWG senior scientist Becky Sutton, PhD.

Although there’s no definitive proof that phthalates cause problems in humans, "the greatest concern is how early-life exposure will affect male [reproductive] development," Dr. Carpenter says. There’s weaker evidence, he adds, that phthalates affect the nervous and immune systems. Go natural with the cleaner you use the most frequently and in the most places, such as kitchen-counter spray—look for brands approved by Green Seal or EcoLogo, two organizations that identify products that have met environmental label guidelines.

Health.com: Green guide to cleaning

Water bottles
You’ve probably heard that many hard, reusable plastic water bottles could be bad for you because they may contain BPA, or bisphenol A, another endocrine disruptor according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

"For adults, the biggest concern with BPA is that it may increase the risk of breast cancer in women and reduce sperm counts in men," says Dr. Carpenter, who explains that BPA can leach out into the water in the bottle. To be safe, sip from an unlined stainless steel or BPA-free plastic bottle.

Food-storage containers
BPA strikes again: Many food-storage containers are made of the hard, clear polycarbonate plastic that may contain BPA. As is the case with water bottles, the BPA can leach out of the plastic in these containers and seep into your leftovers.

Health.com: Studies report more harmful effects from BPA

"The leaching is increased during heating, but it also leaches to a smaller degree even when cold foods are stored," Dr. Carpenter explains. Glass containers are your safest—not to mention planet-friendly—bet. Both Rubbermaid (at left) and Pyrex make glass ones with BPA-free plastic lids.

Milk
The milk you’re drinking may not be doing your body good: Dairy products account for a reported 60 to 70 percent of the estrogens we consume through our food. If that seems like a shockingly large number, it’s mainly because milk naturally contains hormones passed along from cows. What worries some experts is that about 17% of dairy cows are treated with the hormone rBST (or rBGH), which stimulates milk production by increasing circulating levels of another hormone called insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1).

"Elevated levels of IGF-1 in people are associated with an increased risk of cancer, including breast cancer," Dr. Schettler explains. In fact, the use of rBGH is banned in Europe and Canada. Although research has yet to definitively conclude whether drinking rBGH-treated milk increases your IGF-1 levels high enough to cause concern, Dr. Schettler says it’s advisable to buy milk that hasn’t been treated with it. So pick up milk that’s labeled rBGH-free, rBST-free, or is produced without artificial hormones.

Health.com: 11 healthy milk shakes and smoothies

Celery
When researchers at the EWG analyzed 89,000 produce-pesticide tests to determine the most contaminated fruits and vegetables, celery topped the chart. "In terms of the sheer number of chemicals, it was the worst," says Sonya Lunder, senior analyst at the EWG. Celery stalks are very porous, so they retain the pesticides they’re sprayed with—up to 13 of them, according to the EWG analysis. Lunder also advises buying organic bell peppers, spinach and potatoes because they scored high for pesticides, as well.

Tomato sauce
When picking up tomato sauce or paste, choose the glass jar or box over the can. "The lining on the inside of food cans that’s used to protect against corrosion and bacteria may contain BPA," explains Cheryl Lyn Walker, PhD, a professor of carcinogenesis at MD Anderson Cancer Center and past president of the Society of Toxicology.

In 2009, Consumer Reports tested BPA levels in a variety of canned foods and found it in nearly all of the brands tested, suggesting that the chemical leaked in. "What can happen is that BPA in the lining can leach into the food," Walker explains.

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11 Emergency Food Items That Can Last a Lifetime | Before It's News

2011-04-05T09:27:00.000-07:00

11 Emergency Food Items That Can Last a Lifetime | Before It's News

Did you know that with proper storage techniques, you can have a lifetime supply of certain foods? Certain foods can stand the test of time, and continue being a lifeline to the families that stored it. Knowing which foods last indefinitely and how to store them are you keys to success.

The best way to store food for the long term is by using a multi-barrier system. This system protects the food from natural elements such as moisture and sunlight, as well as from insect infestations.

Typically, those who store bulk foods look for inexpensive items that have multi-purposes and will last long term. Listed below are 11 food items that are not only multi-purpose preps, but they can last a lifetime!

Honey

Honey never really goes bad. In a tomb in Egypt 3,000 years ago, honey was found and was still edible. If there are temperature fluctuations and sunlight, then the consistency and color can change. Many honey harvesters say that when honey crystallizes, then it can be re-heated and used just like fresh honey. Because of honey’s low water content, microorganisms do not like the environment.

Uses: curing, baking, medicinal, wine (mead)

Salt

Although salt is prone to absorbing moisture, it’s shelf life is indefinite. This indispensable mineral will be a valuable commodity in a long term disaster and will be a essential bartering item.

Uses: curing, preservative, cooking, cleaning, medicinal, tanning hides

Sugar

Life would be so boring without sugar. Much like salt, sugar is also prone to absorbing moisture, but this problem can be eradicated by adding some rice granules into the storage container.

Uses: sweetener for beverages, breads, cakes, preservative, curing, gardening, insecticide (equal parts of sugar and baking powder will kill cockroaches).

Wheat

Wheat is a major part of the diet for over 1/3 of the world. This popular staple supplies 20% of daily calories to a majority of the world population. Besides being a high carbohydrate food, wheat contains valuable protein, minerals, and vitamins. Wheat protein, when balanced by other foods that supply certain amino acids such as lysine, is an efficient source of protein.

Uses: baking, making alcohol, livestock feed, leavening agent

Dried corn

Essentially, dried corn can be substituted for any recipe that calls for fresh corn. Our ancestors began drying corn because of it’s short lived season. To extend the shelf life of corn, it has to be preserved by drying it out so it can be used later in the year.

Uses: soups, cornmeal, livestock feed, hominy and grits, heating source (do a search for corn burning fireplaces).

Baking soda

This multi-purpose prep is a must have for long term storage.

Uses: teeth cleaner, household cleaner, dish cleaner, laundry detergent booster, leavening agent for baked goods, tarnish remover

Instant coffee, tea, and cocoa

Adding these to your long term storage will not only add a variety to just drinking water, but will also lift morale. Instant coffee is high vacuum freeze dried. So, as long as it is not introduced to moisture, then it will last. Storage life for all teas and cocoas can be extended by using desiccant packets or oxygen absorbing packets, and by repackaging the items with a vacuum sealing.

Uses: beverages, flavor additions to baked goods

Non-carbonated soft drinks

Although many of us prefer carbonated beverages, over time the sugars break down and the drink flavor is altered. Non-carbonated beverages stand a longer test of time. And, as long as the bottles are stored in optimum conditions, they will last. Non-carbonated beverages include: vitamin water, Gatorade, juices, bottled water.

Uses: beverages, flavor additions to baked goods

White rice

White rice is a major staple item that preppers like to put away because it’s a great source for calories, cheap and has a long shelf life. If properly stored this popular food staple can last 30 years or more.

Uses: breakfast meal, addition to soups, side dishes, alternative to wheat flour

Bouillon products

Because bouillon products contain large amounts of salt, the product is preserved. However, over time, the taste of the bouillon could be altered. If storing bouillon cubes, it would be best repackage them using a food sealer or sealed in mylar bags.

Uses: flavoring dishes

Powdered milk – in nitrogen packed cans

Powdered milk can last indefinitely, however, it is advised to prolong it’s shelf life by either repackaging it for longer term storage, or placing it in the freezer. If the powdered milk developes an odor or has turned a yellowish tint, it’s time to discard.

Uses: beverage, dessert, ingredient for certain breads, addition to soup and baked goods.

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companion planting gardening plants

2011-04-05T05:43:00.000-07:00

companion planting gardening plants

Plant Companions: Friend or Foe?
Plant companions ensure a happy garden--and gardener.
by George and Becky Lohmiller

Source: The 2005 Old Farmer's Almanac
[1]

Credit: Angela Altomare
Related Articles

* Plant Companions: List for Ten Common Vegetables [2]
* Companion Planting: The Three Sisters [3]

It takes more than good soil, sun, and nutrients to ensure success in a garden. Plants have to grow well with one another. Some are friends and some are foes! Learn more about companion planting or what is also called companion gardening.
Examples of Companion Plants

* Blueberries, mountain laurel, azaleas, and other ericaceous (heath family) plants thrive in the acidic soils created by pines and oaks.
* Shade-loving plants seek the shelter provided by a wooded grove.
* The shade-lovers in return protect the forest floor from erosion with their thick tangle of shallow roots.
* Legumes and some trees, such as alders, have symbiotic relationships with bacteria in the soil that help them to capture nitrogen from the air and convert it to fertilizer, enriching the soil so plants can prosper in their presence.

Tips for Your Vegetable Garden

* Some plants, especially herbs, act as repellents, confusing insects with their strong odors that mask the scent of the intended host plants.
* Dill and basil planted among tomatoes protect the tomatoes from hornworms, and sage scattered about the cabbage patch reduces injury from cabbage moths.
* Marigolds are as good as gold when grown with just about any garden plant, repelling beetles, nematodes, and even animal pests.
* Some companions act as trap plants, luring insects to themselves. Nasturtiums, for example, are so favored by aphids that the devastating insects will flock to them instead of other plants.
* Carrots, dill, parsley, and parsnip attract garden heroes -- praying mantises, ladybugs, and spiders -- that dine on insect pests.
* Much of companion planting is common sense: Lettuce, radishes, and other quick-growing plants sown between hills of melons or winter squash will mature and be harvested long before these vines need more leg room.
* Leafy greens like spinach and Swiss chard grown in the shadow of corn
* Sunflowers appreciate the dapple shade that corn casts and, since their roots occupy different levels in the soil, don't compete for water and nutrients.

Incompatible Plants (Combatants)

* While white garlic and onions repel a plethora of pests and make excellent neighbors for most garden plants, the growth of beans and peas is stunted in their presence.
* Potatoes and beans grow poorly in the company of sunflowers, and although cabbage and cauliflower are closely related, they don't like each other at all.

Strange Pairings

Sometimes plants may be helpful to one another only at a certain stage of their growth. The number and ratio of different plants growing together is often a factor in their compatibility, and sometimes plants make good companions for no apparent reason.

* You would assume that keeping a garden weed-free would be a good thing, but this is not always the case. Certain weeds pull nutrients from deep in the soil and bring them close to the surface. When the weeds die and decompose, nutrients become available in the surface soil and are more easily accessed by shallow-rooted plants.
* Perhaps one of the most intriguing examples of strange garden bedfellows is the relationship between the weed stinging nettle and several vegetable varieties. For reasons that are unclear, plants grown in the presence of stinging nettle display exceptional vigor and resist spoiling.

One of the keys to successful companion planting is observation. Record your plant combination's and the results from year to year, and share this information with other gardening friends. Companionship is just as important for gardeners as it is for gardens.

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Exclusive: Malloy's Contingency Plans Call For Cutting An Additional 10 Percent From Agency Budgets In Next Two Years; Preparations If Ongoing Union Talks Fall Apart - Capitol Watch

2011-04-04T15:32:00.000-07:00

Exclusive: Malloy's Contingency Plans Call For Cutting An Additional 10 Percent From Agency Budgets In Next Two Years; Preparations If Ongoing Union Talks Fall Apart - Capitol Watch

As talks with state employee unions have not reached a final deal, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy is asking all agency heads to cut their budgets by an additional 10 percent in each of the next two years.

Malloy is moving ahead with an alternative budget in case the ongoing talks with the unions fall apart. He is seeking $1 billion in savings and concessions in each of the next two years from the unions, and the two sides are trying to reach a deal in the coming weeks.

Malloy is not yet ordering layoffs, which he has threatened to do if the talks collapse. Instead, supervisors are being told that they can save money through attrition.

Benjamin Barnes, Malloy's budget chief, essentially announced the move by sending a memo Monday morning to all agency heads to advise them of the contingency plans.

The memo, obtained by The Hartford Courant's Capitol Watch, says, "All types of reduction options should be considered including program eliminations, facility closures, and savings due to staff reductions such as attrition anticipated by June 30, 2011 that may not have been included in the recommended appropriations for the biennium.''

Since the administration is moving quickly to craft the alternative budget, the reductions from each agency are due at the end of the day on April 13. Malloy is ordering the alternatives for the executive branch, along with asking for similar cuts in the judicial and legislative branches.

The 10 percent cuts by the commissioners would amount to about $150 million per year. That includes only the money that could be saved under the authority of the commissioners and does not include any savings from layoffs and further cuts that could be authorized by the governor.

When asked about the plans, Roy Occhiogrosso, a senior adviser to Malloy, said, "The governor has been very clear that he's been preparing an alternative budget. This is just one piece of that.''

The legislature's budget-writing committee must make their recommendations on the overall budget by April 26, and Malloy is hoping for an overall budget deal by early May. That, however, is a self-imposed deadline, and the current fiscal year does not end until June 30.

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There Is Something Seriously Wrong With This Country

2011-03-31T18:26:00.000-07:00

is over 14 times larger

A List Of 28 Things That Will Make You Think That There Is Something Seriously Wrong With This Country

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 08:51 PM PDT

What in the world is happening to America? Perhaps you have asked yourself that question from time to time. Today it seems like everything is falling apart. Our economy is crumbling, our politicians are incompetent, we have just gotten involved in another war, corruption is everywhere and the Americans people are so addicted to entertainment that hardly anything can wake them from their stupor. It is enough to make you think that there is just not much hope for America. But the truth is that we should never give up. It is when the times are darkest that the greatest heroes arise. We truly do live in challenging times, but that just means that there are great victories to be won and great stories to be written. There may be a whole lot of things that are very wrong with America right now, but that doesn't mean that the game is over quite yet.

Unfortunately, right now most Americans are completely asleep. Just like during the declining years of the Roman Empire, most people that live in the U.S. are spoiled, decadent and completely addicted to entertainment.

The following is how many Americans actually plan their weeks....

Monday: Watch Dancing With The Stars

Tuesday: Watch The Dancing With The Stars Results Show

Wednesday: Watch American Idol

Thursday: Watch The American Idol Results Show

At this point, most people in this country cannot even intelligently discuss the pressing issues of our day.

In fact, 63 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 cannot find Iraq on a map and 90 percent of Americans in that same age group cannot find Afghanistan on a map.

We've got a lot of work to do.

America is in sorry shape and it desperately needs some heroes.

The following is a list of 28 things that will make you really think that there is something seriously wrong with this country....

#1 According to the Economic Policy Institute, almost 25 percent of U.S. households now have zero net worth or negative net worth. Back in 2007, that number was just 18.6 percent.

#2 According to the Pentagon, the cost of the first week of attacks on Libya was 600 million dollars.

#3 The major food producers are shrinking the sizes of their packages so that they won't have to raise prices. The New York Times recently did a story about one woman who was absolutely shocked when she started keeping track of shrinking package sizes at her local supermarket....

Ms. Stauber, 33, said she began inspecting her other purchases, aisle by aisle. Many canned vegetables dropped to 13 or 14 ounces from 16; boxes of baby wipes went to 72 from 80; and sugar was stacked in 4-pound, not 5-pound, bags, she said.

#4 It is being projected that for the first time ever, the OPEC nations are going to bring in over a trillion dollars from exporting oil this year. Their biggest customer is the United States.

#5 According to a recent census report, 13% of all the homes in the United States are sitting empty.

#6 20 percent of all the electricity in the United States is produced by nuclear power plants. Many of those plants are very similar to the damaged reactors at the Fukushima nuclear complex in Japan.

#7 Barack Obama promised us that radiation from the nuclear disaster in Japan would not be a problem in the United States, but already it has shown up in milk in Spokane, Washington.

#8 Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher recently said the following....

"If we continue down on the path on which the fiscal authorities put us, we will become insolvent, the question is when."

Of course the Federal Reserve system was designed to get the U.S. government trapped in perpetual debt so actually he should be blaming himself and his friends over at the Fed.

#9 China produced 19.8 percent of all the goods consumed in the world last year. The United States only produced 19.4 percent.

#10 Back in 2005 at the peak of the housing bubble, the median property tax on a home in the United States was $1614. Today, even though home values have sunk like a rock, that figure has risen to $1917.

#11 In New Jersey, home owners pay an average of $7576 in property taxes every single year.

#12 According to the Federal Reserve, the adjusted monetary base has nearly tripled since mid-2008.

#13 Thanks for all the money printing Bernanke - according to one unofficial estimate, the U.S. in on track to have an 8.3 percent rate of inflation for the year.

#14 According to a recent article posted on the website of the American Institute of Economic Research, the purchasing power of a U.S. dollar declined from $1.00 in 1913 to 4.6 cents in 2009.

#15 The Ogallala Aquifer stretches from South Dakota to Texas, it is the largest underground supply of fresh water in the world, and it is rapidly running dry. So how is "America's breadbasket" going to continue to produce massive amounts of food for the rest of the world once that happens?

#16 The number of homes that were actually repossessed reached the 1 million mark for the first time ever during 2010.

#17 The U.S. industrial base has disintegrated so badly that we could literally export our entire manufacturing output and still not balance our trade with the rest of the globe.

#18 Goldman Sachs almost always wins. According to a recent regulatory filing, Goldman Sachs lost money on just 25 days in 2010 and on only 19 days in 2009.

#19 In 1994, the top 1 percent of all income earners paid 25 percent of all state taxes in New York. Today, the top 1 percent of all income earners pay 41 percent of all state taxes in New York.

#20 The National Institutes of Health has spent approximately $442,340 to study the behavior of male prostitutes in Vietnam.

#21 According to an absolutely stunning recent poll, 40 percent of all U.S. doctors plan to leave the profession at some point during the next three years because of Obamacare.

#22 If the new health care law is so great, then why is the Obama administration allowing so many organizations to opt out of it? According to the Department of Health and Human Services, more than 1,000 organizations have received Obamacare waivers so far.

#23 Large American cattle farms actually feed chicken manure to cattle because it is so cheap and because we produce way too much of it to properly dispose of as fertilizer.

#24 Every single year, Americans spend approximately 7.6 billion hours preparing their taxes.

#25 The IMF says that in order to fix the U.S. government budget deficit, taxes need to be doubled on every single U.S. citizen.

#26 Mandatory federal spending is going to surpass total federal revenue for the first time ever in this fiscal year. That was not supposed to happen until 50 years from now.

#27 Today, the U.S. national debt is over 14 times larger than it was back in 1981.

#28 According to the National Inflation Association, when you factor in the unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government, total federal debt obligations now come to a grand total of 76 trillion dollars.

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2011-03-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

Connecticut News: all is well?

2011-03-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

Well the latest from our beloved Rulers is that They have looked into the recent Levels of radiation falling on us and we have no worries! All is well! Go back to sleep..Like the Good little sheeple you are.. I'm not buying it Malloy!! But since I am joe smoe CT and my thoughts don't count I will just keep preparing myself and my family quietly over here in my own little corner in my own little room. One day the People of Connecticut will either wake up or end up being on the very losing end of their last chance.. Bruce

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GAIACRAFT - HUGELKULTUR LESSON

2011-03-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

GAIACRAFT - HUGELKULTUR LESSON

Hugelkultur: Using Woody Waste in Composting

By kerryg

Hugelkultur is an ancient form of sheet composting developed in Eastern Europe. It uses woody wastes such as fallen logs and pruned branches in order to build soil fertility and improve drainage and moisture retention.

If you walk through a natural woodland, you will see many fallen logs and branches on the ground. The older these logs are, the more life they sustain. A log that has rested on the forest floor for five or ten years will be covered in moss, mushrooms, wildflowers and even young trees. Poke at it a little and you will notice that the decaying wood is damp in all but the most vicious of droughts.

Hugelkultur is designed to take advantage of the natural fertility and moisture-conserving qualities of rotting wood, while speeding the process of decomposition up. The heat produced by decomposition also helps protect cold-sensitive plants.
Mushrooms on a rotting log. Photo by tacomabibelot.
How to Build a Hugelkultur Bed

1. Gather woody waste materials such as dead logs, extra firewood, pruned or clipped branches, and more. The wood can be either rotting or fresh, although already rotting wood decomposes fastest.
2. Lay the wood in a mound about 1-2 feet high and stomp on it a bit to break it up. You can dig a trench to lay the wood in, if you wish.
3. Cover the wood with other compost materials such as autumn leaves, grass clippings, garden wastes, and manure. (This stage is optional if you aren't planning to plant the bed immediately.)
4. Cover the wood and compost with a few inches of dirt and/or prepared compost.

You can either let the bed sit for awhile to rot, or plant it immediately. Among the plants known to do well in hugelkultur beds are potatoes, squash, melons, and a number of different species of berries. Other gardeners plant the bed with cover crops for the first year to improve the fertility even more before adding vegetables or other plants.

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Seed-starting Basics

2011-03-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

Seed-starting Basics

Seed-starting Basics
By Nancy Bubel
After the warmth of holiday gatherings and festivities, planning for spring comforts us in the cold, short days of winter. Apart from the satisfying process of nurturing little green seedlings under your roof, practical reasons exist to start some of your seeds indoors. First, well-established young plants will produce earlier, thus giving you a longer picking season. In Northern states, such as Pennsylvania, where I live, we start heat-loving, long-season crops such as okra and eggplant indoors if we are to expect anything from them before Labor Day.
Second, many of us routinely start garden plants indoors — rather than buying seedlings from a nursery — to take advantage of special varieties available only from seed companies. Whatever your requirements — tomatoes for drying, storage or exceptional flavor; white eggplants; seedless watermelons; long-keeping cabbage; hot peppers; slow-bolting lettuces — these and many more vegetables with special qualities can be yours if you grow the plants from seed.
Unless you have a greenhouse or a large bank of fluorescent lights, you’ll want to be selective about the varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers you start at home. Pick ones that will benefit the most from an early start. Given space for only a few, I’d choose tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and cabbage; basil and parsley; and snapdragons and dahlias from the “Spring Indoor Seed-starting Guide.”
Several others, including beets, Brussels sprouts and Chinese cabbage, don’t necessarily need a head start indoors, but I have done so on occasion. Beets need to be thinned, and they are sensitive to toxins in the soil. Brussels sprouts reach their best flavor in fall from spring planting. If you start Chinese cabbage early, sow it in individual pots because transplanting sometimes can make it bolt to seed prematurely.
The following vegetables are not usually recommended for indoor seed sowing: asparagus, snap beans, lima beans, carrots, corn, endive (best in fall from spring outdoor sowing), parsnips (best eaten in fall), radishes, spinach (seeds germinate well in cool soil), soybeans, Swiss chard and turnips. Herbs that fit in this category include dill, cilantro and summer savory.
HOW TO BEGIN
Your seed orders have arrived and you’re ready to plant. First, gather your containers. These can be special seed-starting flats, cubes or other systems ordered from a catalog; flats made from scrap wood; or a cobbled-together assortment of cut-down milk cartons, used aluminum pans, chipped pots, cottage cheese tubs, etc.
Like many gardeners, I used a motley collection of wooden flats, purchased trays and household discards when I had a home greenhouse with plenty of space. Now, my plant-starting space is more limited, so my system consists of one or two 10-row, commercially made plastic flats — rather flimsy things with narrow, three-fourths-inch-wide rows. Each flat is set into a 12-by-22-inch plastic tray; the 10-row flats are perforated but the trays are not. Soon after the seeds germinate, I transplant the seedlings into individual cells in four-, six- or eight-cell market packs saved from nursery purchases and donated by friends.
With this system, I can plant 20 kinds of tomatoes by putting a cardboard separator in the center of each row, and because the sections are small, I waste less seed as I’m not tempted to overplant.
Homemade scrap wood flats can be any size that fits your available space, with two exceptions: Not too large or they’ll be too heavy to lift when full of soil, and no more than 2 to 3 inches deep. Deeper flats waste potting soil, and too-shallow ones limit root development and dry out prematurely. Leave one-eighth-inch spaces between the slats on the bottom of a homemade flat to allow for drainage. I usually line mine with several sheets of newspaper to keep soil from washing through the bottom wood strips.
PLANTING MEDIA
Now, fill those containers with growing media that will encourage germination and root growth. Because seeds need only moisture, warmth and air to germinate, they can be started in nutrient-free materials such as vermiculite, shredded moss (not peat moss, which is hard to moisten and tends to crust when dry, but moss collected from the woods) or a mixture of equal parts vermiculite, moss and perlite. Vermiculite is mica that has been superheated to the point of expanding into flaky granules; sometimes, it contains small amounts of naturally occurring asbestos, so keep it damp and use it outdoors. Perlite is heat-expanded volcanic rock.
Today, the easiest plan for me is just to plant seeds in purchased potting soil. In the past, I’ve used a wide variety of homemade media. Here are three recipes that work well, especially for use as growing media for transplanted seedlings:
• A mixture of equal parts screened finished compost and vermiculite.
• A mixture of equal parts finished compost; commercial potting soil; and perlite, vermiculite or sharp sand, or a mixture of all three. Use coarse builder’s sand; avoid seashore sand, which usually is too fine and packs too densely, consequently offering less room for air.
• For a completely homegrown mixture, I’ve used equal parts compost, good garden soil (both screened) and torn moss gathered in our woods.
Fill your planting containers with whatever germinating medium you’ve chosen, gently firm the surface and water it so the medium is thoroughly moistened but not soggy. Use warm water for quick absorption. If you water after planting your seeds, you will wash them into corners or, in the case of tiny seeds, bury them too deeply.
Next, plant your seeds. Place them on the damp soil surface, no closer than one-fourth inch for tiny seeds and half to two-thirds inch for larger ones. Scatter a thin covering of soil over the seeds or just press in those that need sunlight to germinate (see the “Spring Indoor Seed-starting Guide”). Gently firm the seeds and soil in place. Then, before you do anything else, label the flat or row in a 10-row flat with the variety name and planting date.
You’ve given your seeds two of the conditions they need to germinate: moisture and supportive surroundings rich in air spaces. They need no nourishment until they sprout; in fact, soil with too much organic matter can produce an overabundance of carbon dioxide that can deter germination of some seeds.
Now you need to provide the warmth that most seeds need to encourage sprouting. Most homes have warm spots — the top of the water heater, near a radiator or heat vent, close to a woodstove — that will help nurse planted seeds to germination. If your house is cool or those sites are impractical, you can put a commercially made soil-heating cable under your flats.
Water the containers as needed to keep them evenly moist but not sopping wet. Bottom watering, by setting the containers in trays of warm water, is best for two reasons: The seeds are less likely to be flooded, and you’ll avoid surface puddling of water, a sure invitation to soilborne diseases.
Most of the seeds you’re likely to plant indoors will germinate best at temperatures between 75 and 90 degrees. I often cover flats of planted seeds with damp newspapers, but I have learned not to enclose them in plastic bags, which encourage mold. Flats of quick-sprouting plants, such as lettuce, should be checked daily or at least every other day. Once a sprout nudges above the soil surface, even if it is just the “elbow” of a stem — not yet a leaf — expose the seedling to light. Those that lack sufficient light or that grow too closely together develop long, spindly, weak stems.
TECHNIQUES
You’ll notice that the first leaves — the “seed leaves” — of the new, little sprout are less notched and differentiated than the leaves that will appear later. Let the plant subsist on its seed leaves for a few days before you consider transplanting it to a larger container so the roots can develop more fully. You can wait to transplant until the seedling develops its first true leaves, but get the job done before the second set of true leaves appears. If the seedlings are growing too thickly in their germinating flat, then you can thin them by snipping off the extras with scissors, but don’t pull them. Pulling out the excess can disturb the roots of adjacent seedlings if the plants are crowded and developing well.
Why transplant? For one thing, your young plants now need richer soil, especially if they have sprouted in a soilless medium such as vermiculite. If for any reason you leave seedlings growing in a soilless medium (as some gardeners do), you’ll need to feed them a weekly dose of diluted plant fertilizer, such as fish emulsion. Then, seedlings generally need more room to grow than they have in their sprouting containers, especially in 10-row flats. Transplanting stimulates the growth of more feeder roots and gives you an opportunity to select and nurture the strongest seedlings in the batch.
Here’s how to transplant. First, prepare your new containers — cell packs, flower pots, larger flats, etc. — by filling them with loose, clean, new potting soil. (I do reuse potting soil but only for potting up mature plants and bulbs.) Next, prick out your chosen seedlings one by one. Use a slender digging instrument such as a plastic knife, fork handle, ice cream stick or old screwdriver to gently nudge the young plant out of its bed, taking care to retain as many roots as possible. Handle the stem gently to avoid bruising it. Immediately settle the seedling in its new position, at a depth similar to or slightly deeper than its depth in the sprouting medium. Spread the roots out as much as possible and firm the soil gently over them. Now water the young plant well to settle it in and help it compensate for any root damage suffered in transplanting.
NURTURING THE SEEDLING
Seedlings transplanted into shallow flats or cell packs may dry out faster than those transplanted directly into the garden, so check them daily and water when the soil feels dry, about every three to five days. For those in shallow flats or cell packs, bottom watering is ideal, though messy if you have many wooden flats. My cell packs in shallow plastic trays are easy to bottom water simply by pouring water into the tray. Provide enough water to soak the whole container, but remove or elevate the containers on pebbles if excess water remains in the trays for a day. Waterlogged soil loses vital air spaces and can cause roots to rot.
If your transplants are in a nutrient-containing medium such as a commercial potting soil, they won’t need fertilizer for at least 10 days. At that time, use a half-strength dilution for young seedlings and feed them about every 10 to 14 days until you plant them out. Go easy on the fertilizer if plants receive a less-than-ideal amount of light, as they would if confined to a windowsill.
Most seedlings need less warmth than germinating seeds. A temperature of between 60 and 70 degrees is fine, down to 50 degrees for lettuce and parsley. Young plants forced to make do with inadequate light should not be kept too warm; they will stay stockier and greener during short winter days when not overheated.
Sixteen hours of light a day is ideal, and you’ll need to use fluorescent lights to provide this much light in the winter. Perhaps you can set up lights on an enclosed porch, or in a basement or spare room. My setup is simple: two sets of double 48-inch tubes topped by metal reflector shades and hung on chains above a counter in the basement. Sometimes I keep the lights on day and night, rotating my seedling collection so each tray receives 13 hours of light daily.
Plants need darkness, too, to use absorbed nutrients for new growth. For most efficient use of the lights, keep the tubes clean and position the plants so their leaves are close to the tubes — no more than 4 inches away. To reflect more light onto the plants, prop mirrors, white glossy boards or pieces of cardboard covered with aluminum foil next to the lights. Special plant-growing lights, with wavelengths especially suited to the purpose, are very effective. I’ve also had good results using one cool-white and one warm-white tube in pairs. (See “Use the Right Light for Seed-Starting Success” for more information on using grow lights. — MOTHER)
DISEASES
The most common disease of young seedlings is damping-off, caused by a fungus that thrives in wet, poorly ventilated places. The main symptom is unmistakable: When an otherwise healthy, green-leafed young plant falls over, you’ll notice the stem at soil level looks pinched.
Prevention is easier than curing: From the start, provide good air circulation and avoid overwatering. Also, top off the soil surfaces around the seedlings with milled sphagnum moss, which contains beneficial bacteria known to inhibit certain plant diseases. If only a few seedlings in a batch are affected, you can sometimes save the rest by removing the affected seedlings, improving drainage and air circulation, and spraying the survivors with chamomile or garlic tea.
HARDENING OFF, PLANTING OUT
It’s a week or two before the safe planting-out date (see map) for your hardier seedlings — first onions, then lettuce, parsley and the cabbage family. It’s time to toughen your new plants to withstand the harsher outdoor conditions. Do this by watering less, keeping them a bit cooler and not fertilizing. Hardening off takes a week or so; it’s when you first set your plants outside but before you put them in the ground. At first, give them a half-day in a sheltered place, gradually work up to full sun and, if a frost warning is issued, cover your tender young plants at night.
The ideal planting-out day is cloudy and damp. As you set each plant in its hole in the ground, water it in and then cover the roots with fine loose soil — never with rough chunks of ground or mud. On a bright, sunny day, you might want to cover the seedlings with berry baskets or a span of fabric row cover for shade.
Now that your weeks of careful tending have produced healthy new plants, let yourself gloat a bit. You and your plants have grown into spring, and more good days lie ahead.

— Former Mother Earth News editor Nancy Bubel is the author of The New Seed Starters Handbook. To order, see Page 110 or go to Mother Earth Shopping.

THE AWESOME SEED
Take a moment to consider those seeds you’re about to plant: those flakes, wisps, grains, orbs and particles. No matter how tiny — and some flower seeds are as fine as dust — each seed is a living entity. Within a protective outer coat, the seed contains an embryo that will grow into a seedling, a supply of stored nutrients along with enzymes that convert the stored food into a usable form, and genetic directions for its development. And yes, seeds even “breathe” — that is, they take in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide. When seeds are planted in warm, moist soil, they absorb water, thus activating enzymes that start the sprouting process. Seeds are programmed to grow; we just help them along.

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Best Garden Seed Companies

2011-03-25T12:47:00.000-07:00

Best Garden Seed Companies

Best Garden Seed Companies

By Tabitha Alterman

Whether your garden is frozen over or your first freeze is yet to arrive, it's never too early to start dreaming about next year's garden. If you set aside a little time this winter to plan what to grow next year, you'll be rewarded with an early start come spring. Plus, you can make your green thumb even greener just by reading seed catalogs. New gardeners, especially, should read seed catalogs to learn about fruit and veggie varieties that are naturally pest- and disease-resistant, are fabulously prolific, or offer superior flavor and nutrition. It's also a good way to introduce yourself to under appreciated but fun-to-grow fruits and veggies such as kohlrabi and mouse melons.

Lucky for us, it's easier than ever to find healthy garden seeds that were grown organically and come from solid, open-pollinated stock. Even some of the largest seed companies are beginning to offer a wider selection of organic, non-hybrid, and non-chemically-treated seeds. When possible, order garden seeds from companies based in your area. Their varieties are more likely to be well adapted to your soil and climate. The following seed companies (organized by state; skip to the end for Canadian listings) have a great selection of open-pollinated and organic vegetable and herb seeds, and you'll learn a lot from their informative catalogs. Their extensive offerings are available online and/or via traditional print catalogs. For help finding even more seed sources, check out our handy tool, the customized Seed and Plant Finder.
Seed Companies By State

ALABAMA

Sand Mountain Herbs (Fyffe, Ala.)

ARIZONA

Native Seeds / SEARCH (Tucson, Ariz.)

Seeds Trust (Cornville, Ariz.)

CALIFORNIA

Bountiful Gardens (Willits, Calif.)

J. L. Hudson, Seedsman (LaHonda, Calif.)

Laurel's Heirloom Tomato Plants (Lomita, Calif.)

Mountain Valley Growers (Squaw Valley, Calif.)

Natural Gardening Co. (Petaluma, Calif.)

Ornamental Edibles (San Jose, Calif.)

Peaceful Valley Farm Supply (Grass Valley, Calif.)

Redwood City Seeds (Redwood City, Calif.)

Renee's Garden (Felton, Calif.)

COLORADO

Botanical Interests (Broomfield, Colo.)

Golden Harvest Organics (Fort Collins, Colo.)

The Garlic Store (Fort Collins, Colo.)

CONNECTICUT

Comstock, Ferre & Co. (Wethersfield, Conn.)

John Sheeper's Kitchen Garden Seeds (Bantam, Conn.)

New England Seed (Hartford, Conn.)

FLORIDA

Eden Organic Nursery Services (E.O.N.S.) (Hallandale, Fla.)

The Gourmet Gardener (Live Oak, Fla.)

The Pepper Gal (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.)

Tomato Growers Supply Co. (Fort Myers, Fla.)

ILLINOIS

American Organic Seed & Grain (Warren, Ill.)

Underwood Gardens (Woodstock, Ill.)

INDIANA

Great Harvest Organics (Atlanta, Ind.)

The Chile Woman (Bloomington, Ind.)

IOWA

Blue River Organic Seed (Kelley, Iowa)

Mark Seed Co. (Perry, Iowa)

Sand Hill Preservation Center (Calamus, Iowa)

Seed Savers Exchange (Decorah, Iowa)

KANSAS

Pendleton's Country Market (Lawrence, Kan.)

Skyfire Garden Seeds (Kanopolis, Kan.)

KENTUCKY

Ferry-Morse Seed Company (Fulton, Ky.)

Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center (Berea, Ky.)

MAINE

FEDCO Seeds (Waterville, Maine)

Johnny's Selected Seeds (Winslow, Maine)

Pinetree Garden Seeds (New Gloucester, Maine)

Wood Prairie Farm (Bridgewater, Maine)

MARYLAND

Pepper Joe's (Timonium, Md.)

MICHIGAN

Krohne Plant Farms, Inc. (Hartford, Mich.)

MINNESOTA

Albert Lea Seed House (Albert Lea, Minn.)

MISSOURI

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds (Mansfield, Mo.)

Granny's Heirloom Seeds (Humansville, Mo.)

Pantry Garden Herbs (Cleveland, Mo.)

NEW HAMPSHIRE

G & H Garlic Farm (Littleton, N. H.)

NEW JERSEY

Thompson & Morgan (Jackson, N.J.)

NEW MEXICO

Gourmet Seed International (Tatum, N.M.)

Plants of the Southwest (Santa Fe and Albuquerque, N.M.)

Seeds of Change (Santa Fe, N.M.)

Seeds West Garden Seeds (Albuquerque, N.M.)

NEW YORK

Harris Seeds (Rochester, N.Y.)

Seedway (Hall, N.Y.)

Stokes Seeds Inc. (Buffalo, N.Y.)

Turtle Tree Seed (Copake, N.Y.)

NORTH CAROLINA

Appalachian Seeds (Flat Rock, N.C.)

Cornerstone Garlic Farm (Reidsville, N. C.)

OHIO

Bobba-Mike's Garlic Farm (Orrville, Ohio)

OREGON

Abundant Life Seeds (Saginaw, Ore.)

Horizon Herbs (Williams, Ore.)

Nichols Garden Nursery (Albany, Ore.)

One Green World (Molalla, Ore.)

Sow Organic Seed (Williams, Ore.)

Territorial Seed Co. (Cottage Grove, Ore.)

The Thyme Garden Herb Company (Alsea, Ore.)

Victory Seed Company (Molalla, Ore.)

Wild Garden Seed (Philomath, Ore.)

PENNSYLVANIA

Container Seeds (Wellsboro, Penn.)

Heirloom Seeds (W. Elizabeth, Penn.)

The Cook's Garden (Warminster, Penn.)

W. Atlee Burpee Co.(Warminster, Penn.)

SOUTH CAROLINA

Park Seed Co. (Greenwood, S.C.)

R. H. Shumway's (Graniteville, S.C.)

Seeds for the South (Graniteville, S.C.)

TENNESSEE

Marianna's Heirloom Seeds (Dickson, Tenn.)

New Hope Seed Company (Bon Aqua, Tenn.)

TEXAS

Garden Store-N-More (LaPorte, Tex.)

Willhite Seed Inc. (Poolville, Tex.)

Bob Wells Nursery (Lindale, Tex.)

Brown's Omaha Plant Farms (Omaha, Tex.)

Dixondale Farms (Carrizo Springs, Tex.)

VERMONT

High Mowing Organic Seeds (Wolcott, Vt.)

VIRGINIA

Garden Medicinals and Culinaries (Earlysville, Va.)

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (Mineral, Va.)

WASHINGTON

Filaree Farm (Okanogan, Wash.)

Garden City Seeds (Ellensburg, Wash.)

Osborne Seed Company (Mount Vernon, Wash.)

WISCONSIN

Botanikka Seeds (Iron Ridge, Wis.)

Totally Tomatoes (Randolf, Wis.)

Vermont Bean Seed Co. (Randolph, Wis.)

Seed Companies in Canada

Boundary Garlic Farm (Midway, British Columbia)

Gardeners Web (Bowden, Alberta)

Hole's Greenhouses & Gardens (St. Albert, Alberta)

Salt Spring Seeds (Salt Spring Island, British Columbia)

Stellar Seeds (Sorrento, British Columbia)

West Coast Seeds (Delta, British Columbia)

William Dam Seeds (Dundas, Ontario)

Richter's (Goodwood, Ontario)

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Easiest Vegetables to Grow - Ask Our Experts Blog - Organic Gardening

2011-03-25T12:44:00.000-07:00

Easiest Vegetables to Grow - Ask Our Experts Blog - Organic Gardening

Easiest Vegetables to Grow
1/26/2011 9:43:35 AM
By Barbara Pleasant
Tags: vegetables, garden, first garden

Easiest Vegetables to Grow AOEI’m ready to garden! What are the best crops for me to grow in my first garden?

To guarantee the success of your first garden, stick with the easy vegetables listed here, which grow well in minimally improved soil. (Over time, you can improve your soil by adding organic fertilizers and compost.)

Begin planting your first garden in early spring, about four weeks before your average last frost. Locate information this information in Know When to Plant What: Find Your Average Last Spring Frost Date.

In early spring, kick off the season with these easy-to-grow vegetables and herbs:

* Salad mix, aka mesclun, is a seed blend of lettuces and other salad-worthy greens. Buy two packets — one that’s mostly lettuce and another that includes mustards, kales or escaroles so you can learn how all these greens grow. Sow small patches of each mix, and then plant a little more a few weeks later. Save your leftover seed in the fridge and plant it in late summer for a lush fall crop.
* Perennial herbs such as thyme and sage are easy to grow, and they come back each year. Purchase starts, which are grown from cuttings of superior varieties.
* Potatoes grow from sprouting spuds, and you can grow only one or two plants and get good yields. In your first garden, try planting a few small, organic potatoes purchased at the store.

In late spring, plant these vegetables after your last frost has passed:

* Bush or pole beans (collectively called green beans) are a top crop for any first garden because they adapt to a wide range of soil types.
* Tomatoes are a garden favorite, but for your first year I suggest starting with only two types — a cherry, such as ‘Sweet 100’ or ‘Sun Gold,’ and a medium-sized slicing tomato, such as ‘Early Girl.’ Wait until next year, when your soil is better and you have some experience, to try large-fruited heirlooms.
* Summer squash can be phenomenally productive, but put in at least three plants to ensure good pollination and fruit set.

In late summer, plant more mesclun and fill other vacant space with arugula or Japanese turnips — two underappreciated gourmet vegetables that will grow like gangbusters until cold weather brings your first garden to a close. Good luck!

— Barbara Pleasant , contributing editor

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Plant a Salad Garden in Fall

2011-03-25T12:42:00.000-07:00

Plant a Salad Garden in Fall
Plant a Salad Garden in Fall

Barbara Pleasant

Easy to grow – and beautiful to boot – salad gardens are easy to love. Lettuce and other salad makings are among the first crops to plant in spring, yet their fondness for cool weather also makes them great encore crops for fall. As a self-confessed salad addict, I often spend $5 a week on ready-to-eat gourmet greens when I can’t get them from my garden – reason enough to work up a little sweat plant-ing a second season salad garden.

It’s a simple project that leads to fast rewards. Clear off a patch of ground in a spot that’s convenient to water, sow some seeds, and a fall salad patch will start spewing out tasty tidbits in only a few weeks.
What to Grow?

The major player in any salad garden is lettuce (Lactuca sativa), which comes in an amazing array of colors and textures. If you have partially used seed packets of lettuce leftover from spring, start with those varieties, because shard-shaped lettuce seeds often lose viability after only a year. Did your spring crop get tall and bitter before you could eat it all? Some of the frilliest lettuce varieties can’t wait to bolt when days are getting longer and warmer in spring, but in the fall garden they hold much longer. If you need to buy lettuce seeds, starting with a mixture of varieties is an effortless way to turn your salad garden into a tapestry of colors and textures. All the mail-order seed companies (See “The Seeds You Need,” Page 58) sell various lettuce blends, often called mesclun, that include a palette of leaf colors and forms.

Spinach makes a great fall salad green, too, and in many climates fall-sown spinach can be left in the garden until spring, when the cold-ravaged plants bounce back with amazing energy. Fast-growing radishes also plump up quickly when grown in the fall, and autumn is the best season to grow buttery-tasting baby beet greens. Scallions are a bit slow to grow from seeds, but you can be assured of a ready supply of tender green onions if you buy a slender bunch with roots at the supermarket, trim the tops back by half their length, and stick them into moist soil. See “Fall Garden Standouts” on Page 57 for even more great greens for your second season salad garden. Finally, stud your patch with a few fast-growing annual herbs including dill, cilantro and chervil, which sprout and grow quickly enough to provide flavorful snippets for the salad bowl.
Ready, Set, Grow!

All the books say that salad crops need full sun, but up to a half day of shade is beneficial when you’re planting in warm, late summer soil. If the best site you have bakes in the September sun, install a shade screen on the west side of your salad patch. A short length of snow fencing or a piece of burlap attached to stakes will do the trick.

Lettuce and other salad greens have shallow roots, so soil preparation is a simple matter of clearing the space of weeds and withered plants, working in a 2-inch deep blanket of compost, and then mixing in an organic fertilizer at the rate given on the label. Spinach is a heavier feeder than other greens, so be generous with the plant food when preparing its fall home.

Some say that lettuce seeds need light to germinate, but the light that comes through a one-eighth-inch layer of soil will coax the seeds to life quite nicely. The easiest way to sow the seeds is to scatter them on the surface of a prepared bed, barely cover them with soil, and then pat the surface lightly with your hand. If you have clay soil that tends to form a crust over germinating seeds, cover the seeds with potting soil or compost instead of garden soil. Plant other salad garden crops about a quarter inch deep and at least half an inch apart.

Early fall is often a dry season, and salad greens thrive on moisture, so keeping the soil constantly moist is an ongoing challenge. Immediately after planting, the easiest way to keep the seeded bed from drying out at midday is to cover it with an old blanket or cardboard box on sunny days. Once the seedlings are up and growing, keep a watering can stationed at the edge of your salad patch, and give your babies a cool drink first thing every morning and again just before sunset.

If you think of leaves as solar panels, you’ll understand why thinning plants so that leaves of adjoining plants don’t overlap is so important. Begin thinning your salad patch as soon as the seeds sprout, and continue to pull up (and eat) crowded babies every few days. Thoughtful thinning also deters slugs, one of the few pests that bother lettuce and other leafy greens. Unlike large “garden” slugs, which are best trapped with shallow dishes of beer, lettuce slugs tend to be so small and numerous that it’s more practical to drench plants with cold, caffeinated coffee or tea at night, when the slimers are active. Caffeine is a neurotoxin that makes slugs writhe to death, but you must get it on them for it to work.

The key to enjoying crisp salad greens is to harvest them early in the day, when the leaves are plumped with water. You can harvest lettuce or mixed salad greens by pulling whole plants, picking individual leaves, or using scissors or a sharp knife to gather handfuls of baby greens. As long as you cut them off one inch above the soil line, the crowns left behind will quickly produce a new flush of leaves. Gather spinach, baby herbs and arugula by pinching off perfect leaves.

Don’t worry if an early freeze sneaks up while your salad patch is in full bore. Until the cold weather passes, throw an old blanket over the plants or cover them with a cardboard box held in place with stones or bricks. With protection, your salad veggies can easily survive several nights in the mid-20s. With luck, you might even have fresh salad greens for your Thanksgiving table. /G

– Award-winning garden writer Barbara Pleasant’s newest book is The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual: Essential Know-How for Keeping (Not Killing!) More Than 160 Indoor Plants. E-mail your questions or suggestions for our Sow Hoe department to SowHoe@Grit.com.
The Seeds You Need

The seed racks disappear from many garden centers by midsummer, so you may need to order seeds from a mail-order company. Don’t worry about the wait, because most mail-order companies process and ship orders with remarkable speed. If you already have a favorite mail-order seed company, chances are good that they can provide the seeds you need. The sources listed here offer collections that make choosing seeds for your fall salad patch less confusing.

Kitchen Garden Seeds (CT), 860-567-6086, www.kitchengardenseeds.com. The 'Fall Salad Garden' collection includes packets of 7 great fall salad crops, including a painterly lettuce blend.

Nichols Garden Nursery (OR), 800-422-3985, www.nicholsgardennursery.com; The “Eclectic Eleven” is an economical blend of almost a dozen assorted salad greens.

The Cook’s Garden (PA), 800-457-9703, www.cooksgarden.com. The “Salad Fresh Mesclun Cutting Mix” collection includes six excellent salad greens, including arugula and two red and green lettuce.

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Foods that will save your life no matter what

2011-03-25T11:04:00.000-07:00

Foods that will save your life no matter what

Foods that will save your life no matter what
Written by on 25 March 2011

Are you half-dead and on the way down to the dirt? Poisoned and polluted from a lifetime of industrial living? If you eat the average North American diet you are a high candidate for Heart Disease, Cancer, and diabetes.

If you take a steady flow of pharmaceuticals that you can triple your rate of decline down to worm food. Live in a City? Smoke a pack a day? Good as dead.

So how can you come back from the brink?

Mother Nature has the cure.

First thing is first: Go to a health food store and buy Cayenne Pepper and Yellow Turmeric. 1 tea spoon of Cayenne and 1 Table spoon of Turmeric per day to start. Mix them in Olive oil in a glass shooter and start your day out that way. Increase as your tolerance goes up. You just started the most powerful cocktail on the menu. Cayenne and Turmeric are huge in restoring balances in the body and fighting inflammation.

Next we need to get some green into you, welcome to Chlorophyll, buy it in the bottle since 90% of vegetables have very little nutrients in them.
What is chlorophyll?

Chlorophyll is actually responsible for the green pigmentation in plants. What does chlorophyll do? Chlorophyll is what absorbs energy from the sun to facilitate photosynthesis in plants. Chlorophyll to plants is like blood to humans. It is important in many plant metabolic functions such as growth and respiration.

Interestingly, chlorophyll is chemically similar in composition to that of human blood, except that the central atom in chlorophyll is magnesium, while iron is central in human blood. This, and the fact that chlorophyll is central in plan metabolism, had prompted scientists to find out if chlorophyll can offer similar benefits to humans. A number of chlorophyll researches have been focused on finding out the potential chlorophyll health benefits in humans.
Health Benefits of Chlorophyll

True enough, chlorophyll has been seen to provide health benefits to those who take them. It has anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and wound-healing properties. Here are some of the known chlorophyll benefits:

• It has been seen to help in the growth and repair of tissues.

• Chlorophyll helps in neutralizing the pollution that we breathe in and intake everyday – a good supplement for smokers

• It efficiently delivers magnesium and helps the blood in carrying the much needed oxygen to all cells and tissues.

• It is also found to be useful in assimilating and chelating calcium and other heavy minerals.

• It had been seen to have a good potential in stimulating red blood cells to improve oxygen supply.

• Along with other vitamins such as A, C and E, chlorophyll has been seen to help neutralize free radicals that do damage to healthy cells.

• Chlorophyll is also an effective deodorizer to reduce bad breath, urine, fecal waste, and body odor.

• It may reduce the ability of carcinogens to bind with the DNA in different major organs in the body.

• Chlorophyll may be useful in treating calcium oxalate stone ailments

• It possesses some anti-atherogenic activity as well.

• It can be used to treat infected wounds naturally.

• These are only a few of the multitude benefits that chlorophyll can do to the body.

• It has antimutagenic and anti-carcinogenic properties so that it may be helpful in protecting your body against toxins and in reducing drug side effects.

Now that we have you on Cayenne, Turmeric and Chlorophyll you should be swinging away from an acidic body to a neutral and then slightly Alkaline balance. All disease produces acidosis. Biological death is total acidosis.

Changing the water content and quality inside your cells will take months. Stay on the program. Drink Green tea, lots of it. Cut down the coffee to 1-2 cups a day. Don’t stop smoking… cut back.

Chocolate. Eat as much 80% Cocao as you can. (Easier said than done.)

Get raw cacao beans or chips and chomp away until you get high.

We live in a nutritional desert full of empty but deadly calories. We need good food and lots of it. If you have an insatiable craving it means you need something. Modern chemicals trick us into sucking back deadly amounts of soft drinks, coffee drinks and alcohol to satisfy cravings. Then they pollute use with empty garbage food so we will go back and buy more stimulants.

Seaweed. Kelp, Dulse. If it’s greenish brown and taste salty and it comes from the ocean it will be good for you.In fact it may be the most mineral packing food on the planet.

Eat enough Kelp or seaweed and you can toss out those expensive vitamins you buy. East coast Canadian Dulse is the best. But try all kinds.

I hear you say that you just sucked in a big lung full of radioactive smoke from a Japanese nuclear meltdown. No problem. All that seaweed and kelp is rich in iodine. Now add Artichokes and asparagus to the mix.

Shroom it up.

A grizzly bear will fight for his patch of white pine mushrooms even if a stark raving mad band of drunken hobbits are trying to skin him. He’ll fight to the death… for the mighty Mushroom.

Shiitake, Matsutake, Chantrel,… here’s the rule. As long as it is not poisonous then it is good for you. Some mushrooms cook up as well as a nice steak and have a heavy texture. Pine mushrooms will make you an Adonis.
So there you go. Cayenne and Turmeric. Chlorophyll. Cocoa and Seaweed. Green Tea and Mushrooms. Ad to these things the power of intention and you are on the way to recovery. If you are on the drugs then think of them as good. Pour your positive intent into all things. Yes even the nasty pharmaceuticals. Focus your energy and turn bad to good.

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LocalHarvest News - March 24, 2011

2011-03-24T15:28:00.000-07:00

LocalHarvest News - March 24, 2011

Welcome back to the LocalHarvest newsletter.

Last year I heard a true story that keeps coming back to me as much of the country approaches the beginning of the local fresh produce season. In this story, one mother is considering joining a CSA. She has heard, rightly, that she's likely to receive many vegetables that will be new to her family. So she calls a friend who has been a CSA member for some time, and asks how their family has dealt with the expansion of their vegetable repertoire. "Easy," says the friend. "If we don't know what it is, first we fry it in a little butter. If that doesn't work, we try it with a little Ranch dressing."

Now, I grew up watching a lot of television, including that great series of health education spots that ABC ran in between Saturday mornings cartoons. One was an animated song called "Don't Drown Your Food," in which Our Hero rescues a variety of foods from a surfeit of dressings. "Food's so much better when it's practically plain!" he sings, while pulling a baked potato from a vat of sour cream. Sound advice in the 1970s, and probably even more needed now. The chorus rang in my head when I heard the Ranch dressing story.

Still, I think this story points to a greater truth: we all need to start where we are. If it's a choice between familiar but negligibly nutritious tater tots or kohlrabi dipped in Ranch, I say go for the kohlrabi. That might not be the desired end point, but it's a place to begin. Whether we're trying to eat more vegetables, less meat, better meat, or what have you, I think that a real shot at change starts with two things: being honest about where we are starting from, and acknowledging that most change happens incrementally. These first steps remove the false hope that change is going to happen magically, without effort. Thus freed, we can make a realistic plan for how to get from where we are to where we want to be. Maybe it starts with a schmear of salad dressing on the foreign vegetable, and later moves to ketchup, then salsa, and eventually a little swirl of olive oil makes everybody happy.

Spring is the time when many of us make plans for how we're going to eat this summer, whether we're signing up for a CSA, laying out a garden, or counting the days until the farmers market opens. We say go ahead and be adventurous this year! It will likely be a lot of fun if you start with small changes and build from there. If your family has had success changing its eating patterns for the better, we'd love to hear how you did it. You can post your ideas here.

To Spring and new beginnings!

Eat well, and take good care.

Erin

Erin Barnett
Director
LocalHarvest

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Mushroom Inoculation Classes, RI, MA, PA, NY - April & May 2011

2011-03-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

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CharCattail

2011-03-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent Video about making cjar for fire starting out of materials at hand!

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Saving Money? Not In This Economy – 22 Facts That Prove Middle Class Families Are Being Savagely Crushed

2011-03-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

Saving Money? Not In This Economy – 22 Facts That Prove Middle Class Families Are Being Savagely Crushed

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Visit the Connecticut Forum at www.connecticutPreppersNetwork.netsaving Money? Not In This Economy – 22 Facts That Prove Middle Class Families Are Being Savagely Crushed

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 07:04 PM PDT

The 22 facts that you are about to read are all real, although admittedly they are hard to believe. The sad truth is that millions of middle class families in the United States today are being savagely crushed by this economy. Most American families would like to be saving money, paying the mortgage and living the American Dream, but with each passing month those things are becoming more difficult. Rapidly rising prices for basic necessities such as food and gas are absolutely crippling the finances of millions of middle class American families right now. How is a family even supposed to make a budget when the average price of gasoline goes up 42 cents a gallon in a single month? What are we all supposed to do when we walk into our supermarkets and find that the old "regular prices" have become the new "sale prices"? Should we all not be deeply concerned that the price of food in the United States went up at the fastest rate in 36 years last month? How are we all supposed to keep our families above the poverty line when the number of good paying jobs keeps shrinking? In America today, being a member of the middle class is like playing a game of musical chairs. You know that they are going to keep pulling chairs out of the game, and you just hope that it is not going to be your turn next.

Sadly, large numbers of Americans do keep falling out of the middle class. The number of Americans on food stamps just keeps increasing every single month. The number of Americans on Medicaid just keeps increasing every single month. The number of American children living in poverty just keeps increasing every single month.

If the U.S. economy is actually getting "better", then why does the middle class keep on shrinking? Everywhere you turn there are families in deep economic pain. Unemployment is rampant and even those families that do have jobs are really struggling to make ends meet as prices rise rapidly.

Unfortunately, the global economy looks like it is going to get even worse. The recent crisis in Japan is going to have a ripple effect across the entire globe. The chaos in the Middle East is certainly not helping things either. It certainly appears that we could be on the verge of another major economic downturn.

And that would not be good news for the U.S. middle class. The truth is that the U.S. middle class has already been hurt enough.

The following are 22 facts that prove that middle class families across America are being savagely crushed by this economy....

#1 Last month food prices in the United States rose at the fastest rate in 36 years.

#2 The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is now $3.55. That represents an increase of 42 cents a gallon in just one month.

#3 According to the Oil Price Information Service, U.S. drivers spent an average of $347 on gasoline during the month of February, which was 30 percent more than a year earlier.

#4 According to the U.S. Energy Department, the average U.S. household will spend approximately $700 more on gasoline in 2011 than it did during 2010.

#5 According to the U.S. Labor Department, the cost of living in the United States is higher than it ever has been before. The "Chained Consumer Price Index" hit a new all-time high during the month of February.

#6 During this most recent economic downturn, employee compensation in the United States has been the lowest that it has been relative to gross domestic product in over 50 years.

#7 When you adjust wages for inflation, middle class workers in the United States make less money today than they did back in 1971.

#8 For most middle class American families, their homes are their most valuable financial assets. Since the real estate peak, U.S. home values have fallen by a staggering 6.3 trillion dollars.

#9 In 2010, for the first time ever more than a million U.S. families lost their homes to foreclosure, and that number is expected to go even higher in 2011.

#10 Two years ago, the average U.S. homeowner that was being foreclosed upon had not made a mortgage payment in 11 months. Today, the average U.S. homeowner that is being foreclosed upon has not made a mortgage payment in 17 months.

#11 Approximately half of all American workers make $25,000 a year or less.

#12 Approximately one-third of all Americans have no savings and no retirement funds.

#13 As 2007 began, only about 26 million Americans were on food stamps, but today over 44 million Americans are now on food stamps.

#14 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#15 Only 47 percent of working-age Americans have a full-time job at this point.

#16 Many American families would love to be saving money, but the reality is that a huge percentage of them are drowning in credit card debt. Total U.S. credit card debt is more than 8 times larger than it was just 30 years ago.

#17 The CredAbility Consumer Distress Index, which measures the average financial condition of U.S. households, declined in every single quarter in 2010.

#18 Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income. In China, average household debt is only 17% of average household income.

#19 There are currently more than 4 million Americans that have been unemployed for more than a year.

#20 The U.S. economy now has 10 percent fewer "middle class jobs" than it did just ten years ago.

#21 The average CEO now makes approximately 185 times more money than the average American worker.

#22 According to the U.S. Census, the number of children living in poverty has gone up by about 2 million in just the past 2 years.

Do you need any more evidence that the middle class in the United States is being ripped apart?

The days of wine and roses are over. The foolish economic policies of the last several decades are now starting to catch up with us and that is going to mean even more economic pain for the middle class.

If you are still part of the middle class, you should be very thankful, because more middle class Americans are falling into poverty every single day.

Gmail - The Latest From The American Dream - cityhomesteader@gmail.com

2011-03-18T16:05:00.000-07:00

Gmail - The Latest From The American Dream - cityhomesteader@gmail.com

aving Money? Not In This Economy – 22 Facts That Prove Middle Class Families Are Being Savagely Crushed

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 07:04 PM PDT

The 22 facts that you are about to read are all real, although admittedly they are hard to believe. The sad truth is that millions of middle class families in the United States today are being savagely crushed by this economy. Most American families would like to be saving money, paying the mortgage and living the American Dream, but with each passing month those things are becoming more difficult. Rapidly rising prices for basic necessities such as food and gas are absolutely crippling the finances of millions of middle class American families right now. How is a family even supposed to make a budget when the average price of gasoline goes up 42 cents a gallon in a single month? What are we all supposed to do when we walk into our supermarkets and find that the old "regular prices" have become the new "sale prices"? Should we all not be deeply concerned that the price of food in the United States went up at the fastest rate in 36 years last month? How are we all supposed to keep our families above the poverty line when the number of good paying jobs keeps shrinking? In America today, being a member of the middle class is like playing a game of musical chairs. You know that they are going to keep pulling chairs out of the game, and you just hope that it is not going to be your turn next.

Sadly, large numbers of Americans do keep falling out of the middle class. The number of Americans on food stamps just keeps increasing every single month. The number of Americans on Medicaid just keeps increasing every single month. The number of American children living in poverty just keeps increasing every single month.

If the U.S. economy is actually getting "better", then why does the middle class keep on shrinking? Everywhere you turn there are families in deep economic pain. Unemployment is rampant and even those families that do have jobs are really struggling to make ends meet as prices rise rapidly.

Unfortunately, the global economy looks like it is going to get even worse. The recent crisis in Japan is going to have a ripple effect across the entire globe. The chaos in the Middle East is certainly not helping things either. It certainly appears that we could be on the verge of another major economic downturn.

And that would not be good news for the U.S. middle class. The truth is that the U.S. middle class has already been hurt enough.

The following are 22 facts that prove that middle class families across America are being savagely crushed by this economy....

#1 Last month food prices in the United States rose at the fastest rate in 36 years.

#2 The average price of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is now $3.55. That represents an increase of 42 cents a gallon in just one month.

#3 According to the Oil Price Information Service, U.S. drivers spent an average of $347 on gasoline during the month of February, which was 30 percent more than a year earlier.

#4 According to the U.S. Energy Department, the average U.S. household will spend approximately $700 more on gasoline in 2011 than it did during 2010.

#5 According to the U.S. Labor Department, the cost of living in the United States is higher than it ever has been before. The "Chained Consumer Price Index" hit a new all-time high during the month of February.

#6 During this most recent economic downturn, employee compensation in the United States has been the lowest that it has been relative to gross domestic product in over 50 years.

#7 When you adjust wages for inflation, middle class workers in the United States make less money today than they did back in 1971.

#8 For most middle class American families, their homes are their most valuable financial assets. Since the real estate peak, U.S. home values have fallen by a staggering 6.3 trillion dollars.

#9 In 2010, for the first time ever more than a million U.S. families lost their homes to foreclosure, and that number is expected to go even higher in 2011.

#10 Two years ago, the average U.S. homeowner that was being foreclosed upon had not made a mortgage payment in 11 months. Today, the average U.S. homeowner that is being foreclosed upon has not made a mortgage payment in 17 months.

#11 Approximately half of all American workers make $25,000 a year or less.

#12 Approximately one-third of all Americans have no savings and no retirement funds.

#13 As 2007 began, only about 26 million Americans were on food stamps, but today over 44 million Americans are now on food stamps.

#14 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.

#15 Only 47 percent of working-age Americans have a full-time job at this point.

#16 Many American families would love to be saving money, but the reality is that a huge percentage of them are drowning in credit card debt. Total U.S. credit card debt is more than 8 times larger than it was just 30 years ago.

#17 The CredAbility Consumer Distress Index, which measures the average financial condition of U.S. households, declined in every single quarter in 2010.

#18 Average household debt in the United States has now reached a level of 136% of average household income. In China, average household debt is only 17% of average household income.

#19 There are currently more than 4 million Americans that have been unemployed for more than a year.

#20 The U.S. economy now has 10 percent fewer "middle class jobs" than it did just ten years ago.

#21 The average CEO now makes approximately 185 times more money than the average American worker.

#22 According to the U.S. Census, the number of children living in poverty has gone up by about 2 million in just the past 2 years.

Do you need any more evidence that the middle class in the United States is being ripped apart?

The days of wine and roses are over. The foolish economic policies of the last several decades are now starting to catch up with us and that is going to mean even more economic pain for the middle class.

If you are still part of the middle class, you should be very thankful, because more middle class Americans are falling into poverty every single day.

------------------------------------------
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March Mushroom Madness

2011-03-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

March Mushroom Madness
Sunday, March 20, 2011

This wonderful event is our season kick-off, and this year’s program is stellar! March Mushroom Madness is an annual event and is open to the public for all the morning’s schedule. Admission is $5.00 per person. And look at this line up!

9:30 – 10:00 am Social time, coffee etc., Get your bearings and check out the goodie tables (raffles, auctions, tag sale)

10:00 – 11:00am Our guest speaker - - GREG MARLEY (woohoo!) will be speaking on Medicinal Mushrooms of the Northeast. Greg is a transplant from New Mexico to Maine, and has been ‘shrooming since the early 70s. Though technically an amateur, he has been called an expert for decades, has written two books, and consults for the Northern New England Poison Control Center, and for various hospitals. He will have his books available for purchase.

End the Public Participation segment and Begin the Members Meeting

11:45 - - Commence Business Meeting

12:00 – 1:30pm Potluck Lunch OK Newbies, this Potluck sets the bar mighty high! It’s worth joining CVMS just for this fantastic feast!

Hope to see you Sunday, and at many Forays to come.

Woozie Wikfors, Membership Secretary

…………………………………………………………………………

SESSIONS WOODS WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA, BURLINGTON

Sessions Woods Education Center facility is on Route 69 In Burlington.

From the North: Take Rt.4 to the junction with Rt.69 ln Burlington. Proceed south on Rt.69 toward Bristol about 3 mi. Sessions Woods is on the right just north of the Bristol line, and is well marked with signs. Proceed to large parking area in front of main building.

From the South: take US6 to junction with Rt.69 in Bristol. Stay on Rt.69 about 3 mi. to reach the Sessions Woods facility.

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2011 Best Planting Dates for Seeds for New Haven, Connecticut

2011-03-17T05:28:00.000-07:00

2011 Best Planting Dates for Seeds for New Haven, Connecticut

2011 Best Planting Dates for Seeds for New Haven, Connecticut

When determining the best planting dates for seeds, the date of the last spring frost is important to your success. NOTE: Our chart calculates U.S. frost dates only, based on historical data. Other factors can also influence planting dates, including soil temperature, altitude and slope of land, nearby waters, and day length. Keep records of your garden's conditions each year to plan more accurately.

* Seeds for plants with a long growing season should be started indoors during the periods shown below.
* Seeds for plants sown in the ground should be planted during the periods shown.
* When no dates appear in the chart, that starting method is not recommended for the particular vegetable.

Planting by the Moon?

Above-ground crops are planted during the light of the Moon (new to full); below-ground crops are planted during the dark of the Moon (from the day after it is full to the day before it is new again). Planting is done in the daytime; planting at night is optional!

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Peas: Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Pea Plants

2011-03-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

Peas: Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Pea Plants
The Old Farmer's Almanac
Home » Gardening
Peas

Botanical name: Pisum sativum, Pisum macrocarpon

Plant type: Vegetable

USDA Hardiness Zones: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Sun exposure: Full Sun, Part Sun

Soil type: Loamy

Soil pH: Neutral 

Peas are a cool-season crop, now coming in three separate varieties to suit your garden and cooking needs. They are: Pisum savitum, which includes both garden peas (sweet pea, inedible pod) and snow peas (edible flat pod with small peas inside) and Pisum macrocarpon, snap peas (edible pod with full-size peas). They are easy to grow, but with a very limited growing season. Furthermore, they do not stay fresh long after harvest, so enjoy them while you can!
Planting

* To get the best head start, turn over your pea planting beds in the fall, add manure to the soil, and mulch well.
* As with other legumes, pea roots will fix nitrogen in the soil, making it available for other plants.
* Peas will appreciate a good sprinkling of wood ashes to the soil before planting.
* Sow seeds outdoors 4 to 6 weeks before last spring frost, when soil temperatures reach 45 degrees F.
* Plant 1 inch deep (deeper if soil is dry) and 2 inches apart.
* Get them in the ground while the soil is still cool but do not have them sit too long in wet soil. It's a delicate balance of proper timing and weather conditions. For soil that stays wet longer, invest in raised beds.
* A blanket of snow won't hurt emerging pea plants, but several days with temperatures in the teens could. Be prepared to plant again.
* Peas are best grown in temperatures below 70 degrees F.

Care

* Make sure that you have well-drained, humus-rich soil.
* Poke in any seeds that wash out. (A chopstick is an ideal tool for this.)
* Be sure, too, that you don't fertilize the soil too much. Peas are especially sensitive to too much nitrogen, but they may like a little bonemeal, for the phosphorus content.
* Though adding compost or manure to the soil won't hurt, peas don't need heavy doses of fertilizer. They like phosphorus and potassium.
* Water sparsely unless the plants are wilting. Do not let plants dry out, or no pods will be produced.
* For tall and vine varieties, establish poles or a trellis at time of planting.
* Do not hoe around plants to avoid disturbing fragile roots.
* It's best to rotate pea crops every year or two to avoid a buildup of soil-borne diseases.

Pests

* Aphids
* Mexican Bean Beetles
* Fusarium Wilt

Harvest/Storage

* Keep your peas well picked to encourage more pods to develop.
* Pick peas in the morning after the dew has dried. They are crispiest then.
* Always use two hands when you pick peas. Secure the vine with one hand and pull the peas off with your other hand.
* Peas can be frozen or kept in the refrigerator for about 5 days. Place in paper bags, then wrap in plastic.
* If you missed your peas' peak period, you can still pick, dry, and shell them for use in winter soups.

Recommended Varieties

* ‘Snowbird’ (snow pea), resistant to fusarium wilt
* ‘Sugar Ann’ (snap pea), early variety, short vine
* ‘Green Arrow’ (garden pea), mid-season variety, high yields, resistant to fusarium wilt

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What Can The Japanese Tsunami Teach Us About Prepping For Disasters And Emergencies?

2011-03-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

What Can The Japanese Tsunami Teach Us About Prepping For Disasters And Emergencies?

The Japanese tsunami is a crystal clear example of just how unpredictable disasters and emergencies can be. Nobody ever dreamed that a tsunami in Japan could wash cars, homes and people up to 6 miles inland. But that is exactly what happened. So while it is great to make elaborate preparations for potential disasters and emergencies, it is also absolutely essential to have backup plans. After all, what good is all of that emergency food that you have stored up going to do if a massive tsunami comes along and rips your house off the foundation and deposits it into the sea? Not that all of us shouldn't be busy prepping. Of course we should be. All over Japan right now the supermarkets are being stripped bare. Don't you think that many of those people are wishing that they had stored up some food? It is those that prepare that have the best chance of surviving disasters and emergencies. No plan is foolproof, but having a plan is much better than not having a plan.

For example, there are lots of people in Japan right now that are wishing that they would have stored up at least a bit of fresh water to drink. There are homes in Japan that are still completely surrounded by saltwater from the tsunami, and if those homes do not have running water at this point then the people inside are going to get thirsty really quick.

Of course bottled water flew off store shelves all over Japan in the aftermath of the tsunami. Now it is becoming very difficult to find.

But there are thousands and thousands of homes in Japan that do not have running water right now.

So what are they supposed to do?

Thankfully there are a lot of aid agencies that are working really hard to help the Japanese out. Hopefully everyone that needs water and food will be able to get them.

Have you seen video of the empty supermarkets in Japan?

That can happen someday in America too.

In the United States, even a minor snowstorm can cause a run on the supermarkets in many areas. If a major league disaster or emergency ever hit the food in the stores would be gone really quickly.

So do you have food stored up for you and your family?

Another huge lesson that we can learn from the Japanese tsunami is that a disaster in one area of the world can have a ripple affect across the globe.

For example, it has now become incredibly difficult to find supplies of potassium iodide anywhere in the United States.

In fact, in many areas even finding iodine or kelp has become problematic.

So what are the people that don't have these things going to do if nuclear radiation becomes a problem?

They are just going to have to suffer.

That is the way it is with disasters and emergencies. If you have not prepared ahead of time there is a good chance that you are simply going to be out of luck.

You see, millions of Americans have not become preppers just because they didn't have anything better to do.

We live in a world that is becoming increasingly unstable. Our financial system is crumbling. Our society is crumbling. The earth itself is crumbling.

Those that are not doing anything to prepare are rather foolish.

Many of those that laugh at preppers are the same people that have health insurance, car insurance, home insurance, boat insurance, motorcycle insurance, disability insurance, travel insurance and business insurance.

But they won't lift a finger to get some "food insurance" for themselves and their families because that is what "preppers" and "conspiracy theorists" do.

Well, a whole lot of people in Japan wish that they had been "preppers" just about now.

Not that preppers always come out on top either. As the tsunami is Japan, demonstrated, if a major disaster hits right where you live your home may not make it.

The truth is that all of us always need to be ready to "bug out" at any time.

If you got word that your town was about to face a major league emergency, where would you go?

That is something to think about.

It is also a good reason why we should all be encouraging our family and friends in other areas of the country to be storing up food and supplies. You never know when you might have to depend on them for help.

The truth is that none of us should ever be too proud to ask for help. Many survivalists sit back and brag about all of the guns and beans they have stored up, but if their house was swept away by a disaster what would they be forced to do?

They would be forced to turn to someone else for help.

The reality is that we all need a little assistance from time to time. Don't be too proud to give some help and don't be too proud to ask for some help.

So what are some things that all of us can be doing right now to start preparing for disasters and emergencies?

Well, in a previous article I listed a few things that can be done by most people....

#1 Become Less Dependent On Your Job

#2 Get Out Of Debt

#3 Reduce Expenses

#4 Purchase Land

#5 Learn To Grow Food

#6 Find A Reliable Source Of Water

#7 Explore Alternative Energy Sources

#8 Store Supplies

#9 Protect Your Assets With Gold And Silver

#10 Learn Self-Defense

#11 Keep Yourself Fit

#12 Make Friends

That last point is very important. It is key to have a network of friends and family around the country that you could depend upon in a pinch.

For example, whoever would have imagined that nuclear radiation from Japan could potentially be a threat to those living along the west coast of the United States?

Hopefully what the government is telling us is true. Hopefully the amount of radiation that makes it over the Pacific will not be enough to seriously harm any of us, but it just shows that someday a crisis may arise that could require people to flee to another area.

So if someday a crisis like that arises, where would you and your family go?

When it comes to preparing for the worst, flexibility is the key.

And preparing for the worst does not have to be complicated. When you go to the store, pick up a couple extra items that you see on sale and store them away. Learn to grow a garden. Read blogs about prepping. Talk with your family and friends about what they would do in an emergency.

One of the keys is for all of us to learn from each other. None of us has all the answers.

The world can be a very cold, cruel place. Millions of people in Japan are finding that out right about now.

Someday you and your family could be caught right in the middle of a major crisis. When that happens, will you have plenty of food, water and supplies stored up or will you be scrambling to survive?

As the Japanese tsunami has shown, disaster can strike anywhere and at any time. The United States is certainly not immune.

Someday it will be our turn.

Will you be ready?

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2011-03-16T08:24:00.000-07:00

Food Storage as Grandma Knew It
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/garden/06root.html

Food Storage as Grandma Knew It
By MICHAEL TORTORELLO

IN a strictly technical sense, Cynthia Worley is not transforming her basement into a time machine. Yet what’s going on this harvest season beneath her Harlem brownstone on 122nd Street, at Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, is surely something out of the past — or perhaps the future.

The space itself is nothing special: Whitewashed granite walls run the width and depth of the room, 16 feet by 60 feet. A forgotten owner tried to put in a cement floor, but the dirt, which takes a long-term view of things, is stubbornly coming back. “It’s basically a sod floor,” Ms. Worley said.

What’s important is that the shelves are sturdy, because Ms. Worley and her husband, Haja Worley, will soon load them with 20 pounds of potatoes, 20 pounds of onions, 30 pounds of butternut and acorn squash, 10 heads of cabbage, 60-odd pints of home-canned tomatoes and preserves, 9 gallons of berry and fruit wines, and another gallon or two of mulberry vinegar.

The goodies in the pint jars and the carboys come from the Joseph Daniel Wilson Memorial Garden, which the Worleys founded across the street. The fresh produce is a huge final delivery from a Community Supported Agriculture farm in Orange County, which they used all summer. Packed in sand and stored at 55 degrees, the potatoes should keep at least until the New Year. The squash could still be palatable on Groundhog Day, and the onions should survive till spring. Ms. Worley, who counsels and teaches adults for the New York City Department of Education, and Mr. Worley, a neighborhood organizer and radio engineer, will let their basement-deprived friends store vegetables, too.

The Worleys, like a number of other Americans, have made the seemingly anachronistic choice to turn their basement into a root cellar. While Ms. Worley’s brownstone basement stash won’t feed the couple through the winter, she said, “I think it’s a healthy way to go and an economical way.”

According to a September survey on consumer anxieties over higher fuel and food prices from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University in Ames, 34 percent of respondents said that they were likely to raise more of their own vegetables. Another 37 percent said they were likely to can or freeze more of their food. The cousin to canning and freezing is the root cellar.

“I’ve been doing local food work for a long time,” said Rich Pirog, associate director of the Leopold Center, who conducted the study. “And I’m seeing an increase in articles in various sustainable ag newsletters about root cellaring.”

According to Bruce Butterfield, the research director for the National Gardening Association, a trade group, home food preservation typically increases in a rotten economy. In 2002, the close of the last mild recession, 29 million households bought supplies for freezing, drying, processing and canning. Last year that number stood at only 22 million — a figure Mr. Butterfield said he expects to rise rapidly.

Root cellars have long been the province of Midwestern grandmothers, back-to-the-landers and committed survivalists. But given the nation’s budding romance with locally produced food, they also appeal to the backyard gardener, who may have a fruit tree that drops a bigger bounty every year while the refrigerator remains the same size.

While horticulture may be a science, home food storage definitely can carry the stench of an imperfect art. According to the essential 1979 book, “Root Cellaring,” by Mike and Nancy Bubel, some items like cabbage and pears do best in a moist environment below 40 degrees (though above freezing). To achieve this, a cellar probably needs to be vented, or have windows that open. Winter squash and sweet potatoes should be kept dry and closer to 50 degrees — perhaps closer to the furnace.

Other rules of root cellaring sound more like molecular gastronomy. For example, the ethylene gas that apples give off will make carrots bitter. As a general principle, keeping produce in a cool chamber that is beneath the frost line — the depth, roughly four feet down, below which the soil doesn’t freeze — can slow both the normal process of ripening and the creeping spread of bacterial and fungal rot. These are the forces that will turn a lost tomato in the back of the cupboard into a little lagoon of noxious goo.

But if you leave that green tomato on a vine and drape it upside down, it will gradually turn red in three or four weeks. “I’ve had fresh tomatoes for Thanksgiving,” said Jito Coleman, an environmental engineer who practices the inverted tomato — which should be a yoga pose — in a root cellar he built in the house he designed in Warren, Vt.

People who squirrel away vegetables tend to be resourceful, and they do not limit themselves to the subterranean. Anna Barnes, who runs a small media company and coordinates the Prairieland Community Supported Agriculture in Champaign, Ill., says squash hung in a pair of knotted pantyhose stay unspoiled longer than others.

Here, the cold is optional, too. It’s the bruising that comes from a squash sitting on a hard countertop, she said, that speeds senescence. (“You wouldn’t want to do it in the guest closet,” Ms. Barnes said. Or, presumably, wear the pantyhose again.)

Taken to a do-it-yourself extreme, lots of places can become stockrooms. Margaret Christie has surrendered countless nooks in her 1845 Federal-style home in tiny downtown Whately, Mass., to laying away the crops she grows in the family’s half-acre vegetable plot. Ms. Christie, 44, a projects director for Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture, a nonprofit that supports community farming in western Massachusetts, also feeds her husband and three children from their milk goats, laying hens, pigpens and lamb pastures.

This year, she swapped a lamb for 40 pounds of sweet potatoes, 40 pounds of onions and 40 pounds of carrots from a neighbor’s farm. This cornucopia has colonized the basement, along with the family’s own potatoes. “They’re sitting next to the Ping-Pong table,” she said, in “five-gallon buckets with window screens for the lids.”

Onions, garlic and pumpkins dwell in an uninsulated attic — except in midwinter, when that space drops below freezing. Then the vegetables move into the guest bedroom. If that space has already been claimed, they occasionally hide out under the bed of her 11-year-old son. Their homegrown popcorn kernels have a way of turning up everywhere, courtesy of the neighborhood mice, who have developed their own taste for locally grown year-round produce.

The contemporary American, for whom a pizza delivery is seldom more than a phone call away, is an oddity in the annals of eating. Elizabeth Cromley, a professor of architectural history at Northeastern University, said that at one time, “just about every house had special facilities for preserving food.”

Professor Cromley has finished a book called “The Food Axis: Cooking, Eating, and the Architecture of American Houses,” which is to be published by the University of Virginia Press in 2010. She said that understanding food preservation is not a frivolous pursuit. More than 400 books instructed 19th-century Americans on how to plan a functional house, with a practical larder, basement and outbuildings, she said. “You’re not going to die if you don’t get a new dress,” she said, “but if you don’t know this, it will kill you.”

Harriet Fasenfest, 55, who lives in Portland, Ore., has been playing with her food for a long time. A semiretired restaurateur, she started “hacking up” her small city lot in the Alberta Art District to grow food. (Her husband asked, “Where will we play Frisbee?” and Ms. Fasenfest replied, “The park.”) She also teaches classes on canning and created the Web site portlandpreserve.com.

There is no digging a dry refuge from the seep and suck of a Portland winter. So in lieu of a traditional cellar, she applies the scientific method. “Last year I tried an experiment with four different varieties of apples,” she said, “to see how long it took them to rot. So I put them in a box in my shed and then they rotted. It worked!”

When she’s not filling her 10-foot-by-10-foot shed, she experiments in the cubbyholes that sit alongside the outdoor cellar stairs. Copra onions, Ms. Fasenfest has found, store better than Walla Wallas. An indoor heating vent can cure butternut squash so effectively that it can probably last in cold storage until the economy turns around (whenever that is).

Nevertheless, even those who rhapsodize about the pleasures of eating locally grown food year-round have to admit that the effort doesn’t always seem worthwhile. Ms. Fasenfest has been forced to conclude that the labor that went into growing and storing the 30 pounds of russet potatoes now beneath the stairwell was not really adequate to the reward. “If we had to survive off of those,” she said, “we’d be dead.”
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4 very simple do it yourself root cellar ideas!

2011-03-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

4 very simple do it yourself root cellar ideas!

The biggest challenge, at least for me, with gardening is preserving the harvest. It makes me sick to think of the amount of food I have let go to waste through not having these skills. Root cellaring is something I am looking at hard as it is a no impact way to store food. It uses the earth to maintain the freshness of the crops stored within.

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Harvest to Table - A practical guide to food in the garden and market

2011-03-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

Harvest to Table - A practical guide to food in the garden and market
Tomato Seed Starting

The optimal seed starting temperature for tomatoes is between 70°F to 80°F Seed will germinate best where the bottom temperature is about 85°F.

Tomato seeds can be started in pots, peat pellets, or flats. Be sure there are holes in the bottom for drainage.

Use a sterilized planter mix. A sterilized, pasteurized soil, or commercial seed starting mix will be free of weeds and fungi that cause seedlings to collapse and die.

You can pasteurize your own garden soil: bake the soil in a shallow pan at 200F for an hour or two (smell will be bad). If you place a potato in the oven with the soil, the soil will be sterilized when the potato has baked.

To make you own seed starting mix, combine equal parts sand, vermiculite or perlite, and peat moss.

Treat seed saved from last year's garden for disease resistance. Soak the seed in a mixture of water-soluble fertilizer for two hours before planting. This seed will be heavier rooted and healthier. Most commercial seed has been treated.

If you sow seed in 3- to 4-inch clay or peat pots, fill the pots to ½ inch from the top.
Thoroughly moisten the seed starting mix before sowing to make sure it is not dry below the surface.

Sow seed ¼ to 1/3 inch deep; space seeds 1 inch apart. As a general rule, sow seed three times the depth as the width of the seed.

Sow twice as many seeds as you need plants so that you can later choose from the strongest seedlings.

Do not sow too deeply otherwise the seed may rot before it germinates.

Firm the seeds into the soil with a piece of wood or flat object; then add a thin layer about ¼ inch of moist soil mix over the seeds and level it and firm again. This will bring seeds into good contact with the soil which is important for germination.

Keep the seed starting mix or soil moist but not wet after sowing; gently water with a fine spray being careful not to wash away seed.

Seeds can be started in bright window or under lights set about 2 inches above the plants.

Maintain soil temperature between 75°F and 85°F; seeds will germinate in 7 to 10 days. To maintain an even soil temperature, use a propagating mat or rubberized "electric blanket" placed under starting pots, flats, or trays.

Place the seed-starting container inside a clear plastic bag or tent or cover the container tightly with a plastic sheet to retain moisture and warmth until the seeds germinate. You can also lay a piece of newspaper on the containers until seedlings emerge. To germinate seeds require warmth and moisture, not light.

Remove the plastic bag or sheet when seeds emerge.

When seedlings emerge, give them full sunshine or place them under grow lights. You can use two 48-inch, 40 watt fluorescent tubes placed a few inches above the seedlings. These can be supplemented with a couple of incandescent bulbs to provide the "red light" that growing plants need. Keep lights on sixteen hours a day when using fluorescent lights.

Set plants an inch or two below the fluorescent tubes and maintain that distance as the plants grow. If plants are too far away they will stretch and develop thin, weak stems. Plants must have lights off at least 8 hours a day to grow strong.

Check seedlings every day as they grow. Be sure to keep grow lights at a constant distance above the seedlings.

Seedlings growing in a window should be turned every day so that they do not develop a permanent lean--heliotropism means growing towards the sun.

Keep seedlings near a constant 70°F; temperature greater than 70°F may produce tall, spindly sprouts. Windowsills may get hot during the day and cold at night; seedlings grow best if kept at an even temperature.

Keep the soil moist, but not wet. Water or mist plants gently to avoid washing them out. Use room temperature water.

Do not fertilize seedlings right away; wait a week or two or until the first repotting, then mix in a small amount of balanced, water-soluble fertilizer in the plants' water.

Seedlings grow best when day time temperatures are between 70°F and 75°F during the day and between 60°F and 65°F during the night.

Seeds can be started in a coldframe--a glass- or plastic-covered box, heated by solar radiation as long as the temperatures remain warm enough for germination and growth. Seedlings growing in a coldframe or greenhouse should receive 12 hours of sunlight each day.

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Spring Tonics Dandelions Greens Nettles

2011-03-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

Spring Tonics Dandelions Greens Nettles

Spring Tonics

A Spring Tonic, using the early greens of spring, may be just the thing you need to get through this month!

While the vernal equinox may mark the moment of spring, the appearance of the first greens makes it real. The early settlers were firm believers in the tonic effects of eating spring greens: they were said to stimulate the digestion, purify the blood, cure scurvy and ague, combat rheumatism, and repel kidney stones.

Let's face it—anything fresh and green no doubt tasted great after a wearisome winter of salt pork and dried beans.
Dandelions Tonic

Dandelions were so valued that they were cultivated in gardens.

Try using the tender young leaves in salads, either fresh or blanched, as the French and Dutch settlers favored.

Or, use the leaves as one would spinach or make them into soup. (Those who boiled dandelion greens in water often made a point of drinking the "pot likker" or cooking water, which was, in fact, loaded with water-soluble vitamins.)

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Survival Podcast

2011-03-14T15:52:00.000-07:00

Survival Podcast

TheSelfSufficientGardener.com Jason is well known for his articles in magazines such as Backwoods Home and Self Reliance Illustrated along with his podcast called of course “The Self Sufficient Gardener Podcast”

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Soothing Soaps - Natural Health - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

2011-03-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

Soothing Soaps - Natural Health - MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Soothing Soaps

By Jennifer Barros

Sandy Maine made her first bar of soap in her kitchen. She loved making soap so much, she eventually went on to found a small business, SunFeather Soaps, which occupies three buildings and employs 15 people. When MOTHER’s intern, Jennifer Barros, saw a copy of Maine’s recent book, Soothing Soaps for Healthy Skin (Interweave Press, 1997), she was inspired to fill some muffin tins with homemade herbal soap.

The recipe I chose was lavender and rosemary soap, which is found under a section called “Soaps for Blemished Skin.” Maine gives a brief description of each soap and explains that both lavender and rosemary are “antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, and beneficial for treating wounds, blemishes, boils, dermatitis, herpes, fever blisters, and more!”

The first step, and probably the most difficult part, was finding the ingredients. I needed lavender flowers, rosemary leaves, lavender oil and rosemary oil. For those who can get their hands on fresh herbs, Maine explains how to dry them yourself and also how to extract the oils. It was February, so I was forced to opt for dried herbs rather than fresh ones. Unfortunately, dried herbs and oils are not exactly sold at every corner store, but at least you can obtain herbs, oils and glycerin by mail order. After I arrived home, glad to have completed my shopping mission, I began the actual process of making a healing soap.

I made an infusion with the dried lavender flowers and rosemary leaves. This only took about 10 minutes, and gave me a sneak peak at what my kitchen would smell like all day. Then, I used a double boiler to melt the soap base into liquid form. After this was done, I added the infusion, the oils and some pulverized rosemary leaves. I stirred a little to ensure even distribution, and then immediately poured the liquid into molds. Altogether, this took about 30 minutes.

Because I couldn't wait to send away for a good glycerin soap base, I used what I found at a local pharmacy. I don’t know whether it was the quality of the soap or the molds I used, but the one problem I came across was removing the soaps from their molds after they had hardened. The soap is supposed to harden after one hour, but I left mine overnight to ensure that prying them out of the molds would not harm their shape.

For molds, I used small ridged muffin tins. When the soaps hardened, it was very difficult to maneuver them out. The longer I let them sit, the easier it was to get the soap out. Lining the molds with plastic wrap or using a plastic soap-mold might facilitate this procedure.

read the Entire article!! very Good!!!

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CompostaBlog | Organic Gardening

2011-03-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

CompostaBlog | Organic Gardening

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ack

2011-03-12T13:41:00.000-08:00

I keep doing this

March Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs Calendar

2011-03-12T13:37:00.000-08:00

March Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs Calendar

Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs for March
The first flowers of Spring!

* Be mindful of warm days when the sun can cause heat to build up under rose cones, cold frames and in other plant protection systems. However, avoid removing mulches prematurely from plants with tender new tissue forming.
* Bluebells are superb for naturalizing in the same manner as daffodils but prefer a shadier location and will bloom even where they get no direct sun at all.
* Crocuses and gladioli are not true bulbs, but are corms. The main difference between bulbs and corms is the method of storing food. In corms, the food is stored in an enlarged basal plate or stem. In bulbs, food is stored in meaty scales. Corms are smaller and tend to be flatter than bulbs.
* To start new plants of the mother fern, Asplenium viviparum, bend down the tip of a frond with plantlets and anchor the tip to the soil with a U-shaped wire. When a plantlet has rooted, it can be cut from the frond and transplanted.
* Prune roses at this time. Remove dead and weak canes. Properly dispose of clippings.
* Replenish mulch around Azaleas and Camellias.
* Prune Crape myrtles and Altheas.
* Take bulbs out of cold storage for forcing as soon as they've had a long enough cold period. The smaller bulbs such as hyacinth and crocus only need eight weeks of cold, while tulips and daffodils need 12 to 14 weeks. Paperwhite narcissus do not require this chilling, so they can still be purchased and potted up to grow and bloom yet this spring.
* Tender bulbs of tuberous begonias, caladiums, dahlias and canna lilies can be potted up in well-drained soil rich in organic matter. Discard any that have rotted in storage.
* If you've been storing geraniums in cool, dark conditions, it's time to pot them up, cut them back and start watering again.
* Cut back geraniums and coleus that you've kept growing indoors through the winter to only a few buds. This will stimulate new growth and a fuller plant by the time summer arrives.
* As tulip, narcissus and other large bulbs begin to emerge, set pansy plants between them for added color.
* Accurate information on the longevity of flower seeds is hard to find. Based on limited observations, the following should be considered as short-life (one year) seeds: aster, candytuft, columbine, ornamental onion, honesty, kochia, phlox, salvia, strawflower and vinca. Some common, flower seeds viable for more than one year if stored properly are alyssum, calendula, centaurea, coreopsis, cosmos, marigold, nasturtium, nigella, petunia, salpiglossis, scabiosa, schizanthus, sweet pea, verbena, viola and zinnia.
* Seeds of the following annual flowers can be started indoors: ageratum, wax begonia, browallia, dianthus and carnation, dusty miller, impatiens, larkspur, lobelia, dwarf marigold, nierembergia, pansy, petunia, moss rose, snapdragons, celosia and stocks.
* Impatiens, one of the best annuals for shady spots, start blooming three months from seeding. Start seed indoors now, and they'll be ready to set out after the last frost date for your area. Pinch back seedlings once or twice before setting out to promote compact, bushy plants.
* Be sure to use a sterile seed-starting medium, supplemental lighting and bottom heat for best results. Different species also have different requirements for light or darkness during germination.
* Celosia seeds are best started in individual containers to avoid transplant shock. Do not set celosias out in cold weather as the plants may become stunted and perform poorly.
* If weeds occur in bulb beds, do not remove them by cultivation. Pull them by hand so the bulbs and roots will not be disturbed.
* Some annuals, such as verbenas, snapdragons and petunias, take 70 to 90 days to bloom. They should be started indoors in early spring or purchased as greenhouse-grown transplants.
* This is the time to start resurrecting the water lily pool. Drain and clean the pool before growth begins. Plant new, hardy water lilies.
* Rejuvenate your liriope by using a lawn mower to cut back the old foliage to a height of 2 to 3 inches. Avoid mowing too close and damaging the crown of the plant since that is where the new growth emerges.
* Divide and transplant summer and fall blooming perennials (astilbe, aster, bleeding heart, coral bells, daylilies, phlox and shasta daisies). Perennials perform best in well-drained soil with plenty of humus. Astilbe, hosta and bleeding heart will bloom in the shade.
* Hostas, liriope, daylilies, dicentra, Shasta daisies and coral bells are some perennials that can be divided before growth starts in spring.
* Buy some new perennials for your flower border. Spring is a good time to renew and add variety to your landscape. Visit a local garden center or secure catalogs from your favorite nursery.
* Cannas for early flowering can be started in boxes or large pots in a warm cellar or enclosed porch. Cut canna rhizomes into pieces, each containing two or three points or "eyes." Plant in a soil mixture containing adequate sand for good drainage. The developing plants are sensitive to cold and should be set in the garden about a week after the average date of the last frost in your area.
* Don't forget to fertilize naturalized bulbs in the spring as leaves emerge. Do not mow the area until the bulb foliage begins to die back.
* Divide and transplant perennials, such as ajuga, Shasta daisy, daylily, liriope and oxalis. Rework beds before planting, adding organic matter and fertilizer.
* Many annual flowers are very frost hardy when plants are small, including alyssum, California poppy, candytuft, larkspur, pansy, viola, phlox, pinks, Shirley poppy, snapdragon, stock and sweet pea. Seeds can be sown as soon as the soil has thawed.
* When the leaves of spring-flowering bulbs emerge, apply a complete fertilizer to ensure quality blooms next year. Remove the bulb foliage only after it dies naturally.
* When buying transplants, choose those plants with a compact, bushy form and bright-green leaves. Young, healthy plants with no flowers or flower buds will adapt more easily and overcome the shock of planting much faster.

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Trees and Shrubs March Reminders

2011-03-12T13:36:00.000-08:00

Trees and Shrubs March Reminders

Trees and Shrubs in the March Garden

* The 1992 All America Selections winner, Tropical Rose, is a canna that blooms from seed in about 100 to 130 days. Plants flower at 1 to 2 feet and mature over the summer to bushy, 2-foot plants. It can be used as a bedding plant or in containers.
* A good rule of thumb for planting rhododendrons is: the smaller the leaf (i.e., R. carolinianum, R. laetivirens), the more tolerant it is of winter sunlight. Large-leaved rhododendrons, such as R. catawbiense or R. maximum, have more winter injury when planted in bright locations.
* To protect seedlings from cutworms, cut newspaper into three-inch squares. Wrap a square around each plant's stem. About half the "collar" should protrude above the ground when the seedling is planted.
* When transplanting a young shade tree, it may help to orient the tree in its new location the same way it was in its old home. This will prevent previously shaded bark from suddenly being exposed to afternoon sun and causing injury. When not possible or desirable, or if the original orientation is unknown, wrap the trunk in tree tape or coat the sunny sides with white, exterior, latex paint for one growing season.
* Be aware that a brown plastic material that looks and feels like natural burlap, but does not break down in the soil, is now being used to wrap root balls of balled and burlapped plants. Synthetic materials enclosing the roots of trees and shrubs must be completely removed to ensure success of the transplants. Nurserymen have being alerted to avoid using brown plastic burlap, but there are still some landscaping plants on the market with soil balls wrapped in brown plastic. If you purchase balled and burlapped plants, to be on the safe side, remove the material covering the soil. If the tree is very heavy, peel the burlap down to the bottom of the hole if you cannot remove it completely.
* Some towns and cities are repeatedly bothered by inexperienced people selling trees or shrubs that have been dug from pastures or forests. Such plants usually have poor survival rates due to small, shallow, root systems that may have been damaged when dug or stored improperly. The best trees and shrubs are those grown in a nursery where a deep, full, root system develops. When these are carefully dug and the roots kept moist, the plants should recover quickly after transplanting.
* If you are buying bare-root trees, look for ones with a large root system in relation to the top growth. It is not necessary to purchase a very, large tree to get a quality plant.
* Potted azaleas, available through May, will flower for two to three weeks, if the soil is kept slightly moist. Display in a cool (60° F), bright location, and remove withered flowers. Unless you have room to experiment, discard when blooms fade since most florist azaleas are not hardy enough to be established outdoors.
* Young trees can be inexpensively protected from rodents, string trimmers and mowers with short, plastic, tube-shaped, tree guards. Each protector should be 9 to 10 inches tall and long enough to wrap around the entire trunk base. At least one company sells trimmer guards for trees, but gardeners can cut other plastic tree protectors to size for this purpose.
* Trees and shrubs with weak growth may need to be fertilized to stimulate more attractive development.
* Research has shown that young trees allowed to move with the wind develop greater trunk strength than trees rigidly staked.
* Plant roses and bare-root shrubs while they are still dormant, about four weeks before the average date of the last frost.
* Crabapples, valued for their beautiful spring blossoms and attractive fruit, are members of the rose family. Along with their relatives, many crabapples are susceptible to diseases, such as scab, cedar-apple rust, powdery mildew and fire blight. All of these diseases shorten the life span of the trees and diminish their ornamental qualities. Plant disease-resistant cultivars of crabapple, such as 'Ames White,' 'Autumn Glory,' 'Baskatong,' 'Beauty,' 'Coral Cascade,' 'Evelyn,' 'Harvest Gold,' 'Molten Lava,' 'Red Snow,' 'Robinson,' 'Tina' or 'Wies.'
* Dogwoods and magnolias should only be moved in early spring. Always move magnolias with a ball of dirt.
* Propagate deciduous shrubs, such as forsythia and winterjasmine, now by ground layering.
* When transplanting dogwoods, it is best that the trees be small (2 to 3 feet tall) and dormant. These do better than larger ones. The larger the tree, the greater the risk of death due to transplant shock since more roots are removed during digging.
* Boxwoods may be moved now; do not plant them deeper than they were previously planted. Trim and fertilize established boxwoods before new growth starts, but do not cultivate under boxwoods since their roots are shallow and may be damaged.
* Some insect pests of trees and shrubs are best controlled by spraying with dormant oil. This includes scale insects of pine, lilac and euonymus and many of the gall-forming insects. These insects reside on stems or needles and are smothered by the oil.
* Galls are mostly a cosmetic problem, but scales can weaken plants. Check weather forecasts to be sure temperatures will stay above freezing for eight to 12 hours after spraying to avoid damaging stems and needles.

Pruning

* Be sure to employ properly trained tree trimmers. Pruning is not a particularly difficult job. However, it does require an understanding of the growth habit of the plants and the form needed to secure the desired landscape effect.
* Once new growth begins on trees and shrubs, cut back winter-killed twigs to living, green wood.
* For more compact pyracanthas without the risk of losing berries, pinch back new growth now.
* Prune evergreens and evergreen shrubs for shape and size before growth starts, as early in the month as possible
* Boxwood should be pruned by thinning the outer foliage of the plant and cutting back the branches to retain desired height.
* Prune spring-flowering shrubs after flowering is completed.
* Hedges can receive their first pruning this month. As you prune, be sure to leave the base of the plant wider than the top. This allows sunlight to get to the bottom of the plant, creating a full, dense hedge.
* Don't leave stubs when pruning; stubs usually die and are entry points for decay fungus. Cut just outside the branch collar, the slightly thickened area at the base of the branch. Pruning should never be done in damp or wet weather when the fungal spores and bacteria that infect plants through fresh wounds spread easily.
* Trees that bleed, such as birch and maple, should not be pruned until after their leaves are fully developed. Elm, maple, birch and black walnut trees ooze sap when pruned in the spring due to water pressure from the moist soil. It will not harm the plant, but you can prune these in early summer or late fall instead if you are bothered by it.
* After pussy willow catkins have passed their prime, prune the plants drastically to encourage long branches and large catkins for next year.
* Plant new rose bushes in properly dug beds. Fertilize established roses after pruning. It is wise to have your soil tested about every two years. If black spot or powdery mildew has been a problem, start applications of a recommended fungicide. Contact your local Extension agent for current recommendations.
* When pruning or cutting roses, cut all flower stems 1/4 inch above a complete (5 leaflet) leaf, leaving two complete leaves below the cut bud. Always use sharp, pruning shears and cut on a slant.
* Complete the pruning of shrubs and ornamental trees before new growth starts, except for spring-flowering shrubs. Prune those in the spring after they finish flowering.
* For good drainage in tight clay, plant trees on the "high side" by building up the area around the root ball or by laying drain tile from the bottom of the hole to a ditch or to a special drainage area. Provide a drainage area by digging another hole lower than the planting hole and filling it with gravel. Use pipe or tile to carry excess water to this hole from the tree roots. Another solution is to play it safe and select a tree that withstands "wet feet."
* The end of the dormant season is the best time to prune almost all trees and shrubs. Pines are about the only exception. Let their new growth expand until young needles are half of full size before pruning. Spring flowering shrubs can be pruned now, too, unless you can't stand losing the flower buds on the stems you're removing.
* Branches cut from spring-flowering shrubs and fruit trees can be brought in and put in warm water to force them into bloom.
* Do not use tree wound dressing or paint on pruning cuts. These can slow the healing process.
* Prune out and burn or bury the brown, shriveled "witches-brooms" on honeysuckle. The leaf-folding aphid that causes these overwinters in these growths. They feed on new growth as soon as the buds break in the spring. This one is hard to control, because untreated honeysuckles are everywhere. This may be a good time to consider replacing honeysuckles with less invasive plants that have fewer pest problems.

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Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs March Reminders

2011-03-12T13:34:00.000-08:00

Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs March Reminders

Vegetable, Fruit, and Herb Gardening in March

March is one of the very busiest times of the year in our garden. We are turning over the soil to expose overwintering pests, redesigning beds to make use of good crop rotation practices, and getting early spring food vegetables in the ground. It is a family tradition to get potatoes in the ground by St.Patrick's Day. Peas are already popping their heads up ready to be covered with hay at the first sign of a hard snow or deep freeze, which is always possible with unpredictable Oklahoma weather! The month of March is the transition from winter to spring and highly enjoyed!

* Sow seeds indoors for the following vegetables: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, eggplant and head lettuce.
* On nice days, go outside and turn the compost pile. This will get it "cooking" again. It will also help you resist the urge to start working the soil too soon.
* Coriander seeds make fragrant additions to potpourri. To grow coriander, sow seeds directly into beds as soon as the danger of frost has passed. The planting should be located in full sun to partial shade in well-drained soil. Do not overfertilize coriander, as high nitrogen will result in plants with decreased flavor.
* Parsley is rich in vitamins A and C. Start some seed indoors now for later transplanting to a sunny corner of the vegetable garden.
* Tops of onions seeded last month should be clipped to keep them at about 4 inches. This diverts energy to bulb growth.
* Pick a permanent spot for herbs in the garden. Many of them will come up year after year.
* A good, salt substitute for anyone who wants to restrict sodium intake is a blend of equal parts dried basil, dill, lemon balm, marjoram, mint, parsley, rosemary, thyme and a few dashes of Hungarian paprika. The mixture will keep indefinitely in a dark glass or ceramic container.

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Sustainable Suburban Home

2011-03-12T13:11:00.000-08:00

Sustainable Suburban Home

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good Lord I am so confused

2011-03-12T08:15:00.000-08:00

Ok folks will need to pay closer attention to posts before my old fingers hit the send button!! I cross posted my christian network forum blog to my CT network forum blog.. Wonder what I put over there LOL

2011-03-11T15:41:00.000-08:00

Life On A Homestead 8APN Show 6 3/11/2011 - Prepper Podcast | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

2011-03-11T15:27:00.000-08:00

Life On A Homestead 8APN Show 6 3/11/2011 - Prepper Podcast | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

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Building Super Soil - Urban Farm Online

2011-03-09T15:04:00.000-08:00

Building Super Soil - Urban Farm Online

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Connecticut Preppers Roll Call - All Preppers Please Check In

2011-03-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

The American Preppers Network is conducting a network-wide roll call. Whether you are a member or not please check in and let us know what you are doing to prepare.

This is a good opportunity to network with other preppers near you.

Connecticut Preppers, to respond to the roll call please follow this link:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=265&t=9250

Reply to the Roll Call and let us know what you have been doing to prepare.

If you are not yet a member of the forum you can register here for free:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/ucp.php?mode=register

FREE tubing bender for your garden hoop houses and low tunnels

2011-03-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

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Permaculture Guilds: A Primer

2011-03-04T14:12:00.000-08:00

Permaculture Guilds: A Primer
Written on March 26, 2007 by onestraw in How To's, Permaculture, sustainable agriculture
http://onestrawrob.com/2007/03/permaculture-guilds-a-primer/
Permaculture is a world created by merging the words “permanent” and “agriculture” or more correctly “culture”. Looking around, it is very hard to find a more permanent (i.e. sustainable) form of agriculture than, well, Nature; no one has to fertilize a Forest! And that realization is the crux of Permaculture in a nutshell: mimicking Nature’s vast experience in sustainability to make our own crude agriculture more sustainable in turn. In other words we are using Gaia as a mentor, rather than a nemesis. I have not actually attended a Permaculture Design Course, so I am not an official teacher, but I have read most of the major texts and they have literally changed my outlook on everything from our household’s waste stream to my perennial beds and choice of pets.
Guilding is perhaps the coolest detail level aspect of Permaculture theory. In Nature plants are grouped in small, reoccurring but loosely defined communities that are often referred to as guilds.
A full guild will have seven layers-each specifically designed to use one aspect of both the sun and root strata. On top will be the Large Trees, followed by the low trees, shrubs, herbs, vines, groundcovers, and finally “root” plants. But Gaia is subtle, and the coordination goes far deeper than resource use. Each participant in the guild brings a wealth of diversity to the table. The tall tree may house small animals that distribute seeds for them, and the shrub layer may provide feed for birds that use the low trees for nesting habitat and feed on insects that prey on the large trees. Plants in the herb layer may fix nitrogen for all to use, and the “root” plants may seek out pockets of nutrients in the soil that are made available to others in the guild as their foliage decomposes. Some plants will attract pollinators, others predatory insects. Some will act as mulch plants by creating excess biomass that regenerates the soil, while their neighbors may act as fortress plants protecting the entire guild from the encroachment of outside species. The inter-connectivity is how nature works-nice tidy systems that sufficiently supply the community with all of its needs given water and sunlight and a proper climate.
Permaculture takes this knowledge of resource management and biodiversity and attempts to modify nature into agriculture, which is really nothing more than an ecosystem modified by humans for their own ends. Unfortunately we have chosen to do this in a way that favors the monoculture. True Iowa GMA corn can net 240+ bushels of corn/acre, and is the most productive way known to eck corn from that acre (consequences be damned!), but Gaia can produce far more biomass on her own from that same acre without any inputs at all. The trick is to find a way to merge Gaia’s productivity and self sufficiency with plants that produce usable products from humans. “Guilding” a garden is that attempt.
For suburban use, the guilded Food Forest often forgoes the Tall Tree layer. One apex tree of this size would overly dominate a typical lot, but if you are planting a large deciduous tree to shade your home consider a useful tree such as a Standard Pear (fruit), Sugar Maple (syrup), Chestnut (protein!), or Black Locust (nitrogen fixer!). The Low Tree layer is where I focus most of my guilds. All semi dwarf rootstock fruit trees fit nicely and are uber productive on a suburban scale. Things to consider are whether you need a pollinator tree and also the ability of that variety to survive organically in your local-pears, paw-paw, and cherries are all good choices for the midwest with apples and plums good fits with careful pest management.
The fun really starts in the shrub, herb and root layers because of the amazing variety available. Each guild will need to provide for the needs of the group in as many ways as possible. Each needs 5 things: Nitrogen, Nutrients, Mulch, Pollination, Protection-both from competition and pests. When choosing your plants, in addition to a usable product for your family, each should provide a surplus of at least one service to the guild. Comfrey is a personal favorite of mine. The leaves are edible and medicinal, the roots are nutrient hounds, and they produce so much biomass that they can literally be hacked down to the ground 5 times a year. Nitrogen fixers are legion-including many edible varieties of annual beans and peas. Clovers are great n-fixers that also attract benifical insects and act as a mulch. My favorite shrub is the Goumi as it fixes nitrogen, has edible fruit and gives a good thicket habitat for insectary birds. Brambles and hazelnut shrubs are also great choices. Fortress plants can be as common as daylilies (also with edible tubers and buds!) or daffodils, as tasty as garlic, or if you really need to beat something back use an aggressive alleopath like our native Jerusalem Artichoke-but be ready to keep it under control! Luckily the best way to do this is by eating the delicious tubers!
A well designed guild will need little additional water due to less evaporation from the dense plantings and thick mulch, little to no fertilizer as it produces its own, and little to no pest control as the plants will attract their own predators. Sound to good to be true? Take a stroll through an established prairie or savanna and then ask the forester about his fertilizer or water bill…
My guild plans tend to rely on the fruit tree to supply most of the food, with the herb and shrub layers mostly supporting the tree’s needs while also granting some side benefits like edible fruits, landscape beauty, and wildlife habitat. Look for many updates, including plant lists, on my guilds as the season progresses!
If this post whet your appetite, the most accessible book on temperate permaculture is Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden and I highly recommend it!

http://onestrawrob.com/2007/03/permaculture-guilds-a-primer/

permaculture Guild handout http://neverendingfood.org/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/Permaculture-Guild-2005-03.pdf
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Raised garden beds power point (2)

2011-03-04T05:02:00.001-08:00

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Raised garden beds power point (2)

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Management succession, interplanting

2011-03-04T05:00:00.001-08:00

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Management succession, interplanting

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Intro To Urban Vegetables V.2

2011-03-04T04:58:00.001-08:00

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Intro To Urban Vegetables V.2

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Food Storage 101 Where do I begin? (Cookin With Home Storage) by Peggy Dianne Layton

2011-03-04T04:52:00.001-08:00

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Food Storage 101 Where do I begin? (Cookin With Home Storage) by Peggy Dianne Layton

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Dry Bulk Food Storage

2011-03-03T14:42:00.000-08:00

Dry Bulk Food Storage
by Steve The Survival Sasquatch

We are all trying to be as prepared for all eventualities as we can be, and we are all trying to get prepared within our budgets. With that in mind I have developed the following method for putting up dry storage in bulk.

Obtain five and six gallon food grade plastic buckets for free - ask for them at, Walmart bakery - Icing Buckets. Nursing home food service - Chicken soup stock buckets. Delis - Macaroni Salad and Potato salad Buckets – No Pickle Buckets (you can't get the smell out.) Any where they do high volume food production call and ask - stop by and ask. Most of these places throw away the buckets - Offer a dollar a bucket to somebody if they will save them for you.

Best price I have been able to find otherwise is 7.50 per bucket - used

Do not use HDPE #2 buckets that are not specifically food grade. I have heard claims that the chemical formulation of the plastic varies, and regardless if it doesn't the bucket may have held something in it that would not be safe to eat even in trace amounts.

Get Rice - It keeps salt from caking, it will be sufficient to act as a desiccant. (except of course when you are putting up bulk rice -in which case you won't be using a separate desiccant) make up sachets of dry rice to use as a dessicant for keeping other things dry in your sealed containers.

Get disposable "Hand Warmers" - they are chemically the same as O2 absorbers, more readily available, and they handle a much larger volume of O2 per unit. They do contain salt and a very little bit of water to accelerate the reaction so they are not reusable. I checked with Poison Control, The Manufactuer, and A Yale Biochemistry Professor, these are safe to use for this purpose.

Make sure the environment you are going to work in has an ambient humidity less than 30% (I have a cheap indoor outdoor weather station thing that measures the humidity indoors - it was 7$ at homegoods) and in the winter here my basement averages 25% humidity. This level of ambient humidity is sufficient to dry flowers with out any other effort. I also dry my herbs by hanging them from a clothes line thing in the basement during the winter.

Ok here we go for the mechanics of the operation:

Step 1:
Sterile wash your buckets (if your dish washer does not have a sterile cycle add 2 tsp of bleach and run your longest wash cycle 1 tsp might even be sufficient, bleach is not good for the seals in your diswasher. So as another method for sterilization after washing in the dishwasher fill the bucket completely with water and add a tsp of bleach.)

Step 2:
At the end of the cycle remove the bucket and the lid - do not at any time touch the inside surfaces of the bucket or its seals! It wont be sterile anymore.

Step 3:
Using a heat gun if you have one, or a hair dryer, blow into the bucket until the entire bucket is hot to the touch and there are no drops of water in it. If you do not have a heat gun let the heated dry cycle do its thing and then let the bucket stand until it is absolutely dry. Optional: put a thin coating of warm (liqiud) petroleum jelly on the rubber seal in the rim of the lid of the bucket. (this protects the seal from dry rot)

Step 4:
Put your "Dry Bulk Food" in the bucket - (this is only for truly dried foods - any thing that is partially wet this will not work) Rice, Beans, Chick peas, Peas, Pasta, Cous Cous, Lentils, any dried food.

Step 5:
To any thing except rice add a cup of rice (from a sealed container that was packed in low humidity - Make sure you reseal that container right away) you may also add some salt if you want it won't hurt any thing and it may very well help.

Step 6:
Open your Chemical Hand Warmer by tearing its packaging and with out touching it drop it in the bucket.

Step 7:
Seal with a rubber mallet or if you have Sasquatch hands use the heel of your hand - make sure the bucket is completely sealed.

Step 8:
Label, Date, and store up off the ground so that air can circulate under neath the buckets in a low temperature, low light, low humidity environment - the average chilly basement should be sufficient.

Step 9:
Rotate annually or semi annually and check seals - Do not stack buckets more than 3 high, heavy (35 lbs or more) buckets no more than 2 high.

This method properly executed will store dried goods in excess of 20 years - there will always be some food value degradation over time - many people say (I have no proof of this) that these foods will retain 90% of their nutritional value for 30 years and up to 70% as long as 50 years. However there is no perfect food preservation method and there will be some failure rate in all preps. Always remember; 3 is 2, 2 is 1, and 1 is none.

Also remember that you are depriving the fungal, viral, and bacterial spores of the environment that will allow them to grow - not killing them - they were in the bag when you bought it at the store - you must cook these foods to make them safe to eat. And remember any method of food storage can fail - in fact will fail - given enough time and or neglect.

So eat what you store and store what you eat - rotate your storage – and have fun.

Disclaimer: I cannot guarantee any used buckets, food product, nor results. Food will go bad given enough time, moisture, heat, and other environmental inputs. Food will go bad even without the other environmental factors given enough time.

About the author;
On 9/11 Steve was 24 and very busy starting a corporate carreer. And He freaked out. Having been an avid camper he started preparing for a Bug Out. Over time, marriage and raising children and through more than a decade of continuous study he has become a prepper. He gives monthly talks in his community coordinated through The American Preppers Network and consults clients on the subjects of Disater Preparation and Self Sufficiency. He can be reached at trackthesasquatch@gmail.com

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Food Security & Home-Scale Permaculture (For Health & Wellbeing)

2011-03-02T05:09:00.001-08:00

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Food Security & Home-Scale Permaculture (For Health & Wellbeing)

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On Site Composting by Mark Bennett and Elaine Grassbaugh

2011-03-02T04:57:00.001-08:00

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On Site Composting by Mark Bennett and Elaine Grassbaugh

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Intro Soils - Lecture 1

2011-03-02T04:52:00.001-08:00

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Intro Soils - Lecture 1

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Soil Notes

2011-03-02T04:50:00.001-08:00

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Soil Notes

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Sustainable soil management

2011-03-02T04:48:00.001-08:00

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Sustainable soil management

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Gardening Jobs for March

2011-03-01T08:45:00.001-08:00

Gardening Jobs for March

http://www.almanac.com/gardening/jobs

Re-pot houseplants so they will grow well during spring and summer.

Water gloxinias and African violets from the bottom, avoiding getting any water on the leaves. Dust the leaves with a small, soft brush.

Consider ordering a few blueberry plants. Not only will they provide delicious fruit for jams, muffins, and pies, but they are also an excellent choice for landscaping plants, offering scarlet fall foliage and creamy white spring flowers. Blueberries serve neatly in a hedge or as specimen plants.

When choosing fruit trees, remember that apple, apricot, and pear trees need two varieties present to ensure pollination. If space is limited, try peach, nectarine, or sour cherry, which will bear fruit on a single tree.

Garden work should begin when a lump of soil squeezed in the hand is dry enough to fall apart slowly.

Uncover bulb beds and hardy borders near the middle of the month.

Plant deciduous trees and shrubs this month.

Trim out the old canes from the rows of berry bushes. The bramble fruits are borne on new wood of last year's growth.

Prune fruit trees until spring buds swell. Maple and birch should not be pruned until they leaf out.

Sprinkle wood ashes around berries and fruit trees. The potash will enhance the sweetness of the fruit.

Remove mulches from snowdrops and crocuses so the shoots can come through.

Uncover mulched perennial and strawberry beds gradually, pressing into place any plants that have been heaved up.

Dig up over-wintered parsnips as soon as the soil is loose enough. They will not benefit from any additional time in the ground.

Set out pansies as soon as the ground is ready. They'll happily withstand cold weather and will bloom steadily if the spent blossoms are kept picked.

Remove the mulch from your perennial beds gradually. Take it off as the season progresses and add it to your compost pile.

If your compost pile has been frozen all winter, add some manure now and turn it frequently.

Check trellises, latticework, and fences for winter damage. Repair before spring growth begins.

Dormant spraying for fruit trees should be done before spring growth begins.

Resist the temptation to uncover spring-flowering plants such as daffodils and tulips. Mulch may be loosened, but the shoots will still benefit from protection against cold, drying winds.

Manure can be spread over the garden now, especially on the asparagus and rhubarb beds.

Be sure that flats and pots used for starting seed are perfectly clean. Likewise, the soil should be clean and sterile.

Mark and label your sown seeds, indoors and out.

Water newly started seedlings carefully. A pitcher may let the water out too forcefully. A mist sprayer is gentle but can take a long time. Try using a meat basting syringe, which will dispense the water effectively without causing too much soil disruption.

Give peas a chance. The earlier they mature, the sweeter they'll be. Sow them right under the snow, if necessary, but save some for a later planting as well.

Spread dark plastic intended for mulch out over the garden site to hasten the warming of the soil. This will provide for earlier and better germination.

Keep plastic milk jugs or other coverings on hand to protect the flowers of pansies, crocuses, and other early bloomers against the return of severe weather.

Start seedlings of annuals in flats -- aster, larkspur, alyssum, and balsam should be started now (or 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost date in your area). If summer season is short, zinnias should be started now. They will need to be potted up in individual pots after 4 to 5 weeks.

Start some vegetables in flats now: Brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, and lettuce are good choices.

Seed alpine strawberries now to make attractive and bountiful hanging baskets for summer.
http://www.almanac.com/gardening/jobs

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The stormy March is come at last

2011-03-01T08:37:00.000-08:00

The stormy March is come at last,
With wind, and cloud, and changing skies;
I hear the rushing of the blast
That through the snowy valley flies.

–William Cullen Bryant, American poet (1794–1878)

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2011-02-25T04:37:00.000-08:00

Everyday Uses for Tea Tree Oil

* Cold sores, Canker sores and Acne– At the first onset, apply oil directly to the affected spot. Use can also add a few drops to your facial wash.
* Dental Hygiene and Mouthwash-Add a couple of drops to a glass of water for a refreshing mouthwash. It can also be used to temporarily relive toothache pain. Make sure not to swallow, a little won’t hurt, but use caution. Can also add one drop directly to toothbrush.
* Cuts, Scrapes, Abrasions and Insect Bites- Rub a few drops of Tea Tree Oil directly on the wound. Tea Tree Oil’s anti-microbial properties will aid in killing the germs.
* Athlete’s foot – You can apply oil directly to the feet {if you are sensitive, add to a carrier oil such as olive oil}, or add into a foot bath and allow your feet to soak. Continue treatment until affected area is gone.
* Dandruff – Add a few drops to your shampoo. This same approach works for killing head lice, as well. For a “bad case” of head lice, apply directly to hair roots.
* Dust mites-Add tea tree oil to a damp cloth and rub over your mattress to ward off dust mites and to keep the mattress fresh.
* Congestion-Add to a vaporizer to loosen chest congestion.
* All-Purpose Disinfecting Cleaner- In a spray bottle combine 2 teaspoons of tea tree oil in 2 cups of water You can use this same solution to help kill mold and germs {perfect for using on kitchen counters and high chairs}.
* Laundry-A few drops added to a load of laundry to disinfect and leave your clothes smelling cleaner.
* Flea/Tick/Insect Repellant– It’s good for treating ear mites in dogs.
* Diaper Rash – Apply 2-3 drops of oil mixed in your palm with a carrier oil such as coconut oil. Apply to affected area as you normally would.
* Sinus & Bronchial Congestion - The vapors may be inhaled by adding five drops of the oil to a bowl of steaming hot water or to a vaporizor.
* Sunburn-Combine one part Tea Tree Oil with ten parts of coconut oil and spread freely over the affected areas. Relieves the pain, and prevents peeling.

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Bicentennial Celebration and the “Seed Circus”

2011-02-19T11:14:00.001-08:00

Comstock Ferre in the 30'sComstock, Ferre & Co., LLC is located in “ ye most ancient town” of Wethersfield in Connecticut, a charming, historic town founded in 1634 on the Connecticut River. Ever since, it’s been known as an agricultural community giving birth to the world-famous Wethersfield Red Onion, which served as a major source of income to farmers in this community.

Comstock, Ferre & Co. has stood the test of time, and despite being in the cross-hairs for demolition, has risen again as a vibrant seed house offering heirloom varieties to New England and around the world.

Comstock’s was founded in the very bedrock of American agriculture. Joseph Belden printed his very first price list of seed varieties in an 1811 issue of the Hartford Courant. His brother James Lockwood Beldon later took the helm of the business and sold seeds out of his colonial home, which was built by his father in 1767 and still stands today. He named the company Wethersfield Seed Gardens which was a name that became synonymous with quality throughout his years in business. Comstock’s has been intrusted in the hands of several presidents and owners over two centuries.

In June, 2010 a new chapter began in Comstock’s colorful history as Jere andWilliam Comstock, Seedsman Emilee Gettle purchased the company to return it to its heirloom roots, where it all began. The Gettles are working to restore Comstock, Ferre & Co. to its glorious beginnings as an heirloom seed company. They are working to save what is left of the agricultural heritage passed down to us by searching out and preserving seed varieties once included in Belden’s and Comstock’s price lists and catalogs.

We plan to repair some of the antique pieces of equipment and return them to working order for day-to-day use! The restoration of the grounds and 11 historic buildings, one of which was Patriot Silas Deane’s warehouse in the 1700’s, is an ongoing process. Comstock will be a type of living history museum dedicated to agriculture and our diverse inheritance of heirloom seed varieties that are in danger of extinction, some of which have already passed through the sands of time.

In 2011 we are celebrating 200 years of selling seeds in New England. Come join us for our June 5, 2011, Bicentennial Celebration and the “Seed Circus” hosted by the Greenhorns!

Directions - Come to Wethersfield, CT. (just 5 minutes south of downtown Hartford) We are at 263 Main street in Old Wethersfield.

Open: Sunday- Friday. Closed Saturdays & major holidays. Phone 860-571-6590 or visit us online at www.ComstockFerre.com

If you are interested in receiving a free copy of Comstock, Ferre & Co. 2011 catalog, please contact us at:

Comstock, Ferre & Co., LLC
263 Main Street
Wethersfield, CT 06109

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Life On A Homestead 6 APN Show 4 2/18/2011 - Prepper Podcast | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

2011-02-18T04:38:00.000-08:00

Life On A Homestead 6 APN Show 4 2/18/2011 - Prepper Podcast | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

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Banish the winter blues by preparing for spring

2011-02-17T07:40:00.000-08:00

Published on The Old Farmer's Almanac (http://www.almanac.com)
Banish the winter blues by preparing for spring
By Doreen G. Howard
Created 2011-02-09 21:04
by Doreen G. Howard

After the blizzards and sub-zero temperatures of the last two months, I’m more than ready for spring. I’m also depressed by the endless gray, cold days filled with intermittent snow storms. So, I’m banishing the blues by doing a few winter chores so I can hit the ground running when the first crocus [5] pop.

You can prune fruit trees any time it’s warm enough to be outdoors. Pruning needs to be done when the trees are dormant [6]to control size and encourage fruit blossoms.

Doing it now means I have to wade through nearly three feet of snow to my miniature apple [7]orchard. I’m burning a lot of calories and pounds. I already saw a five-pound drop on the scales this morning from two pruning sessions.

That’s enough to banish the blues, for me!

Wading through three-feet-deep snow to prune is a great calorie-burner!

While you prune [8], scatter the clippings on the ground or snow away from the trees. Rabbits [9]and other pests will eat these and leave the trees alone.

Grapevines [10] should be pruned during the cold months, too. Cut them back heavily, pruning to the darker, rusty-brown wood to encourage new growth. Grape clusters form on new growth. Don’t worry if a sap drips from the cuts. It’s only water and won’t hurt anything.

See the Almanac's winter pruning guide [2].

While you’re out there in the snow, take a broom and gently brush off any accumulated snow from trees and shrubs. Young branches can easily break from the snow’s weight. The yew hedge in front of my house was half-buried from the last blizzard and required serious sweeping.

After I got the sidewalk shoveled after the last blizzard, sweeping snow off the hedge was the next job. This much snow can break young branches.

Another housekeeping task that can be done on any day you feel like braving the weather is spreading fireplace ashes around lilac bushes [11] and fruit trees. Scatter the ashes around the base of the trees and bushes, on top of the snow, in about a three-foot-diameter circle. As the snow melts and the ground thaws, minerals and other nutrients in wood ash will percolate down to root systems. Any hard wood that is burned in a fireplace supplies numerous trace elements, calcium, zinc, copper and other minerals that fruit trees crave.

Images of spring! Wood ash helps to sweeten the soil around lilacs, which bloom more lavishly in alkaline ground.

Start feeding houseplants [12] again in mid to late February, depending on your latitude. Southern ones, start fertilizing on Valentine’s Day; northern zones, resume feeding at the end of the month. As the sun becomes stronger and days lengthen [13], plants begin to grow again and need nutrition.

Tell us what you do to banish the winter blues, such as any small jobs you do to help your garden during winter.

Doreen Howard has written for The Old Farmer's Almanac All-Seasons Garden Guide for 15 years and is the former garden editor at Woman’s Day as well as a photographer. She has grown more than 300 varieties of heirloom edibles and flowers in the last two decades. Her latest book Heirloom Vegetables, Herbs and Fruits: Savoring the Flavor of the Past (Cool Springs Press) comes out this spring.

* Gardening Blog

Source URL: http://www.almanac.com/blog/gardening-blog/banish-winter-blues-preparing-spring

Links:
[1] http://www.almanac.com/image/banish-winter-blues-preparing-spring
[2] http://www.almanac.com/content/winter-pruning-guide-trees-and-shrubs
[3] http://www.almanac.com/user/login?destination=print%2Fblog%2Fgardening-blog%2Fbanish-winter-blues-preparing-spring%3Futm_source%3DAlmanac%2520Companion%26utm_campaign%3Dd6e8c686fd-Almanac%2520Companion_February_17_2011%26utm_medium%3Demail%26mc_cid%3Dd6e8c686fd%26mc_eid%3D2636eb3ef5%2523comment-form
[4] http://www.almanac.com/user/register?destination=print%2Fblog%2Fgardening-blog%2Fbanish-winter-blues-preparing-spring%3Futm_source%3DAlmanac%2520Companion%26utm_campaign%3Dd6e8c686fd-Almanac%2520Companion_February_17_2011%26utm_medium%3Demail%26mc_cid%3Dd6e8c686fd%26mc_eid%3D2636eb3ef5%2523comment-form
[5] http://www.almanac.com/plant/crocuses
[6] http://ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag29.html
[7] http://www.almanac.com/plant/apples
[8] http://www.almanac.com/content/pruning-pointers-trees-and-shrubs
[9] http://www.almanac.com/content/rabbits-0
[10] http://www.almanac.com/plant/grapes
[11] http://www.almanac.com/plant/lilacs
[12] http://www.almanac.com/content/houseplants-growing-tips
[13] http://www.almanac.com/astronomy/rise

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LISTEN/CHAT THURS NITE: "Canning Dairy & Meat"

2011-02-17T06:04:00.000-08:00

Your Preparation Station with Donna Miller.

TONIGHT'S TOPIC: "Canning Dairy and Meat!."

Donna Miller hosts The Grain Storehouse, Your Preparation Station with tonight’s special guest Cherlynn. She is going to give us some great recipes and inspiration to can meat, cheese and dairy. This will be so vital for keeping a good supply without having to rely on the freezer! Your host is full of questions so come learn along with Donna!

The phone lines and chat room will be open for questions, suggestions and tips too. Come contribute, come ask, come share and perhaps pick up some things you'd not thought of before!

Thursday, February 17th.

7:00-8:00PM ET
6:00-7:00PM CT
5:00-6:00PM MT
4:00-5:00PM PT

Call-in Number to listen or join the discussion: 1 (347) 326-9604
Link to listen live or later if you missed it:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/doctorprepper/2011/02/18/your-preparation-station-02-17-2011

It is ALWAYS so GREAT to be in the chat room with so many 'familiar faces' from APN! Thank you for making it when you can!!!

Archived shows (of "Your Preparation Station with Donna Miller") if you've missed any would like to catch up:
http://www.bepreparedradio.com/category/prepper-podcasts/your-preparation-station/

Step-by-Step Prep Tips:http://grainstorehouse.com
Prep Tools and Foods: http://millersgrainhouse.com/store
Learn Prep Skills: http://youtube.com/thewheatguy

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Talk about storms!

2011-02-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

Talk about storms!

It seems as if the only area not getting snow, ice and cold weather, or high winds and flood damage is Central Oregon! And we need the snow in the mountains!

The Midwest has been pummeled all winter, with the (hopefully) grand finale last Thursday in Chicago.

Then, Cyclone Yasi hit the coast of Australia, causing widespread wind damage and flooding.

Subsequently, we'll be focusing on urban survival this week with an emphasis on disaster preparedness.

* Learn cyclone and tornado safety skills.
* SurvivalCommonSense.com Radio: Listen to the Feb. 4 interview with Freeze Dry Guy JR as we discuss the Freeze Dry Guy company's charitable efforts.
* How to shut off your utilities during an emergency.
* Finding Water after Cyclone Yasi.
* Worth Reading: Storage Food Cookbook.
* Survival Food: Homemade Energy Bar Recipe.

And here is what is going on this week at
2011 Chicago storm
The 2011 Chicago Snow Storm

SurvivalCommonSense.com:

* Friday's guests on SurvivalCommonSense.com Radio will include Jan LeBaron, owner of Healthy Harvest, who will be talking about her new storage food cookbook. The program will air at 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on the Preparedness Radio Network. Click here for the link to the show. You can download the show and listen whenever it's convenient. (Our broadcasts make a great drive-time show!)
* Questions for the SurvivalCommonSense.com Radio host (that's me) or the guest? Email me at: survivalcommonsense.com@gmail.com.
* Please visit SurvivalCommonSense.com on Facebook, and "Friend" us!
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Everybody have a great week! - Leon

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Feel free to post this entire email update on your site!

Thanks, Leon
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Dancing in a Field of Tansy: finding a herbal ally

2011-02-06T15:15:00.000-08:00

Dancing in a Field of Tansy: finding a herbal ally

I would like to Do this as a field study once spring rolls around. If anyone is interested in joining me on romps through the woods and fields searching out herbs, roots, and shoots. Please let me know on the www.connecticutPreppersNetwork.net
under the new Topic I will begin there. I've been studying herbs faithfully for 25 years and on and off again for 40 or more. I am not saying I have arrived, but like Thomas Jefferson in his famous letter to :

Charles Willson Peale Poplar Forest, August 20, 1811

http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/P/tj3/writings/brf/jefl211.htm

though an old man, I am but a young gardener.

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Good Time to Start your seeds here in CT

2011-02-05T12:41:00.000-08:00

Good Time to Start your seeds here in CT on the 9th , 10th and 11th of this month the Moon will be waxing and in the sign of Taurus! Get your Cabbages , Broccoli, and lettuce going!!

If you miss those dates you can try the 14th and 15th while the Moon is in cancer..

By the 21st 22nd,and 23rd the Moon will be in Libra and Scorpio and it will be time to seed those onions, leeks, and other plants for there root growth! Libra is also a Great Sign to plant flowers and Herbs in!
So for all you flower lovers get out the seed starting flats time to start your carnations,chrysanthemum,columbine,delphinium,foxglove,hollyhock,lupine, lavender,penstemon,poppy,rudbeckia,salvia,statice, and yarrow!
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2011-02-01T06:14:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Nutmeggers!

Today I going to talk more about what I am doing to get a jump start on my 2011 vegetable garden. I bought a Gardening By the Moon 2011 Calendar, and I’m using that to determine when to start my seeds and do my gardening stuff. I don’t know yet whether I believe fully in the concept they present, but I like the fact that I can look at the calendar and it gives me a Time to do something. Like a To-do- list that you can turn to that reminds you what you are doing next.

http://www.gardeningbythemoon.com/

“Let the Gardening by the Moon Calendar pull all this information together for you.
By following the suggestions in the calendar, and starting seeds inside, you will be able to extend your season and harvest more abundance from your garden than you ever imagined!

This great garden calendar has these features

The best days for planting by the phase and the signs of the moon
Garden activities for each month
Lists of specific vegetables and flowers that can be started in flats or planted directly
Available in three regional versions to match your growing season
Lots of valuable gardening advice presented in a clear, easy to read format
Available as a digital download for immediate delivery, with customized time zone preferences”

At the new moon, the lunar gravity pulls water up, and causes the seeds to swell and burst. This factor, coupled with the increasing moonlight creates balanced root and leaf growth. This is the best time for planting above ground annual crops that produce their seeds outside the fruit. Examples are lettuce, spinach, celery, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and grain crops. Cucumbers like this phase also, even though they are an exception to that rule.

In the second quarter the gravitational pull is less, but the moonlight is strong, creating strong leaf growth. It is generally a good time for planting, especially two days before the full moon. The types of crops that prefer the second quarter are annuals that produce above ground, but their seeds form inside the fruit, such as beans, melons, peas, peppers, squash, and tomatoes. Mow lawns in the first or second quarter to increase growth.

After the full moon, as the moon wanes, the energy is drawing down. The gravitation pull is high, creating more moisture in the soil, but the moonlight is decreasing, putting energy into the roots. This is a favorable time for planting root crops, including beets, carrots, onions, potatoes, and peanuts. It is also good for perennials, biennials, bulbs and transplanting because of the active root growth. Pruning is best done in the third quarter, in the sign of Scorpio.

In the fourth quarter there is decreased gravitational pull and moonlight, and it is considered a resting period. This is also the best time to cultivate, harvest, transplant and prune. Mow lawns in the third or fourth quarter to retard growth.

The Other aspect of this is Gardening by the signs..

How the astrological signs of the zodiac influence gardening
by the Moon

The Moon moves through the signs of the Zodiac in the heavens every couple of days. Different signs are associated with an element of earth, air, fire or water. When the Moon is in a water sign it is the most fertile time for planting. Different types of plants have favorite signs too, such as leafy plants prefer the water signs.The fertile water signs are Cancer, Pisces, and Scorpio, and are best for planting above ground, leafy annuals.

Planting by the Signs

The Earth signs, Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn, are also very fertile and good for planting. The root is the part of the plant associated with earth signs, so it is especially good for planting root crops, or for transplanting to encourage root development.

Air signs work well for some plants, but are generally barren and dry. Libra is an exception to that rule, and is semi-fertile and good for blooming flowers and herbs. Flowers are the part of the plant associated with air signs. Melons like Gemini, and onions respond well in Aquarius. When the Moon is in an air sign it is a good time to harvest and cultivate.

The fire signs of Aries, Leo and Sagittarius are very barren and dry, but may be used for crops grown for their seed. Because it is barren, Leo is a good sign for weeding and cultivation, so seeds won't sprout. It is also good to harvest during a fire sign.

Aries- A fire sign. Barren and dry. Harvest root and fruit for storage. Cultivate, destroy weeds and pests.

Taurus- An earth sign. Productive and moist. Second best for planting and transplanting. Good for root crops and potatoes, especially when hardiness is important. Also a good sign for leafy vegetables such as lettuce, cabbage and spinach.

Gemini- An air sign. Barren and dry. Harvest root and fruit for storage. Cultivate, destroy weeds and pests. Melon seeds respond well in this sign.

Cancer- A water sign. Very fruitful and moist. The best sign for all planting and transplanting. Also good for grafting, and irrigation.

Leo- A fire sign. Very barren and dry. Cultivate, harvest root and fruit for storage. An excellent time to destroy weeds and pests in the fourth quarter.

Virgo- An earth sign. Barren and moist. Some flowers and vines are favored by it. Cultivate and destroy weeds and pests.

Libra- An air signs. Semi-fruitful and moist. Best sign for planting beautiful and fragrant flowers, vines and herbs. Good for planting pulpy stems like kohlrabi, and root crops.

Scorpio- A water sign. Very fruitful and moist. Best planting sign for sturdy plants and vines. Tomatoes like to be transplanted in Scorpio, and it is a good sign for corn and squash. Graft or prune in the third and fourth quarter to retard growth and promote better fruit. A good sign for irrigation and transplanting.

Sagittarius- A fire sign. Barren and dry. Harvest roots and onions for storage, and plant onion sets and fruit trees. A good sign in which to cultivate the soil.

Capricorn- An earth sign. Productive and dry. Good for planting potatoes and other root crops, and for encouraging strong hardy growth. Good for grafting, and pruning to promote healing, and applying organic fertilizer.

Aquarius- An air sign. Barren and dry. Harvest root and fruit for storage. Cultivate, destroy weeds and pests. Good for planting onion sets.

Pisces- A water sign. Very productive and moist. Second best sign for planting and transplanting. Especially good for root growth and irrigation.

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can you believe how fast Janurary went?

2011-01-31T06:21:00.000-08:00

Hi fellow Nutmeggers!
Believe it our not the Month we are entering is to Connecticut gardeners the month we can start planting seeds indoors for our garden. Broccoli,Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Collards, Kale, and Lettuce can all be started in the Month of February! So Break out the seed flats and run to the store to by your seed starting mixes! It is time to get a jump om Spring.

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This is one of the Hardest venues for me to use

2011-01-18T11:46:00.000-08:00

How many of you feel that? Everyday I think as I make my postings in APN..Man as the Moderator of CT forums I really need to get busy posting on the CT Blog!!
What I find is an inability to come up with something that will benefit other CT people.
What would you like to see here?
Should I blog about what I am doing on my Small city Homestead? Or is that To personal and of little interest to anyone but me? So you see Why I haven't posted more often here and why I tend to be over at the APN site more..

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Garden Questions and Answers & CT Seed and Plant swaps

2011-01-09T07:21:00.000-08:00

CT Garden Questions and Answers & CT Seed and Plant swaps

Hey all,
Started Getting my seeds in already!! Man I needed that! I am having Garden withdrawals!!

This years Garden is going to be planted more Intensely if it kills me.. I just read an article in Mother Earth News Feb/Mar 2009 An Amazing and Prolific Urban Homestead

How our family of four has created food and energy self-sufficiency on a fifth of acre.
By Jules Dervaes

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Modern-H ... rvaes.aspx

I have More land than that!! My growing season is a LOT shorter though and I'm finally going to do something about it.
I found a Tube Bender at Home depot
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1 ... ogId=10053

and I will be Making hoop tunnels in my raised beds. And a Hoop House for a winter long harvest of Salad Crops..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kixp6-dsHNg

Just bought the Book By Elliot Colman

The Winter Harvest Handbook
Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses

Choosing locally grown organic food is a sustainable living trend that's taken hold throughout North America. Celebrated farming expert Eliot Coleman helped start this movement with The New Organic Grower published 20 years ago. He continues to lead the way, pushing the limits of the harvest season while working his world-renowned organic farm in Harborside, Maine. Now gardeners and farmers can use the innovative, highly successful methods Coleman describes in this comprehensive handbook to raise crops throughout the coldest of winters.

Building on the techniques that hundreds of thousands of farmers and gardeners adopted from The New Organic Grower and Four-Season Harvest, this new book focuses on growing produce of unparalleled freshness and quality in customized unheated or, in some cases, minimally heated, movable plastic greenhouses.

Coleman offers clear, concise details on greenhouse construction and maintenance, planting schedules, crop management, harvesting practices, and even marketing methods in this complete, meticulous, and illustrated guide. His painstaking research and experimentation with more than 30 different crops will be valuable to small farmers, homesteaders, and experienced home gardeners who seek to expand their production seasons.

A passionate advocate for the revival of small-scale sustainable farming, Coleman provides a practical model for supplying fresh, locally grown produce during the winter season, even in climates where conventional wisdom says it "just can't be done."

http://www.fourseasonfarm.com/books/index.html#handbook
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=266&t=3418&start=30
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Seed exchange - And a talk on Bulk Dry Food Storage

2011-01-09T07:18:00.000-08:00

http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=267&t=7510

Hello Everybody,
I have just found the forum and am very excited. I really want to do an in person meeting and get to meet some fellow preppers.
So I thought a good activity would be a Seed Exchange and a talk on Bulk Dry Food Storage. I will give the talk if you show up.

I do not have a venue yet but I do have a date: Thursday evening February 3rd or 10th at 7:00 pm. Odd it seems, I know but ... its not friday saturday or sunday and its not during daytime hours. So it shouldn't interfere with work or family time, and it is just before the first moon favorable dates for starting garden seeds indoors. Feb 13 - 18 for some plants. then March 14- 19 for the next batch - I will also bring the moon favorable dates chart for starting plans indoors and outdoors for many different types of plants for our area.

spreading successful seed around gives a group like ours the ability to test different varieties and test germination rates and varrying methods. So lets get together have an appetizer and a drink spread some seed and I'll do my best to make plastic buckets interesting. - So please record your methods and results - I will also be posting seed saving techniques throughout the year.
Please make sure any seeds you save are heirloom seeds. - hybrids and GMO's cannot be trusted to continue to propagate.

Venue suggestions would be great.
Talk to you tomorrow
Sasquatch.

http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=267&t=7510

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Connecticut Preppers Network Camping weekend workshop

2010-12-30T16:09:00.000-08:00

Connecticut Camping weekend workshop

by cityhomesteader » Thu Dec 30, 2010 7:07 pm

Hi all,

I'm going to stick a Stake in this.. Let's talk about having a Camping weekend bring family and get together over a nice Chef cooked meal or two prepared by On The wild side Chef Tobias.. We will feature foraged foods along with Bring a Bib boneless ribs, and BBQ Brisket my Treat.. If your are interested I can find out the cost of the camp sites per night from my Friend Chris at Nickerson's family Campground.. http://www.nickersonpark.com/
We are going to have some Classes wildcrafting and foraging classes for free and if you have a talent let me know and we can set up a class time for you too.. It would be great to get this show on the road and a great time to get to know one another.. There is river to swim in and Tube down, Hot showers, a great rec room, fishing, hiking, and nightly camp fires..Bring a chair and if you play a guitar bring that along too..
We are going to try for a Friday - Sunday time frame.. Hoping for June.. Let me know in advance so I can call Chris and see if we can get the BIG Area with the Pavillion and fire pit!!

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What's Up CT!!

2010-12-30T07:06:00.000-08:00

Hi all,
I'm Cityhomesteader the New Moderator over on the connecticut preppers network forums.
With the ever changing State of the world I decided to get proactive instead of just reading and comment every once in a while. I'm mostly new to prepping and have a lot to learn. Starting at 57 years old and convincing your wife of 29 years that "No honey I have nut gone off my nut!"

We have been trying to build a Homestead in the city for about 13 years this Past Christmas.
Renovating and old 1840's farm house and putting in a huge terraced garden on our south facing slope. We have about .75 of an acre of land over a sandstone ledge, so gardening can be a challenge. I also Forage and wildcraft around the fields and woods of my area, and have been actively a Naturalist for about 50 years. I got interested in wild foods and wildcrafting at the ripe old age of 5 years old when My parents would take us all into the woods foraging grapes, black raspberries, wild strawberries, fish and Game. I never took to hunting, but loved the woods and fields.
My present foraging run is harvesting Balm of Gilead Buds and making herbal salves. infusions, and ointments. Winter is the very best time to harvest the resinous buds of this Poplar tree.

Hope to hear from others on my blog and would love to get together with people that have similar leanings or would like to learn about them. You can contact me at the Connecticut preppers Network via APN
The links are below.. Smitty cityhomesteader
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Feds target airline pilot for exposing TSA security sham on YouTube

2010-12-27T05:41:00.000-08:00

A Sacramento-based airline pilot is the subject of a federal investigation for exposing what he says are serious flaws in the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) airport security protocols. According to ABC News10 in Sacramento, the 50-year-old pilot who requested to remain anonymous says that TSA applies its strict screening protocols to passengers and even flight crews, but ground crews are freely able to access secure areas with a simple card swipe.

"As you can see, airport security is kind of a farce," the pilot explains in his video, as he shows an entrance to a secure area. "It's only smoke and mirrors so you people believe there is actually something going on here."

The pilot has worked for his airline for more than ten years and had been issued a federal handgun to carry with him in the cockpit. But after blowing the whistle on the serious security breaches taking place at the airport, four federal air marshals and two sheriff's deputies shows up at his house to confiscate the weapon, and they also asked him to give up his state-issued concealed weapon carry permit.

On December 6, the pilot also received a letter from the TSA explaining that "an administrative review into your deputation status as a Federal Flight Deck Officer has been initiated," a move that he believes is a warning from the Feds saying not to mess with the system, unless you want to face the consequences.

According to the same ABC News10 report, the pilot's airline asked him to remove the videos from YouTube shortly after he posted them, but portions of the videos captured as part of the ABC News10 report can be viewed at the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwLG...

Monday, December 27, 2010 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030844_airline_pilot_TSA.html#ixzz19JiD3qDl

Sources for this story include:

http://www.news10.net/news/article....

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Swine flu pandemic outbreak sweeping through Britain even though 70 percent were vaccinated last year

2010-12-27T05:40:00.000-08:00

(NaturalNews) A swine flu pandemic is sweeping through Britain despite the fact that 70 percent of Britain's over-65 population was vaccinated against swine flu last year. This year, that number is nearly the same -- 68.5% -- but flu vaccine proponents insist that until everyone is vaccinated, the flu will continue to infect people.

What these vaccine advocates absolutely will not admit, however, is how many of those who are sick with the flu this year also got vaccinated last year. This little detail is left out of every mainstream media report on vaccines and the flu. They simply refuse to mention this all-important number, leaving readers to leap to the incorrect conclusion that only those who were not vaccinated get sick with the flu.

Most infected patients were previously vaccinated

That assumption is false. In fact, of the 450 critical care beds in England that are now occupied by flu patients, I have no doubt that most of those infected patients are people who received flu vaccines in the past.

Such statistics are never made available to the public or the press, of course. To release such statistics would expose the Great Lie of the vaccine industry: That flu vaccines simply don't work on 99 percent of people!

In fact, the people who are most susceptible to catching the flu are precisely the very same people who get vaccinated. Why is that? Because vaccines weaken the immune system in the long run, leaving you more vulnerable to future infections. They deny your immune system the opportunity to practice its own adaptive response to invading microorganisms or viruses, thereby causing your immune system to atrophy in the same way that a wheelchair-bound person will experience leg muscle atrophy.

The immune system is a lot like a muscle: Use it or lose it!

But flu vaccines provide weakened viruses to the immune system (along with other preservative chemicals that can be extremely dangerous to neurological health). It's sort of like working out your muscles at the gym but having your trainer do all the heavy lifting for you. Obviously you're not going to have very strong muscles in the end because your body won't need to invoke a very strong adaptive response.

The same is true with vaccines and the flu: If your body is exposed to weakened flu viruses year after year, it gets lazy and weak, and when it one day comes into contact with a full-strength virus circulating in the wild, it's not in good enough shape to handle the challenge.

Vitamin D deficiency is widespread in Britain

At the same time this is going on, a person who is vitamin D deficient will also have an alarmingly weak immune system response because vitamin D activates the immune system to do its job. In people with extremely low vitamin D levels, even vaccines containing weakened viruses won't solicit an antibody response. But instead of testing patients for vitamin D deficiency and prescribing that with the vaccine, conventional medical doctors and contagious disease authorities robotically urge everyone to just "get multiple vaccine shots" as if following one failed vaccine with yet another failed vaccine will somehow make them both work.

That's idiotic, of course. And the other idiotic thing about all this is that if people had sufficient levels of vitamin D circulating in their blood, they wouldn't need seasonal flu vaccines in the first place! That's because a strong, healthy immune system with lots of circulating vitamin D is universally effective at halting ALL seasonal flu strains, with near 100% success in those with vitamin D levels between 50 - 70 (ng/dL).

The three main reasons behind Britain's flu pandemic

So the real reason Britain is suffering a swine flu pandemic right now is actually three-fold:

#1) It's winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and Britain is so far north (of the equator) that the people living there aren't currently generating any vitamin D whatsoever. This makes virtually the entire British population ridiculously vitamin D deficient throughout the winter.

#2) The majority of the British population has been subjected to flu vaccines in previous years, weakening their immune systems and making them more vulnerable to this year's flu strains.

#3) The flu strain itself is so successful in the wild precisely because so many Britons walk around in chronic states of immune suppression (from vitamin D deficiency, chronic stress, poor dietary habits and so on). This creates a "viral breeding ground" which encourages more rapid virus mutations that make vaccines obsolete anyway.

The question you are not allowed to ask vaccine quacks

The vaccine-pushing quack medical community believes that if they could magically convince 100 percent of the people to get vaccinated, they would have this problem licked. In their own minds, they have unscientifically convinced themselves that a vaccine equals automatic and full protection against a flu virus.

And yet even they won't dare ask this simple question: Of all the people sick from the flu who are right now lying in Britain's hospital beds, what percentage were vaccinated against the flu last year or this year?

The answer to that question will expose the outright fraud of the vaccine industry because the answer is a very large number. No one in the medical industry dares ask that question, of course, because they realize that delving into the actual re-infection rate of flu vaccine recipients would expose their quackery and fraud, causing yet more people to lose faith in vaccines which are, after all, sold based entirely on misplaced faith and clever propaganda.

The flu vaccine propaganda, of course, demands that people never be allowed to collide with the scientific facts about how many people who are vaccinated against the flu still catch the flu anyway. (The flu re-infection rate.) That's why you will NEVER see an honest answer to this question released by hospitals, vaccine companies or vaccine-pushing doctors.

Keep taking your flu jabs, everybody. But don't ask whether they actually work, because that question isn't allowed to be asked in the cult of medicine that dominates the sick-care landscape around the world today.

We wouldn't want actual science to interfere with a really profitable con job now, would we?

Monday, December 27, 2010
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/030845_Britain_swine_flu.html#ixzz19JfOYEgc

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Connecticut Preppers Roll Call

2010-11-27T09:48:00.000-08:00

The Connecticut Preppers Network is conducting a Roll Call on our forum. If you are a prepper please check in.

* Here is a link to the Roll Call:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=265&t=6210

You have to be registered to check in. If you aren't registered please join here:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/ucp.php?mode=register

* If you are a HAM Radio Operator check in here:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=143&t=6219

* If you are an A.N.T.S. member please check in here:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=618&t=6220

Welcome New Connecticut Members

2010-11-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome our new members:

Ruger_Shooter

Hello folks;

I've been lurking here for a while and have learned a great deal. My focus has been on education and establishing a basic level of preparredness. My wife has been supportive which is nice.

Jeff

Please welcome our new member by following the link below:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=265&t=5808

michaels1

Hello, I a newbie. I'm from Newington, CT. I've been doing my own thing for a while and have been reading American-
preppers for several weeks now. We don't seem to do to much around here in CT. If you mentioned anything to anyone, they think your nuts. Now, I'm not saying anything. I put a zipper on it. I know that's what a lot of people are doing. I
like the preppers ideas. I just want to be prepared for the worst which is right around the corner if not sooner. Thank-you for this CT site.
MJ

Please welcome our new member by following the link below:
http://www.americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=265&t=5778

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planning the 2011 food garden

2010-10-30T08:11:00.000-07:00

Here are the major vegetable plant families and suggestions for crop rotation:

Onion Family, Amaryllidaceae: Garlic, onions, leeks, shallots. These are light feeders. Plant onion family crops after heavy feeders. Follow onion family crops with legumes.

Cabbage Family, Brassicaceae (Cruciferae): Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, collards, cress, kale, kohlrabi, radishes, turnips. These are heavy feeders. Plant cabbage family crops after legumes. After cabbage family crops build the soil for a season with a cover crop or soil building compost or let the area sit fallow for a season after applying well-aged manure.

Lettuce Family, Asteraceae (Compositae): Artichokes, chicory, endive, lettuce. These are heavy feeders. Follow lettuce family crops with soil building legumes.

Grains, Grass Family, Poaceae (Gramineae): Grains--oats, corn, rye, wheat. Follow these crops with tomato family plants.

Legume Family, Fabaceae (Leguminosae): Beans, peas, clover, vetch. These are soil enrichers. Follow legume family plants with any other crop.

Tomato Family, Nightshade Family, Solanaceae: Eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes. Nightshade family crops are heavy feeders. Plant these crops after grass family plants. Follow heavy feeders with legume family crops to re-build the soil.

Squash Family, Cucurbitaceae: Cucumbers, melons, summer and winter squash, pumpkins, watermelon. Squash family plants are heavy feeders. Plant these crops after grass family plants. Follow heavy feeders with legume family crops to re-build the soil.

Carrot Family, Apiaceae (Umbelliferae): Carrots, celery, anise, coriander, dill, fennel, parsley. These are light to medium feeders. Carrot family crops can follow any other crop. Follow carrot family crops with legumes or onion family crops.

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Intro

2010-10-27T09:47:00.001-07:00

Hey Fellow CT folks..
I'm Bruce AKA Cityhomesteader and I moderate the APN Connecticut preppers forum.
Wonder where all the CT folks are and also wondering if anyone wants to meet-up and join our little A.N.T.S group and begin to share and learn together and maybe even for a community.
See ya around the APN Forums Bruce

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New England Sources for prepping

2010-09-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

APN member cityhomesteader has put together a list of of New England Sources for prepping. You can get the list here:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=266&t=3030

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How to Join The Connecticut Preppers Network

2010-09-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

Come learn survival, preparedness and sustainable living with us!

The Preppers networks are all about volunteering our knowledge and skills with each other. We share ideas, tips and basically network with each other to survive any type of disaster whether natural, man made, or economic. Information that you learn and share with others will help everyone learn how to find "Freedom Through Teaching Others Self Reliance."

Joining the Connecticut Preppers Network is simple, and most of all, it's Free! To join, just follow these few steps.

1) Register to become a member of the American Preppers Network www.AmericanPreppersNetwork.net The registration page is here: http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/ucp.php?mode=register

2) Once you have your account, go to the index page of the forum and do your first post by introducing yourself in the new members area. http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/index.php

3) Once you know how to do posts, visit the Connecticut forum and introduce yourself. The Connecticut forum can be found by scrolling to the lower section of the index page where you will find a list of states, or you can go directly by following this URL: www.ConnecticutPreppersNetwork.net

4) After you've visited the Connecticut forum, follow this link to learn how to join the Connecticut Preppers Network group:
http://americanpreppersnetwork.net/viewtopic.php?f=564&t=2738

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DIY Dry Stacked Concrete Block Shelter

2010-04-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

From Whisper on our forum

Shelters, My favorite subject. I wanted to write something about stacked concrete block Shelters, insulation and water myths. You don't have to be an expert to build a dry stacked concrete block shelter yourself. The hardest thing would be pouring a footing, which you can either read about how to do this or pay someone.

The way it works is simple compared to other building methods. The web site listed at the bottom of the post recommend using mortar on the first row or two in case the footing isn't level. The rest you simply stack at your own pace, no mortar between the joints. After you start stacking, just use a level to make sure they are going up straight. Then pour your concrete down the center cores with rebar as you go. Check out the site, there's pics and more details.

http://www.drystacked.com/sequence.html

Here are some of the nice things about it. First off, after reading dozens of books on underground homes, green building, corn cob homes, straw bail, rammed earth, earth bags, cord wood...... one of the many things I learned is the worst way to build a home is with wood for many reasons. But the most important one being mass. Energy is stored in mass, whether it's hot or cool. This is why the best material is concrete (although log cabins have mass because they are so thick, you can't really insulate them correctly without loosing the log cabin look...). Concrete is the best material for holding mass although some may argue that rammed earth or earth bags are as effective. I go along with the concrete people.

The second thing that I learned is all about insulating a home/shelter. If you ever heard the term "super insulated home" this is where it came from. Without the insulation, the mass is useless. We have been doing it wrong for the last 100 years! This will be shocking to read if you haven't read it before. All your insulation should be on the outside of your home only. This is whether you are going to build above ground or below. This is also not an opinion but a fact proven by studies at universities. The way it work is simple. If you are producing heat or cool air, the insulation on the outside of the house holds it in. I have read results in the past that stated, if you had insulation on both the inside and outside, it wouldn't be nearly as efficient. I think the best book that I read about it was by the university of Minnesota. But it's packed somewhere.

There have been some myths out on the internet about water and or moisture problems building an underground concrete shelters. Well yeah that's true if you don't water proof it. There are many products out there to do this. I wouldn't go with drylock alone on the outside of an underground shelter. I probably wouldn't use it at all. I've seen it peal. I also had an underground bomb shelter in my last house. It came with the house. I used drylock on the tunnel. It didn't work. I think tar may be the cheapest thing to use, but I know there are far superior products out there.

If you are thinking of building an underground shelter then you have to decide what are you preparing for? Is it to hide? If that's the case then you could go with those underground fiberglass things. In my opinion, that's all there good for. Those companies have spread some of the misconceptions about concrete shelters having water problems. If you want a shelter that can withstand earthquakes, bombs, nuclear fallout or what ever else, concrete is the only way to go. Before you disagree, ask yourself this. How many countries have you heard about making underground shelters out of fiberglass? Give up? The answer is none! (at least that I heard of) OK, how many countries have you heard of that are building underground concrete shelters? Answer: Out of all the countries that I heard about.... All of them. Hmmmm There must be something to it.

OK, I wrote all that to lead up to what I am planning for next year when I move. I plan on building an underground concrete shelter using stacked concrete block. My plan, at this point, unless someone can convince me otherwise, is to have two walls of dried stacked concrete block walls, which I will drill holes in the blocks to connect rebar to both the inside and outside walls. Then pour concrete in-between.

I hope people picked up something on this long winded post. Please share your thoughts on this.

------------------------------------------
Join the APN Forum at www.AmericanPreppersNetwork.net
Visit the Connecticut Forum at www.connecticutPreppersNetwork.net

Food Storage Tip - Spices

2009-11-26T17:15:00.000-08:00

Re-post courtesy of MatthiasJ from Kentucky Preppers Network

It is important to ensure that your food storage has enough variety so that you won't get tired of eating the same thing. If you eat the same thing over and over it can hurt your appetite and put you in a very dangerous situation where you wouldn't even be hungry. One way to help avoid that is to keep a variety of spices in your food storage. Spices are a great way to add variety in your foods while still eating some of the same ingredients.

Spices are really cheap. At most supermarkets you can get a bottle of spices for around $1. Spices are a great way to add additional variety in your food storage. For example, you can use italian seasoning for spaghetti, or put some red pepper in your canned soup for an extra kick. Spices are cheap so there's no excuse to not make them an important part of your food storage.

I would suggest getting all of the "basic" spices. Italian seasoning, lemon pepper, red pepper, seasoning salt, onion powder, garlic powder...ect. Stocked with just the basics you would be able to liven up any dish you prepare from your food storage. The purpose of storing food is so you can still eat good in the event of a disaster. With the proper spices on hand you can guarantee that your meals would be tastey and ensure that the family would want to eat the food.

Mental Preparedness

2009-11-25T17:14:00.000-08:00

Re-post courtesy of MatthiasJ from Kentucky Preppers Network

Mental preparedness is just as important as storing your food and water. In a post SHTF world or any survival situation having your wits about you is going to be your best asset. You can have all the food and water in the world but if you panic and stress out it won't do you much good. You must prepare yourself mentally for anything that could come your way. A tornado, hurricane, lightning strike or any other disaster can happen with little notice. It's important to always stay calm and if you do you're always going to be able to handle the situation better.

Panicking will get you nowhere. When we had the tornado hit our house and neighborhood we didn't panic. After it was over we proceeded to ensure everyone was safe and okay. After that we started salvaging what we could and putting it in the parts of the house that weren't damaged. This saved us lots of money, and saved the insurance company from having to replace a lot of our stuff.

Even in everyday life keeping your stress levels down will help you with your job, social, and home life. Keep a positive attitude and don't let the little things get to you. Be patient with yourself and others. Not everyone thinks and works they way you do so be sure to accommodate for others and be understanding. This is an important part of the prepper mindset that I talk so much about. A prepper is always thinking one step ahead. Be ready for anything and never let your guard down.

Kitchen Gadgets - Smooth Edge Can Opener

2009-11-24T08:00:00.000-08:00

Re-post courtesy of MatthiasJ from Kentucky Preppers Network

A can opener is an essential kitchen gadget to keep around. For obvious reasons, they allow you to open cans easily. Regular can openers leave sharp edges and once opened the cannot be closed back. The contents of the can must be eaten before they go bad. Enter in the smooth edge can opener. The smooth edge can opener opens the can from the side, creating a smooth edge that isn't sharp, and creates a lid that can be added back onto the top of the can for a nearly perfect seal.

Pampered Chef makes a popular smooth edge can opener that I'm sure everyone is familiar with. I'm also sure most smooth edge can openers on the market are a lot better than the conventional can openers. I have had experience with the Pampered Chef products, but I chose to go with the Oxo Smooth Edge Can Opener. The Oxo Can Opener doesn't leave any sharp edges, has a patented side-wind mechanism for effortless cutting, easy to turn soft-grip knobs and non-slip handles, dishwasher safe, and comes with a limited lifetime warranty.

The Oxo Can Opener is a necessary item in your food storage. A lot of times you're not going to eat the whole can of food after you open it, so with a smooth edge opener you can put the lid back on the can and save the food for later. This works great if you purchased a large bulk can of something and need it to last a few days. Even with the lid back on and sealed the food won't last forever, make sure to eat it within the next few days as quick as possible. This is why it's good to purchase smaller portioned canned goods to lower the risk of having to throw out food. In a survival situation, throwing out food is a huge no-no.

If you have a smooth edge can opener in the kitchen, great. I keep one dedicated in my food storage; and it would never hurt to have a spare lying around. If you don't own a smooth edge can opener I would suggest picking one up. Amazon sells the Oxo Can Opener for around $20.00. The opener is well made, great quality, and should hold up to years of use without any issue.

Apartment Survival Tip #1

2009-11-23T17:09:00.000-08:00

Re-post courtesy of Matthiasj from Kentucky Preppers Network

There seems to be a lack of information regarding the preparedness options for people who are living in apartments or similar housing situations. I touched on this subject in my Prepping for College Students series but I would like to go into this further for those who could use the information. There are advantages to living in an apartment, and I will probably be in one myself sometime soon. They are cheaper, require little maintenance, and don't come with a lot of the "headaches" of home ownership. (Mowing the yard, fixing leaky pipes, air conditioning...ect.)

Just because you live in an apartment doesn't mean all hope is lost. You can store and prepare with the best of them with a little knowledge. The first obvious disadvantage of living in an apartment is your inability to grow a garden. Many see gardening as a focal point of their preparedness plan. I like to say, "no garden, no problem!" Let other people garden for you. You can purchase tons of fresh, natural, and organic produce at your local farmers market. Now the main goal of having your survival garden is to can your harvest to add to your food storage.

This way you don't have to garden, you can buy the produce already picked, then take it home and can it yourself. Canning is something you CAN do in an apartment, and canning from your local farmers market is the best way to do this. Buying from the local farmers market is also supporting local farmers, and you're contributing to the free market economy. Supply and demand will work in your favor. As more and more people shop and purchase at farmers markets, more vendors will open and sell their produce. This is the BEST way to can organic produce, and add it to your food storage if you live somewhere where you are unable to garden.

Water, not having it would really suck

2009-06-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

It's really easy to get caught up in "prepping" and find yourself with tons of food stocked away. Theirs all sorts of choices and variety and we all go to the store and buy food on a regular basis.

It's even easier to completely forget about water. Without it, we're done for quickly. Us urban preppers simply turn on a faucet and out comes water brought to us by our local water company. Every three months I get a bill for about $60 and theirs not much more to think about. Their isn't a variety of choices to be made, and I don't have to go anywhere to get it.

But in a SHTF scenario, it wouldn't take long before the water stopped coming. If we're at home caring for our families because of a situation, do you really think the water company employees won't be doing the same. If the water plant has no power and no employees, we won't have water coming to our homes.

What I never realized is that the average American uses 50 to 200 gallons of water per day. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_gallons_of_water_does_an_average_american_use_in_a_day

Obviously, we don't stand a chance of storing up that much. But how little can we get by on?

Well, the recommended 8 8oz glasses a day would be half a gallon, and you'll probably need another half a gallon or more to reconstitute the food you have stored in #10 cans. Not too mention, brushing your teeth, washing your hands, etc...

So even if we're very conservative and say 2 gallons a day, for a three month supply, we would need 180 gallons per adult or more than 3, 55 gallon containers. Problem with these containers is their expensive, usually going for $80 or more, and the shipping tends to cost even more.

But I recently tracked down a local source, located in North Haven called Yankee Plastics:
http://www.yankeecontainers.com/y2khelp/55ct.htm

Now I haven't purchased from them yet, but when I called recently they quoted a price of less than $60 per to buy a small quantity. I'll shortly be picking up 6 myself, it's just a matter of having time as their only open during the week and for that price you have to pick them up.

Employed, but for how long?

2009-06-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

I got off to a quick start with joining this blog, and had intentions of writing more at a quicker pace. As happens in life, things change quickly. The company I work for has been downsizing at a rapid pace over the last few years. Even today, the next round of layoffs was announced. Checking the job boards theirs about 20 job listings for the entire country that match up with my skill set. Not exactly encouraging, but at least unemployment is something I can prepare for and plan.

As I'm typing this, I'm adding unemployment insurance to my mortgage and credit cards, and double checking the requirements for them to actually take over payments. At worst, I'll have spent about $600 over the course of the remainder of this year, but if I'm right and I do end up unemployed shortly, all my debt will be paid monthly and unemployment can cover food and utilities.

Most times we talk about things like natural disasters, civil unrest, etc.... . I'd love to hear feedback on what others are doing to prepare for the possibility of loss of employment.

Oathkeepers in Lexington Massachusetts

2009-04-09T21:58:00.001-07:00

Oathkeepers in Lexington Massachusetts, I hope that any preppers within a few hours drive will take the time to attend this historic event on April 19th. For details visit Oathkeepers.net

I had the opportunity to speak with Stuart Rhodes founder of Oathkeepers at great length on the phone today. He is a very sincere man with a vision every bit as important if not more important than our own vision. We must stand behind all of our troops, veterans, and peace officers who pledge to keep their oaths. They must know that when they refuse to obey an unlawful order that we will be there supporting them.

Costco Basement List

2009-03-11T08:35:00.000-07:00

Heres' the list of items that I keep in my basement from Costco. The great thing about this list is that it's the things we use on a normal basis. So even if the rest of our lives go perfectly smooth, I stay employed, Connecticut continues to miss out on natural disasters, theirs no more terrorists attacks, no domestic strife; I haven't wasted a penny, just pre-spent a little bit. It will all get used and I have the peace of mind knowing that we can survive for 3 or 4 months without needing to go anywhere.

I started small with 1 months worth of stuff and worked my way up each trip to 6 month mark. Take it slow, don't over extend yourself and before you know it, you'll be shopping to replenish stocks rather than because your out of anything.

Keep in mind this list is for myself and my wife, based on the things we actually use. You should make your starting list based on the things you actually use and the number of people you have in your household:

advil 4 bottles
aleve 4 bottles
alka seltzer 4 boxes
Body Soap 4 packs (2 bottles each pack)
Cat litter 6 boxes (we have 3 cats)
cinammon 3 large bottles
condensed milk 4 packs
Conditioner 6 bottles
cough drops 4 packs (6 bags per pack, assorted)
Dish soap 6 bottles
Dishwasher soap 4 jugs
Dog Food 4 bags (40 lbs each, supplement dog food with l/o table scraps)
foodsaver bags 4 packs
Hand Soap 6 bottles
honey 3 jugs
Kitchen Trash Bags 6 boxes
lemon juice 4 packs (2 bottles per pack)
Liquid Plumber 6 packs (2 bottles per pack)
listerine 4 packs (2 bottles per pack)
Mountain dew 6 cases (slightly addicted)
Outdoor Trash Bags 6 boxes
Pam Spray 4 packs (2-Pack)
paper plates 6 packs
Paper Towels 6 packs
peppercorns 4 bottles
qtips 6 packs (4 boxes per pack)
Rice Bagged 4 bags
Rice Boxes 6 packs (6 boxes per pack)
salt 6 containers
Shampoo 6 bottles
Spaghetti 6 packs (6 1-lb boxes per pack)
sponges 4 packs
sudafed 6 packs
Toilet Paper 6 packs
vitamins Mens 4 bottles
vitamins Womens 4 bottles
ziploc bags gallon freezer 4 boxes
ziploc bags quart freezer 4 boxes
ziploc bags sandwich 4 boxes

Easy, Painless First Step

2009-03-10T10:17:00.000-07:00

The first step to take in prepping is simply to increase the items you keep on hand. Most of us go to the grocery store every couple of days and only pick up whats needed for the next few days and only purchase dry goods such as paper towels and toilet paper when we actually run out.

The easiest step to take is to simply purchase items with a long shelf life in larger quantities and make sure you maintain at least a months worth always. If you don't already have a membership to one of the warehouse type stores, you should pick up a Costco membership right away. I recommend the Executive level membership as you get a 2% rebate on all your purchases. Simply put, if you purchase $5,000 worth of stuff from them in a year, you'll receive a rebate check for $100 which means a free membership. Since you'll be buying most items in bulk from them over the year, it will be pretty easy to hit the $5,000 mark in a year.

Tomorrow I'll share my list of items that I purchase from Costco and keep on hand at all times.

Prepping in CT

2009-03-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

If you've searched for information, and come across any of the message boards on prepping, I'm sure you've run into the stereo-typical prepper. Backwoods cabin/house with acres of farmland, 5 years of food set aside, etc...

Not to knock anyone, I wish I had that kind of setup in the backwoods of Vermont. Reality is that's not a possibility for most of us here in Connecticut, even if we would love for it to be. So this blog will be dedicated to preparing at a reasonable pace for the most likely events to occur in Connecticut, without dedicating all our time or resources to doing so.

I'll be posting resources I find and info on companies I've actually purchased from. Along with suggestions on how to prep sanely. It's also a great way for those of us in Connecticut to get the chance to discuss these issues with someone nearby.

Coming Soon...

2009-03-07T20:44:00.001-08:00

Anthony will be operating the Connecticut Preppers Network. Welcome Anthony! If anyone would like to be a Team Member and contribute, please leave a comment.

Cut expenses and prep at the same time!

2009-02-27T10:01:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, my user name is Bullseye and I will be providing a few posts here for all to read until we get someone to take over this Network. I started Kentucky Preppers Network back in the fall of last year. Since that time The American Preppers Network came to be and they as me to be the Eastern Regional Coordinator, which is the hat I am wearing at this time. The following post was posted by matthiasj who is now running the Kentucky Preppers Network. Matthiaj has allowed me to re post this here because first, he is a friend and fellow prepper and second, he and I both feel this is a very useful post and wanted to share with all.

If you are interested in running this network please contact Bullseye 1kentuckyprepper@gmail.com or Tom americanprepper@yahoo.com . We would be glad to help you in anyway.

The idea of storing food and water for an emergency might be very foreign to some. What do I buy? How much? How will I pay for this? These are some questions that many might ask themselves when they realize they need to prepare for a natural disaster or most of all, economic collapse. Most Americans rely on weekly or even daily Wal-Mart trips. What if there wasn’t any food at Wal-Mart? The answer is simple; keep a long term food supply for emergencies.

What do I buy?

Store what you eat, eat what you store. This should be the motto of any survivalist. You don’t want to store beans, rice and wheat if you don’t eat these foods. The first step in preparing to store food is to change your diet. Start eating foods that you can store for long term such as beans, rice and making homemade bread from your own wheat. This way when disaster strikes your taste buds won’t be shocked when your diet changes. Beans and rice are not the only items to store, but are staple foods and contain tons of nutrients that your body needs. Fruits, and vegetables are also very important and freeze dried or dehydrated fruits or vegetables is the way to go. In a survival situation, having a variety is the key to keeping a strong apatite and not getting bored with the same meals every day. Having a few good recipe books on hand that will show you how to make different homemade recipes from your raw materials will allow you to have a variety in your meals.

How Much?

This is another important question many would ask when faced with the fact they need to store food. Personally, I would start out small. Get a week or two worth of food and water for the whole family. Once you see what foods you need and the amounts you consume on a small scale, you can increase your quantity for longer periods on up until you have a year’s worth of food for the whole family. There are a lot of different opinions of how much of which foods to store. Most would agree that around 300lbs of wheat per person would be enough for a whole year, 200lbs of rice, and 50lbs of beans. These are the starting point of any long term food storage. 100lbs of salt, and sugar would also be other items to add for your year supply. From there you can judge how much on a weekly basis your family eats, and purchase accordingly.

How will I pay for this?

This question could be the most important question of all. When you hear 300lbs of this, 200lbs of that you think there’s no way I can afford that. In reality buying your basic survival foods in bulk is extremely cheap and will SAVE you tons of money in the long run. It might take a larger initial investment, but at the end of the year it will pay off tremendously. For example, 300lbs of wheat would cost you $100, and 200lbs of rice will cost only $60. Sam’s Club and Costco are great places to purchase bulk food on the cheap. There are many websites that offer freeze dried foods and dehydrated foods sealed in #10 cans for very cheap also.

Storing food, eating healthier, and cheaper is not hard and just takes a little work to figure out how much you need and which foods you would prefer. The bottom line is to try these foods out before you go out and spend money on them. Try eating pinto beans, black beans, and lentils and see which ones you like the best. From there you can choose which ones to store. Learn how to make homemade bread from raw wheat and decide what your favorite type of wheat is. Storing food is an insurance policy, just like we have car insurance and home insurance…why not have food insurance?

Posted by matthiasj of Kentucky Preppers Network

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