From Scratch Magazine - The Holiday Issue

December 2014/January 2015

RAISING QUAIL PRACTICAL PERMACULTURE

HOW TO GROW MUSHROOMS IN 30 DAYS

10 Tips for a happy (and thrifty) Homestead holiday

The Holiday Issue

Backyard Farming • Homestead Living • Animal Husbandry • Homeschooling

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR & PUBLISHER

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t’s time for the holiday season once again.

Freshly stuffed from Thanksgiving, warm with feelings of togetherness, we gather together for the second annual holiday issue of From Scratch magazine.

Greenville, SC. Where hundreds of farmers, homesteaders, permaculturists and more came together to exchange new ideas, engage in a bit of fellowship and get ready to implement the next season of sustainable agriculture in America.

v And during the cold, dark, official We discuss garden journaling with beginnings of winter, we are tempt- Angela England. ed to romanticize the summer days, with life blooming all around us.

We interviewed Mark Shepard and his ideas of taking permaculture to We have to remember that while the the next level. days are shorter and the nights are longer, this time is just as important Hopefully, in this issue, you learn to us homesteaders, organic farm- some new, meaningful ways to celers and backyard chicken keepers. ebrate the holidays with your family and take away some great ideas This is the time of year to enjoy our to try out for the upcoming planting families -- worship together, spend season. time together and be together.

It’s also the time of year when we From our family, to yours, Have a can sit down and starting thinking happy and joyous holiday season! about the beginning of next year.

New Year’s Day will be upon us soon and we all need to take a moment to reflect on what we did last year and what we’ll do next year.

In this issue, we covered the Sustainable Agriculture Convention in FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

Steven and Melissa

FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE: Contributors

Contributors CHRIS MCLAUGHLIN Home-Ag/ Gardening Editor A Suburban Farmer

ANGELA ENGLAND Writer, Backyard Faming on an Acre or less

DONNA MCGLASSON Writer/Blogger at Gadensandchickensandworms.com-

CAROL J. ALEXANDER Homeschool Editor/ Everything with Carol

CAROLE WEST Writer/Blogger at Gadenupgreen.com

Steven Jones Editor

MARLENE ALDERMAN of the Herbal Acadmy of New England

Melissa Jones Publisher FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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IN THIS ISSUE

Page 10

10 Tips for a happy (and thrifty) Holiday Season

holiday gift guide Page 98

Page 78

HAWTHORN: Tree of Paradox Page 43 Page 68

raising quail saving lomax farm FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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dwarf conifers

holiday lessons on the homestead Page 38 Page 14

Page 84

woodfired hot tub

Page 92

the straight coop

Page 52

Page 56

sustainable agriculture conference

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photos from our readers

Mindie Dittemore sent these beautiful images from Born Again Farm Girl.

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Meredith Chilson shared photos of her first and very successful attempt at raising her own Thanksgiving turkeys.

Thanksgiving Oysters from Lil Suburban Homestead in Wilmington, NC FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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Once upon a time there w was not an expensive piec it. Just a common block those thick, solid logs fire in winter to make co warm.

- Carlo

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was a piece of wood. It ce of wood. Far from k of firewood, one of that are put on the old rooms cozy and

o Collodi

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The Holiday season is full of love, laughter, Family and tradition, beautiful christmas lights and hot cocoa. it is also full of stress and worry about spending too much money and Challenging family dynamics.

Let us help you have a peaceful and happy holiday while keeping your sanity and not breaking the bank.

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10 Tips for a happy (and thrifty) Homestead holiday by: Melissa Jones

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Savor the moment. don’t rush through the season. take time to enjoy the good things in your life.

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when dealing with family remember it is better to be kind than right.

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Volunteer. If you don’t have extra money or food to donate.

Consider donating your time to a local food bank or soup kitchen.

focus on experiences.

Look for fun, free or low cost activities in your community and participate.

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Chrstmas movie night.

Pick your favorite holiday movies, pop some pocorn and get in the holiday spirit.

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consider a homemade gift exchange where every one exchanges at least one homemade gift.

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If you have a large family, consider drawing names instead of buying gifts for everyone.

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host a cookie or ornament making party. it is a great way to celebrate with family and friends.

Buy from local artists and businesses that you believe in.

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Not that many presents under the tree? Make some coupons that are redeemable for future suprises like movie tickets or family outings.

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The Straight Coop Tips for setting up your chicken house Stories and Photos by Jessica Lane

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ith Christmas right around the corner, chicken hobbyists and those dreaming of acquiring chickens in the spring are making their lists and checking them twice. Of course, on the top of every chicken lover’s list is poultry themed pajamas and the newest egg sorter.

However, many chicken keepers reserve their Christmas wish list for that big-ticket item. A new coop.

Whether you are designing your first coop or you are upgrading because you fell victim to chicken math, details are what will make or break a design. The big details obviously consist of designing the size to fit your proposed flock (with some room to grow), making sure your future coop will keep your chickens safe from predators, and figuring out the placement of roosts and nest boxes. These details are important to your flock, but it is the smaller details that may end up being very important to you.

Let’s start with people doors. Once you’ve knocked your head on the door frame a time or two, or you realize your favorite muck bucket is too wide to fit through the opening, people doors will become an important detail to you. Make sure that your door opening will accommodate you and the tools you intend to use when caring for your flock. Another consideration when designing your people door is assuring that you won’t lock yourself inside the coop. After armycrawling through a pop door, this small detail will become startlingly important to you. After my own

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army-crawl of shame, I installed a gate latch that can be disengaged from inside the coop. A final thought on doors is designing your people door to serve a purpose beyond letting people in and out.

Such a large opening has great potential for ventilating the coop.

It may be wise to consider adding a screen door or dutch-style door that is divided in half to increase airflow on warm days while maintaining safety. My coop was constructed with french doors with a screen insert one side. I can open that entire area when we’re having beautiful sunny days and the girls seem to enjoy sunning themselves.

Along the lines of ventilation, standard eave vents are good, but adjustable ventilation is even better. Remember, ventilation is an important design feature for your coop all year long. Windows that can be slid open from top or bottom are wonderful for adjusting air flow. Attention to weather-proofing is a must to keep elements out and comfort in. Upper wall vents with wooden awnings or shutters keep rain out and allow you to open or close the opening depending on the outdoor temperatures or weather conditions. Being able to customize your vents allows you to control ventilation for all four seasons.

Another seasonal consideration is the weather during spring, summer, fall, and winter. Do the winter winds blow where you propose to locate your pop door? Will the summer sun blaze through the windows and into the nest boxes, which will discourage laying? Are the spring rains going to run off the roof causing a muddy mess outside of FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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the coop’s entrance? Think about all seasons when you are designing. After reading all the recommendations online, you may think you’ve figured out the perfect number of nest boxes for your flock.

You can design and install permanent and stationary nest boxes to collect your eggs.

That seems like a sound idea, but what if all of your hens only use one box? That is a lot of wasted real estate in the coop. There are a few ideas you might want to consider when you design your nest boxes. First, think about using individual wall-mounted nest boxes.

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to make at least one nest box a communal box. Communal boxes are two to three times wider than traditional boxes. They are great for accommodating several hens that want to lay in the same box, they work great for housing broody hens and their chicks, and they can repurposed as feed and supply cabinets if the hens do not use them.

A final thought when it comes to creating your Christmas coop wish list is a proper feed station. Sure, you can hang a feeder in an available corner, but you can design for so much more.

Chickens are known to waste food.

They are really messy creatures.

Pellets tend to go flying all over the place and it seems like you are refilling the feeder constantly, even with a small flock. If you are build-

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ing a coop from scratch, now is the time to think about building a feeder that fits inside the wall space, between the joists. This frees up more space inside the coop and it can be made to accommodate a 25lb bag of feed. You may also want to consider a “catch” built under the feed station so that pellets are dropped into a removable container and recycled back into

the feeder. A feed catch can save you anywhere from $1 to more than $10 a month, depending on the size of your flock.

So make your list and check it twice.

If you’re going to ask Santa for a chicken coop, make sure it’s a coop that is sure to please you and your flock.

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Cozy Date Night Christmas Gift from Your Pantry Story and photos by Donna McGlasson

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couple of years ago, I put together Christmas gifts from my heart and my canning pantry.

I purposely gave thought through the year, when I was canning certain items that I wanted to make extra so I could give them for gifts. But even if you haven’t planned for extras, canned goods of homemade goodness make great Christmas presents. I got this recipe from my aunt years ago when she gifted me with a jar for Christmas.

I am featuring a Cozy Date Night selection here but you could put together a few items for your children’s teachers, your neighbors, your parents and in-laws or your friends, the possibilities are endless.

My Cozy Date Night Christmas Gift consists of some canned salsa with ingredients from my garden in a pint jar. You could add a bag of chips or if you dehydrate your own chips of any sort, you can add a bag for two.

For the main course I include a quart jar of Chili (or soup). If you make your own cheese, you may want to add a bag or container for a topping.

For dessert, I add a pint jar of my Chunky Applesauce. I add suggestions on the back of the gift tag to heat it and put whipped cream on top. It’s like eating apple pie without the crust. Here’s another opportunity for you to add a quick recipe for homemade whipped cream or a container of whipped cream.

The final touch is a pint jar of my Hot Cocoa Mix. This recipe is so simple and it can be mixed in huge quantities to make great gifts for

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everyone on your list. You can also make everything from a one person cup in ½ pint jar to a family size gift in whatever size is appropriate.

I give a family of four a quart jar.

I have even given a mug with the cocoa in a cellophane baggie and toppings in another completed with beautiful Christmas bows.

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DONNA’S HOT COCOA INGREDIENTS • 1 lb of powdered unsweetened cocoa • 1 lb pound of dried milk powder • 1 lb of powdered coffee creamer (this could be left out but it gives a richer flavor to the hot chocolate OR BONUS: look below for a homemade powdered creamer recipe) • 1 lb of powdered sugar (or if you want to make some up with a sweetener, use ¾ -1 lb of Stevia) • Small or miniature marshmallows (optional) • Dark Chocolate shavings from a baker’s chocolate (optional) • Easy melt wrapped cubes of caramel (optional) • A whole nutmeg for grating (optional) • You could add a vial of homemade vanilla extract or peppermint oil) (optional) FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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• shavings in a baggy instead of putting it in the jar of hot DIRECTIONS cocoa.

• No matter if you use jars, • Put the first four ingredients in baggies or plastic containers, a very large bowl and mix until make sure to wrap them up in thoroughly blended. Be careribbons, raffia, baker’s twine or ful, if you stir too aggressively something festive to add that your powdered hot cocoa will special touch. go everywhere. Yes, I speak from • The jars, baggies or plastic experience. You could mix it in containers are easily slipped a huge plastic bowl that has a into a Christmas bag with tight fitting lid and shake vigcheerful tissue paper. This mix orously. can also be used in coffee to • Once your hot cocoa mix is well stir in a mocha flavor. blended, spoon it into individual jars or containers. You could even use decorative baggies for this if you’d like. Save room at the top for adding marshmallows and chocolate shavings and seal tightly.

HOMEMADE POWDERED • If you want to add more COFFEE CREAMER flavor variety to your gifts, you can add small vials of extract INGREDIENTS or oils with one drop per cup • 4 cups whole milk powder instructions.

• 1 cup organic powdered sugar or • Tie it to your jar with a pretty Stevia ribbon.

• 3 teaspoons of coconut oil, • You can add easy melt caramel melted (this gives the creamer a one per cup or a nutmeg for rich flavor) grating in a small cellophane DIRECTIONS bag and tie it with raffia.

• Mix powdered milk and sugar/ • This could also be done with the Stevia and mix well. Add 3 teamarshmallows and chocolate spoons of melted coconut oil

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s Homemade gifts are not only a smart and economical way to enjoy the holidays there is also an exchange of love and time. Think of what items you can make yourself to give to your friends and family. and mix until there are no lumps. I use my hands for this and get a better non-lumpy mix.

Put in a glass jar and decorate. • Add an ornamental gift tag with instructions for mixing the hot chocolate as follows: 4 heaping Tablespoons to an 8 ounce cup, mix with hot water or milk, add toppings (oil, extract, caramel, nutmeg or whatever you put with your gift). Enjoy!

the gift making process, sit them down on a cold day with crayons, markers, colored pencils construction paper and children’s scissors and let them make gift tags and Christmas cards to go with your goodies. Grandparents and teachers love this.

Now you have gifts from your heart and your pantry or cabinet that you can give for Christmas. There are any number of possibilities to this theme and the food you use.

So, go take a peek in your cabinet or pantry and see what homemade goodness you have to give this One more thought, if you have chil- Holiday season. dren you would like to involve in FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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Solar Oven Smores By: Tessa Zundel

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S.O.S.. There are a few different commercial brands of solar oven and they all have their merits, the biggest one being that they don’t cost anything to run. For my family of seven, my biggest pet peeve with them is that they’re too small.

Eventually, we’ll figure out how to make our own but for now, despite the size, I’m grateful for this very We’ve been experimenting a lot this useful kitchen tool. year with outdoor/off-grid cooking You’re not limited to casseroles methods; things like open flame, and soups in a solar oven, either the solar oven and my Wonder – roast chicken, loaf bread and box. My biggest accomplishment stuffed zucchini are some of the was to learn to build and maintain more recent things I’ve pulled, pipa fire for my open flame cooking ing hot out of my solar oven. I experiments. You may laugh but, have also discovered that, among for me, this was a big deal! Still, the many desserts you can conthough, a fire is more work than coct for your solar oven, you can my solar oven on a sunny day so when I need to be lazy, I go for my also make some very interesting My new found love is homemade marshmallows. Don’t tell my husband or my waistline but with a KitchenAid to facilitate my habit, I’m in for the long haul with this sweet love affair. What’s my favorite thing use my homemade marshmallows for, you ask? Why, s’mores, of course!

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variations on the classic, campfire S’more. Let me share just one with you here and then you can play around with the ingredients and your own ideas.

First of all, learn how to make homemade marshmallows. I have a link I’ll include at the end, if you need one, but there are a lot of higher quality food bloggers that can help you out with this. Bottom line, you can

learn to make, without too much hassle, a healthier, junk-free version of the humble marshmallow. No HFCS, no preservatives, no plastic packaging. Just water, honey (or other sugar) and gelatin. You can make them GAPS, Paleo and Weston Price friendly.

Homemade graham crackers and chocolate bars are filled with their own adventures and I encourage you to try those out when you’re ready.

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Solar Oven S’more bake

INGREDIENTS:

DIRECTIONS:

Set out your solar oven with the lid on in a sunny spot in order to preheat it a bit. Butter your casserole dish. Cover the bottom of the dish in graham cracker squares. Break the chocolate bars into bite size pieces and put one or two on top of each cracker. Place one to two You’ll also need a 9x13 casserole marshmallows on top of the chocodish, a solar oven, spatula, hot late – however many it takes to fill mitts and some utensils and plates. the area of the graham cracker.

If you’re into eating off plates, that is – my family just grabbed some Now you face a choice, and a grave forks and ate like piglets out of the one at that. You can put another pan. (Do piglets use forks?) piece of chocolate on top of the marshmallow and another marshmallow over that, forming a kind of sandwich of happiness or you

• Homemade marshmallows • Homemade graham crackers • Chocolate bars of you favorite persuasion – can also be homemade, show off.

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can just leave one layer of each.

The decision is yours but I caution you that the double layer will be doubly sweet so bear that in mind. Regardless of how many layers of marshmallow and chocolate you decide to use, wait until your creation is fully baked and being served up before you put on your top graham cracker, especially if you like your inside melted all the way. The s’mores are a bit messy when they come out of the oven and by waiting to put that top cracker on until the very last minute, you clean up the presentation a bit. Again, my crew could have cared less what they looked like since it all tastes the same but if you’re serving individuals who stick their pinkies out when they eat, presentation is important.

Once your dish is full, take it out to the solar oven and put it inside, resecuring the lid and leave it in the sun to melt both the chocolate and the marshmallows. How long that will takes is entirely dependent on how mushy you want everything.

If you just want all the ingredients warmed but not melted, be sure to check on your dish after about twenty minutes, if it’s a hot day.

If you want it melted (the way we like it), give it a bit longer. Use a spatula to serve up individual baked s’mores and place the finishing graham cracker on top, like a hat.

Solar oven cooking is always a bit of an adventure at my house; between five small children and a homestead, I get pretty scatterbrained and can forget to check on my solar oven occupants regularly.

With a roast chicken, that’s not as big a deal but with something a bit temperature sensitive like this, I do try to pay more attention. (Remember the fire building difficulty – attention to details is a real chore for me!!) After you try this, go do more experiments with solar oven desserts and see if you can start some sweet obsessions of your own! Visit here for some tips while learning to make your homemade marshmallows.

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Garden Journal for a Better Year in the Garden By: Angela England

As we come to the end of a growing season we get to do is constantly try new things.

Nothing we do is completely permanent so we can test something one season, and try something new the following year. But how do we know what to keep and what to let go of as we plan another growing year?

A garden journal is a vital part of that process.

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Your garden journal, or garden log, should be a useful tool you add to each year and refer back to on a regular basis. There are several things that you will want to include in your garden journal. There is no right or wrong way to keep a garden journal but we have a list of things that you will want to include in your record.

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Some of the things you’ll want to make note of in your garden include: •

•

•

•

A planting diagram of your garden layout and what went where each year. You think you won’t forget but the truth is, you probably will. Especially after more than a single year.

A list of plant types and varieties you planted. Some gardeners I know also list where they purchased their seeds from in case the germination rates varied from one company to another.

Notes about pests or diseases you encountered through the year. Especially important if you are saving seed!

How much you harvested from your vegetable garden of each type of crop.

•

•

•

•

Do’s and Don’ts for the following year. We always think we’ll remember but it’s better to write things down.

Keep a planting log. Note what you planted, when you planted it, when it sprouted, when you transplanted it, and how it performed.

A list of monthly chores performed or to perform. If you plan to sell your livestock you would also want to track your financial expenses. Your costs and your income.

Note water and fertilizer usage in your garden to see where improvements can be made the following year.

As you can see, there’s no right or wrong way to keep a garden journal. It can be as flexible as needed to make sure you have all the information you need for your garden in one easy-to-find place.

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Yearly Improvements Garden planning is something that never ends. Every year we try something new or stop doing something that didn’t work so well the year before. Especially now that we have been growing our plants from seeds and saving them year-by-year.

Be sure to track any of your experiments in your journal. Trying a new variety of seeds? Write it down and track not only production rates, but disease resistance. If you save your own seeds then track viability rates and how the seeds perform the following year.

productive and healthy. Many gardeners know that they should rotate their vegetable gardens according to the primary families, but it’s harder to do with a plan. With a clear layout of what your garden looked like each year, you can easily rotate your crops.

As part of my book, Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less) I created some printable garden journal sheets. These are free to copy and use for yourself. Keeping a garden journal will help you both in planning your first year’s garden, and in improving your garA garden journal with yearly dia- den each year thereafter. Print grams will also help you with your your free journal pages at http:// crop rotation so your garden will stay BackyardFarmingGuide.com.

Angela England is the Organic Gardening Expert at About.com and author of Backyard Farming on an Acre (More or Less). She’s the founder of Untrained Housewife, a website dedicated to recapturing the lost arts of intentional and selfsufficient living. She is also the co-founder of Homestead Bloggers Network – a support group for writers and bloggers who focus on homesteading themes.

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Holiday Lessons on the Homestead By: Carol J. Alexander

The holiday season is a rough season for homeschooling. The children are distracted by the festive activities around them. The calendar gets full with pageants, caroling, and family gatherings. Time is lost and attention spans are short.

the advent season, take time to do it now. The word advent means a coming or arrival. Therefore, the advent season is a time of waiting or expecting the birth of Christ. Advent starts on the fourth Sunday before December 25. Many advent activities can be found online.

This holiday season, why not drop the usual academic lessons and replace them with learning activities that focus on the reason for the season? Here are several to get your Most folks realize that we truly don’t know the date of Jesus’ birth. Then creative juices flowing. where did the date of December 25th come from? For a history study appropriate for the season, find the answer to this question. Have your If your family has never studied older children do the research and

HISTORY

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write a report to present to the family. Check your library for an appropriate book to read to the younger children.

For a non-Christian family, choose the history behind the holiday celebration you observe. Read passages from the Talmud regarding the history of Hanukkah or books on the history of Kwanzaa. How are our seasonal celebrations different from those in times past? Try adopting a historical tradition for your family or making a historical food or craft.

represent something special for the Christian message of Christmas. The Jewish celebrating Hanukkah find meaning in the menorah, dreidel, gelt, and latkes. And for Kwanzaa, the African culture uses mazao, kinara, and mkeka in their celebrations. Choose a different item each day from your family’s celebrations and discuss its meaning with your children.

FOOD

As we learned last issue, school lessons abound in the kitchen. Use the time baking cookies and frying donuts to reinforce math, chemThe holiday season is overflowing istry, and nutrition. If you already with symbolism. The tree, star, can- bake cookies as one of your holiday dles, poinsettia, and candy cane all traditions, add another like making

SYMBOLISM

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Homeschool Holiday

candy with Grandma or hosting a your evenings reading aloud from cookie/candy exchange. Our family such classics as A Christmas Carol deviates from the traditional fare at or watching holiday-themed movies.

Christmas time and chooses to go ethnic instead. Choose a country or ethnic group, study its foods, and try a few recipes.

Using special paper, you have your kids illustrate the passages they memorized. Now would be a good time to practice calligraphy. They Choose a passage from a piece can use their new lettering techof literature, or a song, poem, or niques to design their own holiday scripture that focuses on your holi- cards. Or, just make cards using day and have your children copy, rubber stamps and other scrapbookmemorize, and/or recite it. Spend ing supplies. Create ornaments. If each child made a new ornament

ARTS AND CRAFTS

LANGUAGE ARTS

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each year, by the time they started their own households, they would have a collection already started.

And don’t forget, now is the perfect time to create beautiful handmade gifts for giving during this season.

Homeschooling families are known for over-committing, over-doing, or otherwise trying to pack too much into an already hectic schedule.

Take this time of year to eschew the busy-ness and relax with family and friends.

These learning activities are suggestions to replace your academic les-

sons during a break from your normal routine, not to add to it. Please, only do those projects that promote relationships with loved ones, and let the rest go.

Freelance writer Carol J. Alexander homesteads and homeschools in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

She has authored Lessons from the Homestead, a series of unit studies for homeschoolers and involved parents, and Homestead Cooking with Carol: Bountiful Make-ahead Meals.

You can find both at her website http://CarolJAlexander.com.

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Herbs on the Homestead

Hawthorn: Tree of Paradox

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Marlene Adelmann

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s fall turns rapidly into winter here in New England, the landscape flares up with a last bit of color before settling into the bare, dark winter months. Soon the last piles of leaves will be raked and the gardens tucked in for their long seasonal nap. And we, too, will have a chance to rest and dream, gather close with our loved ones, and enjoy all the delicious and nourishing bounty harvested this summer and fall. Yet, even as the days shorten and grow colder, a row of nearby hawthorn trees continues to give generously, presenting their ripe red berries cheerfully among their dark, thorny branches.

C. monogyna and C. laevigata’s leaves, flowers, and fruit are used both as medicine and food in the west. In China, C. pinnatifida fruit is used as food to make traditional desserts and jellies, and medicinally as a digestive aid, as a remedy for diarrhea and dysentery, and to ease heart pains (Dharmananda, 2004; Foster, 2009). North American hawthorns were used by various indigenous groups for a range of purposes including stomachache, as a female tonic, for bladder and kidney troubles, and to strengthen the heart (Foster, 2009).

Hawthorn’s current use as a cardiac tonic arose in the late 1800s, when an Irish physician gained a reputation for successfully treating numerIn the Rosaceae (rose) family ous heart patients with a hawthorn and native to Europe, Asia, North berry extract (Foster, 2009).

America, and North Africa, hawthorn (Crataegus spp.) takes its Today in the West, hawthorn berry, common name from the Old English flower, and leaf are primarily used as word haw, or “hedge,” harkening a general cardiac tonic, cardiac troback to days in England and Ireland phorestorative, and for cases of angiwhen the common hawthorn tree na, high blood pressure, the early was used as a hedgerow shrub, its stages of congestive heart failure, thorns offering a natural protective and for atherosclerosis. Hawthorn improves the mechanics of the heart boundary. and its metabolic processes, dilates coronary arteries, modestly reduces FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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serum cholesterol levels, and inhibits enzymes that cause vasoconstriction (Murray, 1995; Verma et al., 2007). Hawthorn’s flavonoids are thought to promote these benefits, but according to Verma et al.

(2007), “no single agent has proven to be the primary agent for the effect observed.”

The use of hawthorn as a heart healer has been clinically substantiated throughout the years. The most extensive results from a single study were published in 2008 in the European Journal of Heart Failure from a two-year, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter German study. Over two years, half of a group of 2,681 patients with Class II or Class III heart failure and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction took a placebo, and the other half took 900 mg a day of a proprietary commercial extract of C. monogyna leaf and flower (WS® 1442). Those taking the hawthorn showed a reduced risk of dying in the short term (40% fewer deaths in the first six months, and 20% fewer deaths in the first 18 months). Although after two years the same percentage of deaths occurred in both groups, those in the hawthorn group experienced fewer side effects and chest pain than the placebo group. The researchers concluded that the extract was safe and “in addition, the data may indicate that WS® 1442 can potentially reduce the incidence of sudden cardiac death, at least in patients with less compromised left ventricular function” (Holubarsch et al., 2008).

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A Chochrane Review in 2008 (Pittler et al.) examined 14 qualifying clinical trials evaluating hawthorn extract used by chronic heart failure patients, most of whom used hawthorn as an adjuvant therapy.

The review found that hawthorn was more beneficial than placebo in the physiologic outcome of maximal workload; significantly increased exercise tolerance; decreased the pressure-heart rate product; and resulted in significant improvement in other symptoms such as shortness of breath and fatigue. Adverse events were mild and infrequent.

The German Commission E has approved the use of hawthorn leaf with flower for decreased cardiac output as defined by the New York Heart Association (NYHA)’s definition of Class (or Stage) II heart disease.

Hawthorn is also a nervine and mends the energetic heart, especially those filled with sadness, grief, and loss (Gladstar, 2010). In hawthorn’s typical contradictory way, it softens yet protects the heart, and is often used to allow a full experience of emotions while establishing healthy boundaries. Try hawthorn berry, leaf, and/or flower with rose petals, linden, lemon balm, or vanilla in tea or elixirs when your heart is feeling heavy, broken, or in need of some general tender loving care and protection. Hawthorn is helpful over the wintertime holiday for stress – add a bit of cinnamon to sweeten things up!

When certain plants have been col-

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lective humanity’s close companions for a long time, just like human-tohuman relationships, things can get complicated. Hawthorn is respected and loved but often feared. It is considered very bad luck to cut down a hawthorn tree. In Ireland, hawthorn was considered a “fairy tree” and festooned with ribbons on Beltane (May Day) to curry favor with the supernatural (originally faeries and wee folk, and later, saints). The “Lady of May” was also associated with the Christian crown of thorns, a Welsh goddess, and with Joseph of Arimathea, who is given credit for bringing the tree (called the Glastonbury Thorn) to Britain along with the Holy Grail.

bacteria (Francis et al., 2011), the beautiful but stinky flowers were thought to emit the scent of the plague, and the berries are sour yet slightly sweet. In Ayurveda, hawthorn is warming; in Traditional Chinese Medicine it is cooling. No one seems to know for sure whether the seeds are toxic – they may contain minute traces of cyanogenic glycosides, like in apple seeds. These contradictions appear in modern fairy tales like Harry Potter, in which hawthorn wood is used to make wands that are “as full of paradoxes as the tree that gave it birth, whose leaves and blossoms heal, and yet whose cut branches smell of death.”

Herbalists are a bit of a paradox, Hawthorn will not be pigeonholed. too, aren’t we? We live in the divide Her thorns are sharp and laden with our world has made between art FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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and science, tradition and modernity, the physical and spiritual, the body and the mind, the wild and the tame. Perhaps we might even see a bit of ourselves in these trees, which like herbalists are guardians of the garden, residing on the borderlands, walking the boundaries, mending hearts, and always attempting to reconnect others to the wild, within and without. Next time you pass a hawthorn, take a deeper, quieter look – what do you see?

References Dharmananda Subhuti. (2004). “Hawthorn (Crataegus).

Food and Medicine in China.” Institute of Traditional Medicine Online. Retrieved October 2014 from http:// www.itmonline.org/arts/crataegus.htm Foster, Steven. (2009). Hawthorn. Retrieved October 2014 from http://www.stevenfoster.com/education/ monograph/hawthorn.html

tic arthritis following puncture with a Coxspur Hawthorn thorn. J Clin Microbiol. Jul;49(7):2759-60 German Commission E. (1994). Hawthorn leaf with flower. American Botanical Council. Retrieved October 2014 from http://cms.herbalgram.org/commissione/ Monographs/Monograph0193.html Gladstar, Rosemary. (2010). Unpublished class notes from Wild Herb Walk lecture, Sage Mountain, Vermont.

Holubarsch CJ, Colucci WS, Meinertz T, Gaus W, Tendera M. (2008). The efficacy and safety of Crataegus extract WS 1442 in patients with heart failure: the SPICE trial.

Eur J Heart Fail.10:1255–63.

Murray, Michael T. (1995). The Healing Power of Herbs.

Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing.

Pottermore.wikia. (n.d.). Hawthorn. Retrieved October 2014 from http://pottermore.wikia.com/wiki/Hawthorn Pittler MH, Guo R, Ernst E. (2008). Hawthorn extract for treating chronic heart failure. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008 Jan 23;(1):CD005312.

Verma, SK, Jain V, Verma D, Khamesra, R. (2007).

Crataegus oxyacantha-A cardioprotective herb. Journal of Herbal Medicine and Toxicology 1.1: 65-71.

Francis MJ, Doherty RR, Patel M, Hamblin JF, Ojaimi S, Korman TM. (2011). Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens sepFROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

Healthy Heart Tonic Recipe

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INGREDIENTS: • • • • •

3 parts hawthorn Crataegus spp 3 parts gotu kola Centella asiatica 3 parts ginkgo Ginkgo biloba 1 part ginger Zingiber officinalis 1 part burdock Arctium lappa

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Herbs on the Homestead

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DIRECTIONS: Mix the dried herbs together and keep in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid away from sunlight. To make the tea, use 2 teaspoons per cup of boiling water. Cover the cup or teapot and steep for 15 minutes. This tonic is used in indications including poor circulation and weak veins. The tonic may help with the prevention of antherosclerosis, varicose veins and hemorrhoids. Drink one cup up to 4 times a day.

This is a circulatory tonic which may help build strong capillary walls while increasing circulation to the extremities.

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Herbs on the Homestead Q: HOW DO I DRY THE ELDERBERRIES, HAWTHORN BERRIES, AND ROSE HIPS I HARVESTED? A: Hawthorn berries are the easiest to dry! Just de-stem the berries, lay them in a single layer in a basket or on a tray lined with a brown paper bag, and place in a warm place with good air circulation until they are dark and shriveled. Rose hips and juicy elderberries require a slightly different approach. The easiest way is to use a food dehydrator, placing the de-stemmed elderberries or the de-stemmed, halved, and seeded rose hips in a single layer on the trays. If you don’t have a dehydrator, you will need a piece of clean screen, a cooling rack (the type you use for baked goods), and a baking tray. Place the cooling rack in the baking tray and cover with the screen, upon which you will place the berries (this contraption allows for air circulation under the berries).

Use an oven set on very low heat (below 140 degrees) to slowly dehydrate the berries or hips until they FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

are shriveled and hard. Hawthorn berries can also be dried this way to speed the drying process.

Q: AFTER HARVESTING HAWTHORN BERRIES, I’M WONDERING WHICH OTHER TREES I CAN EASILY USE FOR HERBAL MEDICINE. ANY SUGGESTIONS? A: Yes! White pine (Pinus strobus) needles are rich in vitamin C and make a pleasant tea good for supporting the immune system’s ability to fight off colds and flu. Black birch (Betula lenta) contains methyl salicylate (the same fragrant oil found in the little wintergreen plant) and you can scrape off the bark of smaller branches to make an invigorating, anti-inflammatory tea or infused massage oil. Black birch tea and spruce (Picea spp.) needle tea are also nice for clearing congestion in the upper respiratory system. Black cherry (Prunus serotina) bark, which looks similar to black birch but has an almond-like odor, is an excellent

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Marlene Adelmann is a graduate of the Boston School of Herbal Studies. She is the founder and director of The Herbal Academy of New England.

expectorant in the case of respiratory congestion. The leaves of the linden tree (Tilia cordata) are not only edible but also make a calming, restful tea that is helpful for stress and anxiety or for digestive upset and is a tonic for high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis. And last but not really last, because there are so many more - is willow (Salix spp.).

Willow bark contains salicylic acid (one of the ingredients in aspirin)

which is pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory, and fever-reducing without being hard on the stomach. Find yourself a good tree identification book (or two) and make sure you have a positive ID before harvesting!

Have a question for Marlene? You can email her at madelmann@herbalacademyofne.com

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Sustainable Agriculture Conference 2014 By: Steven Jones

“When you come here it’s kind of like a reunion, It’s just a great community of people.”

Kris Reid FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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This year, the second year From Scratch magazine has acted as a media sponsor for the Sustainable Agriculture Conference, I was sitting at a banquet table typing up some notes for this article.

As I was pounding away on a keyboard, a staffer for the hotel came around to collect a pile of plates left over from the Local Food Feast -- a highlight of the conference.

I -- along with a couple other attendees of the con -- was chatting away and typing, completely oblivious to the man trying to work around me.

When I finally noticed him, I immediately apologized and started gathering my dishes. Being the polite, not-so-young man I am, I thanked him and offered to help clear the table. I was only a few feet from the busing station set up along the wall of the banquet hall.

“No sir,” he said. A staff member at a banquet sat down his tray full of dishes and patted me on the back.

“Thank you and all of ya’ll.”

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“You guys are a huge help and we really appreciate ya’ll being here.

Without farmers, I wouldn’t even have a job. We’re happy to have you.”

Then he picked up his tray and carried it back to the dish pit in the kitchen, beyond a set of swinging doors.

“The staff says this is the best group of people they have every year,” Kris Reid, the Executive Chef for the event said.

If you attend the conference, and if you haven’t you should, then you can’t help but agree. Sustainable farmers and the people who care about sustainable farming -- as represented at this conference -- are some of the kindest, most humble, passionate and delightful people you’ll ever meet.

After talking to dozens of vendors, organizers, farmers and other attendees at the conference was spent in a haze of community: The type of community that you only really read about any more.

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An incredibly diverse group of people came together in November in Greenville, South Carolina, at the Hyatt-Regency Hotel. The event is hosted annually by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association.

They spent three days learning about the latest in sustainable agriculture, new farming methods, organizational and business skills, the latest in raising livestock sustainably, the latest and best products and equipment needed and more.

In addition they ate fantastic food -- almost all of it grown locally and sustainably -- heard great speakers (read our interview with keynote speaker and permaculture luminary Mark Shepard) and spent a lot of time swapping ideas, telling stories and making friends.

Everyone I met -- and I talked to about 20 percent of the people attending the conference (a sizeable sample) -- were polite, intelligent, passionate, ambitious and just plain fun to be around.

Some of those people attended dozens of conferences and others were newbies to the conference. Some of them were seasoned veterans of farming, while others had barely gotten their hands dirty. Some of them had forgotten more than most of us will ever learn about growing and distributing food, while others were still learning where eggs came from (only a slight exaggeration).

We compiled interviews with some of the people we met at the conference, including the keynote speaker, event organizers, vendors and attendees.

Reading these stories about the incredible people that showed up at the conference, however, is just a small taste of what you missed.

From Scratch magazine will continue to sponsor the event for as long as the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association will have us. We strongly encourage everyone to attend every year. It’s a truly life changing event.

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Mark Shepard Preaches Practical Permaculture

In 1995, according to his website, Mark Shepard moved with his family to start a farm in Wisconsin.

At the time, the concept of permaculture was still pretty new, so for a farmer to decide to establish a perennial farm devoted to restoring the land was pretty gutsy.

Of course, the farm is a massive success.

According to Shepard’s website, they produce food via crops and livestock, build soil, sequester carbon and enhance natural biodiversity.

In 2013 Shepard published a book, Restoration Agriculture. And while people already knew about Shepard, his farm and his work, he began to experience a new sort of fame.

The book’s already gone through 2 printings, with a third in the works.

And now he’s at events like the Sustainable Agriculture Conference, passionately speaking about his vision for the future of agriculture and getting standing ovations.

Honestly, he seems a little uncomfortable about the whole thing.

“I’m a real reclusive person,” he said.

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Shepard was the keynote speaker at the conference in Greenville, SC. The conference, hosted by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, is a chance for sustainable agriculture enthusiasts, locavores and farmers to get together, find out about the latest methodology in sustainable agriculture and get together for a little socialization.

Basically, the perfect crowd for Mark Shepard.

Shepard talked to his audience at the keynote about the basics of permaculture: Utilizing natural systems to model agriculture, using land and resources in more than one way, intense land management … all old hat at this point for fans of permaculture.

What sets Shepard apart from other practitioners of permaculture — other than a blunt attitude and a push for empirical results — is his pragmatism.

He wants permaculturists to demonstrate value in the form of results: Crop yields, economic benefits and more.

Basically, he wants permaculturists to produce real benefits for the agricultural community at large.

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He feels like the permaculture movement is ready to progress into large scale farms.

“I’m like the cattle prod,” he said.

“Let’s get real now. Get on your game. Do a real design.”

His mission, and the mission of his book, is to convince people of the economic feasibility and the real world benefits of permaculture.”

“We have to figure out how to take our will and bring it to action,” he said. “So many permaculturists are stuck in these concepts.”

Like most permaculturists, Shepard said you have to look at nature for inspiration, instead of trying to impose your ideas on nature.

“You want nature to comply with your idiot idea?” Shepard asked sarcastically. “You call (nature) a problem because it’s interfering with your concepts. These are concepts we’ve imposed on the planet.”

Read more about Mark Shepard here.

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dr. keith baldwin: trendsetting for years

Dr. Keith Baldwin is in an enviable position: For more than 30 years, Baldwin has been promoting and advocating sustainable farming methods.

Even before it became popular, before recycling became common practice everywhere, before people were concerned about their food, Baldwin pretty much was ahead of the curve.

“It feels good,” he said.

Baldwin began working with farmers as a member of the Cooperative Extension Program in Chatham County in the 80s. Since then, he’s spent his career working with the Center for Environmental Farm Systems since it’s inception and consulted on lots of projects. He’s been working with

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the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association for the last three years, continuing the mission he started years ago as the farm services coordinator for the group.

Baldwin has since hosted workshops on sustainable farm methods ever since, with topics including: Soil fertility, cover crops, biomass and more.

“You’re selling an idea (to farmers),” he said, of the work he’s done on promoting sustainable methods. “You’re selling what you hope is a better way of doing things.”

Find out more about Baldwin’s workshops here. http://www.carolinafarmstewards. org/oclc-workshop-descriptions/

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Marie Williamson: Teacher and Owner of Bluebird Farm Marie Williamson, of Morganton, NC, was one of the workshop teachers at SAC this year.

She presented a workshop about vegetable enterprize budget inefficiencies: Basically an agricultural business class.

“I really wanted to share financial information about starting an organic farm,” she said.

She started farming in college, where she studied Biology and Environmental Science. And she started, she said for one of the best reasons.

“I love food,” she said.

She’s attended six of the conferences put together by CFSA and can’t say enough good things about it.

“This organization provides a lot of really wonderful information and a great network,” she said.

Find out more about Williamson and Bluebird Farm here. https://sites.google.com/site/bluebirdfarmnc/

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KRIS REID: EXECUTIVE CHEF BRINGING LOCAL FOOD INTO A INSTITUTIONAL SETTING There’s a big difference between cooking at a restaurant as a chef and running a massive banquet as the executive chef.

Kris Reid knows.

Reid was responsible for the “legendary” Local Food Feast at the Hyatt-Regency during SAC. She spent the entire event working with hotel staffers and cooks to put together a meal made almost entirely from locally produced food, something hotel staffers weren’t used to.

“Doing this kind of food is very laborious,” she said. “I like bringing local food into an institutional setting. A lot of people say it’s not scaleable.”

Reid proved them wrong.

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She worked with staffers to produce 7 meals serving more than 700 people.

Menu items included locally produced gourmet cheeses, Tres Leches Cupcakes and grass fed beef barbecue made with a Cheerwine barbecue sauce.

Reid said she started doing the food for the CFSA in 2008.

Now, six years later, Reid -- who normally works as the executive chef at a retirement community providing meals for more than 300 residents -- said SAC is one of her favorite things to do.

“When you come here it’s kind of like a reunion,” she said. “It’s just a great community of people.”

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Support the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association donate today Every day while working on my farm I experience that impact farming has on our community. From our CSA customers, children going on our farm tours, or restaurants buying our produce, I see how people experience the food that we grow.

I want other farmers across the Carolinas to thrive and bring more food to your table. When my father and I started City Roots Farm in Columbia, we needed a lot of support to grow our business.

And the support that the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) provided us through their organic consulting services made a huge difference. Now, I’d like to give back, and I’m asking you to join me in making a year-end gift to CFSA.

Here are a few examples of what yourgift can do: » $1,000 creates an on-farm conservation plan that allows a farmer to enhance soils, biodiversity and the profitability of her operation. » $500 trains community activists about how to use local government to get better food for all. » $250 sends a beginning farmer to the Sustainable Agriculture Conference. » $100 brings a CFSA staff member to a farm to provide individual consulting services.

» $50 provides consulting for a conventional farmer to transition to organic Since 1979, CFSA has helped local through our Organic Initiative. organic farmers like me succeed. CFSA provides the support that farmers need Your gift to CFSA is one of the best ways to produce the healthy, fresh food that you can support local farmers and chamfeeds families like yours. pion food that is good for farms and farmworkers, healthy for our families, As a farmer, I know first-hand that there is and nurturing to our land. still a lot to be done and that CFSA can help the sustainable farming community get there. Your support is more important than ever.

Eric McClam, City Roots Farm FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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30 days to Homegrown Mushrooms

by Cindy Nawiesniak

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inter is a good time to learn to grow mushrooms if you are finding yourself missing gardening and delicious fresh homegrown food. I assure you it will be more satisfying than nursing along the few herb plants salvaged from the summer vegetable plot. Not only will growing mushrooms at home amaze your friends and amuse your offspring, but it will add that unmistakable rich woodsy flavor to your winter stews, risottos, and crepes.

That is reason enough to give it a try.

I came to learn about growing mushrooms not as a hobby, but as an extension of my farm business. I am one of the proprietors of 3Chicks Farms. We cultivate mushrooms and also sell mushroom kits as a way to have a winter farm income and stay in front of our customers lest they forget about us until it’s time again for asparagus and sorrel. Mushrooms are simple to grow on a small scale and require minimal and easy to find materials and equipment. With a few things you probably already have at home and about an hour of your time, I can teach you how to unlock the mysteries of growing your own delicious mushrooms.

There are many different methods that can be used. Some of them, like growing mushrooms on a toilet paper roll, are novel and entertaining, but I am recommending a method that will produce a crop as food for your table. My method is simple, inexpensive, and you will very likely succeed on your first try. Mushrooms can also be grown

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in succession just like lettuce. You plant up a container every few weeks and with about four going at the same time you can have home grown mushrooms every week.

Mushrooms store for about a week in the refrigerator, and any excess can easily be dried and stored indefinitely.

To get started you need just three things. Grain spawn, a growing medium, and a container. You start by selecting a suitable grain spawn. A quick web search will yield quite a few spawn producers.

Choose a producer that is close to you so you so your spawn doesn’t spend a lot of time in transit. For this project, choose a strain of Oyster Mushrooms which will tolerate a broad range of temperature conditions. The reason I have recommended Oyster mushrooms is because they are the mushroom equivalent of mint. They really want to grow and you have to work hard to ruin a crop completely. When you order your spawn, ask what temperature ranges each of the strains will tolerate since you will be growing your mushrooms at room temperature. You may have to wait several weeks for your order to be filled as they are generally made to order in a lab and this will ensure vigorous growth for your project.

Next you need something to grow the mushrooms on. Straw is perfect for this as it is easy to find, is inexpensive, and Oyster mushrooms perform well on it. Oyster mushrooms will grow on many different substrates with varying results, but straw is very reliable. (Just for fun I once used an old down pillow with a cotton cover. The nitrogen in FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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the feathers gave the crop quite a bump.) An average small bale of straw that weighs about 40 pounds is about right and will potentially grow 20 to 30 pounds of mushrooms under ideal circumstances.

The mushrooms consume the straw in order to grow, so you will want to find organic or unsprayed wheat straw. Feed stores, local farms, and Craigslist are all places to look for a straw source.

Next, you need a container to put the spawn and straw into. Two identical containers with lids that will hold about 12 quarts each will be just about right. I like these and they are widely available. http:// www.sterilite.com/ProductCategory. html?ProductCategory=17&secti on=1 That’s it. Just three things, spawn, straw, and a container and you are ready to start. When you have ordered and received your spawn

you can move on to the next step.

Mushroom Risotto with home grown Oyster Mushrooms are only about four weeks away!

MAKE A GROWING CHAMBER

Mushrooms like it damp and the way you set up your plastic boxes will help you control the moisture and humidity for the mushrooms and keep the water contained so it doesn’t leave a puddle and damage the furniture. Drill a few holes in the bottom of one of the boxes.

Twelve to fifteen holes spaced evenly across the bottom of the plastic box is about right. You will only use one of the lids as the boxes are stacked into each other.

The box without the holes is the base to collect any excess water and keep it from stagnating.

Pasteurize the substrate This next step, pasteurizing the substrate, is the part of the process that makes people give up and buy

Edible Mushroom Garden Unlock the mystery of growing your own culinary mushrooms at home.

It couldn’t be any easier to grow oyster mushrooms at home. We Inoculate. You activate. Mushrooms spawnulate. Then you marinate. Ok, we made one of those words up (spawnulate), but we do the hard part for you.

Your kit arrives with everything you need to grow fresh, all natural Oyster Mushrooms. We provide complete instructions. You simply mist with water daily and in a few short weeks you will have a crop of delicious oyster mushrooms. Your kit will continue to produce mushrooms over many more weeks. Once it is done growing simply add iit to your compost pile and recycle.

Makes a perfect gift for gardeners, locavores, and gourmet chefs.

815.345.3978 FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

Product of USA

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a kit. I’ll admit it is also my least favorite part of growing mushrooms on the farm because it is messy and takes a little time. Don’t skip this step because it saturates the straw and will kill molds and bacteria, two things important for a good grow. Unpasteurized straw has the potential to produce a big plastic box of bread mold instead of the fixings for a big pot of mushroom barley soup. If you are a gardener, this part is similar to stale seed bedding, as it eliminates the competition. To complete this step, you will need a pot big enough to hold an amount of straw that can be compacted into your plastic growing container. A 12 quart container holds about fifteen pounds of saturated straw. That means you will need to use about five pounds of dry straw. It helps to chop the straw into small pieces. A low tech method is to just use scissors to chop it up a bit.

Once you have your straw chopped and have found your very biggest pot, fill the pot with water and bring it up to 160 to 180 degrees.

Place your straw into the pot and keep it within the temperature range for 1 hour. Watch the temperature closely and don’t boil the straw. You may need to pasteurize in several batches to get enough straw and you can reuse the water for successive batches. An old pillowcase makes it easy to remove the straw from the water, but it can be fished out with a bamboo spider too.

INOCULATE

Now you are ready to inoculate

the substrate. Complete this step shortly after you have completed pasteurization so that other organisms don’t begin to grow and contaminate the substrate. In gardening terms this step is similar to seeding. Be absolutely sure the temperature of the straw is less than 100 degrees before you start.

High temperatures will kill the spawn and make your mushroom grow fail. Grab a fistful of straw and squeeze it. If water runs out it is too wet and you need to drain it a little more. If there are just a few drips, it’s ready to go. Layer the room temperature, moist straw and the grain spawn into the plastic box with the holes in it. Inoculate at a rate of 10%. If you have 15 pounds of saturated straw you will evenly layer in 1.5 pounds of grain spawn.

Compact the straw as you layer it into the box for best results. Place the lid on the box and stack it into the second container without holes.

Mark your box with the date and the source and strain of mushroom spawn

SIT BACK AND WATCH THE MIRACLE

Once you have inoculated your mushroom grow box, pick a spot where it will be about 70 degrees and you won’t forget to water it.

The number one reason beginner growers fail with our kits is because they forget to waer it. You should use a sprayer and mist the straw every day. Don’t let it dry out. What happens next is called spawn run. If everything goes right, mycelium, which looks little like white fluffy mold, will cover all FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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the straw. It can take 2 to 4 weeks depending on how close your temperature is to the ideal for the particular strain you have chosen. Once spawn run is complete, the mass of straw and mycelium will start to pin.

There will be tiny mushrooms starting to grow, and they start off looking like little pinheads. To produce a healthy crop your mushrooms now need more everything. More water, more light and more oxygen. At this point it is helpful to spray mist several times a day, and move your box into a low light setting. Now is a good time to remove the lid to give the mushrooms room to grow. Add a plastic bag as a humidity tent.

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Once pinning starts, it is only a matter of a few days before you will have mature mushrooms ready to harvest. They double in size everyday under the right conditions.

Harvest them by plucking them from the straw mass when the edges are still slightly turned under. Cutting the clusters off will leave a stump that can rot and interfere with future fruiting.

REST AND REPEAT

Once the first flush of mushrooms is harvested, the mycelium will go dormant. Keep misting daily to keep it moist. In about 2 weeks it will send up new clusters of mushrooms. You

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can usually expect about 3 flushes to grow before the mushrooms have used up their food source.

After that the straw/mycelium mass can be put into your compost pile for recycling. Or even used to start growing mushrooms in an outdoor mushroom bed.

If it doesn’t work out, you can simply start over and try again.

The most common reason for failure is not keeping the straw moist enough. If the mushrooms are stringy, oddly shaped, and not forming clusters it is likely due to lack of light and oxygen.

That’s all there is to it. It is easy to expand your production by adding additional containers for growing

indoors and trying different varieties (oyster mushrooms have strains of many different colors such as pink, yellow, and brown). Once summer rolls around again you can move your production outside to a shady area where not much else will grow using the same knowledge from growing them indoors in the winter.

Cindy Nawiesniak owns Freedom Organix raising vegetables, grass fed beef and pastured pork. She is also one of the founding members of 3Chicks Farms, a consortium of women farmers in Northern Illinois growing sustainable food for their community. She can be reached at info@3ChicksFarms.com.

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Lomax Farm: Saving organic agriculture in the Southeast By: Steven Jones Photos courtesy of Carolina Farm Stewardship Earlier in 2014, the Elma C. Lomax Incubator Farm in Concord, NC, was on the verge of closing down for good.

Funded by Cabarrus County Commission, the commission voted to defund the program in June, according to an article published by a local paper, the Independent Tribune.

The power was shut off, with plans to shut the water off later that month.

Nine farmers, according to the farm’s official website, were due to lose crops they’d already put in the ground.

Thousands of dollars in produce were going to be lost, including a 10,000 square feet charity plot used by a local church to provide food for the poor and one of the only two places where organic hops are raised in the state.

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allowed on the premises to tend to their crops, much less harvest them.

Commissioner Vice Chairman Larry Burrage told the Independent Tribune the program shouldn’t be funded with taxpayer dollars.

“It’s still government doing something it shouldn’t be doing,” he told the paper. “You could just put each one of them (members of the incubator class) with a different farmer.

You’d learn a lot more than working a 10x10 plot.”

Plots at the Lomax Farm are up to 1/2 acre. It should be noted that participants not only had to submit a county-approved business plan to be a part of the incubator program, but also had to pay fees to even take the Farm’s online beginner course.

“The whole thing is that government is too big, too costly and the people can’t afford this stuff no more,” Burrage told the paper.

It looked like the six-year-old pro-

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gram -- the only incubator program tends to be a bit later for farmers in the Southeast to be certified than other professionals -- it is not unheard of farmers to work through organic -- was done. their 80s -- it’s still an alarming figThe Elma C. Lomax Incubator Farm ure. was first created in 2008 as a part- Once many of those farmers retire, nership of Cabarrus County and the future of their farms and agrithe NC Cooperative Extension – culture in America is uncertain.

Figures from the last census, countCabarrus Center.

The goal was ambitious: To train a ed in 2012, shows younger farmers new generation of farmers organic aren’t coming along fast enough to agricultural methods. The idea was replace those farmers aging out of to bring in new farmers and replace the profession. a generation of farmers aging out of An article published in February of the US News and World Report highthe state’s agricultural economy.

The average age of a farmer in North lights the problem Bob Young, the Carolina was nearly 59 in 2012, chief economist with the American according to the state’s Department Farm Bureau, stated in that article of Agriculture and Consumer that “folks just really weren’t getting into farming that much,” from Services.

The problem North Carolina faces is 1982 through the 2007 census. familiar. Millions of farmers across The 2012 census showed that wasn’t America are nearing or at retire- changing much. ment age. While traditionally, that The Lomax incubator program -FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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Scott Avett -- of the band the Avett Brothers -- (shown here in a promotional photo) worked to help raise funds for the Lomax Farm. “It’s a place with an education mission.

That’s very important to me.”

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and many others like it -- are ways to combat that trend and improve access to local food and organic food.

Barriers to farming are traditionally high, buying land and equipment is costly.

But programs like Lomax help show young farmers they can get over those barriers by leasing land and borrowing equipment.

The program also teaches the production methods and business skills new farmers need. Census figures FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

also show that many new farmers leave the profession less than ten years after beginning.

Knowing the business of agriculture -- through programs like Lomax -can reduce that figure.

“Farmers ... are learning the skills they need to develop a successful farm-based business,” the Lomax website states.”

Farmers in an incubator program sign up and invest their own money and labor into farming a plot of land. A similar program in near-

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“I don’t recommend a crowdfunding campaign for the weak of heart.”

Elizabeth Read, CFSA Communications and Development Director

by Jacksonville, NC, offers farmers quarter acre to half acre plots.

Since beginning in 2008, the program has had 10 graduates. Most of them are currently working in farmbased businesses or starting their own farms.

After the county defunded the Lomax Farm in the middle of 2014, the future of the programs current 9 students, as well as the goals of the incubator farm, were in jeopardy.

However, the community rapid-

ly responded, according to Lomax interim director Aaron Newton.

Working with the county, Newton and others secured emergency funding to keep the doors to the farm open.

Then the farm was taken over by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA), a non-profit that helps “people in the Carolinas grow and eat local, organic foods.”

The Association works on farm and food policy, builds systems for family farms and educates communities and farmers about local, organic FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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agriculture. The CFSA took over funding the program in September.

Unfortunately, the organization didn’t have the money to fund the program permanently, so they immediately began fund-raising.

And that’s when barnraiser.us stepped in.

Barnraiser.us is a crowdfunding site, similar to Kickstarter, devoted to raising money for sustainable food and farming.

The site is popular on the West Coast of America, Newton said.

“They approached us,” he said. “They wanted to help.”

Working with Barnraiser, Newton and others at the CFSA (including Elizabeth Read, Communications and Development Director) set up a crowdfunding campaign for Lomax Farm.

The campaign was aided by Scott Avett, a member of the folk band the Avett Brothers.

Avett and the band are originally from Concord.

“The opportunity for the Avett family to help Lomax when we heard the lights were going to be turned off so abruptly was a no-brainer,” Scott Avett said in a YouTube video promoting the campaign. “It’s a place with an education mission. That’s very important to me.”

Avett mobilized the fans of the band to help save the farm.

The CFSA promoted the crowdfunding campaign utilizing every outlet possible: Sending out press releases, contacting news agencies and educating attendees of the Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Greenville, SC about the farm and FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

its plight. People from all over the Southeast came together to support the farm. Fund-raisers were organized. Events were planned.

The process was admittedly nervewracking.

If the CFSA didn’t meet its crowdfunding goal, they wouldn’t get any money from the online fund-raising effort.

“I don’t recommend a crowdfunding campaign for the weak of heart,” Elizabeth Read.

While the CFSA managed to produce enough funds to keep the farm open through the end of 2014, the Barnraiser campaign was designed to raise $25,000.

A relatively modest sum, the money is needed to keep the farm going through the first three months of 2015.

As of Nov. 24, they actually pulled it off. The program hit its goal. As of Nov. 28, the tally was $25,603.

Most of the money, 66% of the campaign’s goal, was actually raised in the first week of fund-raising alone.

“Thank you so much to all of you for your support,” the CFSA stated on the barnraiser site. “This allows us to keep the doors open ... as we continue to work toward a sustainable solution for the future of Lomax farmers.”

Now, Newton said, while the immediate future of the farm is secure, the hard part comes.

Newton, the CFSA and advocates for Lomax are trying to secure even more funding.

The farm requires about $100,000 per year to continue operation.

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And while Newton said he’s got high hopes about ways to raise that money, including working with the incoming session of new County Commissioners, he and others are trying to find ways to make that funding more stable.

“We’re looking at some things,” he said, including securing state and national grant money for the farm.

For now Farmers at Lomax can breath a little. At least they’ll be able to start planting next Spring.

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The Joy of Raising Quail Story and Photos

by Carole West

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When I first decided to raise quail the main reason was to introduce something new to our farm. I’m blessed my husband and I live on a small farm in North Texas where we raise a garden, Jacob sheep , chickens, a couple llamas, and an emu. Quail was a new idea for us as we wanted to spice things up a little, but what I really discovered was something more. A year ago in March I added Coturnix quail; I started with a small flock of twenty seven. I knew nothing about this little bird other than they have a wonderful chirp. After months of research and not really uncovering what I wanted to learn I dived in, uncovering lessons learned FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

through hands on experience.

I don’t recommend ever diving into a new project without doing research first. I chose this method because my goal was to raise these birds in a natural environment on the ground.

This is not a preferred method among others making it difficult to research.

When I purchased my birds they were a week old and so small. I feared for them as they snuggled in their heated brooder and this is when I began to discover how resourceful they are. I prefer wild game birds over traditional poultry because their instincts are so

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defined. It was just a few days later when they figured out their wings could make them fly. Their activity was simplistic and entertaining; I could sense that freedom was what they were seeking. This reminded me I needed to put a lot of thought into their housing so I could increase my knowledge and level of enjoyment.

abundance of farm space I ended up establishing a sixty foot Quail Sanctuary; this can be viewed on my blog. This sanctuary does slow down chores a little because I like to stay awhile and watch their activity.

When it warms up I hope to share video so that everyone can see what I get to experience on a daily basis. I’m thinking about adding a few blueberry bushes in the spring to this sanctuary. These bushes will provide shade, a little green and fruit for our home.

I’m sure the quail will enjoy a few berries which is perfectly fine with me.

I tried many different housing options in the beginning and each one had their benefits but I wanted more for this bird. I get excited with hands on learning and the desire to expand ones knowledge is so much fun. Because we’re blessed with an Having my quail near my garden is FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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really wonderful, there is a peace in their presence and knowing I can look over and watch them live naturally is the best.

Besides enjoyment quail provide eggs and meat.

The Coturnix breed begins laying eggs around six to eight weeks old.

Their eggs are small but full of nutrients; one egg contains 1.2 grams of protein. You can scramble or boil them for breakfast and I’ve even seen where some folks have pickled them. The scrambled version is a little fluffier than chicken’s eggs and they taste very similar. I like that you don’t have to wait five to six months for egg production to begin. Quick turnaround time is a nice perk.

A few things to remember with quail, they have to be in captivity. If they’re left out to free range they’ll fly away. Clipping their wings would not be a good option as they are perfect predator targets due to their FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

size; they would be difficult to find as quail camouflage in tall grass.

Finding eggs each morning is like an egg hunt and I love it. There’s nothing better than having a child like experience when you’re an adult.

In January I’ll have complete getting started quail instructions on my blog; this is going to be helpful to so many who have been thinking about adding quail to their backyard or homestead. I think my favorite moment with these little birds is just sitting in their home and watching them fly. It reminds me when I was a small child, I imagined having my own set of wings and thinking about all the places I see. I was a curious child and had that desire to learn more about the creations around me. I guess I’m blessed to have been placed on our farm where I could learn, enjoy and be inspired with each step I take. Living naturally is a beautiful thing.

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Dwarf Conifers By: Chris Mclaughlin

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Let me say right up front that I can appreciate every season: winter, spring, summer, and fall. But I’m not going to lie to you, I have my favorites -- and least favorite.

I enjoy the seeing freshly-naked tree branches and beyond that, the bare bones of my entire yard and gardens. Many winters offer up an alternate landscape that a snow fall creates. It’s stunning really.

And then mid-January arrives. And I’m done, folks. This California gardener’s soul has to see a little green somewhere. A little hint at the season to come; the seasonof-all-seasons...Spring. Mid-January is the time I am grateful for dwarf conifers.

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Conifers offer year-round landscape interest, as many of them perform seasonal color changes. Various shades of green, orange, blue, yellow, lavender, and purple aren’t unusual. Some varieties have variegated leaves or patterned leaves, or are bicolored.

These evergreens are easily identifiable by their needle or scaletype leaves and the cones on their branches. There are exceptions, including yew and junipers, which produce berrylike fruit as opposed to cones, and come fall, cypress will actually drop their leaves. Pine trees are easy conifers to spot, but there are many in this class, such as firs, spruces, redwoods, cedars, cypresses, junipers, yews, and hemlock.

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I prefer to plant the dwarf conifer varieties because I like to create scenes in my landscaping and the shorter dwarfs add to (but don’t block) the view. Plus, I can plant more varieties. I tend to like more.

Dwarf conifers are small garden friendly and enjoy container life, as well.

plants that grow upright but aren’t in the globose, narrow upright, or pendulous categories. Generally, these grow broader than they do tall.

IRREGULAR:

These guys grow erratically without much pattern.

CULTURALLY ALTERED:

This means that someone made their own shape(s) with some pruning shears. Think topiary shapes. Dwarf conifers are reproduced asexually by grafting or as rooted cuttings.

You may only be picturing a They’re cultivars originating from Christmas tree, but conifers offer sports (an offset of a plant), mutamuch more varieties of shapes: tions, or seedling selections. Unlike PROSTRATE: These are plants other plants that are grafted onto that hug the ground like a carpet a smaller plant’s roots or “dwarf (and stay that way). rootstock”, dwarf conifers (also called dwarf evergreens) are simply GLOBOSE: These have a round, extremely slow-growing evergreen tree or shrub varieties. globe shape to them.

THE SHAPELY CONIFER

NARROW UPRIGHT: These plants grow taller than they do wide.

These little jewels aren’t dwarfs in the sense that they’ve been bred to stop growing at a certain height; they just don’t grow as quickly as their standard counterparts.

PENDULOUS:

These plants grow upright with branches that hang down or have a downward curving leader and require staking. Or they can have strictly descending branches from a central leader.

The miniature conifers usually start as a bud that can be found anywhere on a regular conifer. Sometimes a bud’s genes will mutate, which produces a clump of growth that’s dwarfed. These are called “witches brooms.” These are harvested from SPREADING: While these are the parent plant and more plants upright, they grow wider than they are propagated from the brooms -all creating dwarf specimens. do tall.

BROAD UPRIGHT:

Dwarf conifers dawdle so much that, according to conifer nurseries, a These are all of the dwarf variety of native hemlock in FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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20 years grows to only 2’ feet? In the same amount of time, a standard hemlock will grow 25’ feet to 30 ‘feet tall!

If all of this conifer talk is piquing your interest, you might be interested to check out the rest of the conifer sizes.

THE AMERICAN CONIFER SOCIETY’S CHART READS: TYPE

YEARLY GROWTH

APPROX. SIZE IN 10 YEARS

MINIATURE CONIFER

1”

1’ TALL

DWARF CONIFER

1”- 6”

1’-6’ TALL

INTERMEDIATE CONIFER

6”- 12”

6’-15’ TALL

LARGE CONIFER

12”AND UP

15’ TALL AND UP

You’ll notice a decent range of growth rates within these categories. This is because there has to be room for the differences in growing zones, climate, and cultural practices.

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10 Dwarf Conifers Varieties

By: Chris Mclaughlin

1. Common name: Arborvitae Botanical name: Thuja occidentalis Height: 1’ - 3’ Width: 3 1/2’ - 6’ Zone: 3 - 7 Personality: Thuja occidentalis comes in many varieties including the really tall types, too. So look for a dwarf such as ‘Rheingold’, ‘Tiny Tim’, and ‘Hetz Midget’.

2. Common name: Bald cypress Botanical name: Taxodium distichum Height: 3’ Width: 10’ Zone: 4 - 10 Personality: It bears repeating to look for the dwarf varieties of Taxidium distichum such as deciduous ‘Secrest’, which produces branches in a lovely, horizontal shape. It likes acidic, moist soil.

3. Common name: Creeping juniper Botanical name: Juniperus horizontalis Height: 3’ - 4’ Width: Spreading plant Zone: 4 - 9 Personality: This North American native FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

is a low-growing juniper that pulls double duty as a ground cover. Dwarf variety examples are evergreen ‘Icee Blue’ and ‘Mother Lode’.

4. Common name: Dwarf Alberta spruce Botanical name: Picea glauca var. albertiana, ‘Conica’ Height: 6’ - 8’ Width: roughly 4’ - 7’ Zone: 3 - 7 Personality: Conica’s conical shape makes it the perfect miniature Christmas tree. It’s excellent for containers and right at home in rock gardens or xeriscaping. Don’t overwater.

5. Common name: Dwarf Colorado blue spruce Botanical name: Picea pungens, ‘Montgomery’ Height: 3’ - 4’ Width: 3’ Zone: 2 - 9 Personality: Montgomery is a deerresistant evergreen shrub that has great color and form.

Did you know that there are over 500 conifer species in the world? According to the American Conifer Society, conifers hold the record for many titles, such as the largest, smallest, and oldest living woody plants on the planet.

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The term “dwarf” simply describes a plant or tree variety that’s smaller than the standard specimen.

It doesn’t necessarily mean that it remains thimble sized when it’s mature. So be sure to get information on the height and width of a dwarf variety before you purchase.

6. Common name: Hinoki false cypress Botanical name: Chamaecyparis obtusa, ‘Minima’ Height: 9”-12” Width: 1’ - 1 1/2’ Zone: 5 - 8 Personality: This Japanese conifer is interesting for its form as well as its bark. If you like the dwarf conifers, try to get Minima in your garden because she’s a fabulous shrub. Watch for other dwarf false cypresses, too, such as Nana Aurea.

7. Common name: Mungo pine Botanical name: Pinus mungo Height: 5’ - 7’ Width: 8’ - 12’ Zone: 2 - 7 Personality: Mungo pines are highly adaptable to their environment and one of the hardiest of the dwarf conifers.

8. Common name: Norway spruce Botanical name: Picea abies Height: depends on variety Width: depends on variety Zone: 3 - 7 Personality: There are many dwarf varieties of the Norway spruce available

right now, such as Coolwyn Globe, Frohberg, Pygmaea, Formaneck, and Maxwellii, just to name a few. They come in all shapes, including round, weeping, and pyramidal forms.

9. Common name: Oriental spruce Botanical name: Picea orientalis, ‘Tom Thumb’ Height: 1 1/2’ - 2 1/2’ Width: 1 1/2’ - 2 1/2’ Zone: 4 - 7 Personality: ‘Tom Thumb’ is stunning in a rock garden and perfect for any small space. The green and gold foliage is set in fingerlike layers. Look for the dwarf variety ‘Nana’, too.

10. Common name: Sawara cypress or Japanese falsecypress Botanical name: Chamaecyparis pisifera var. filifera, ‘Sungold’ Height: 6’ - 10’ Width: 3’ - 10’ Zone: 4 - 8 Personality: Sungold is gold to limegreen and is a weeping dwarf conifer.

It’s a gorgeous specimen in the rock garden.

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Wood Fired Hot tubs on the homestead

D

uring the chilly wintry nights, there’s nothing like sinking cold, wearing bones into a hot tub. And if you want a true, homesteading hot tub experience, you can’t go wrong with Snorkel hot tubs. Snorkel produces wood-fired hot tubs. Wooden FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

tubs made with staves -- like a barrel -- are heated with a built in wood stove. The stoves bring what users say is a whole new experience to the age old practice of taking a soak. We got a chance to talk to Tom Slater, of Snorkel hot tubs about what makes his company so

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WHAT MAKES SNORKEL HOT TUBS UNIQUE?

great.

Read the interview below. And, if you’re thinking about getting a tired, pitiful editor of From Scratch magazine a holiday gift this year, take note. I’ve got a place picked out for one of these hot tubs right on the back deck.

Soaking in hot water for health and relaxation is ages old and is enjoyable in an acrylic spa with dozens of jets and pop up TV as well as a bubbling natural hot spring. That said, I think the thing that makes our wood-fired tubs so unique is the aura/mood/ feeling that they bring to the hot tub experience. I think the unique aspects to our wood-fired hot tub experience are the elemental and somewhat primitive nature of it. The ancient Greeks identified four elements, air, water, earth and fire, in part because they seemed the essence or root of life. If you consider the wood as an extension of the earth element, our wood-fired tubs bring all four of those visceral elements into play.

On a less philosophical note, most people have enjoyed sitting around a campfire as children watching the flames and toasting hot dogs or marshmallows. There is a unique coziness and sense of camaraderie that is evoked by the dancing flames. It may be the primeval nature of the experience, but it connects deep down in the FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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human psyche in a way that toasting marshmallows over a stove top can’t. Again, the wood-fired tubs connect on this basic level. With the stove in the tub you have all the elements wrapped up together in one package.

CAN YOU GIVE ME A BRIEF HISTORY OF YOUR COMPANY? We have been in business since 1979. The company was started

by Roger Evans and Blair Howe.

Roger developed the stove in the late 70s when the hot tubbing first emerged in popular consumer culture. He was a student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks at the time and wanted a hot tub.

The cabin where he was living wasn’t serviced by electricity, so he decided to develop a wood-fired hot tub and did so as a part of the FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

physics class he was taking at the time. The concept was popular with his friends and neighbors and Blair, a skiing companion, talked Roger into forming a company to sell the stoves and hot tubs. At the time they purchased the tubs from a company in California. I purchased the company from Roger and Blair in 1984 and we started making our own tubs in 1986.

ARE YOUR HOT TUBS CARBON NEUTRAL? WHY OR WHY NOT? From a heating standpoint, this depends somewhat on one’s point of view and how technical/complex you want to get. If you Google “wood-heating carbon neutral” and read the results you will see what I mean. Fundamentally, it is carbon neutral. You are only releasing the carbon that the tree collected

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in its lifetime; you aren’t releasing sequestered carbon from eons ago. From there people will argue that there are timing differences as it will take years for a tree to grow again (if you cut one down and burn it) to collect the carbon that was released. This is a bit of a specious argument as there are billions of trees growing at any point in time which can absorb the carbon released from a fire in fractions of a second.

A more logical argument is that an unburned tree will ultimately see some of its carbon sequestered in the ground as it rots. Additionally, any man made energy source, solar, wind or biomass fire releases carbon during the manufacture and transportation of the product. The best summation of all this that I saw was that wood-fired is carbon lean.

The tub itself, ignoring manufacturing and transportation, I believe,

would have to be regarded as carbon neutral

CAN YOU TELL ME ABOUT SOME OF THE UNIQUE FEATURES OF YOUR HOT TUBS, OUTSIDE OF THEM BEING WOOD FIRED? The tubs are made of Western Red Cedar which has a very pleasing (to most) aroma. This again adds to the experience of tubbing, a touch of aromatherapy. They are available in a range of sizes, from four to eight feet in diameter and from three to six feet high. This may not be a feature of the tubs themselves, but we are alone in offering a 3 month money back guarantee if someone is unsatisfied with our product.

It should be noted that we also sell wood tubs heated with gas and FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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electricity. One of our product lines is called the ExerSpa. These are typically large tubs (six, seven or eight feet in diameter and four, five or six feet tall. They are designed for water exercise for therapy and rehabilitation.

HOW EASY IS IT TO MAINTAIN THE HOT TUB/ WOOD STOVE? Maintaining a wood tub is no different that maintaining an acrylic spa.

The tubs should be scrubbed every month or two with a brush and a diluted bleach solution.

Water sanitation options for wood and wood-fired tub are the same as for any tub or spa. Chlorine is FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

most widely used, sometimes in conjunction with ions (which greatly reduce the need for chlorine) and there are a number of other approaches which are less widely used.

One option for sanitation that can be used with the wood-fired tubs is the so-called Japanese style of bathing.

This method is where the bathers shower before entering the tub for cleanliness and the water is used for several soaks and then drained and refilled without using any sanitizers.

This works, if water isn’t an issue, because heating the tub back up to temperature with wood is quick and cheap The exterior of the tub can be left

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to age in which case it will turn a gray color over time. If someone wants a more finished look they can treat the exterior with boiled linseed oil which will create a rich brown color. It will need to be reapplied every 6 months or so.

The stoves require no maintenance other than ash removal as it builds up.

ARE THE HOT TUBS HARD TO INSTALL? WHY OR WHY NOT? Most do-it-yourselfers don’t have much of a problem. The average customer is a little daunted by the prospect of putting a tub together so they actually read the

instructions over once or twice (as we request) before attempting to assemble the tub. It is a relatively simple process, but you do need to follow the instructions, pay attention to detail and have a little patience.

It should take about 5-6 hours four two people to put the tub together and put the stove in. It isn’t difficult, but it does take some time, the first time you do it. We can probably assemble the tub in a little over an hour with two people and maybe another 30-45 minutes for the stove, but we’ve been doing it for years and know what we are doing.

Find out more about Snorkel Hot Tubs here.

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The perfect gifts for the homesteader in your life

The From Scratch Gift Guide FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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F

guide does a couple of things: It allows us to compose a wish list of the amazrom Scratch magazine actually has ing things we find while working on our a little known policy: We don’t promote, magazine and it allows us to feature either via advertising or editorial, prodonce again the companies, services and ucts, services or companies we don’t products we believe in. like.

During the holiday season, commercialism seems to rule over every aspect of We classify “liking” a product, service or American life. company as believing either in the product or the company that produces that While we’d be the last people to product. eschew capitalism, at the same time, That means every company represented in our publications are companies that produce amazing things and do it in such a way that best represents the spirit of homesteading and sustainability.

we’d like to think the reason we seek out the companies we work with goes a little bit beyond commercial consideration.

This gift guide is a reflection of that.

We’ve put together great gift ideas for These companies can be any size, but our readers. We’ve invited companies to they must produce something that helps participate in this publication. But, you our readers -- and a larger community -- should know, any of these items in this make the world a little bit better. gift guide represent our desire to work This can be done in many ways: Halcyon with the best companies and help proYarn helps our readers produce beautimote the best products and services. ful fiber arts. Scratch and Peck gives These gift ideas are not only lovely, people a way to raise their animals practical and desirable, but they’re also, without using GMO sourced feed. Vat quite frankly, gifts you can feel good Pastuerizer gives homesteaders and about purchasing. farmers a chance to compete against big, industrial dairy operations. The So as you go through our personal wish Herbal Academy of New England teach- list, go ahead and click around. The gift es our readers about the ancient art of guide, like everything we produce, is herbal medicine. The list goes on and completely interactive. on. Sometimes, we just find beautiful If you like something, click on it. You’ll or clever items we believe more people be redirected to a website where you should know about, so we tell them via can find more about a particular prodour regular From Scratch Finds feature. uct.

There is an inherent value in every company or organization represented in the pages of From Scratch magazine.

And you’ll be able to get great presents for anyone on your list this year.

Happy Holidays!

Every year since we started this publication, we produce a gift guide. This gift

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As a family business, Scratch and Peck Feeds are happy to be helping backyard chicken farmers, and other home livestock producers, to make honest and true choices about where their food comes from. Raising your own chickens for organic, non-gmo eggs and meat gives you a direct connection to your food that is profound and fun. Feeding your livestock Organic, GMO-free foods supports the healthy lifestyle that more and more families are working towards.

Scratch and Peck Feeds • • • • • • •

Organic Chicken Feed Organic Turkey Feed Organic Pig Feed Organic Goat Feed Organic Grains Supplements Non-GMO Meat & Eggs

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New & Improved!

Prima Heat Lamp • Special plastic body is more resistant to long exposure of high temperatures.

• Stronger, more secure hanging system.

• Easier grill attachment design.

• More robust porcelain bulb fixture.

$

35

FREE Shipping! on qualified orders over $100

Ask for our free booklets— www.premier1supplies.com

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Equipment & Clipping

Fencing

Poultry

Equipment That Works!

From folks who use it... every day

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Red Bird Feeder

Birds feed through the mesh.

Suitable only for black oil sunflowers--which many birds love (particularly cardinals).

Heated Pet Bowl Heated 5 quart pet bowl for use in winter applications.

PermaNet速 & PermaNet Electric Netting All PermaNet designs are a barrier to raccoons, coyotes, deer, bears, dogs and livestock and are also effective for rabbits, woodchucks, opossums, chickens, domestic ducks and geese.

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Home Freeze Dryer Machine Amazing technology — a must for every self-reliant family.

The BEST Preservation Method More stable than dehydrated, bottled or canned foods, freeze dried food has an extremely long shelf life — 25+ years — and preserves freshness, nutrition, color and taste.

Geodesic Dome Greenhouses The perfect greenhouse — regulates climate all year round.

Harvest Right’s Geodesic Greenhouses are amazing structures: their unique attributes make them ideal for a variety of uses, including energy-efficient gardens, portable/emergency shelters or even swimming pool covers.

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Freeze Dry At Home

Better Than Canning Better Than Dehydrating Preserve your produce, meat, and meals by freeze drying; they will be fresh for 20+ years!

Home freeze drying is now available to every family. The shelf life of your food will be 25 years and will maintain all of the food’s fresh taste and nutritional value.

This new appliance from Harvest Right makes the process completely automatic. Just put your food in the drying chamber and press start. The freeze dryer will let you know when it is finished.

You no longer need to can, dehydrate, or save your food in your freezer.

Freeze drying is far superior!

Call Today to Find Out How Much You Can Save:

Ask about our easy to build Geodesic Greenhouses to grow all year round!

3070 W. California Ave., Suite A, Salt Lake City, UT 84104

Ph: 1-801-386-8960 • harvestright.com

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Create your own sheep portrait with Sheep Portrait of Daphne Hooking Pattern – Front Facing or Sheep Portrait of Jack Hooking Pattern – Profile.

Halcyon’s Maine Made Cherry Swift and Wooden Ball Winder Combo

SHEEP NEEDLE FELTING KIT This is a fast and easy kit - great for beginners!

It comes with materials, tools and step-by-step instructions.

The TADPOLE KNITTING BOARD allows you to knit scarves, hats, bags, toys and more easily.

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Stainless Steel Pail Milkplan Chillers / Holding Tanks

Cream Separator

Butter Churn

Stainless Steel Pasteurizer

Hand Butter Churn

Jaybee Precision produces products that are perfect for your farm based business. If you have a larger dairy you can go big by buying a machine that can handle 30 gallons of milk or juice, or you can purchase a four gallon machine perfect for small farmsteads.

That doesn’t include the other products: Cream separators, butter churns, chillers -- even buckets.

All of these products are high quality and built to last. Vat Pasteurizer allows any size farm to produce dairy products up to the USDA specifications, which means every farmer or homesteader can compete in just about every market.

Buying products from this company is an investment in the future of your dairy, creamery or farm related business.

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In the Kitchen

2.

3.

1.

1. French Press Coffee Maker | $17.21 2. KitchenAid Professional 600 Series Mixer Empire Red | $319.99 3. Lodge Deep Camp Dutch Oven | $50

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6.

4.

5.

7.

4. Cuisinart CRC 4-Cup Rice Cooker | $45 5. Knife Sharpener | $5.99 6. Cuisinart Smart Stick 2-Speed Immersion Hand Blender | $27.99 7. Cuisinart 9-Cup Food Processor | $119.99

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In the Garden

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1.

3.

1. Woodstock Amazing Grace Chime | $30.36 2. Rain Barrel 50 Gallon | $92.39 3.

Wheelbarrow, Dolly and Cart | $159.99

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4.

5.

4. Authentic Haven Brand Manure Tea | $12.95 5. Microgreens Garden in a Box | $18

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Below left: The Ultimate Shovel; Below right: a California style knife

Single wheel hoe

Right: Cold Frame; Below: Double wheel hoe with attachments

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Good Seed, Glad Harvest.

Seeds for Growers of All Sizes.

Conventional, Organic, Heirloom and Hybrid Seeds.

Customer Service & Phone Orders: (800) 825-5477 Monday - Friday 8AM - PM EST www.neseed.com

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Just click on the photos to shop for items from your Christmas wish list!

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The 1550 SPORTSMAN HATCHER incubator is designed to provide optimal hatching conditions. Unlike setting incubators, hatchers usually operate at slightly different temperature and humidity settings to obtain optimum hatch. With five hatching drawers, the 1550 Hatcher will hold the complete setting of the 1500 incubator. For expanding operations, the 1550 can be matched with up to three 1500 incubators. The 1550 can be used to set eggs, but each egg will have to be turned by hand.

A cozy home for your small flock.

The CHICK-N-HUTCH is a great first coop for beginners, or for separating a few birds from a larger flock.

Durable wooden design.

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HAPPY HEN TREATS Watch your chickens dance and peck in a frenzy for these 100% natural whole-dried mealworms! Contains natural dried mealworms that chickens absolutely love to eat.

Now you can show it with these wonderfully designed EGG CARTONS from Happy Hen Treats.

Use these SPIRAL LEG BANDS to indicate differences in age, breed, medications, names, etc.

Quality NEST BOX without the high price. An ideal nest for urban and rural chickens.

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Pull up your sleigh at Homestead Lady and DIY this Christmas season! https://www.homesteadlady.com https://www.etsy.com/shop/HomesteadLadyShop http://www.pinterest.com/homesteadlady/

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RANDALL BURKEY COMPANY Quality Products Since 1947

FREE Catalog

QUALITY PRODUCTS · Tested Quality · 1 Year Limited Warranty · 30 Day Satisfaction Guarantee

EXPERT KNOWLEDGE · Product Experts · Online Knowledge Base

GREAT PRICES

· Monthly E-mail Specials · Price Matching · $7.99 Value Shipping

10% Off Your First Order Use the key code “SCRATCH”

Call Toll Free

800-531-1097 Visit Us Online

randallburkey.com

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7 FINANCING SPECIAL 7 FINANCING

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YRS

YRS

Improve your animals' health

while

SPECIAL

ZERO DOWN NO INTEREST For up to one year NO PAYMENTS RESTRICTIONS APPLY

ZERO DOWN NO INTEREST For up to one year NO PAYMENTS RESTRICTIONS APPLY

SAVING $$$

Take control of the quality and availability of feed for your livestock by growing hydroponic fodder. FodderPro Feed Systems are designed to rapidly produce highly nutritious, fresh feed, year-round in a compact growing area with minimal inputs.

1.800.201.3414 • www.FodderSystems.com/ADFMS

5 FINANCING YRS

SPECIAL

ZERO DOWN NO INTEREST For up to one year NO PAYMENTS RESTRICTIONS APPLY

E N D L E S S S O LU T I O N S F O R YO U R AG R I C U LT U R A L N E E D S • Buildings up to 300' wide.

• Low in cost per square foot.

• Lower energy costs with natural lighting.

• O ne-stop shop offering all services in house.

Call 1.800.327.6835 for a free brochure or visit us online at www.FodderSystems.com/ADFMS FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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FarmTek offers farm supplies, chicken feeders, poultry equipment, hoop buildings, hay tarps, barn heaters, greenhouse film, agricultural supplies, professional greenhouses, hay storage, barn lights, TekFoil foil insulation, game bird netting, livestock fencing, chicken watering systems, barn fans, fabric buildings, PolyMax, greenhouses, kennel flooring, barn curtain, pig scales, blackout curtain, hoop barns, feed troughs, hog supplies, cold frames, brooders, greenhouse plastic covering, equine supplies, and more to help you manage your farm, business or home.

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WINDY WILLOW in HOMESTEAD Windy Willow homestead was created by Nicole See to share her love of crafting with others.

She creates handmade soaps (left), fabric flower ornaments (middle), coiled fabric baskets and more.

MERRY

CHRISTMAS

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ndy

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE HERBAL HOMESTEAD FACEBOOK GROUP

GET ORGANIZED WITH JENNY FROM SCRATCHY PIXEL

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ScratchyPixel FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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51

Everything You Need for Your Homestead • Cultures and Supplies for Cheese Making • Canning Supplies • Butter & Yogurt Making • Dairy Milking • Livestock Care

Encouraging self sufficient, self sustainable living and homesteading of all varieties... family farm, urban homestead, country homestead, or even in NYC! Environmentally friendly products, U.S.A. made and manufactured whenever possible.

PO Box 6399 • Sparta, TN 38583 • (928) 583-0254 FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

Hard Cheese Making Kit

www.HomesteaderSupply.com

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Now you can mold a 1 pound block of butter with this well made BUTTER MOLD!

Homesteader Supply put their CHEESEMAKING KITS together with you in mind!

They took some of the guess work out of the process and put together kits for beginners and for the more experienced cheese maker alike.

Below: Artisan crafted TRIPLE WOOD CUTTING BOARD AND ROLLING PIN SET, designed and manufactured by Homesteaders Supply!

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Turn any mason jar into an easy fermenting tool

Before we had the technology of keeping food fresh with a refrigerator, we had to preserve our food by pickling. In fact, fermenting food is the original food preservation method. When you get a 12 pack, you get the flexibility to scale your fermenting project up to 6 gallons if needed (twelve, ½ gallon jars). You also have flexibility of adding extra weights when you need to, and the entire stock of 12 is not in use. You usually don’t need all 12 kits, but is sure nice having them when I do need them.

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Click Here to Order Your Copy!

You don’t have to have a degree in chemistry to create your own natural dyes. It just takes a garden plot and a kitchen.

A Garden to Dye For shows how super-simple it is to plant and grow a dyer’s garden and create beautiful dyes.

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Many of these plants may already be in our cutting, cottage or food gardens, ready for double duty.

This is the book that bridges the topic of plant dyes to mainstream gardeners, the folks who enjoy growing the plants as much as using them in craft projects.

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If there is one thing that a homesteader is at the end of the day it is tired and sore. What better way to celebrate the holidays than purchasing a Snorkel wood-fired hot tub.

Snorkel® Hot Tubs are 100% manufactured in the USA using premium-quality all heart, clear Western Red Cedar from the forests of Canada. With more and more companies sending manufacturing overseas these days, they are prouder than ever to be “American Owned & Made.”

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Explore. Experiment. Dream.

Liberate Your Learning with Oak Meadow!

Oak Meadow’s progressive homeschooling curriculum for kindergarten to grade 12 is flexible, creative, and experiential. It meets your child’s unique needs at each stage of development and helps you set a natural rhythm of learning for your entire family. Our student-centered approach gives children the freedom and flexibility to explore their interests, talents, and passions.

Use our curriculum independently or enroll in our fully-accredited distance learning school. We’re here to support you every step of the way as you discover your own joyful path to learning.

View curriculum samples for all grades Learn about our extensive high school options Check out our online Bookstore Read our free educational journal, Living Education

Oak Meadow encompasses the whole child, the whole family, the whole self. The curriculum engages both the learner and facilitator in a journey and encourages authentic learning through intentional study.

We couldn’t imagine a better way to learn even if we wanted to.

INDEPENDENT LEARNING SINCE 1975

oakmeadow.com

—Oak Meadow parent

Join us and our school community on:

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Open Year Round

Saturday Mornings

405 S. Brooks St. in the parking lot of Renaissance Center, Wake Forest, NC

HOLIDAY CRAFT MARKET -

December 6th, 9 am to 2 pm.

On this special day local Craftsman join the Wake Forest Farmers Market, offering beautiful one of a kind gifts.

WINTER MARKETS

November 1st - March 28th, 10 am to 12 noon.

Regular Markets

April - October 8 am to 12 noon.

www.wakeforestfarmersmarket.org FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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Louise’s Country Closet has a wide array of merchandise including key chains, jewlery, tote bags and decals like the one pictured above.

CHICKEN SADDLES are made to protect your hen’s back from a roosters nails and spurs. When a rooster overmates a hen this can lead to serious and sometimes life threatening damage. Saddles made by Louise’s Country Closet are adorable and durable.

The saddles are made to allow feather growth. The design covers more for better protection with high quality materials - the patterned cotton or flannel front and a tough duck cloth underneath. The duck cloth has a softer side to rest against the bare skin of a hen’s back.

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Equip Yourself. Save Money.

Take Care of Your Health.

Join our Facebook Group!

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As a modern day homesteader, farmer, mother, and a photographer – I know how busy life can be. I also know how frustrating it can be to not feel your very best. To not have enough energy to get everything done.

After battling some major health issues including anti-inflammatory illnesses, severe food allergies, asthma, back pain and anxiety for years and NOT getting the results from the prescriptions that the doctor’s office kept writing me, I decided to look for some natural solutions.

I am now supporting my health and the health of my family with essential oils. I use dōTERRA essential oils several times a day. My friends, families and coworkers lives have all been changed by these amazing oils.

I want to provide support and join you on YOUR essential oil journey. Let’s connect and talk about all of the great things that essential oils can do for you! I want to be YOUR partner and help you every step of the way.

Join my online Facebook group. A private place where you can ask questions, receive support, make friends and learn all about essential oils.

Click here to email me to learn more! www.theherbalhomestead.com FROM SCRATCH MAGAZINE

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