Sourdough Benefits

November 01, 2014PJ Jonas

Ever wonder if sourdough bread is really that different from "regular" bread? Other than the fact that sourdough bread and sourdough bagels use a sourdough starter to leaven the dough (make the dough rise), while most "regular" breads use yeast, are they really that different? And if they are different, does it really matter?

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Processing Jewelweed

October 02, 2014PJ Jonas

Last week I talked about how we harvested jewelweed to be used in our jewelweed soap and jewelweed salve.  Once Greyden and Emery collect all of the jewelweed, it's time to process it. Jade does "quality control on it first".

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Harvesting and Preserving Vegetables

July 04, 2014PJ Jonas

In years past, we have spent many hours canning, dehydrating, fermenting, and freezing our fruits and vegetables.  Lately, the children are eating more and more of the produce straight from the garden, so I find there is less need to preserve.

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Perennials in the Vegetable Garden

July 03, 2014PJ Jonas

I am a big fan of perennials because you can plant them once and they come back year after year.  In our vegetable garden, the only perennial "vegetable" that we plant is asparagus.

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The Herb Garden

July 02, 2014PJ Jonas

Over the years we have planted many different kinds of herbs. We like to cook with them, eat them raw, and use them in our soap! Some of our favorites are basil, parsley, and rosemary. If you've never done much cooking with fresh herbs, you'll be amazed at the difference. 

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The Home Orchard

June 30, 2014PJ Jonas

Having access to our own fruit is absolutely wonderful.  In our orchard we plant not only tree fruit, but berries as well.  At the new house, we're working on establishing our orchard.

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How To Build a Cattle Panel Trellis

June 27, 2014PJ Jonas

There are a lot of vegetable plants that benefit from being supported.  For our tomatoes, we generally use tomato cages* that are strengthened with t-posts*

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Gardening Isn't Just for Summer

June 26, 2014PJ Jonas

In the past I've had a greenhouse.  But to be perfectly honest, I always found it a lot of work and I never enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed gardening the rest of the year.

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Rotating Your Vegetables in the Garden

June 25, 2014PJ Jonas

Once we had all of our garden beds built, we had to decide how to lay out the plants within the beds.  We try to spread out our vegetables so we have a little bit of everything everywhere.

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The Importance of Building Your Soil

June 24, 2014PJ Jonas

One of the main reasons that I have a garden is so that I can have a reliable source of healthy vegetables for my children to eat.  I have found that even organic vegetables aren't necessarily grown in nutrient-rich soil.

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