8266_MENCollector SeriesModern Homesteading

Table of Contents

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SELF-RELIANCE 6 Why We Homestead:

Health, Politics, and Spirituality

Running an off-grid, sustainable hostel is rewarding work, and the owners of the Deer Isle Rereat in Maine find deep satisfaction in the homesteading lifestyle.

8 The Most Important

Self-Reliance Skill Ever

Learning the practical nuts and bolts of hands-on living is vital.

Put into practice these six habits to master the true makeor-break homesteading skill: getting the right work done, the right way.

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12 Financial Planning for

an Off-Grid Homestead

A young couple from Idaho shares their savings plan and investment decisions for purchasing land and building their dream home.

14 Anyone Can Make a Living

on 1.5 Acres

Learn from these seasoned market farmers and grow your own fulfilling farming career on less acreage than you ever thought possible.

18 Build a More Resilient

Homestead

A longtime energy and resilience expert offers advice on how to make your home and land disaster-resistant.

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24 Lessons from

Off-Grid Living

Follow this advice from a 20-year veteran homesteader to shift to a low-carbon lifestyle.

28 How to Choose

the Right Chainsaw for Your Homestead

Find a chainsaw to fit your needs, and then follow these simple maintenance tips so you can put it to work for years to come.

32 Start a Self-Sufficient,

1-Acre Homestead

Live off the land with these strategies for establishing selfsufficient food production, including advice on crop rotations and raising livestock.

COVER PHOTOGRAPH: JAMES RAY SPAHN

Market gardening provides the opportunity to get started little by little.

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LIVESTOCK & POULTRY 38 Heritage Breeds:

Why They’re Important

Traditional animal breeds benefit both homesteaders and consumers with their hardiness, adaptability, flavorful meat, and genetic diversity.

42 The Multiple Benefits

of Grass-Fed Meat

Grazing ruminants play an important role in maintaining our health and protecting the environment.

47 Feed Your Flock

to Boost Omega-3s

Three poultry management rules will help you provide healthful, omega-3-maximized eggs and meat for your family and your customers.

50 Chickens in the Garden

You can ‘recoop’ much of the expense of raising chickens by putting their manure to work in your garden and enlisting your birds for organic pest control.

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56 56 Breed Better

Heritage Flocks

Many commercial hatcheries focus only on hybrid chickens and fail to maintain good quality in the heritage breeds they offer.

61 Mob Grazing Made Simple A mob of cows in a paddock system can help you cut hay expenses, improve soil and pasture health, and maximize herd performance.

DO IT YOURSELF 65 DIY Outdoor Cookers

You can build a fire pit or assemble a clay-pot smoker in just one weekend. Let’s get cookin’!

68 Homestead Hacks

Our readers share clever projects that will help you live a selfsufficient life in the country, the suburbs, or the city.

71 Heat Your Water

With the Sun

A solar water heater is a good choice for the planet and a smart decision for your wallet.

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61 76 Top Ways to

Get Rid of Ticks

Nix ticks from your yard, home, and body to prevent Lyme and other diseases.

80 Build This Cozy Cabin

Anyone with basic carpentry skills can construct this classic one-room cabin for just about $6,000.

86 DIY Solar Food Dehydrator Preserve your harvest with free energy from the sun.

89 Learn to Fish

Local angling spots can deliver valuable protein to your table and memorable tales about the ones that didn’t get away.

92 5 Affordable

DIY Rocket Stoves

These compact cookers are the perfect addition to any campsite, homestead, canning operation, or backyard.

95 Grow and Make Your

Own Simple Medicines

Tend a medicinal herb garden for ready access to a multitude of safe, healing remedies.

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100 98 Rainwater Harvesting

This simpler, cheaper approach will help you harvest much more free water for your garden!

100 How to Tan a Deer Hide

Follow these hide-tanning steps, complete with time requirements and tool recommendations, to create your own beautiful, quality leather.

105 Cordage: How to

Make Natural Thread

Extract fibers from plants to make your own strong, sustainable string.

108 Make Soap the

Old-Fashioned Way

Learn how to make your own lye from ashes, and then use it to cook up a mild, soft soap perfect for personal use.

GARDENING 112 How to Make

Cheap Garden Beds

Here’s how — and why — to create permanent garden beds and paths, and why framed or raised beds may be optional.

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105 116 Start an Urban Farm

on a Half Acre or Less

These four models show how you can make a profit from a small space by targeting the right customers, growing high-value crops, and designing a savvy planting system.

122 Floriani Red Flint: The

Perfect Staple Crop for Every Homestead

Grow this productive heirloom grain corn for out-of-this-world flavor and exceptional nutrition.

127 Gardener’s First Aid:

What Works and Why

Follow these simple, safe, and effective remedies for soothing sunburns, blisters, bug bites, and other minor maladies.

130 Prune for Small-Space

Fruit Trees

This revolutionary pruning method will enable you to grow any type and variety of fruit in small spaces.

134 Control Weeds

Without Chemicals

Practice organic weed-control methods and watch your vegetable garden thrive.

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112 137 Are GMOs Toxic? An

Interview with Genetic Engineer Thierry Vrain

As genetically modified organisms (GMOs) continue to enter the food chain, it’s important for consumers to understand exactly how Roundup Ready crops — and the glyphosate sprayed on them — affect our health.

140 Eat From Your Garden

All Year: A Regional Guide

With these expert-recommended techniques and crop varieties, you, too, can break through seasonal barriers in your climate.

145 Tips and Techniques for

Water-Wise Gardening

Tap these efficient gardenwatering systems to save on your water bill while still growing food despite drought and heat.

150 Best Vegetable to

Grow in the Shade

Even in shady conditions, you can bask in great garden harvests if you choose the right crops and make a few easy adjustments.

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COVER PHOTOGRAPH: JAMES RAY SPAHN

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154 Best Tools for Big Gardens

Learn the pros and cons of the implements you need to successfully — and affordably — manage a large-scale food garden.

158 Grow More Food in a

Movable Greenhouse

Boost productivity in spring, summer, fall, and winter with a do-it-yourself greenhouse you can transport around your plot.

162 3 Rare Root Crops

Experience the unique flavors of crosnes, salsify, and skirret by adding these unsung, underground treasures to your vegetable garden.

By canning meats with pared-down preparations, you can later transform them into a diversity of dishes to suit your tastes.

FOOD & RECIPES 167 Easy, No-Knead

Crusty Bread

Bake crispy, gorgeous loaves from scratch using this simple technique. All you need are a few ingredients and a blazing-hot Dutch oven for miraculous results.

170 Fearless Food Preservation:

Pressure Canning Basics

Learn how to use a pressure canner to safely preserve food, and you’ll save money on groceries all year long. (It’s not as scary as you may think.)

170 178 Pressure Canning Meat

Ease pressure on your lofty selfreliance goals by learning how to safely can beef, chicken, and more right at home.

182 Easy Ways to

Preserve Fresh Food

Pack your pantry with the help of this crop-by-crop guide to food storage.

188 Homemade Butter:

The Best You’ll Ever Have It is sweet as early grass butter in April. — Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, 1851

174 Easy One-Pot Meals

Want to serve up convenient, wellbalanced dishes without making a mess of your kitchen?

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CHICKENS IN THE GARDEN

You can ‘recoop’ much of the expense of raising chickens by putting their manure to work in your garden and enlisting your birds for organic pest control.

Bird Benefits: The Garden Factor

Now, what about the benefits of raising chickens beyond eggs and meat? Some people keep chickens or guineas in the garden solely for tick control. M E N readers remark year after year that free-range chickens are highly effective as a means of organic pest control.

Putting a value on lowering your risk of contracting Lyme disease is pretty difficult — we can, however, estimate the

value of the chicken manure fertilizer you can harvest from each bird. Chickens can use only a fraction of the energy from the grains they are fed; they excrete the rest in their manure. A backyard flock’s poop, if applied correctly and especially if combined with high-carbon matter — such as wood shavings, straw or leaves — adds nutrients to the soil and increases the soil’s organic matter content.

Each bird produces about 8 to 11 pounds of manure per month, as reported by Ohio State University and the University of Hawaii Cooperative Extension Service. Fresh chicken manure contains about 1.5 percent nitrogen along with good amounts of numerous other essential nutrients.

Because nitrogen is the nutrient that’s most often in short supply, we’ll use it to estimate the value of chicken manure fertilizer.

The 8 to 11 pounds of fresh manure produced

by one chicken in a month contain 0.12 to 0.17 pounds of nitrogen. Each season, most garden crops require a target range of 0.25 to 0.33 pounds of nitrogen per 100 square feet, according to Knott’s Handbook for Vegetable Growers and Woods End Laboratories. One hen, then, ranging in a 100-square-foot plot would deposit enough nitrogen to support healthy growth of most crops in just eight to 10 weeks (assuming all of her manure, including from under her roosting area, is harvested). If you were keeping the hen

By Patricia Foreman and Cheryl Long Illustrations by Elayne Sears

F

resh, nutritious eggs and homegrown roast chicken dinners are reason enough to raise your own poultry. If you use your chickens in the garden, you can also harvest rich manure to create homemade fertilizer, and put your flock to work mixing organic wastes into superb compost. Plus, if you let your birds range on your property, get ready for a big bonus: They’ll provide terrific control of ticks and other pests.

The Cost of Raising Chickens An adult standard hen eats about 84 pounds of feed per year, according to Ohio State University (she’ll need less commercial feed if she is free-range, penned on pasture or given lots of table scraps). Bagged feed at a retailer, such as Tractor Supply Co., currently costs about 35 cents per pound, so feeding one hen for a year will cost close to $30. This number will be higher if you pay a premium for organic feed, and lower if you buy your feed from a bulk supplier. How many eggs each bird lays will vary depending on her breed, age and your management choices, but you should get 200 to 250 eggs per year. So, you’ll spend between $1.40 and $1.90 on feed per each dozen eggs. Not factoring in the other benefits we’ll discuss later on, comparable eggs You can from a supermarket would have cost you $2.50 to incorporate $5 per dozen. (The cost of raising a chick to adultyour birds hood would require some initial investment, but this into your expense is offset by the value of using the hen in soup garden using after her egg-laying days have passed.) For a thorwire tunnels, portable ough discussion of the costs of raising meat birds, see pens and uniformly sized “Raising Broiler Chickens” by Gail Damerow at goo. permanent beds. gl/i4q8mh.

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to consider when shopping for solar thermal systems.

Step 1: Reduce Consumption Your first step toward hot water selfsufficiency is to reduce waste. Address your household’s water-wasting habits.

Shut off the hot water when shaving, soaping up, and rinsing the dishes; better yet, embrace the thrill of a cold shower! Insulate as many hot water pipes in your home as possible. Mineral wool and fiberglass insulation are ideal for high-heat applications, such as indoor solar piping, and polyethylene is recommended for temperatures up to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Finally, choose high-efficiency washing machines and dishwashers, and low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators to reduce demand.

ist about what to expect in your area.

Whichever capacity you choose, you’ll need a separate solar storage tank and backup water heater — the same tank can’t do both jobs efficiently.

Step 2: Choose a Size and Site After reducing waste and determining your hot water needs, you’ll need to size the best system for your household and your wallet. Solar water heaters rarely provide 100 percent of household hot-water needs — there are just too many cloudy days during the year, especially at my home in Wisconsin.

Instead, solar thermal systems typically provide 50 to 75 percent of your annual load depending on location and season. Check with a local solar special-

Neighbors can coordinate their hot water supply by using shared pad-mounted collectors.

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person after the fourth. This sizing method will give you your best return on investment. Smaller systems than this will certainly work well, but your savings will be less. Larger systems will cost more, while supplying an unnecessary excess.

Step 3: Freeze or No-Freeze?

MATTHEW T. STALLBAUMER (2); OPPOSITE: FOTOLIA/TOPTEN22PHOTO

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory rates the majority of the United States as “Very Good” or “Excellent” for modern solar thermal technology.

Collectors are typically mounted on a roof, but you can also mount them on the ground near a dwelling. Wherever you choose to site them, remember that collector boxes are highly vulnerable to wind — make sure they’re securely braced and fastened!

In the Northern Hemisphere, most solar collectors for water heating will tolerate a small amount of shade and should be mounted within 30 degrees of true south. Optimally, mount your collector at an angle above the horizon that equals your latitude — just shy of 45 degrees for me.

In cool climates, I recommend 20 square feet of collector and 20 gallons of storage for each person in the household. For large families, this can be reduced by 10 percent for each person over four. In warm climates, I estimate 15 square feet and 25 gallons of storage for each person in the household, with a 10 percent reduction for each

In climates that never experience freezing, Integral Collector Storage (ICS), or “batch,” systems are acceptable and often the cheapest option.

However, when water-filled pipes are exposed to freezing conditions, they may burst. For the coldest climates, closed-loop antifreeze systems offer the best protection, while drainback setups work well for most of the United States.

ICS “no freeze” systems. For climates that never experience freezing conditions or for applications that are only for summertime use, such as summer homes and campgrounds, having water in the solar collector at all times isn’t a problem. For these sunny or seasonal applications, an ICS system will be your best option. Batch systems are simply water tanks exposed to the sun and are especially popular near the equator because of the warm weather and the system’s ease of use.

Commercial ICS collectors have a single tank or multiple tanks inside an insulated box with glass on the side facing the sun. ICS tanks are often painted black or covered with a special coating that’s very good at absorbing the sun’s energy. Unlike closed-loop and drainback systems, ICS systems have no pumps or controls and are plumbed directly into your home water system, so they’re the simplest and cheapest option.

Freeze-ready systems. Two kinds of solar water heating systems are appropriate for climates that experience freezing conditions: closed-loop antifreeze systems and drainback systems.

The most popular and versatile type of system installed worldwide is a closed-loop antifreeze system. Closedloop systems consist of insulated piping filled with nontoxic, water-diluted antifreeze (often called “solar fluid”), a

ICS “Batch” Heater Combine the ICS collector with an energy-efficient water heater, such as a heat-pump heater, to supply your house with consistent hot water.

ICS collector

Cold water supply

Hot water load

Temperature & pressure relief valve

Backup water heater

Boiler drain Ball valve Tempering valve

collector array, a circulating pump, an expansion tank, a solar hot water storage tank, a heat exchanger, and a controller, in addition to valves and gauges (see illustration, below).

Heat exchangers, typically a coiled tube or flat plate, transmit heat from your solar fluid to your hot water.

When choosing a heat exchanger for your system, make sure it has a large enough surface area to move all the so-

Closed-Loop System A properly sized expansion tank will protect your array in summer months.

lar energy captured by your collector.

The piping in a closed-loop system makes a loop from the collectors to the heat exchanger and back to the collectors.

This closed loop is filled with solar fluid, which stays inside the collectors and piping at all times. This fluid needs to be replaced about every 25 years because the antifreeze solution will degrade, especially when the system is idle for long periods or exposed to hot temperatures.

PV panel

Solar thermal panel Tempering valve

Hot water load

Pump Thermometer Pressure gauge

Cold water supply

Check valve Pressure relief valve

Backup water heater

Solar storage tank

Heat exchanger

Temperature & pressure relief valve Boiler drain Expansion tank

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Build a

SOLAR FOOD DEHYDRATOR

Preserve your harvest with free energy from the sun.

Article and photos by Eben Fodor

M

ore and more people are recognizing the importance of food quality in their daily lives. The freshest, ripest, tastiest and most nutritious food comes from our own gardens or local

farmers. Because these high-quality fruits and vegetables are seasonal, you have access to them for only a few weeks or months each year.

What do you plan to eat the rest of the year? Will you rely on industrial foods grown by strangers from all over the world

and shipped thousands of miles? With increasing interest in healthy eating, sustainable local food supplies and self-reliance, many people are discovering the benefits of a solar food dehydrator.

Solar food drying is more than a curiosity or hobby — it’s an ideal application for solar energy. Solar radiation passes through the clear glass top of a wooden dehydrator box, and then the heat trapped by the box dries the food. The dehydrator may also have an absorber plate inside, which indirectly heats your food and creates a convection current of air that enters a vent at the bottom of the dryer (shown on opposite page). The cool, fresh air that enters the vent heats up, circulates through the dryer, and then exits through a vent at the top. As your food dries, moisture is carried away with the hot air.

But do solar food dryers work well?

Are they practical? Yes — but first let me put this topic in the context of creating a healthy and sustainable food supply.

Eat in Season Year-Round Food preservation is the key to extending summer’s precious bounty of

locally grown produce throughout the year. If you’re like me, you would prefer a method that’s easier and requires less energy than canning does.

Freezing is commonly viewed as the most convenient preservation method, but freezers require a constant source of electricity. Your food will be vulnerable to power outages and mechanical failures, and freezer burn will limit the storage life of most foods to about six months.

Drying is an excellent method of food preservation that maintains a high level of flavor and nutrients while providing a convenient, compact, easy-to-store supply of your favorite produce. Electric food dryers work fine, but I don’t care for the constant noise, heat and odors they add to my house. Electric dryers also take away valuable counter space for weeks on end and can attract ants and other pests. The electricity to run them costs about a dollar a load. The convenience of electricity does not compare to the satisfaction of drying food with free solar energy.

Disenchanted with electric drying, I began experimenting with solar dehydrating. With a background in engineering and solar energy, I

Dried foods stored in airtight containers will keep for up to one year.

soon designed and built my first solar food dryer. I was delighted to watch the sun quickly dehydrate my organic fruits and veggies. It worked even better than I had hoped, drying large batches of food in one to two days.

I dried my entire surplus of garden and orchard produce, leaving nothing to waste. The following year, I grew a larger garden so I could dry even more food.

ing the summer and fall harvest seasons to successfully dry all of our crops with solar energy. If you can get two days of sunshine in a row with some regularity, solar food drying will work for you.

For those times when the sun is hiding, a backup heating system can be of assistance. I added 200-watt light bulbs as heating elements so I could finish drying my produce during cloudy weather.

Got Sun?

Good Designs

If you’re wondering whether solar drying could be right for your location, consider that I live in Eugene, Ore., at a latitude equivalent to Bangor, Maine.

We receive lots of rain, but fortunately we also receive enough sunshine dur-

A dehydrator can be made in many designs, ranging from the simple to the complex and from small to large. For the home gardener, a good dryer has these qualities: • It dries food quickly — on par with an electric food dryer.

Hot, moist air exits through screened top vents

Sunlight

Fixed side vent

Food screens

Absorber plate

Cool, fresh air enters through screened opening at bottom Basil

Tomatoes

Plums

Apples Many foods will dry in one sunny day inside a solar dehydrator.

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The author with his SunWorks solar food dehydrator. Warm temperatures and strategic ventilation create a convection current that circulates air through the dryer (left).

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productive, rewarding and not the usual industrial fare.

Fedco, a Maine-based seed company, had this to say about Floriani in its 2015 catalog: “Steady appreciation from the cognoscenti. ... Beautiful cobs with fabulous flavor. The red pointed kernels (white when immature) are easy to shell and grind into a fine pinkish meal that bakes with an appealing spongy texture. Floriani’s richly sweet, delicious, corny taste beat the competition silly in our pancake and cornbread muffin bake-off.”

(landraces), and sometimes variants that were different enough to be classified as entirely new varieties. ‘Floriani Red Flint’ is an example of this. Its name in the Alpine Italian dialect is spina rossa della Valsugana (red-spined of Valsugana).

The pioneering group of North American growers named it ‘Floriani Red Flint’ to recognize the generosity of the Floriani family in sharing their seed. This corn is the result of many farmers over a long period Cornmeal of whole-grain varieties, such as ‘Floriani of time selecting for at least four Red Flint,’ is much more nutritious than de-germed traits: early ripening, large cobs, yellow cornmeal (the type typically sold in supermarkets red color, and a markedly pointy because of its long shelf life). Our testing shows that Growing Floriani or spiny kernel. Fortunately, atFloriani is an especially good source of fiber, protein and Selecting Seed tached to one or more of these and minerals. Based on a 1-cup serving.

‘Floriani Red Flint’ is new to traits is exceptional flavor. For Whole-Grain De-Germed the United States. I first encounthe goal of repopulating our Floriani Yellow tered it in Italy while visiting a grain trade with grains that have Nutrient Cornmeal Cornmeal friend whose family grew the terrific flavor and not just good Fiber 20.5 g 6.4 g corn for their nightly polenta. I growing qualities, ‘Floriani Red admired the flavor of the corn Flint’ is perfect. Alpine farmers Protein 21.4 g 11.5 g and was given a kilo of it to already selected it for a short Minerals bring home. With the help of growing season, thus making it Copper 0.2 mg 0.1 mg Mother Earth News, growers one of the earliest flint corns — tested the corn in Kansas, Maine, an ideal trait for a country the Iron 4.7 mg 1.7 mg Nebraska, South Carolina and size of ours that has such varied Magnesium 214 mg 56 mg Northern California. growing conditions. Fedco rates Manganese 1.2 mg 0.3 mg Floriani seems well-adaptFloriani at about 100 days to Phosphorus 606 mg 167 mg ed to a wide range of North maturity based on organic trials American growing conditions. in Maine.

Potassium 630 mg 242 mg Like all corn, it’s a heavy feeder.

Keeping this grain corn vaZinc 5 mg 1.1 mg With enough feeding, expect riety true will take some extra Vitamins to harvest ears that are at least work. In a large field, while most Niacin (vitamin B3) 4 mg 1.6 mg 8.5 inches long with 15 or 16 of the ears will be deep red, you rows of kernels. However, I’ve can expect to see ears ranging in Riboflavin (vitamin B2) 0.3 mg 0.1 mg seen crops with 6-inch ears, color from red to yellow. This Thiamin (vitamin B1) 0.5 mg 0.2 mg so be sure to plant in rich soil is typical of this type of openVitamin E 1.7 IU 0.4 IU and, if you can, side-dress with pollinated corn. If you harvest nitrogen-rich compost or apply acreage mechanically, be sure to an organic fertilizer. at least 10 pounds of grain. On a larger harvest for seed separately, by hand.

Homesteaders can easily grow enough scale, a California farmer growing about To keep ‘Floriani Red Flint’ true to its Floriani for many servings of grits, 25,000 plants to the acre is getting yields landrace, select for replanting the reddest polenta, pancakes and cornbread. For in the range of 1 to 11⁄2 tons per acre, uscorn with the most pointy kernels from self-sufficiency, and to grow enough to ing organic methods. the healthiest ears. have a genetically stable crop to save We tend to speak of “seed saving.” Yes, We can’t all grow our own corn. seed from, plant at least 2,000 seeds historically, farmers “saved seed,” but it Fortunately, farmers and millers are so ex(about 19 ounces). You can expect one would be more accurate to say they selected cited about this variety that more sources ear per plant, roughly 100 ears per 100seed for the next harvest. They selected for are becoming available for people who traits they wanted to encourage and, in so foot row, and, if you’ve done well with want to buy Floriani corn flour. One source doing, created variants of known varieties your husbandry, this 100 feet will yield is a new company, Community Grains in

Holy Whole-Grain Corn Nutrition!

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Northern California (www.community grains.com). ‘Floriani Red Flint’ is one of the reasons Community Grains was created, and the company specializes in milling it.

Plentiful Polenta In Italy, Floriani’s reason for existence was polenta. In their more rustic forms, Italian polenta and American grits are basically the same thing: boiled whole-grain cornmeal. Whether you serve it as polenta or grits, this is a dense corn that benefits from long cooking. I suggest simmering it for three hours, or cooking it in a pressure cooker for 20 minutes. I usually prefer a ratio of 1 part cornmeal to 31⁄2 to 4 parts water, but there’s no right amount of water to use — go by your personal taste.

Adding water is usually easier than evaporating it, so start on the conservative side.

Whether cooking in an open pot or in a pressure cooker, pour the coarsely ground ‘Floriani Red Flint’ into lightly salted, boiling water. Whisk to eliminate lumps, then, if using a pressure cooker, cover, pressurize and cook for 20 minutes. Otherwise, simmer for about three hours, adding water if the polenta gets too stiff. Polenta doesn’t require constant stirring. It does stick, however, so check on it from time to time to ensure it doesn’t burn. Polenta is done when it’s creamy and tender.

You can enrich your polenta with butter or cheese. Stirring in grated, hard sheep cheese would be authentic to the

You and your dinner guests will marvel at the flavor of polenta made with Floriani. Consider serving your polenta on a traditional wooden board, perhaps accented with lightly cooked kale.

corn’s Alpine origins, as would making it with goat or sheep milk. My preference, though, is to keep the polenta as light and clean-tasting as possible because its intrinsic flavor is so good.

One of the great qualities of this corn is that it tends to blend well with deep flavors. It’s especially good served with strongly flavored greens, such as collards, kales and chicories, or wild greens such as dandelion and nettles. Polenta topped with a sauce of wild mushrooms is a classic, as is serving it with any toppings made of grilled sausage or game birds. Floriani also goes well with farmhouse stews, especially those made with meat from older farm animals that requires long cooking to tenderize. Rabbit, an old laying hen or a surplus rooster are traditional accompaniments to rustic-style polenta.

Grain corn is more versatile than you may think. You can serve slices of golden scrapple infused with thyme, rosemary or other herbs at any meal. Top with maple syrup for a yummy breakfast.

Ample Scrapple Options Scrapple is a rare American dish regional to Pennsylvania. As a Californian, I’d heard of it, but only recently tasted it for the first time. I have to say my first encounter with scrapple shocked me — in a good way. Why hadn’t I made this before?

It’s wonderful!

At the center of scrapple’s American history is a dish associated with pig butchering among the Pennsylvania Dutch. Historically, scrapple was essentially polenta boiled in a broth made from bits of pork that couldn’t be used in sausage making. Cooks chopped up that same meat and stirred it back into the polenta, then poured the polenta out to cool and solidify, at which point it was sliced and fried.

Using ‘Floriani Red Flint’ brings to scrapple the type of cornmeal the Pennsylvania Dutch traditionally cooked with. I make the broth with pork shoulder, but you can substitute the meat you like. I also add a little thyme and rosemary to the polenta during cooking. Dip the slices in flour before frying them to golden brown.

Cheryl Long, former editor-in-chief of Mother Earth News and a scrapple devotee, has a slightly different take on scrapple. She combines Floriani polenta with raw, ground, grass-fed pork to make a premium scrapple.

As Cheryl puts it, “Everyone who has tasted our Floriani sausage scrapple is astonished by how good it tastes. We use a premium pork sausage made from pastured heritage hogs, and have our local GARDENING • www.MotherEarthNews.com 125

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CONTROL WEEDS

Without Chemicals Practice organic weed-control methods and watch your vegetable garden thrive.

By Barbara Pleasant Illustrations by Elara Tanguy

I

t’s an unfortunate truth that most of the things we do in a garden also encourage weeds. Bare soil in any form is an invitation for weeds to grow because weeds are nature’s opportunists. Most weed plants grow faster than food crops, so weeds will shade or starve out your babies unless you protect them.

In addition to basic organic weed-control methods, such as hand-weeding, shallow hoeing, and deep mulching, innovative techniques, such as creating “weed moats,” can help protect your garden from Bermuda grass, puncture vine, and other troublesome plants.

Weed Prevention Basics

Scuffle hoes, which include stirrup and circle hoes, have blades with two opposing sharp edges that cut when pushed and pulled, and most gardeners with big plots consider them essential equipment. But when we asked M’s Facebook followers which weeding tool they couldn’t do without, the sturdy weeding knife, often called a “hori-hori,” was the clear winner. Weeding knives feature long, sharp edges that shave down weeds, and have a pointed end for prying out strong taproots, such as those found under dock weeds or dandelions.

Many folks also consider hand-weeding, with follow-up mulching, effective and rewarding work.

To prevent weed takeovers, most organic gardeners depend heavily on mulch, particularly newspapers or cardboard covered with grass clippings, old leaves, or straw. Be advised: Deep mulching too early can delay the warming of spring soil and encourage problems with slugs, so mulch after a thorough late spring or early summer weeding.

Surface mulches deprive weed seeds of light and increase their natural predation by providing habitat for crickets, ground beetles, and other seed-eaters. The cool, moist conditions under mulch will also cause many weed seeds to rot, so mulches

that give good surface coverage can both prevent and cure million seeds in a lucky season. This is why it’s crucial to seemingly overwhelming weed issues. clip, mow, weed-whack, or otherwise disable weeds before “Cardboard saves me a multitude of work,” says J.C. they mature enough to shed seeds. You usually can’t dig or Siembida of Salem, Ohio. “I save cardboard all year and sort pull almost-mature weeds growing among food plants withit into widths, and then use narrow pieces between peas, out devastating your planting, so lopping off the weeds just beans, and corn, while larger sheets are used between squash above the soil line is a better intervention.

Let’s say the worst has happened, and and pumpkin plants. Then, I put a layrobust weeds took over your garden and er of aged leaves on top.” In Seminole, A couple of thorough weeding covered the ground with millions of Oklahoma, Robin Lambert at Red Sky sessions with a stirrup hoe early seeds.

In this case, the last thing you’ll Farm fills a high tunnel with vegetain the growing season, when weed want to do is cultivate, which would bles mulched with cardboard topped seedlings are small, can greatly distribute the seeds deep into the soil, by straw. Her earthworms love it, and reduce weed issues through summer. where they could remain dormant for she says the technique allows her to years, waiting for sun and warmth to keep up with weeds. trigger germination. Instead, keep the weed seeds on the undisRunaway Summer Weeds turbed surface, where you can do something about them. Begin by covering the space with mulch or small piles of dead plants to Because a single healthy crabgrass plant can produce provide habitat for ground beetles, crickets, and other seed-eaters, 150,000 seeds, or about 20,000 seeds per square foot, you may not be able to keep up. Redroot pigweed can shed a and leave it covered all winter.

Skip the herbicides.

Mulch and welltimed cultivation will thwart most of your weeding woes.

The need to weed follows a predictable pattern in the vegetable garden. About 10 days after you plant a crop, the bed or row will need careful hand-weeding, followed by a second weeding session 10 days later. Slow-growing, upright crops, such as carrots and onions, may need a third or fourth weeding to subdue weeds, but they’re the exception.

After a month of attentive weeding, most veggies will be large enough to shade out weedy competitors. Plus, you can use mulch to block the growth of weeds between widely spaced plants, such as tomatoes and peppers.

At North Slope Farm in Lambertville, New Jersey, three scheduled weedings — the first two with a scuffle hoe, and the third by hand — are part of the crop-care program developed by owner Michael Rassweiler. “We like to use a scuffle hoe to go up and down the rows right after germination and then again one to two weeks later, depending on the crop’s growth.”

Rassweiler says that hand-weeding is usually needed after the second hoeing, but it’s quick — hoeing between the rows has already cleaned out most of the weeds.

Spreading an organic mulch, such as grass clippings, suppresses weeds and improves soil fertility as it breaks down.

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