Preparing Garden Soil

Preparing Garden Soil

Duane Hatch,

USU Extension Horticulturist

HORTICULTURE FACT SHEET 01

1990

HG/H 01

A good garden soil is deep, loose, fertile, well-drained, near neutral, and has a lot of

decayed organic matter. The ideal is seldom available, so the good gardener may have to

improve what is at hand! Vegetables and other plants will grow satisfactorily with a wide

range of soil types from sand to clay if certain steps are followed for overcoming their basic

short-comings.

Utah garden soils are almost all alkaline to some degree. On a scale with pH 7 being

neutral, many vegetables will grow quite well from 6.0 to 8.4. Samples submitted
 to the USU Soil Testing Lab will determine the pH, salts concentration and level of nutrients. The cost is $10. Sampling information is available from the USU Extension office in your county, or from the Soil Testing Lab, 801-797-2217.

HAULING SOIL

In most instances you are better off to work with the soils that you have. You know

what their problems are. Hauled in soil may not be any better than that in your yard. 
It could be a source of noxious weeds that you don’t have. If you need to cover a rock or coarse gravel

bed or raise the level of a yard area, “fill” may be needed. It may or may not improve an area

in which you wish to grow plants.

TIMING

Many gardeners are impatient and damage the soil structure by rushing the season.

Soils that gardeners call “gumbo” or “adobe” are usually a loam type that one tries to prepare

too early.

Test this way: take a handful of soil from a 3 inch depth. Squeeze it firmly in the

hand. Drop it on a side-walk. Unless the ball shatters, do not try to rototill.

You’ll get hard clods and preparing a good seedbed will be difficult. As you use soil improving
techniques discussed later, you can hasten the gardening time.

MIXING

When the soil has dried sufficiently, spade or rototill to a depth of about 6–8 inches.

Garden soil doesn’t need to be “flour-fine.” Leave marble-sized particles and crusting will not

be as severe as with over prepared soil. You’ll need to use a rake to pulverize clods. Level

and compact the soil for a firm seedbed. The final soil surface should be as level as possible

for uniform water penetration.

SOIL IMPROVEMENT

Clay soils have the ability to hold moisture well (often too well) and usually contain

more nutrients than light soils. They dry slowly in the spring so early planting of crops is not

possible. Water penetration is slow so irrigation water often runs off instead of entering the

root zone.

Sandy soils are easy to work but have low water holding capacities, so plants may

suffer from moisture stress in hot weather. Nutrients may be lost as irrigation water moves

downward through the soil.

These almost opposite drawbacks of both soil types can be corrected by the same

technique-adding organic matter. Fine clay particles can be physically separated by coarse

organic material. Nutrient and water holding qualities of sandy soils can be increased. As the

organic matter breaks down, its components continue to have soil improving characteristics.

Begin by incorporating 2 to 3 inches of organic matter 6 to 8 inches deep. This

application will not last forever and you should plan to add about 2 more inches each year.

With heavy soils, you’ll need 2 or 3 years to see much of an improvement. Summer mulching

or compost addition will be helpful.

SOURCES OF ORGANIC MATTER

You will need a lot to do the job so look for abundant, inexpensive materials.

Leaves from deciduous trees may be gathered in the fall for composting and/or soil incorporation.

Needles from conifer trees may also be used.Bark, sawdust, shavings, and other wood

products are less likely to contain weed seeds than are manures.

Peatmoss is an excellent material, high in organic matter and somewhat acidic.

Cost is a major factor for the quantities needed.

Manure

may be available and is an excellent source of organic matter. If well

handled, it may contain substantial nutrients when used in sufficient quantities. It may also be

a source of viable weed seeds that survived the trip through the animal’s digestive tract.

Straw,

depending on the kind, may also create weed problems.

Grass clippings, green

manure crops and kitchen vegetable trimmings

may be used. These tissues are mostly

water, their cells are not mature and don’t contain the lignin and waxes which produce long

term soil improvement.

Grass clippings

are an excellent material to mulch the garden soil

surface to reduce weed problems and to conserve moisture. Don’t apply a lot at once. A ½

inch layer will dry out quickly and not get slimy.

ADDING NITROGEN

Large quantities of mature, woody type products such as sawdust, bark, leaves, straw,

etc., will promote nitrogen deficiency in plants because of their high carbon content. Over-

come this problem by adding a nitrogen fertilizer when incorporating them into the soil.
Ammonium sulfate (21% nitrogen) is readily available and quite inexpensive. Use 1 pound (1pint) 
per 100 square feet for each 1 inch of woody mulch mixed with the soil. You may substitutepound of ammonium nitrate (34%) or ½ pound of urea (45%) for the one pound of ammonium sulfate.

Manures vary in their quality. If mixed with large amounts of bedding materials, theremay not be
 enough nitrogen to decompose it and feed the crop. Use one-half the nitrogen rate
suggested above. Use this one-half rate when a green manure crop is turned under also.
 If themanure is quite fresh and/or well protected from leaching by rains and other weather
 elements it may not need added nitrogen.

TOUGH CLAY SOILS

Although it may be expensive and difficult to apply, a 2-inch layer of sand, in addition

to the organic matter, will help your ability to garden in soils with a high clay

content. If sand is used without the organic matter, low grade concrete may be formed with

the fine clay particles acting as cement!

SOIL AMENDMENTS

Soil preparation information from more humid areas may suggest time to neutralize

acid soils.

 Lime is not needed in Utah soils because nearly all have an alkaline reaction.

Dolomite is another form of lime.

Gypsumis neutral in its reaction and will not acidify alkaline soils. It may be promoted as an
 “alkali fighter.” That reference is to the high sodium soils or “black alkali” areas where crops
 grow poorly, if at all. It is not needed on the general range of garden soils in Utah. Don’t expect 
gypsum to alter the soil structure and improve its workability. Use organic matter to do that.

CHANGING A LAWN TO A GARDEN

It is best not to mix the sod into the soil. A thatch layer can make it difficult to

establish a good seed bed. In addition, grass clumps may sprout and be a serious weed

problem.

Sod strippers can be rented that will make grass removal easier and minimize soil

losses. A sharpened shovel will cut the sod, but is a great deal of work if the area is large.

Skim the sod just below the crown and don’t remove an excessive amount of soil.

By saving the stripped sod, you have a good source of compost to add to the garden

later. Stack the sod, soil side up with a sprinkling of ammonium sulfate between layers. Cover

the whole pile with black plastic to kill the sod and promote decomposition.

Once the lawn has been removed, follow the soil preparation steps listed earlier

The Mittleider Gardening Method

What is the Mittleider Method of Gardening?
I urge you to go to directly to the Food For Everyone website to read about Dr. Mittleider himself. Dr. Mittleider was passionate about teaching people how to grow their own food and had many accomplishments while he was still alive. The Mittleider Method of gardening is different in several ways from conventional garden but I want to share the top 5 differences that sparked my interest.
5 Mittleider Method Techniques That Changed The Way I Garden

1. Feeding Plants- Dr. Mittleider found for plants to thrive they need 16 essential plant nutrients. By providing plants with the 16 nutrients plants are healthier and full of nutrients we can consume. The 16 nutrients include 3 airborne elements -Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen. The other 13 include nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium (NPK). The other ten include calcium, magnesium, sulfur and 7 trace elements. This plant formula is fed in small amounts to the plants on a weekly basis over a period of the growth of the plants.
2. The Soil -The condition of the soil is not as vital when using the Mittleider Method. It is important to have well draining amended soil but you can still plant successfully in many different soil types. According to Dr. Mittleider and his method, plants can grow in virtually any soil as long as the plants are given the essential nutrients. It is however important to create soil beds or grow boxes that have the soil evenly distributed for proper water distribution.
3. Plant Spacing – With the Mittleider Method seeds and seedlings can be spaced a lot closer together than traditional methods recommend. The reason for this is because many plants can be grown vertically. Tomatoes (indeterminate), cucumbers, melons and squash some of the plants that can be grown inches apart because of vertically growing.
4. Watering – One of the mistakes I have been making with my garden over the past few years is the methods I use for watering. I usually use drip systems and/or a osculating sprinkler. Dr. Mittleider did not recommend these type of watering because it is wasteful and not as affective.  Watering with a PVC pipe with small holes drilled into them and place down the center of wide isles is the best way to water, according to Dr. Mittlleider.
5. Pruning - Apparently there are many vegetable plants that can be pruned. I was familiar with pruning tomatoes but didn’t realize cucumber, squash and melon plants as well. Pruning these plants can be done because of the vertical growing method. Pruning is important because is allows the growth of large fruit instead of many small fruits. And because plant spacing is closer you can still get the same size harvest but with larger fruit.

Is the Mittleider Method of Gardening Organic?
Growing an organic garden is very important to me. If I am going to take the time to garden to feed my family, I want the produce to be most nutritious it can be. After researching the Mittleider Method and finding out that in order for plants to grow they need certain nutrients. I came to the realization that in order for my family to get the best possible food from my garden, my plants need to be as healthy as possible.
Many people, including myself see the plant formula and think, “those ingredients are in commercial non-organic fertilizers, they can’t be organic, can they?” Well, yes they can. If we understand the fact that everything is chemical at a molecular level. The “chemicals” or elements that are in the plant formula are in our soil and manure fertilizers already.
The reason elements such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (aka NPK, found in bags of fertilizers, usually with numbers like 10-10-10) are in commercial fertilizers is because they do feed plants. There is however a problem with commercial fertilizers and that is the misuse of them. For instance, one of the things nitrogen does is causes rapid growth. An unbalanced amount of nitrogen will cause rapid growth but not healthy nutritious plants. Over use of certain elements can cause toxicity in the soil as well.
So why won’t organic fertilizers such as manure be good enough? The problem with manure is that the nutrients plants need are not always in manure. They may have some of the nutrients but not in the right amounts. Manure often has a unhealthy amount of salt in it which can affect the proper growth of plants. If manure is not sterile it can also cause all kinds of weed problems for you. You can still use sterile manure in your garden but instead of thinking of manure as a fertilizer think of it as a soil amender. The Mittleider Method of gardening offers plant nutrients in the right amounts over the right amount of time. The soil does not get to any toxic level because they plants are using what they need when they need it.
There is a lot more to be said about the Mittleider Method of gardening but I will have to share that at a later time. This post launches the Healthy Homesteading’s very first giveaway. Jim Kennard, the president of the Food For Everyone Foundation, has agreed to give away The Mittleider Gardening Course book. This is the book I purchased when I went to the garden seminar taught by Jim Kennard. The book is easy to follow and full of a lot of great information on starting the Mittleider Method.

One Persons Opinion on Gardening and Survival:

The best thing ANYONE with even a tiny patch of sunny land can do is to start planting perennial food crops now. One semi-dwarf apple tree can produce 10 bushels or more once it gets well established (although you need two for pollination, as long as there is another variety- even wild- in the neighborhood, you'll get apples.)

Apples have the advantage of not needing any type of processing to preserve them for at least a few months. Pick a "keeping" variety, and if you have - or can contrive- a root cellar of any description, you should have fresh apples from October to April. If you have some left when they start getting soft, dry the rest, or make a bunch of pies and freeze them, or can the rest up into applesauce or apple pie filling.

Culls... you'll ALWAYS have culls, even if you spray the heck out of the trees (NOT recommended) or do your best with the various organic alternatives to keep pests down. Culls can be fed to almost any livestock.

For those who suddenly are faced with TSHTF (even if it's just your own personal oscillating device which has suddenly started spattering stuff), concentrate on high yielding crops, and crops which keep well and easily, crops which have a lot of uses, and a high vitamin content.

That means grow winter squash, not zuchinni. Tomatoes instead of eggplant. Potatoes, absolutely. Onions and garlic will spice up the rest of your food, can be replanted the following year (especially if you keep at least a small patch of multiplier onions growing), and can be used as herbal medicine as well.

A person CAN survive- and stay healthy- on potatoes and milk. It sounds odd, but that combination provides all the amino acids and vitamins needed for health. The poor of Ireland did just that until the potato blight hit so hard. If you have a few pots of chives and other herbs in the windowsill, they'll provide some extra vitamins and seasoning as well.

Dry beans are nutritious, and can be grown in quite small of an area, if you pick pole varieties and give them room to climb. Ditto the various pole "snap" beans.. and if you've canned up all the green beans you need, you can leave the rest on the vine to ripen, and either save the seeds to plant, or use them for soups and bean dishes.

Given a small patch of land, FATS will be your biggest problem. That probably sounds downright odd, given our society's current obsession with everything low-fat, but it's true. Fats are absolute necessities for health, and it's very difficult in a "hunting and gathering" situation, or a small gardening- vegetarian diet situation, to get enough.

One drawback to raising rabbits for meat is that they are essentially very lean. Not quite as lean as the wild rabbits maybe- the old saying is a man will starve eating all the rabbit he can stuff into him- and it's true.

Chickens are a better choice, if you can manage it. Their eggs are extremely high quality protein, and their meat is higher in fat.. when I butcher chickens and make soup stock out of the backs and necks and other trimmings, I often end up with many pounds of clear, yellow chicken fat skimmed off. It makes the best biscuits on earth!

For vitamin C in cold climates, either spruce tea (made from the tips of branches from any of the spruce trees) or rose hip tea (made from any of the fruits of roses that weren't sprayed) will add enough of the vitamin to your diet.

Other potential high yield and high nutrient content crops are carrots and cabbage. Both will store for many months in a cellar, and will give you "fresh" veggies when nothing else is available.

If I were in a suburban situation, I'd plant hedges between my backyard and the neighbors- one would be blueberry bushes, one would be blackberries or raspberries. Both can be easily contained with a bit of judicious pruning (and even the brambles won't spread if someone is mowing on both sides of them), and a 50 foot row of each will provide a LOT of fruit in season. Blueberries dry well, raspberries don't- but you can freeze them, or make jam from them. The Amish even can them.

You will need a source of sugar. I'd strongly suggest that you stock up at least a couple hundred pounds NOW, while it's readily available and relatively inexpensive. That at least could get you through the first year while you figure out alternatives.

It's going to take a lot of maple taps to provide enough sugar for both baking and general kitchen use, and canning and preserving. Sugar isn't just flavoring when you're making jams or canning fruit. It adds significant preservative power, preserving color, flavor and texture.

My next project (probably NEXT summer- this summer is establishing a flock of heirloom turkeys for breeders, and getting my daughter married off ) is going to be a couple of hives of honeybees. I've noticed the wild bees are coming back around here, for whatever reason, but that's only a help with pollination. For honey, you need (if at all possible) your own tame hives which can be harvested without killing the bees or losing the colony. Harvesting wild honey is possible, but not something I'd do voluntarily unless there wasn't any choice!

The other absolute basic, which most of us are not going to be able to produce at home, is salt. Again, it's cheap, it will keep literally forever if kept dry, and a couple hundred pounds- or a ton- isn't going to take up much room. Heat and cold don't bother it, so you could store it literally anywhere, once it's packaged up well. I can envision a time when salt is accepted as currency again, all too easily.

The details are endless, and if anyone reading this is getting discouraged, that's not the point. The point is... START NOW!

The old time rule of thumb, which I've followed for years, despite having access to myriad seed catalogs and other sources, is never plant more than HALF your available seed. If a crop failure occurs, you've still got seed to start again. Many crops only take half the growing season, even here in the frozen north. If you replant that year, again, only use half the seed you have left.

It may mean a lean winter, or one subsisting on a small variety of food, but at least you'll have seed for the next year again.

I wonder if many people here can even conceive of the way people in the not-very-distant past worked for years to get to the point where they had the means to grow most of their own food?

There is a great passage in one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's books (Little Town on the Prairie, maybe?) where they've been given a hatching of chicks by a friend who already has poultry. They're looking at these tiny balls of fluff and thinking "if they survive- if we can keep hawks and other problems away from them, next year some of them will start laying eggs".. So, did them plan on EATING any of those eggs? Nope.... it goes on "the hens will set on those eggs, and produce chicks, and later that summer, we'll be able to have a few of the cockerels for fried chicken. Then, the next year, we'll have all the eggs we want!"

THREE years from a "gift" of chicks to the point where they have a steady supply of eggs and some fried chicken for Sundays and feast days.

No, subsistence farming is NOT easy. Possible? yes. And definitely rewarding (unless you've swallowed all the 21'st century bulls**t about what constitutes "success"). But very, very hard.

BUT... that is EXACTLY why I think that hoping or relying on "trade" of some mythical surplus is dangerous. There won't BE a surplus, not until all the kinks get worked out on how to change back the big farms- completely dependent on fuel and electricity- to simpler, less energy intensive- but FAR more labor intensive- methods.

We currently produce almost 750,000 pounds of milk in a year. (that's not quite 100,000 gallons). With two people doing all the labor. Given a scenario where we'd have to go back to Amish methods, we wouldn't be able to produce 1/10th of that. But cutting hay with the horses, and then raking it with them, and stacking it either in the field (for easy access for the beef cows) or putting it in the shed or barns is certainly not the biggest problem we'd have.

If you're going to be trading for food, you're going to have to have something at least as valuable to exchange.

Skills like shoemaking, or metal working, or even carpentry, may come in awfully handy.

But someone's idea of "having precious metals" and "hoping" that someone will be willing to trade food is awfully tenuous, in a real disaster situation. Because without gasoline engines, or other labor saving devices (including a draft animal and the harness AND tools to hitch it to) growing enough for any one family is pretty much a full time job. Growing extra is going to be more luck than anything else. And trading food your family needs for something like silver or gold- unless you KNOW of someplace you can then trade those for needed food and other items- is downright silly.

You're correct, of course, that not everyone can homestead.. at least under current conditions. It's entirely possible that we see those conditions crash back far enough that everyone who wants to eat is either going to grow their own, or hunt and harvest their own from the woods and fields. Again, it's unlikely that people will have much extra under those conditions.

I had to laugh about "not having cattle, because they're too much work". I have cows because they are LESS work per calorie that you get back than any gardening I've ever done. Sure, my dairy herd of 40+ cows, plus another 50 young stock, is a full time job. But my herd of little beef cows is simplicity itself... as long as there is pasture inside the fences (and we do a lot of intensive management to maintain the quality of those pastures, but it takes very little time- a few minutes a day to move fences) they're happy, and their calves are packing on beef like crazy.

And ONE milking cow isn't a lot of work- less than 15 minutes per day can take care of feeding, cleaning and milking, once you've got some experience. Making butter and cheese and all the rest from the milk IS very time consuming, but you can't blame the cow for that!

But for one person, a cow is definitely overkill. A cooperatively owned cow, though.....

I guess what it comes down to for me (besides the fact that I truly love this life, and enjoy the sense of independence growing everything I can gives me - and the IRS hasn't figured out a way to tax our gardens yet!) is that under tough circumstances, I want to depend on people I KNOW I can trust, and that is my family, pretty much. I want to know that I don't have to worry about whether or not someone will have extra food available for me to trade for, or whether we'll have something extra that someone will be willing to exchange for food. Once we have enough to eat- and fuel for heat- then we can start looking at helping rebuild society, including setting up trade. But if we don't survive the first year or two, that won't be in issue.

So, You're Going to Grow Your Own Food in a Collapse

There have been many discussions about growing your own food when the collapse occurs. This has begun to concern me because, based upon people's posts, a lot of them have never even gardened. I don't want to call it naive but I think many of them need to take a closer look at what's involved.

Here are recommendations for the amount of food a family of five needs for a year. Both of the following recommendations are from the early 1930's. However, I don't see why they can't be applied today.

The first is from Flight from the City by Ralph Borsodi for the Dayton Homestead program.

Bread, cerals, baked goods - 750 pounds
Vegetables and fruits - 3,000 pounds
Butter, lard and other fats - 250 pounds
Meat and poultry - 500 pounds
Eggs - 200 dozen
Milk - 300 gallons

Borsodi had specific ideas in mind for producing this food although he was quite flexible such as having a cow rather than goats if land were available. He planned on 25 cockerels or capons, 2 buck goat kids and 2 pigs for meat. There would be 25 laying hens for eggs. There would be 3-4 hives for honey.

He felt that 500 quarts of fruits and vegetables would have to be canned or dehydrated.

In Dayton (Ohio), he believed this amount of food and feed for the animals would require 3-5 acres.

The next recommendation was from the Department of Home Economics of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. I'm guessing at the weights of bushels and pecks below.

Flour, cerals - 400 pounds
Potatoes and sweet potatoes - 400 pounds
Dried beans - 1 peck (about 15 pounds)
Tomatoes and citrus fruit - 10 bushels (about 700 pounds
Leafy, green and yellow vegetables - 585 pounds
Dried fruit - 75 pounds
Other vegetables and fruit - 1,400 pounds
Butter, other fats - 165 pounds
Sugar - 200 pounds
Lean meat and poultry - 620 pounds
Eggs - 145 dozen
Milk - 400 gallons

They had no suggestions as to how to produce this much food.

So, what kinds of yields might you expect in order to produce this food? I've taken late 1970's average vegetable production figures for the U.S. and converted them to pounds per 100 square feet. I used this time period since it certainly doesn't take into account some of the technical advances that are available today and it is highly unlikely that any person is going to have technology greater then this in a collapse.

It also takes into account the fact that many people will be doing "serious" vegetable growing for the first time. They not only won't know what they are doing from a cultural point of view but they are likely to have the wrong vegetable varieties for their area.

Now, someone is going to look at the following figures and argue that they currently get higher yields or that biointensive, permaculture, mulch culture or one of the many other growing methods produce ten times as much. My response is, yes, they look low to me too. But that's they way it is and I don't think people will get higher yields in the long term.

There are a number of reasons this will be the case. First, nutrients such as phosphorous are going to be in short supply (There is only a 25 year supply that can be commercially mined before it is exhausted.). Nitrogen also presents a problem. Yes, you can use legume cover crops. The trouble is that you then have to grow and harvest the seed for them. Second, climatological and geographic location have a tremendous influence on crop yields. Lastly, the ability to irrigate will have an immense impact on yields. In facat, water for irrigation will probably be the limiting factaor rather then nutrients.

Droughts come and go in the Midwest and east coast and need to be considered. However, in the west, one simply has to irrigate since there is little, if any, precipittion during the growing season.

Although actual irrigation needs vary throughout the growing season, let's say you are irrigating 1 acre of crops and that you apply 1 inch of water per week (During peak heat periods the amount of water is often far higher.). So, how much will you need to apply per month? An acre-foot is 325,851 gallons and an inch of water per week roughly equals a third of an acre-foot. Therefore, you will be applying almost 100,000 gallons per month or over 3,000 gallons per day.

Now let's carry it a step further. Assume you have a well that can pump 10 gallons per minute (a good residential well). How many hours does your pump have to run each day for irrigation? Five hours - for 1 acre. Realistically, five hours per day of pumping isn't going to happen, muchless 15 hours. And, unless you are willing to invest lots and lots of money, PV panels aren't going to work either.

If you live in California, you can get the evapotranspiration for your area. Click on the data tab at the top. Free registration is required. You don't have to be a grower to register.

Given these constraints, this is why I suggested that some from of hydroponics was probably the only sustainable way to grow food.

Here are the yields in pounds per 100 square feet. They were taken from the 1980 edition of Knott's Handbook for vegetable Growers.

Bean, processing - 9
Bean, lima, processing - 7
Beets, processing - 60
Broccoli - 20
Brussels sprouts - 29
Cabbage, processing - 92
Carrot, topped - 64
Cauliflower - 23
Celery - 115
Corn, processing - 23
Corn, feed - 15
Cucumbers - 24
Eggplant - 46
Lettuce - 53
Melon, Persian - 28
Melon, Honeydew - 41
Muskmelon - 32
Okra - 23
Onion - 71
Pea, processing, shelled - 6
Pepper, Bell - 25
Potato - 58
Pumpkin - 92
Spinach, fresh - 16
Squash, summer - 69
Squash, winter - 92
Sweet potato - 27
Tomato, fresh - 39
Tomato, processing - 101
Turrnip - 69
Watermelon - 27
Wheat - 10

For comparison, here are the yields of crops grown hydroponically in a greenhouse. One of the charts in the book, Hydroponic Food Production by Resh didn't say how many crops were grown during the year. I've put an * by crops where the yield is per crop for susre.

Bush beans - 21*
Beets - 55
Broccoli - 60*
Cabbage - 41*
Cucumbers - 64*
Lettuce - 48
Oats - 6
Peas - 414
Radish - 41*
Rice - 12
Potatoes - 322
Soya - 36
Tomatoes - 207*
Wheat - 9

I want to close by returning to Borsodi's 500 quarts (100 per person) to be canned each season. Here are some canning yields to help you determine how much you need to grow. The data is from the Farm Journal's Freezing and Canning Cookbook .

Apples - bushel - 16-20
Berries - 32 quarts - 24
Peaches - bushel - 18-24
Pears - 46 pound box - 16-22
Plums - 28 pound lug - 12-15
Tomatoes (chunk) - bushel - 20
Tomatoes (juice) - bushel - 12-16
Beans, lima, in pod - bushel - 6-8
Beans, snap, green, wax - bushel - 15-20
Beets, without tops - bushel - 17-20
Carrots - bushel - 17-20
Corn, whole kernel - bushel - 8-9
Okra - 1 1/2 pounds - 1
Peas, in pod - bushel - 6-10
Pumpkin/winter squash - 1 1/2-3 pounds - 1
Summer squash - 2-4 pounds - 1

And, don't forget the grain or hay you have to raise for the animals. For example, a laying hen that is confined eats about a bushel of grain a year.

Week 5 of 52: Pet Care

Tess Pennington
Ready Nutrition
May 2011

  

Our furry friends are more to us than just pets, and for many of you, they are a precious family member. Caring for them during a disaster is extremely important. You need to know that when an unexpected storm occurs, many of our animals face anxiety just as we do. Knowing how your pet will react before, during and after a storm is the first step in ensuring their safety. Making sure that you anticipate your pet’s needs during an emergency because it will help them cope with this disruption into their daily routines. Also, have a pet survival kit and a pet first aid kit set aside for your pet, as this too ensures their safety.

Preps to buy:

• Extra harness, leash, and/or carrier
• ID tags with your contact information
• 1-2 week supply of food for all pets (if not already bought in week 1)
• 2-5 gallons of water for each pet
• Pet first aid kit
• Current vaccination and medical records for each animal (contact your veterinarian).
• 2 weeks worth of medication for each animal (if applicable). Note: Pay attention to the expiration date and routinely rotate medicines to ensure they are not wasted.

Action Items:

1. Decide if your pet(s) will be going to an animal hotel, sheltering in-place with the family, or staying at another home. Make arrangments before the disaster is imminent.
2. If you haven’t purchases a pet survival kit, make your own. In addition to the items listed above, you will need the following:
a. Cat litter/pan or doggie pads
b. Can opener
c. Food dishes
d. First aid kit
e. Additional supplies required for where the pet will stay.
3. Ensure that your pet’s vaccinations are up to date.
Note: If pets do not have their shots up to date, then pet hotels will not accept them.
4. Get a rescue alert sticker. It will alert rescue workers that a pet is inside the home. When displaying this sticker, ensure that it is placed in an area that is visible to rescue workers.
5. Verify that ID tags are up to date and securely fastened to your pet’s collar. Attach the address and/or phone number of your evacuation site (if possible).
Note: If your pet gets lost, his tag is his ticket home.

• Make sure you have a current photo of your pet for identification purposes to include in with your family emergency photos.
• Ensure you have a secure pet carrier, leash or harness for your pet so that if he panics, he can’t escape.

6. Have a current photo of your pet to include with your family emergency photos.
7. Be sure to have a pet carrier, leash, or harness, if you pet is prone to panicking.

Author: Tess Pennington
Web Site: http://www.ReadyNutrition.com/
Date: May 27th, 2011

Useful Websites for Backyard (and more) Chicken Owners

I went to a "Chicken" class sponsored by Utah State University Extension services. I've listed some useful URLs.

Government references

• Utah Department of Agriculture (UDAF)
• Egg and Poultry Grading (UDAF)
• National Poultry Improvement Plan - USDA/APHS

Poultry books, useful information, equipment and poultry suppliers

•  Voyageur Press
• The Coop 
• Murray McMurray Hatchery
• Stromberg's
• http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext/INF-PO_EggCarePrax.pdf
• http://www.wvu.edu/%7Eexten/infores/pubs/livepoul/pfs17.pdf

 Poultry Organizations

• American Poultry Association
• American Bantam Association 
• Utah Fancy Poultry Association 

 ~Karin

Growing Potatoes

Potatoes
Posted on January 18, 2012 by Rick Bickling


Overview
The Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is a member of the Nightshade family of plants. The edible part of the potato plant is called a tuber, not a root, and there are many different varieties of red, white, yellow, russet, and even purple or blue potatoes. Potatoes originated in South America, and were grown as a food crop by the Incas as early as 3,000 BC. The Spanish conquistadors brought the potato back to Spain around 1530, and it was introduced to the United States in 1719 when Irish immigrants brought it with them to New Hampshire. French fries were first introduced to the United States when Thomas Jefferson served them in the White House during his presidency in 1804.

Nutrition Facts
Potatoes are nutrient-rich vegetables, full of carbohydrates.
Serving Size: 5 oz. Potato (baked or boiled with skin)
Calories…… 150
Recommended Daily Values:
Vitamin C…. 45%
Potassium…. 21%
Thiamin…… 10%
Niacin……. 8%
Vitamin B6… 14%
Folacin…… 14%
Fiber…….. 3 grams
Fat………. 0 grams
Protein…… 4 grams
They also contain smaller amounts of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and pantothenic acid.


Soil Preparation
Potatoes grow best in full sun in loose, slightly acidic soil that is well drained. Before planting potatoes, remove all rocks, trash and weeds from the planting area and till the soil to a depth of 8 to 12 inches. To help prevent disease, be sure to practice proper crop rotation by NOT planting potatoes in soil in which potatoes, or any other member of the Nightshade family such as tomatoes, peppers, or eggplant, were grown in the past two years.

Seed Preparation
Unlike most vegetables, potatoes are not grown from seeds but from potatoes that were grown the previous season, seed potatoes. Always use certified disease-free seed potatoes that are free of chemicals. Do not use potatoes from the grocery store for planting.

The “eyes” on the seed potato are actually buds that, when planted, will sprout into new potato plants. Cut large seed potatoes into pieces about the size of an egg, and having at least one good eye. Cut the seed potatoes 5 or 6 days before they are to be planted and let them sit in a cool, well-ventilated area to heal, or cure, in order to help prevent rotting once planted.

Planting
Potatoes are cool-season herbaceous perennials that are grown as an annual. Potatoes can be planted once the soil temperature 5” deep has reached 50 degrees F, or about 3 weeks before the last spring frost. In some areas, a fall crop can be planted about 110 days before the first frost. They grow best when daytime temperatures are around 65 to 70 degrees F.

Photo © Texas AgriLife Extension Service
Plant the seed potato pieces to a depth of 3 inches with the pieces spaced about 10 to 12 inches apart and the eye facing up. Sprouts from the seed potatoes will emerge in 2 to 4 weeks. As the new potato plants grow, regularly pile dirt up around the base of the plants to just below the leaves. This is done because new potatoes only grow in the soil area above the seed potato piece and below the top level of the soil. Be sure to keep the new tubers covered with soil to prevent them from turning green.

Potatoes can be easily grown in raised beds, baskets, barrels, or stacks of old tires where additional soil can be continuously piled up around the plants as they grow. Just be sure that the container is well drained.

Potato plants usually produce flowers and, and sometimes small fruit, that are attractive but should not be eaten.

- See Chart Below for Recommended Varieties -

Fertilizing
Potatoes prefer an acidic soil with a pH between 4.8 and 5.5. Apply a complete 10-20-10 fertilizer to the soil just before planting. After the seed potatoes sprout, fertilize your plants once a week with an application of a balanced fertilizer such as Miracle-Gro Vegetable Food.

Watering
Once planted, water the potatoes regularly to keep the soil evenly moist. Potatoes need at least 1 inch of water per week. Water early in the morning to allow plants to dry quickly and reduce the opportunity for disease infection. Drip irrigation is recommended to allow the water to get right to the growing tubers.

Weed Control
Keep the garden free from weeds, as weeds will compete with the growing potatoes for soil nutrients and water. Do not dig too deep when using a hoe, or pulling weeds to avoid damaging the tubers.

Insects
The lava of the Colorado potato beetle are red, or light orange with two rows of black dots on each side, while the adult has black and yellow stripes. Both are about 3/8 of an inch long and feed on the leaves of the potato plant. The best way to remove them is to hand pick them from the plants.

Aphids are small, whitish insects that may be found in masses on the underside of leaves. If present, leaves become yellow, sticky with honeydew. Hose off underside of leaves to knock off aphids.

Wireworms are thin, about ½ to 1½ inches long, worms with a dark head and tail that feed on the carrot root. Apply a Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) based insecticide to control them.

Leafhoppers are green wedge shaped insects about 1/8 of an inch long. They will suck the juices from leaves causing them to curl upward and turn yellow or brown. They can be hosed off of the plants with a hard stream of water.

Diseases
Diseases and fungus may be a problem for potatoes during cool, wet weather. Check your plants regularly and when needed, treat with Neem oil, sulfur, or an applicable fungicide.

Harvesting
Potatoes will be ready to harvest in about 95 to 110 days, when the tops of the plant begin to die and each potato weighs from 6 to 12 ounces. You can harvest small “new potatoes” during the growing season by carefully digging beside the plant with your fingers. To harvest mature potatoes, use a spading fork to dig under the plant, 8 to 10 inches out from the stem, then pry the entire plant out of the ground and shake off any loose soil.

Storing
Carefully pull the potatoes from the vine and store them in a cool dry place with plenty of air circulation and a temperature of about 40 to 50 degrees F. Do NOT store them in the refrigerator and Do NOT wash them before storing them. Potatoes may be stored in an underground root cellar, and under the right storage conditions will keep for two to three months.

Herbal Home Remedies: Herbal Vinegars – Part 2

October 20, 2011 Susun S. Weed Wild Food Foraging

Aromatic Delights from your Garden

Part One of this article explained herbal vinegars’ many potent qualities as herbal home remedies, and reviewed the basic tools and simple process of making herbal vinegars. A journey into the author’s garden illustrated how we can reap nature’s rewards and harvest numerous herbs for herbal vinegars. Now, we get to the root of making herbal vinegars: roots! We’ll also review some helpful tips for making vinegars, and review a list of plants that make for tasty vinegars and for herbal calcium supplements.

The main work of this frosty fall morning is to harvest roots: dandelion, burdock, yellow dock, and chicory roots. I’ve been waiting for the frost to bite deep before harvesting the nourishing, medicinal roots of these weeds. With my spading fork (not a shovel, please) I carefully unearth their tender roots, leaving a few to mature and shed seeds so I have a constant supply of young roots. I love the feel of the root sliding free of the soil and into my hands, offering me such gifts of health.

Burdock I admire especially, for its strength of character and its healing qualities. I settle down to do some serious digging to unearth their long roots. For peak benefit, I harvest at the end of the first year of growth, when the roots are most tenacious and least willing to leave the ground. Patience is rewarded when I dig burdock. Eaten cooked or turned into a vinegar (and the pickled pieces of the root consumed with the vinegar), burdock root attracts heavy metals and radioactive isotopes and removes them quickly from the body. For several hundred years at least, and in numerous cases that I have witnessed, burdock root is known to reverse pre-cancerous changes in cells.

Dandelion and chicory are my allies for long life. They support and nourish my liver and improve the production of hydrochloric acid in my stomach, thus ensuring that I will be better nourished by any food I eat. I make separate vinegars of each plant, but like to put both their roots and their leaves together in my vinegar. A spoonful of either of these in a glass of water in the morning or before meals can be used to replace coffee. Note that roasted roots used in coffee substitutes do not have the medicinal value of fresh roots eaten cooked or preserved in vinegar.

Yellow dock is the herbalist’s classic remedy for building iron in the blood. Like calcium, iron is absorbed better when eaten with an acid, such as vinegar, making yellow dock vinegar an especially good way to utilize the iron-enhancing properties of this weed. (It nourishes the iron in the soil, too, and is said to improve the yield of apple trees it grows under.)

And at that thought, I awaken from my reverie and return to spring’s sunshine with a smile. The white cat twines my legs and offers to help me carry the basket back inside to the warmth of the fire. The circle has come around again, like the moon in her courses. Autumn memories yield spring richness. The weeds of fall offer tender green magic in the spring. What I harvested last November has been eaten with joy and I return to be gifted yet again by the wild that lives here with me in my garden.
NOTES ON MAKING HERBAL VINEGAR

It is vital to really fill the jar. This will take more herb or root than you would think.
A good selection of jars of different sizes will enable you to fit your jar to the amount of plant you’ve collected. I especially like baby food jars, mustard jars, olive jars, peanut butter jars and juice jars. Plastic is fine, though I prefer glass.
Always fill jar to the top with plant material; never fill a jar only part way.
Pack the jar full of herb. How much~ How tight~ Tight enough to make a comfortable mattress for a fairy. Not too tight and not too loose. With roots, fill jar to within a thumb’s width of the top.
For maximum strength herbal vinegar, snip or chop herbs and roots.
For maximum visual delight, leave plants whole.
Regular pasteurized apple cider vinegar from the supermarket is what I use when I make my herbal vinegar. Unpasteurized apple cider vinegar can also be used. Note that unpasteurized vinegar forms vinegar “mothers.” Vinegar mothers are harmless. (Actually, they’re of value. I’ve seen vinegar mothers for sale for fancy prices in specialty food shops.) In a jar filled with herb and vinegar, the vinegar mother usually grows across the top of the jar, clinging to the herb, and looking rather like a damp, thin pancake.
Rice vinegar, malt vinegar, wine vinegar, or any other natural vinegar can be used, but they are much more expensive than apple cider vinegar and many have a taste which overpowers or clashes with the taste of the herbs.
I don’t use white vinegar, nor do I use umeboshi vinegar (a Japanese condiment).
The reason that most recipes for herbal vinegar tell you to boil the vinegar is to pasteurize it! I do not find it necessary to heat the vinegar as it is already pasteurized and the final vinegar tastes better if the herbs are not doused with boiling vinegar.

PLANTS THAT MAKE EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD-TASTING HERBAL VINEGARS

Apple mint leaves, stalks
Bee balm (Monarda didyma) flowers, leaves, stalks
Bergamot (Monarda sp.) flowers, leaves, stalks
Burdock (Arctium lappa) roots
Catnip (Nepeta cataria) leaves, stalks
Chicory (Cichorium intybus) leaves, roots
Chives and especially chive blossoms
Dandelion (Traxacum off.) flower buds, leaves, roots
Dill (Anethum graveolens) herb, seeds
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) herb, seeds
Garlic (Allium sativum)
Garlic mustard (Alliaria officinalis)
Goldenrod (Solidago sp.) flowers
Ginger (Zingiber off.) and Wild ginger (Asarum canadensis) roots
Lavender (Lavendula sp.) flowers, leaves
Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) new growth leaves and roots
Orange mint leaves, stalks
Orange peel, organic only
Peppermint (Mentha piperata and etc.) leaves, stalks
Perilla (Shiso) leaves, stalks
Rosemary (Rosmarinus off.) leaves, stalks
Spearmint (Mentha spicata) leaves, stalks
Thyme (Thymus sp.) leaves, stalks
White pine (Pinus strobus) needles
Yarrow (Achilllea millifolium) flowers and leaves

PLANTS TO USE WHEN MAKING AN HERBAL CALCIUM SUPPLEMENT

Amaranth (Amaranthus retroflexus) leaves
Cabbage leaves
Chickweed (Stellaria media) whole herb
Comfrey (Symphytum officinalis) leaves
Dandelion leaves and root
Kale leaves
Lambsquarter (Chenopodium album) leaves
Mallow (Malva neglecta) leaves
All mints, including sage, motherwort, lemon balm, lavender, peppermint, etc.
Mugwort (cronewort) (Artemisia vulgaris)
Nettle (Urtica dioica) leaves
Parsley (Petroselinum sativum) leaves
Plantain (Plantago majus) leaves
Raspberry (Rubus species) leaves
Red clover (Trifolium pratense) blossoms
Violet (Viola ordorata) leaves
Yellow dock (Rumex crispus and other species) roots

HERBAL VINEGARS WHERE YOU EAT THE PICKLED PLANTS, TOO

Burdock
Chicory
Dandelion
Purslane
Yellow Dock

Herbal Home Remedies: Herbal Vinegars – Part 1

September 8, 2011 Susun S. Weed Wild Food Foraging
Aromatic Delights from your Garden

A pantry full of herbal vinegars is a constant delight. Preserving fresh herbs and roots in vinegar is an easy way to capture their nourishing goodness. It’s easy too. You don’t even have to have an herb garden.
BASIC HERBAL VINEGAR

Takes 5 minutes plus 6 weeks to prepare. You will need the following:

glass or plastic jar of any size up to one quart/liter
plastic lid for jar or
waxed paper and a rubber band
fresh herbs, roots, weeds
one quart/liter apple cider vinegar


1. Fill any size jar with fresh-cut aromatic herbs. (See accompanying list for suggestions of herbs that extract particularly well in vinegar.) For best results and highest mineral content, be sure the jar is well filled with your chosen herb, not just a few sprigs, and be sure to cut the herbs or roots up into small pieces.

2. Pour room-temperature apple cider vinegar into the jar until it is full. Cover jar with a plastic screw-on lid, several layers of plastic or wax paper held on with a rubber band, or a cork. Vinegar disintegrates metal lids.

3. Label the jar with the name of the herb and the date. Put it in some place away from direct sunlight, though it doesn’t have to be in the dark, and some place that isn’t too hot, but not too cold either. A kitchen cupboard is fine, but choose one that you open a lot so you remember to use your vinegar, which will be ready in six weeks.

Apple cider vinegar has been used as a health-giving agent for centuries. Hippocrates, father of medicine, is said to have used only two remedies: honey and vinegar. A small book on Vermont folk remedies—primary among them being apple cider vinegar—has sold over 5 million copies since its publication in the ‘50s. A current ad in a national health magazine states that vinegar can give me a longer, healthier, happier life.

Vinegar has many powers: it lowers cholesterol, improves skin tone, moderates high blood pressure, prevents/counters osteoporosis, and improves metabolic functioning. Herbal vinegars are an unstoppable combination: the healing and nutritional properties of vinegar married to the aromatic and health-protective effects of green herbs (and a few wild roots).

Herbal vinegars don’t taste like medicine. In fact, they taste so good I use them frequently. I pour a spoonful or more on beans and grains at dinner; I use them in salad dressings; I season stir-fry and soups with them. This regular use boosts the nutrient-level of my diet with very little effort and virtually no expense. Sometimes I drink my herbal vinegar in a glass of water in the morning, remembering the many older women who’ve told me that apple cider vinegar prevents and eases their arthritic pains.

I aim to ingest a tablespoon or more of mineral-rich herbal vinegar daily. Not just because herbal vinegars taste great (they do!), but because they offer an easy way to keep my calcium levels high (and that’s a real concern for a menopausal woman of fifty). Herbal vinegars are so rich in nutrients that I never need to take vitamin or mineral pills.

Why vinegar? Water does a poor job of extracting calcium from plants, but calcium and all minerals dissolve into vinegar very easily. You can see this for yourself. Submerge a bone in vinegar for six weeks. What happens? The bone becomes pliable and rubbery. Why? The vinegar extracted the minerals from the bone. (And now the vinegar is loaded with calcium and other bone-building minerals!)

After observing this trick it’s not unusual to fear that if you consume vinegar your bones will dissolve. But you’d have to take off your skin and sit in vinegar for weeks in order for that to happen! Adding vinegar to your food actually helps build bones because it frees up minerals from the vegetables you eat. Adding a splash of vinegar to cooked greens is a classic trick of old ladies who want to be spry and flexible when they’re ancient old ladies. (Maybe your granny already taught you this.) In fact, a spoonful of vinegar on your broccoli or kale or dandelion greens increases the calcium you get by one-third.

All by itself, vinegar helps build bones; and when it’s combined with mineral-rich herbs, vinegar is better than calcium pills. Some people worry that eating vinegar will contribute to an overgrowth of candida yeast in the intestines. My experience has led me to believe that herbal vinegars do just the opposite, perhaps because they’re so mineral rich. Herbal vinegars are especially useful for anyone who can’t (or doesn’t want to) drink milk. A tablespoon of infused herbal vinegar has the same amount of calcium as a glass of milk.

So out the door I go, taking a basket and a pair of scissors, my warm vest and my gloves, to see what I can harvest for my bone-building vinegars.

The first greens to greet me are the slender spires of garlic grass, or wild chives, common in any soil that hasn’t been disturbed too frequently, such as the lawn, the part of the garden where the tiller doesn’t go, the rhubarb patch, the asparagus bed, the coven of comfrey plants. This morning they’re all offering me patches of oniony greens. Snip, snip, snip. The vinegar I’ll make from these tender tops will contain not only minerals, but also allyls, special cancer-preventative compounds found in raw onions, garlic, and the like.

Here where tulips will push up soon, in a sunny corner, is a patch of catnip intermingled with motherwort, two plants especially beloved by women. I use catnip to ease menstrual cramps, relieve colic, and bring on sleep. Motherwort is my favorite remedy for moderating hot flashes and emotional swings. They are both members of the mint family, and like all mints, are exceptionally good sources of calcium and make great-tasting vinegars. Individual mint flavors are magically captured by the vinegar. From now until snow cover next fall, I’ll gather the mints of each season—peppermint, spearmint, lemon balm, bee balm, oregano, shiso, wild bergamot, thyme, hyssop, sage, rosemary, lavender—and activate their unique tastes and their tonic, nourishing properties by steeping them in vinegar. What a tasty way to build strong bones, a healthy heart, emotional stability, and energetic vitality.

Down here, under the wild rose hedge, is a plant familiar to anyone who has walked the woods and roadsides of the east: garlic mustard. I’ll enjoy the leaves in my salad tonight, as I do all winter and spring, but I’ll have to wait a bit longer before I can harvest the roots, which produce a vibrant, horseradishy vinegar that’s just the thing to brighten a winter salad and keep the sinuses clear at the same time.

And what’s this? A patch of chickweed! It’s a good addition to my vinegars and my salads, boosting their calcium content, though adding scant flavor. In protected spots, she offers year-round greens.

Look down. The mugwort is sprouting, all fuzzy and grey. I call it cronewort to honor the wisdom of grey-haired women. The culinary value of this very wild herb is oft overlooked. I was thrilled to find it for sale in Germany right next to the dried caraway and rosemary, in a little jar, in the supermarket. Cronewort vinegar is one of the tastiest and most beneficial of all the vinegars I make. It is renowned as a general nourishing tonic to circulatory, nervous, urinary, and mental functioning, as well as being a specific aid to those wanting sound sleep and strong bones. Cronewort vinegar is free for the making in most cities if you know where this invasive weed grows.

To mellow cronewort’s slightly bitter taste and accent her fragrant, flavorful aspects, I pick her small (under three inches) and add a few of her roots to the jar along with the leaves. I cut the tall flowering stalks of this aromatic plant in the late summer or early autumn, when they’re in full bloom, and dry them. The leaves, stripped carefully from the stalks, provided stuffing (and magic) for our winter dream pillows; they are said to carry one into vivid dreams and visions.

The sun is bright and strong and warm. I turn my face toward it and close my eyes, breathing in. I feel the vibrating life force here. Everything is aquiver. I smile, knowing that that energy will be available to me when I consume the vinegars I’ll make from these herbs and weeds. As I relax against the big oak, I breathe out and envision the garden growing and blooming, fruiting and dying, as the seasons slip through my mind’s eye….

The air grows chillier at night. The leaves fall more quickly with each breeze. The first mild frosts take the basil, the tomatoes and the squash, freeing me to pay attention once again to the perennial herbs and weeds, and urging me to make haste before even the hardy herbs drop their leaves and retreat to winter dormancy.

The day dawns sunny. Yes, now is the time to harvest the last of the garden’s bounty, the rewards of my work, the gifts of the earth. I dress warmly (remembering to wear red; hunting season’s open), stash my red-handled clippers in my back pocket, and take a basket in one hand and a plastic tub in the other.

Then I’m out the door, into autumn’s slanting sunshine and my quiet garden. My black cat bounds over to help me harvest and, after a while, the white cat emerges from under the house to purr and signal her satisfaction with my presence in her domain this morning.

My gardening friends say the harvest is over for the year, but I know my weeds will keep me at work harvesting until well into the winter. In no time at all my deep basket is full and I’m wishing I’d brought another. Violet leaves push against stalks of lamb’s quarter. Hollyhock, wild malva, and plantain leaves jostle for their own spaces against the last of the comfrey and dandelion leaves. (I think dandelion leaves are much better eating in the fall than in the spring, much less bitter to my taste after they’ve been frosted a few nights.) The last of the red clover blossoms snuggle in the middle. Though not aromatic or intensely flavored, a vinegar of these greens will be my super-rich calcium supplement for the dark months of winter.

My baskets are overflowing and I haven’t gotten to the nettles and the raspberry leaves yet. They’re superb sources of calcium, too. Ah! The gracious abundance of weeds, or should I say “volunteer herbs” – I actually respect them more than the cultivated herbs; respect their strident life force, and their powerful nutritional punch, and their added medicinal values that help me stay healthy and filled with energy.

Vinegars, as we’ve read, can be our allies by (among other things) lowering cholesterol, improving skin tone, and metabolic functioning. With a few simple tools, we easily can harvest herbs right in or around our yard to make some yummy, healthy vinegars.

Part two of this article reviews the importance of harvesting the right roots, offers some helpful pointers for making vinegars, and provides an indispensable list of plants that make for tasty vinegars and a list of plants for herbal calcium supplements.