Table of Contents
66
5 The Most Important
Self-Reliance Skill Ever
Put into practice these six habits to master the true make-or-break homesteading skill: getting the right work done, the right way.
9 Coppicing Trees for
Sustainable Firewood
You can grow firewood in a fraction of the time it takes to raise a tree from seed.
12 Best Staple Crops
for Building Food Self-Sufficiency
These 10 space-efficient, calorierich, staple crops give high yields and store easily to boost food security and save money.
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18 Lesson From
Off-Grid Living
Practical advice from a 20-year veteran homesteader helps you shift to a low-carbon lifestyle.
22 Earning on an Acre
Intensive square-foot gardening makes it possible to make more than $43,000 per acre in produce.
25 Haymaking Tools
For the Small Farm
These implements and tips make haymaking practical and economical, no matter your acreage.
18
28 Top Tools for a
Half-Acre Homestead
DIY veteran Lloyd Kahn recommends the tools and tactics that have kept his homestead humming for 40 years.
33 Fish Farming
It’s a lot like vegetable gardening, only wetter.
36 Homesteading
on Marginal Land
Use an imaginative eye to find land for a farm, and transform it with sound husbandry practices.
41 Seed Starting Made Simple
Restless as the season turns? Keep your green thumb nimble during the off-season and seeding indoors.
COVER PHOTOGRAPH: WILLIAM D. ADAMS
Shift to a low-carbon lifestyle with practical advice from homesteaders who live entirely off-grid.
The MOTHER EARTH NEWS Guide to Self-Reliance and Country Skills
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44 44 Grow Great
Lettuce in Winter
With a little planning, you can harvest fresh, homegrown greens in the coldest season. Ready to learn more? Lettuce begin!
48 Wintering Herbs Indoors Bring your favorite herbs inside for winter care and spring renewal. As herbs winter over, continue to enjoy fresh flavor throughout the cool season.
52 Smart Hoses Water
Your Garden For You
Tap two efficient watering strategies—soaker hoses and drip irrigation—to conserve resources and save on your water bill while still keeping your garden’s thirst quenched.
54 Winter’s Glowing
Root Vegetables
Brilliant beets and cold-hardy carrots can help light up your winter meals.
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66 59 Make Your Own
No-Space Potato Barrel
As long as you have a sunny spot to place a garbage can, you can grow your own potatoes!
60 9 Multipurpose
Garden Companions
These resilient, double duty plants support your garden and provide food and medicinal perks for your home and family.
66 Five DIY, Low-Cost
and Multipurpose Greenhouses
Use recycled materials to create an affordable garden greenhouse so you can enjoy fresh food all year long!
70 Successful
Succession Planting
Keep the veggies coming yearround with the help of succession planting.
73 Fruitful Tree Care
Keep your fruit trees in tip-top condition for years of healthy production.
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80 77 Grow Free Fruit Trees
Imagine, your own peaches, nectarines, and apricots from seed for free! Follow these how-to guidelines.
80 Sorghum Revival: How
to Grow Your Own Natural Sweetener
Allergic to bees and don’t have sugar maple trees, but still want to produce your own sweeteners? Try sweet sorghum syrup, a natural sugar substitute that can grow in most U.S. gardens.
84 All About Growing Peppers All you need to know about types to try, when to plant, how to plant, and tips on storage.
86 Seed Starting Made Simple
Starting seeds indoors is a sure cure for the restlessness that plagues gardeners during the off-season— and it’s practical too!
89 Household Uses
For Lavender
Use your lavender harvest throughout your home for added stress-relief and disinfecting power.
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100 90 Medicinal Herbs for
Difficult Growing Conditions
Pick the medicinal plants that will thrive in shady, swampy, or dry environments.
94 Homegrown Medicine
Discover the many benefits of planting medicinal herbs.
100 Make Wine the Wild Way
Feeling adventurous? Create simple and light wines from locally foraged ingredients.
104 Delicious, Homemade
Whole-Grain Flours
Grinding your own grains at home opens up a world of baking possibilities and makes for a boredom-free kitchen.
109 How to Make Homemade
Apple Juice
No juice extractor? No problem! This easy method for making fresh, delicious apple juice will have you sipping in no time.
110 110 Garlic Scapes
Enjoy the distinctive flavor of these delicious flower stems.
112 Serving Up Scraps
Once you try these leftoverinspired recipes, your food scraps will become your new favorite ingredients.
116 Easy Ways to
Preserve Fresh Food
Expert advice, and helpful charts, show you which produce to freeze, dehydrate, can, or put into cool storage for the tastiest results.
122 Pressure Canning Meat:
Master the Technique
Extend your self-reliance goals, and your budget, by learning how to safely can beef, chicken, and more.
126 Effortless Homeade
Elderberry Syrup
A reader shares how to make medicinal elderberry syrup at home.
128 Keeping an Older Cow
Keep ol’ Bessy around a bit longer with some firsthand advice.
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128
132 132 Getting Started With Goats Whether you’re looking for chevon, chevre, or some of both these tips for finding, choosing, and raising goats will stand you in good stead.
138 On-Farm Pig Processing
A firsthand guide to an old-timey chore that is both extremely fulfilling as well as physically and emotionally draining.
143 Raising Chickens for Meat
Want to ensure that the chicken on your plate was raised and processed humanely? Do it yourself!
148 Farm Fencing: Horse
High, Chicken Tight, and Bull Strong
When fencing livestock, there is much to consider. Here’s how to make the best choice for your homestead.
154 How to Raise Honeybees
If the draw of fresh honey has given you bees on the brain, learn how to raise honeybees for excitement and sweetness for years to come.
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Growth Rate vs. Energy Potential of Tree Species Million Btu / Cord*
Years to Produce 1 Cord / Acre†
Million Btu / Acre / Year
Poplar
13.7
1 to 3
13.7 to 4.6
Red alder
14.8
3 to 4
4.9 to 3.7
20
9 to 11
2.2 to 1.8
22.7
25 to 40
0.9 to 0.6
Species
Paper birch American beech
* Btu figures are based on seasoned wood at 20 percent moisture content and 85 cubic feet of wood per 128-cubic-foot cord to account for airspace. † Estimates are based on data from a variety of eastern hardwood sites. Conditions such as soil fertility, growing zone, water availability, and genetics will all have significant effects on actual yields.
How Coppicing Stacks Up Because of this natural variation, it’s important to avoid broad generalizations regarding yield. However, despite the many variables, coppice systems offer two clear benefits over trees grown from seed. The first benefit is reduced establishment time, meaning that you won’t need to wait for a seed to germinate, establish itself, and develop a full root system. The second benefit is that because coppice trees form multiple stems as opposed to a single trunk, you’ll have the opportunity to grow significantly more wood. The following example illustrates how coppice firewood production stacks up against trees of seed origin. The two trees in this simple case study came from the same site to minimize variability. First, I cut down a 40-year-old American beech tree with a single trunk, likely established from seed. The tree
measured 8 inches in diameter at breast height (DBH) and yielded one face cord. I then harvested an 18-year-old, coppicegrown American beech tree that had four stems. The coppiced American beech also produced one face cord. In other words, coppicing encouraged equal wood production in less than half the time.
Trade-Off Between Time and Energy If you’re establishing a coppice woodlot for firewood production, you can expect an inverse relationship between the rate of growth and the energy potential of coppice species. If we were to rank four common species in terms of estimated growth rates and compare those growth rates to their energy potential, we’d see that, as a general rule, the wood from slower-growing trees contains more British thermal units (Btu) for the same volume
of wood. (See “Growth Rate vs. Energy Potential of Tree Species” at left.) Be aware of this time and energy tradeoff when you’re trying to decide which species to coppice, or when you’re purchasing firewood and are faced with the question of which species will yield the most heat per dollar.
Step-by-Step Guide to Coppicing Firewood Select trees with poor form that have little value as saw logs or other forest products to coppice. You can coppice at any time of year, but you’ll achieve the best results by coppicing trees when they’re dormant and leafless. Cut low stumps. A low stump encourages the establishment of new shoots at or below ground level. This promotes the development of roots and increases the tree’s stability. The ideal new coppice stool should be only 2 to 3 inches above the ground and should slope slightly to shed water (see the illustration, below). If you’re harvesting a previously coppiced stool, cut along the same angle as your previous cut, just above the point at which the stool splits into multiple stems. If you live in an area where animals are prone to browse, place branches around the stool as a deterrent. Another approach is to develop a coppice system that favors tree species that are less palatable to browsers. For example, animals are less likely to munch on beech and birch than on maple or oak. Within four to eight weeks, you’ll begin to see numerous sprouts emerging
Roots in the Past
Coppicing as a management technique dates back to the Neolithic period, when people used coppice wood for a variety of purposes, ranging from beanpoles and lath to firewood and fence posts. Even into the 16th century, the economic importance of wood obtained through coppicing was so significant in England that King Henry VIII mandated the construction of fences around coppice forests throughout the country to protect them from browsing animals.
Cut the stump at a slight angle 2 to 3 inches above the ground. This will encourage root development and allow the stump to shed water.
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from the stump, forming J-shaped leaders (see illustration, below left). After leaf fall, clip off the smaller, less vigorous sprouts. On average, I leave four to six sprouts per stool (see illustration, below right). The amount of time it will take you to produce your first firewood crop will vary depending on species, site, stool size, and desired firewood diameter. I tend to harvest most of my coppice firewood on an eight- to 12-year cycle. For my more productive trees, this will yield firewood that’s 3 to 4 inches in diameter—small enough to avoid splitting! The beauty of coppice firewood production is that coppiced trees maintained in a juvenile stage will never die of old age. The benefits of coppice systems also extend beyond simply providing firewood. The dense cluster of shoots around a stool provides vital habitat for birds and small mammals. And because coppice forests depend on healthy root systems, sound management of these forests also prevents erosion in the
Woodlot Lingo for the Coppice Forest
Btu: British thermal unit. A unit of energy equal to 1,055 joules. Commonly used to express the stored energy of firewood. Coppicing: A method of reproducing trees through dormant harvesting that encourages continual growth of multiple stems. Full cord: A stack of firewood measuring 8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 4 feet deep. Face cord: A stack of firewood measuring 8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 16 inches deep. In other words, 1⁄3 of a full cord. Stool: A living stump from which new coppice stems will grow. Rhizosphere: The narrow region of soil that is directly influenced by root secretions and soil microorganisms, including fungi.
surrounding landscape, thanks largely to the stability afforded by a healthy rhizosphere capable of developing into a well-anchored mat of latticed roots. As for other uses, you can consider coppicing for animal fodder, basket splints, stakes, bentwood furniture, tool handles, and more.
You should notice numerous sprouts emerging from dormant buds on the living stump within four to eight weeks.
Remove the less vigorous sprouts after leaf fall, leaving four to six of the healthiest sprouts on each stool. WWW.MOTHEREARTHNEWS.COM
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Best Staple Crops for
Building Food Self-Sufficiency By Cindy Conner
T
o rely on your garden to feed your family, you need to grow staple crops—those foods that are the basis of the human diet. The best staple crops for building food selfsufficiency should be easy to harvest and store, return good yields, and be caloriedense to provide the food energy that you need each day. Most of the 10 staples spotlighted here are also rich sources of many nutrients. In her book The Resilient Gardener, homesteader and seed breeder Carol Deppe provides in-depth information about staple crops, and names potatoes,
corn, beans, squash, and eggs as the “five crops you need to survive and thrive.” I’ve expanded on that list, adding wheat, sweet potatoes, peanuts, cabbage, collards, and kale. To show yield comparisons among these staple foods, I’ve used the average yields and servings-per-pound numbers from the charts in a previous M E N article, “A Plan for Food Self-Sufficiency” (read it at www.motherearthnews.com/selfsufficiency ). The calorie references are from John Jeavons’ book How to Grow More Vegetables, a worthwhile resource for anyone interested in food self-sufficiency. Food storage and preservation qualities are key aspects to consider when selecting staple crops. I love to grow food that doesn’t
require fossil fuels to preserve and store it. The puzzle then becomes where and how to store it. Check your house carefully for good food-storage areas. I’ve found that a bottom kitchen cabinet is often 10 degrees Fahrenheit cooler during winter than the kitchen itself. I store potatoes, sweet potatoes, and squash there. You might also have a closet in a spare room that stays cool. Find additional creative food storage ideas online at www.motherearthnews. com/food-storage.
Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes Potatoes (along with grain corn) will give you the most calories for the least space. They are easy to grow—just bury a piece of potato about the size of an egg with a couple of “eyes” on it in the ground in a 4-inch-deep furrow. In climates with cool summers, plant early, midseason, and late varieties two to three weeks before your last spring frost date. Potatoes will be ready to harvest in about 65 to 90 days, depending on the variety.
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MATTHEW T. STALLBAUMER
Fill your pantry and boost your food security by growing these 10 space-efficient, calorie-rich staple crops that return high yields and store easily sans fossil fuels.
Sweet potatoes, with their high beta carotene content, are one of the healthiest foods you can eat. They love the heat, but you can grow them as far north as Canada. I’ve found I can keep potatoes in a basket, covered with newspaper, in the house or a shed. In October, I transfer the potatoes to plastic boxes with holes drilled in them for ventilation, and then store the boxes in the crawl space under my house. I store sweet potatoes in baskets in a relatively cool area of the house, or in the plastic boxes under the house. Generally, potatoes do best stored at 40 to 55 degrees, and sweet potatoes do best at 55 to 60 degrees. L e a rn m o re : G o t o w w w. motherearthnews.com/potatoes for a potato growing guide. For details on growing sweet potatoes—even in cooler regions—go to www.motherearthnews. com/sweet-potatoes.
MATTHEW T. STALLBAUMER
Grain Corn Providing grains for your table is satisfying, and growing corn is about as easy as it gets. There are three main types of corn: flint, flour, and dent. Flint corn is suited to cooler, wetter climates and is the most difficult to grind. Flour corn, grown by American Indians in the Southwest, is the easiest to grind. Dent corn is
You’ll find that growing staple crops for your table adds a new, satisfying dimension to your gardening and your diet. characterized by the dent in the top of each kernel. Common field corn is dent corn, and, unfortunately, almost all of it is now genetically engineered. You can grind all types of corn for cornmeal, but flint corn makes the best polenta, johnnycakes, and puddings, and flour corns are best for bread and pancakes. I’ve been growing ‘Bloody Butcher,’ a dent corn, for at least 20 years, and I use it for hot cereal. Deppe has developed her own corn varieties for specific uses, such as ‘Cascade Ruby-Gold’ for johnnycakes and quick-cooking polenta. The grain corn you grow and process yourself will be more nutritious than what you can buy, and you can harvest roughly 30,000 calories from 100 square feet of planted corn. ‘Floriani Red Flint’ is a variety that originated in North America, was taken to Italy (where it
flourished for centuries), and has now been brought back to the U.S. Tests have shown that ‘Floriani Red Flint’ has higher nutrient values— including almost twice the protein, and more than three times the magnesium and phosphorus—than the de-germed yellow cornmeal available in the supermarket. Look for open-pollinated varieties and save your seeds. If stored carefully, seeds from flint and dent varieties can be saved for five to 10 years or longer. Learn more: Find out how to harvest and shell grain corn on my blog at www.motherearthnews.com/ blog. Plus, learn all about ‘Floriani Red Flint,’ an exceptional corn, at www. motherearthnews.com/red-flint.
Homegrown Wheat An interest in heirloom wheat varieties has emerged among growers in recent years, and your garden is the perfect place to try them out. Heirloom varieties tend to grow taller, have more extensive root systems, and can be higher-yielding in organic systems than modern wheats. Some people who normally have an intolerance to gluten can reportedly eat heirloom wheat varieties. Eli Rogosa, director of the Heritage Grain Conservancy, has been doing extensive work to make these older varieties more widely
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Loose-leaf cultivar ‘Lollo Rossa’ matures in 60 days, but its leaves can be harvested weeks earlier.
Grow Great Lettuce in Winter By Pam Dawling
W
hen I moved to central Virginia 25 years ago, my gardening neighbors believed that lettuce couldn’t be grown in winter. I set out to prove that we could indeed produce a continuous supply of salad greens year-round. I garden at Twin
Oaks Community, where we plant 120 lettuces each week—enough to feed 100 people. By late September, we’ve made our 46th sowing of the year. Although we cultivate much more than you’ll likely need to grow yourself, you can still apply our planting strategy to enjoy fresh, homegrown lettuce throughout winter on a smaller scale.
A simple way to extend your harvest is to sow several different lettuce cultivars on the same day, each day you plant. You should plant cultivars with various numbers of days to maturity, including at least one fast one and one slow one. Bibb and romaine lettuces will mature quickly. Loose-leaf lettuces, such as the 50-day salad-bowl cultivars, are very useful be-
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MCCUNE PORTER; PAGE 44: ADOBE STOCK/DREAM79
With a little planning, you can harvest fresh, homegrown greens in the coldest season. Ready to learn more? Lettuce begin!
cause you can harvest individual weeks of the month. Lettuce seed leaves while you’re waiting for the germinates best at about 70 deheads to reach full size. grees—although it will also sprout at Choose cultivars that are suited to temperatures in the 40s—and prethe season—those with “winter” in fers cool nights. In fall, you’ll need to their names are good bets. I also like plant more frequently because a oneto plant cultivars that differ in color day difference in sowing can result in and shape. There’s no reason to get a week’s difference in harvesting. The bored with lettuce! rate of growth will slow down when In fall, to ensure winter harvests, the weather cools, and the harvest we transplant lettuce seedlings from dates of those September sowings the garden into cold frames, an will spread out. unheated greenhouse, and a hoop Here’s our September planting house. (At its simplest, a hoop house schedule in our Zone 7a garden, with is a hoop structure covered with clear an average first frost date of Oct. 14. plastic; see www.motherearthnews. Sept. 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9. Every com/season-extension for plans.) other day during the first week of We’ll have enough lettuce to feed us The author cultivates lettuce inside a hoop house all winter. September, we sow lettuce that will through winter if we protect these later be transplanted into our cold plants from the cold. Lettuce planted intion and cold-hardy cultivars to discover frames between Sept. 25 and Oct. 8. We’ll side a cold frame may not make it all the what will work in your garden. If you’re in harvest leaves from these plants from midway through the winter. For an extra layer a cold climate, consider adding inner tunNovember to late February, when we need of frost protection, we toss old quilts on nels within your hoop house and adjusting the space inside the cold frames to harden our cold frame lids on nights the temperathe planting dates. off transplants. If your cold frame isn’t ture will fall below 15 degrees Fahrenheit. well-insulated and frigid weather threatInside the hoop house, we’ve had lettuce Sowing in September ens, you should be prepared to harvest all survive at 10.4 degrees—and, under good September is a great month to plant the plants at once. row cover, down to minus 2.2 degrees! lettuce for a winter crop. We sow letWe plant these cold-hardy cultivars Our hoop house averages about 6 degrees tuce every two days during the first three for our cold frames: ‘Green Forest,’ warmer than outdoor temperatures. Half-grown lettuces are more coldhardy than full-sized plants. Small and medium-sized plants of the following Loose-leaf types have loosely arranged leaves on stalks. Butterheads are small with loose cultivars can survive down to 15 degrees: heads. Upright romaines have elongated leaves. Batavians have loose heads and crisp leaves. ‘Marvel of Four Seasons,’ ‘Rouge d’Hiver,’ and ‘Winter Density.’ I’ve also seen small, Cultivar Type Cultivar Type unprotected plants of the following cultiBrune d’Hiver* Butterhead Pablo Batavian vars survive down to 5 degrees: ‘Winter Marvel,’ ‘Tango,’ ‘North Pole,’ and ‘Green Cocarde* Loose-leaf Panisse Loose-leaf Forest.’ Other particularly cold-hardy letGreen Forest* Romaine Red Salad Bowl Loose-leaf tuces include ‘Brune d’Hiver,’ ‘Cocarde,’ Hyper Red Rumple Waved Loose-leaf Red Tinged Winter Loose-leaf ‘Lollo Rossa,’ ‘Outredgeous,’ ‘Rossimo,’ Kalura Romaine Revolution Loose-leaf and ‘Vulcan.’ Before we built our double-layer hoop Lollo Rossa* Loose-leaf Rossimo* Loose-leaf house, we grew lettuce outdoors in winter Marvel of Four Seasons* Butterhead Rouge d’Hiver* Romaine under two layers of row cover. Most letMerlot Loose-leaf Salad Bowl Loose-leaf tuces can survive an occasional dip to 10 degrees with good cover. Depending on Midnight Ruffles Loose-leaf Tango* Loose-leaf the thickness of the row cover, the inteNew Red Fire Loose-leaf Vulcan* Loose-leaf rior can be 4 to 6 degrees warmer than the North Pole* Butterhead Winter Density* Romaine outside temperature. Our lettuce survived, but didn’t produce enough for frequent Osborne Multired 54 MT Loose-leaf Winter Marvel* Butterhead harvests. August 29 is our last sowing date Oscarde Loose-leaf Winter Wonderland Romaine for planting outdoors under row covers. Outredgeous* Romaine * extra cold-hardy You should experiment with frost protec-
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Winter Lettuce Cultivars
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2 Borage (Borago officinalis)
In the Garden: Borage is my favorite companion for strawberries, squash, and tomatoes, and it is useful in our orchard. An annual that hardily self-seeds, borage is said to strengthen any nearby plants. Perhaps this is because they tend to concentrate trace minerals in the soil. I love that they repel tomato hornworms and give my bees much to eat from early spring all the way through the first few frosts. Borage is also an excellent addition to the compost pile, as its leaves and stems contain calcium and potassium. In the Kitchen: Borage is the highest known plant source of gammalinolenic acid (an omega-6 fatty acid, also known as GLA, that is believed to be anti-inflammatory, unlike many other omega-6s). The leaves of borage taste a bit like a cucumber. They are wonderful in a salad, although some people are put off by their slightly prickly texture. You can also make a tasty, springy spread for veggies or bread by chopping the young leaves and combining them with a soft cheese (such as cream cheese, chèvre, or ricotta), green onions or chives, and diced onion or shallot. The striking blue flowers add a decorative touch in the ice cubes of a summer cocktail or when sugared and used to garnish a cake. Borage flowers can also add delicate flavor to herbal vinegars (and this is the only effective method of preserving them). In the Medicine Cabinet: The leaves of this plant are said to lift the spirits and support the health of our endocrine systems. I like them in tea throughout the winter when I get starved for cheery sunshine. Simply pick the leaves and dry them in a dehydrator on the lowest setting or between old window screens. Store the dried leaves whole. To make tea, cover with boiling water, let steep for 10 minutes, strain, and enjoy. Use caution if using borage internally long-term, or if using supplements. Regular consumption of the whole plant is safe, but in frequent, high doses (greater than 2 grams a day), some liver concerns exist.
In the Garden: The oat plant is beloved the world over as a food, and it’s a wonder in the garden. As a cover crop, it suppresses weeds, prevents erosion in soils that would otherwise be bare over winter, and increases the soil’s nitrogen content—its deep roots suck nitrogen into shallower earth so it’s accessible to the next planting. When the whole plant is tilled back into the soil, it provides so much bulk that the tilth, or soil structure, is improved. If you plan to eat your oats, grow hulless ones, which require less processing after harvest. Harvest oats in the “dough” stage: after the “milk” stage, when kernels still contain milky fluid, but before the “dead ripe” stage, when they are hard. In the dough stage, the kernels should be soft and dentable with a fingernail. In the Kitchen: Oats are a good source of important nutrients, including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and folate. Whole oats are known as oat groats, and they make a nutritious food for baking and cooking. In the Medicine Cabinet: All parts of the oat plant have traditionally been used as a nervous system tonic, primarily because of its nutritional makeup. Milky oats (the immature oat seed) and oat straw make a relaxing tea that contains calcium and bone-nourishing vitamins. To make it, pick a tender green oat stalk, cut it into pieces, cover with 2 cups boiling water and steep for 15 minutes or as long as overnight. Strain and drink, reheated or cold.
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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: FOTOLIA/TAMARA KULIKOVA; ISTOCK: HENRIK_L, SILVIA JANSEN, ABADONIAN; FOTOLIA/RSOOLL
3 Oats (Avena sativa)
5 Elderberry (Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis)
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: FOTOLIA/TAMARA KULIKOVA; ISTOCK: HENRIK_L, SILVIA JANSEN, ABADONIAN; FOTOLIA/RSOOLL
4 Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)
In the Garden: Red clover excels in the apple orchard, where it attracts the predator of the wooly aphid. It’s also popular to grow under grapevines, which require well-drained soil to grow well. This member of the bean family fixes nitrogen in nodules around its roots, improving soil fertility. Red clover is also a specialist at making soils less compacted and less acidic. In the process, its presence usually means improved soil drainage and lots of beneficial insects. In the Kitchen: As a child, did you ever sit in a meadow and sip the nectar out of the white segment of the red clover flower? You were doing your body a favor: Red clover is a source of nutrients, including calcium, chromium, magnesium, potassium, thiamin, and vitamin C. To enjoy this same treat as an adult, add a handful of the red flowerettes, plucked from a flower head, to your rice along with a bit of butter. Delicious! In the Medicine Cabinet: Red clover flowers are traditionally enjoyed in the spring as they’re blooming. The flower is rich in vitamins and minerals, and is a well-known blood thinner, which can help prevent blood clots from forming. It’s often used in a tea as a gentle way to improve the condition of our liver and blood. Preliminary evidence also suggests that the isoflavones in red clover may help stop cancer cells from growing or kill cancer cells in test tubes, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
In the Garden: Plant this perennial shrub near your compost pile and stand back to watch the magic. The soil underneath the shrub will become much better aerated, and elderberry tends to work as a compost activator, assisting you in breaking down yard and kitchen refuse. The leaves can be made into a tea and sprayed to control aphids, carrot root fly, cucumber beetles, and peach tree borers. In the Kitchen: This plant is one of the next hot cash crops. The foodie world has caught on to how delicious the berries are in syrups, jellies and jams, wines, and more. They may be a lot of work to harvest, but they are delicious! In the Medicine Cabinet: Elder is one of our most beloved plants for cold and flu season. It’s known to combat eight various strains of the influenza virus. The berry is used for this purpose and, while it can be tinctured, it’s so delicious that it’s better in teas and syrups.
Elderberry-Plum Sauce
This spicy sauce can be served hot or cold. Use it as you might applesauce—it’s a wonderful topping for poultry, pork, squash, ice cream, or puddings. Yields 3 to 4 cups. • • • • • • • •
1 pound elderberries, rinsed and cleaned 1 pound Damson plums, rinsed and pitted 1 ⁄2 cup water 1 ounce honey 1 stick cinnamon 2 cloves 1 ⁄2 ounce butter, browned 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons water
1 Put fruits in a medium-size pan, along with water, honey, cinnamon and cloves. Bring gently to a boil, then reduce heat and cook until fruit is soft. 2 Melt butter in a saucepan and gently brown at a low temperature. 3 Put fruit through a food mill to remove most of the elderberry seeds. (Some seeds will remain.) Return puréed fruit to pan; add butter and cornstarch mixture. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, then cook at a low temperature for 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Serve immediately or bottle and store in refrigerator. —recipe courtesy Margie Gibson
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farmstands and farmers markets, and save the pits from those that taste like peach heaven. And if you live where you can get local apricots and nectarines, you can try growing them from seed, too.
If you don’t have a vise, try a nutcracker. Or you might get enough pit-cracking compression from another type of screw clamp, including the one that holds your food grinder, juicer, or hand-cranked
Cracking the Pits Let the pits dry on your kitchen counter for a few days. Drying allows the seed inside the shell to shrink slightly so it’s easier to remove. The shell also becomes more brittle and easier to crack as it dries. When the pits look and feel dry, you can crack them open to harvest the actual seeds, which look like almonds, a close botanical cousin. You can hold pits on edge and tap them with a hammer, which works well for a few pits but can result in high casualties of accidentally smashed seeds (and fingers). You will lose far fewer seeds by cracking the pits with a vise, lodging both sides of the pit’s long seams between the opposing jaws (see photo above). Crank the vise closed slowly—watch your fingers!— until the pit cracks.
Eat lots of peaches, and save the pits from those that taste like peach heaven. grain mill to your kitchen counter— you never know until you try! After you get the seeds out, put them in a closed container inside your refrigerator, or find another cool place.
Strategic Stratification The timeline for vegetables and flowers to sprout from seeds and grow into transplants is measured in days or weeks, but with peaches and most
other temperate-zone tree fruits, the pre-germination process adds two to three months to the timetable. Natural sprouting inhibitors present in the seeds must be deactivated by exposure to cool temperatures for a two- to threemonth period. In nature, this chilling period occurs naturally as winter cold comes, fluctuates, and invariably leads to spring. You can simply plant peach, apricot, and nectarine seeds in pots and bury the pots in a corner of the garden. Seeds that are not discovered by marauding squirrels, curious dogs, or other vagaries of the great outdoors will probably sprout in spring. To trick seeds into sprouting when you want (usually early spring), use a nursery method called “cool, moist stratification.” Your refrigerator will make a perfectly satisfactory stratification chamber because ideal stratification temperatures range between 32 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit. To help your seedlings hit their best growing schedule, start the chilling period about four months before your last spring frost date. Varieties from
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Try growing peach (left) and apricot (above, left and right) trees from seed: Just save the pits from fruits that taste most appealing to you. The best way to break the tough outer shell that houses the actual fruit seed is to use a vise (right), nutcracker, or similar tool.
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The better the growing conditions, the sooner your tree will bear fruit.
warmer regions often require a shorter chilling period. To start the stratification process, soak the seeds in roomtemperature water overnight, then pop them into a jar of slightly moist potting soil. Close the jar and put it in your refrigerator—ideally in the door— where it won’t get frozen or forgotten. Begin checking the contents of the jar after about a month. It never ceases to amaze me how almost all the seeds sprout (as if a switch had been turned on) after they’ve spent enough time being cool and moist. Depending on the particular seed, that time might vary from one to three months (apricots take only four to six weeks), but after the chilling requirements for those particular seeds are satisfied, they’re ready to grow. When you check the jars, the fat, white rootlets will stand out against the darker potting soil. Now you have to do something with those young sprouts, which are eager to get on with the business of growing. If it’s still freezing outdoors, keep the sprouting seeds in the refrigerator a bit longer. A month or so before your last frost date, either pot the sprouts or plant them where you want them to grow. Keeping the seedlings in containers for a couple of months makes monitoring their progress easy. Waxed-paper milk cartons with drainage holes punched near the bottoms work well because when it’s time to plant, you can merely cut away the cartons to minimize any root disturbance.
typically grow to 12 to 15 feet with annual pruning. Pay attention to weeds, water, and nutrition. An organic mulch such as compost, leaf mold, leaves, or straw goes a long way toward taking care of all three needs. Create a circle of mulch over the root zone that’s a couple of inches deep and 3 feet or more in diameter. Keep the mulch a few inches from the trunk to avoid rot and rodent damage. A better solution for keeping rodents at bay is to surround the trunk with a cylinder of quarter-inch mesh hardware cloth. Various
insect borers can be deterred by wrapping the trunks with scraps of garden row cover to prevent the pests from laying eggs in bark crevices. Peaches self-sow so easily that naturalized peach groves became extensive in the United States not long after peaches were introduced. Early botanists assumed peaches were native to this part of the world, though their origin has since been traced to China. Sow a few peach pits around your homestead, and before you know it, you’ll have lovely trees that cover themselves with beautiful pink blossoms every spring, and homegrown, tree-ripened summer fruits with flavor to die for.
Growing On The better the growing conditions, the sooner your tree will bear fruit. Good growing conditions for peaches and their kin mean fertile, well-drained soil with a near neutral pH. If you must plant where the soil tends to stay wet after rains, haul in some well-drained soil and build up a 3-foot-wide mound at least a foot high for each little plant. Mix in lime if a soil test shows the pH is lower than 6.0. Pruning will delay bearing, so trim your seedling trees only to remove dead, diseased, or broken stems, as well as those that grow low on the trunk or are crowding others. Most seedling peach trees will grow to 20 feet or so, while apricots
To grow your own apricots, find tasty local varieties and plant their seeds. www.MotherearthNews.coM
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