Photo by Jessica Walliser
I can finally cross building raised beds for my asparagus off of my to-do list.

I’m checkin’ something off the to-do list, and it’s a big ticket item—how I love it when that happens!

I spent yesterday building raised beds and planting my asparagus in them. The lumber for the raised beds has been sitting in the garage since autumn, so it’s nice to have the project completed … and in only two and a half hours! I’m sore, of course, from doing so much work so quickly, but it’s a good kind of sore. You know what I mean.

I built the raised beds out of cedar planks that the hardware store cut into 6-foot and 3-foot lengths. They are fastened together with a simple metal bracket and screws on each corner. Nothing fancy, but they work perfectly.

I built them in the garage—I couldn’t find a level spot anywhere in the backyard—and carried them up to the veggie garden. They were placed on either side of the back gate on the outside of the fence, and I dug out a bit of sod to get them to sit relatively level.

Next, I grubbed up the sod, which was certainly sparse to begin with, and turned over the existing soil down about a foot. I added a few shovels of compost and then laid out the asparagus crowns I got from The Cooks Garden. Seventy-five crowns filled the two raised beds perfectly.

After that, I filled the raised beds to the top with a mixture of leaf compost, homemade compost, leftover potting soil and dirt, burying the crowns a good 5 to 6 inches deep. I know the cedar eventually will need to be replaced, but I’m hoping to get a good six or eight years out of it. By then, of course, the asparagus will really be cranking it out—I hope so, anyway!

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Tags Asparagus, compost, Jessica Walliser

Recipes

Herbed Mustard

Photo by Stephanie Staton

You have several choices with mustard: Use commercial mustard powder or grind your own mustard seeds into powder, then let your finished mustard mellow for at least several days. Or soak mustard seeds for a day or two before grinding them in a blender. Regardless, the point is to let your mustard (or soaking seeds) mellow for several days before eating (two weeks is even better).

Try grinding some seeds for texture and mixing them with bought or homemade mustard powder, then whisk everything up and let it mellow. If you don’t have a spice grinder or a coffee grinder reserved for spices—or if you want smooth mustard—leave the seeds out and cut back to 3 tablespoons vinegar.

Go all-out with your herbs. Almost any herb makes mustard better. Don’t forget to try herb combinations, too. Think rosemary chive mustard; lemon thyme with oregano; rosemary and orange thyme; oregano and winter savory; or basil and oregano. Consider adding honey to your mustard and spiking it with lemon thyme or tarragon—delicious as a soft-pretzel dip. Try rosemary mustard on grilled ham-and-Swiss sandwiches. Many of these mustards are also great in deviled eggs.

Ingredients

1/3 cup mustard seeds (yellow or brown; brown are spicier)
1/3 cup mustard powder (yellow or brown)
5 T. white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar (Red wine vinegar and sherry vinegar also work, and of course, if you have herbed vinegar on hand, use it.)
1/2 cup white wine or water, or a mixture of the two
1 tsp. salt, preferably fine sea salt
1/4 cup finely chopped herbs, to taste

Preparation
In a spice grinder or coffee grinder reserved for spices, briefly grind seeds until coarsely chopped. Thoroughly whisk seeds with mustard powder, vinegar, wine, salt and herbs. Cover and let stand at least two days, then taste, adding more herbs and salt as needed. You may also want to stir in a tablespoon or two of brown sugar at this point; if it’s too thick, add vinegar and wine as needed. Chill only after your mustard has reached its desired heat level. (If you chill when too spicy, it will not mellow further.)

Makes 1¼ cups.

Tags herbs, mustard, recipe

Recipes

Herbed Vinegar

Photo by Stephanie Staton

When it comes to making herbed vinegars, you’re only limited by your imagination. Try using bay, tarragon, dill, basil, mint, chervil or thyme with white wine vinegar (if you use lemon thyme, add some lemon verbena or lemon zest to the jar); steep rosemary, basil, savory or bay in red wine vinegar. For combinations, try oregano or savory with thyme; thyme and tarragon; basil and oregano.

Ingredients

2 cups chopped herb leaves, very clean and dry
4 cups wine vinegar

Preparation
Put the herb leaves into a canning jar or bottle that has been thoroughly cleaned with boiling water. In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat vinegar until hot but not boiling. Pour over the herbs. When the vinegar has cooled, cap the jar or bottle and let the vinegar steep for at least two weeks in a cool, dark place. If you think of it, shake the jar periodically and take a taste test. Once it tastes as strong as you like, strain the vinegar through cheesecloth or paper towels into clean jars or bottles.

Makes 4 cups.

Tags herbs, vinegar

Homesteading

Video: National Ice Cream Month

Post author By Abby Tripp Heverin
Post date April 27, 2011
No Comments on Video: National Ice Cream Month

July is National Ice Cream month. Whether you like your ice cream homemade or dairy made, topped with candy, fruits or any number of sauces, in a cone or in a dish, we know we don’t have to do much to make you go screaming for this cool, creamy treat. Watch the video above to find out others’ ice cream preferences (editors’ top picks included), then log on to the HF forums to tell us how you like your ice cream.

Tags video

Crops & Gardening

Soil pH

Knowing the pH level of your soil is important to growing healthy plants

Courtesy Stock.XCHNG
Soil pH indicates the acidity of your soil.

A healthy, productive farm is created from the ground up. The fertility, structure and biological activity of your soil are the keys to raising successful crops. Great soil grows great plants with increased vigor and pest tolerance, not to mention maximized yields. There’s a lot to know about your soil for sure, but the most critical measurement is its pH.

What is pH?
Represented on a scale of 0 to 14, pH is the measurement of the acidity of something—in this case, your soil. In a nutshell, the pH is the comparative measure of hydrogen and hydroxide ions present.

At neutral pH 7, there are equal numbers of hydrogen and hydroxide ions. A soil pH measurement below 7 is considered acidic and contains more hydrogen ions. Soil pH above 7 is alkaline and contains more negatively charged hydroxide ions.

The soil pH is an important number to know because it determines the availability of almost all essential plant nutrients. If the soil pH is not on track, plants will not have access to nutrients necessary for growth and, therefore, won’t perform at their best. Nutrients can get trapped in the soil and will not be released for plant use.

Amending Soil pH
When soil becomes too acidic, certain nutrients become less available (phosphorus in particular), good soil bacteria become less active and some elements (like aluminum and manganese) can become toxic. Soils that are too alkaline have different, but equally as important, nutrient availability issues.

Regular soil testing is the only surefire way to know your soil’s current pH level. Most soil-test results will also tell you how to raise or lower the soil’s pH to reach the desired level.

When adjusting your soil’s pH, add only the recommended amount of any product as indicated by a soil test to make an effective pH change without going too much in the opposite direction. On the pH scale, a single-digit change (say from 5 to 6) translates as a tenfold change in acidity or alkalinity. That means a pH of 5 is ten times more acidic than 6.0, showing just how important the proper pH really is.

Acidic Soil
Lime (aka limestone) is most often used to raise the soil’s pH and make it less acidic, but not all liming materials are created equal. First, look to your soil test results to determine if you need calcitic lime or dolomitic lime.

Calcitic lime is mined from natural limestone deposits and crushed to a fine powder. Also called aglime or agricultural lime, it supplies calcium to your soil as it adjusts the pH. Dolomitic lime is derived in a similar manner but from limestone sources that contain both calcium and magnesium.

If a soil test indicates high levels of magnesium, use calcitic lime. If the test shows a magnesium deficiency, then use dolomitic lime. Clay soils tend to hold onto magnesium so more often than not, calcitic lime is the more appropriate choice for clay soils and dolomitic lime for sandy soils.

Alkaline Soil
If it’s necessary to lower your soil’s pH level and make it less alkaline, turn to elemental sulfur or aluminum sulfate. Elemental sulfur applied to the garden is oxidized slowly by soil microbes and takes a few months to alter the pH. Working it into the soil will yield better results as it is more rapidly processed beneath the soil surface.

Spring applications of sulfur are generally the most effective. Often found in pelletized form, sulfur may take awhile to work, but it’s less likely to harm plants than aluminum sulfate products. Aluminum sulfate reacts quickly with the soil and makes a rapid pH change, but there’s an increased potential to burn plant roots.

Soil pH in Your Garden

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In general, the broadest amount of nutrients is most available for plant use at pH 6.5—a perfect soil-pH target for the vegetable garden. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, both inside and outside the vegetable garden. For example, blueberries and evergreens use a copious amount of iron, primarily available at more acidic pH values (generally 5.5 and below).

To the left is a chart of some common vegetables and their pH tolerances. Remember, pH 6.5 is slightly acidic so those plants listed as enjoying acid soil will be quite at home at 6.5. Those listed as tolerant of alkaline soils don’t necessarily prefer to grow in them, they just perform better than some others do when the pH level is a bit too high.

About the Author: Horticulturalist Jessica Walliser is the author of Good Bug, Bad Bug: Who’s Who, What They Do and How to Manage Them Organically (St. Lynn’s Press, 2008) and co-host of Pittsburgh’s top-rated gardening radio program, The Organic Gardeners, on KDKA Radio. Read about her gardening adventures in Dirt on Gardening.

Tags crops, plants, soil pH

Urban Farming

Food Bank Farm

Photo courtesy Food Bank for Westchester

Food Bank for Westchester grows crops that are nutritionally dense and long-lasting.

In my cosmopolitan county, it’s hard to imagine that 200,000 go hungry daily. Douglass DeCandia, 25, is a young neighbor who is working to address this problem with the Food Bank for Westchester by growing produce to feed the hungry.

As food growing projects coordinator, Douglass has contracted with upstate farmers through a grant from the national nonprofit, Feeding America, to bring in 2,000 pounds of fresh produce weekly.

This summer, expanding on four existing gardens on county sites, Douglass will be farming a total of 2 ½ acres, spread among five sites in the county, with a goal of growing 10,000 pounds of produce. “The greatest quantity and the best quality” is what Douglass is aiming for.

Photo courtesy Food Bank for Westchester

Douglass DeCandia likes to teach kids about farming by working in the garden with them.

Another dimension of the project is garden/farm education. Several of the plots are at correctional facilities and residential schools where young people will provide the labor and in turn, learn about growing food.

“I couldn’t be a teacher in the conventional sense,” says Douglass. “I share best growing with the kids, working together and giving them responsibilities.”

Volunteers will help farm the other sites. Two have existing plots, but three are brand-new. Two sites also have small greenhouses to work with, and there is composting already taking at the sites, too. Douglass is working on soil amendments to remineralize the soils.

I met with Douglass in a small greenhouse on the grounds of a county-owned historic teaching farm. He was seeding his Swiss chard as we talked, and the tender shoots of his already-sprouted onions and greens served as backdrop. Douglass has carefully chosen his crops, like the onions and sweet potatoes, to be low maintenance, self-regulating, nutritionally dense and long-keeping, mostly requiring a one-time harvest.

He’ll also grow the Three Sisters (corn, beans and squash), carrots, beets and winter squash. One site will grow tender greens, such as lettuce, spinach and arugula, and another will grow tougher greens, such as collards.

Douglass talks eloquently and spiritually about eating nutritionally as the first level to taking action and making change. His approach means that awareness and community come with every meal. The Food Bank Farm has committed to The Farmers’ Pledge, a set of guidelines emphasizing the integrity of the farmer in every aspect, beyond organic certification. Meeting this standard will serve as a source of pride for and a promise from the Food Bank Farm growers.

Nutritionists run the Green Thumb program of the Food Bank, helping agencies and clients with information, recipes and storage tips for the produce. Here’s an easy recipe Sara Cox, the food bank’s nutrition resource manager, provided that incorporates the farm’s scallions.

Recipe: Pork Skewers with Pineapple-Scallion Rice

Ingredients

1 20-ounce can pineapple chunks, drained and juice reserved
2 garlic cloves, smashed
2 tablespoon peeled, chopped fresh ginger
3 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoon oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1 ¼-pound pork loin, cut into 1-inch cubes
6 scallions, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 ½ cups rice
5 10-inch wooden skewers, soaked for at least 2 hours prior to grilling

Preparation

Combine juice, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, oil and seasoning. Add pork and scallions and marinate for at least 30 minutes. Pre-heat an outdoor grill (or a grill pan on the stove). Meanwhile, boil 3 cups of water. Add rice. Turn down to simmer, and cook covered for about 15 minutes.

Thread the pork and about 2/3 of the pineapple chunks onto four skewers. Thread the scallions onto one skewer. Grill the scallions about 5 minutes and the pork about 12 minutes, turning until cooked through. Chop the remaining pineapple chunks, and stir into rice. Remove scallions from skewer and stir into rice. Serve pork skewers on top of the rice.

Serves 4.

Tags Judith Hausman, urban farming

Beginning Farmers

Growing Grain for Japan

Nebraska farmers raised more than $55,000 to donate to the Japan relief effort

Courtesy Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Thinkstock
Farmers in Nebraska donated portions of their grain harvest to raise more than $55,000 to help the Japan relief effort.

In rural communities, when a fellow farmer is in need, we do what we can to help. Pitching in to clean up storm damage, lending an extra pair of hands during the harvest, bringing over a meal after a death in the family—it’s all part of being neighborly.

Farmers in Nebraska are extending this sense of neighborliness across the Pacific to aid victims of last month’s earthquakes, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan. Thanks to a partnership among the Nebraska Corn Growers Assocation, Aurora Cooperative and Lexington, Neb.’s, KRVN 880 Rural Radio, growers are able to earmark a portion of their corn or grain harvest to support the American Red Cross’ massive Japan relief effort.

The grain-donation program is the brainchild of John Willoughby, a Wood River, Neb.-area farmer active in the NeCGA. NeCGA field services director Mat Habrock says that a fundraising effort for Japan was a natural fit for the organization. As the third-largest consumer of U.S. agricultural exports and Nebraska’s largest global corn buyer, “Japan has always been a good customer.”

Aurora Cooperative, where Willoughby sits on the board of directors, helped bring his idea of aiding Nebraska’s economic neighbor to life. The logistics of the program are simple, says Dawn Caldwell, corporate communications manager for Aurora. When farmers put their corn or grain on the scale, they tell the operator how much of the load they want to designate for the Red Cross—be it five bushels or a semi-truck load. Then, “we just split the ticket on the scale,” she explains. The grain is sold at spot price.

At the end of each week, the co-op sends a check to the Red Cross. This ensures a constant infusion of cash for the Japan relief effort, Caldwell says. Since the program’s April 1 kickoff, Aurora customers have donated $44,000 in corn, grain and cash. Recently, Cooperative Producers, Inc. also joined the fundraising effort, bringing the total raised through NeCGA to more than $55,000.

Habrock and Caldwell both stress that farms of any size are encouraged to contribute to the Japan relief effort, with Caldwell adding that most of the donations logged at Aurora locations have come from small- to medium-sized family farms.

Nebraska’s corn growers aren’t the only farmers raising funds for their trade partners in Japan. Both Habrock and Caldwell say they’ve spoken to agriculture leaders from other corn states looking to start similar programs. Meat producers are getting involved, as well. In March, the Beef Checkoff Program invested $200,000 in a relief fund administered by the U.S. Meat Export Federation; the National Pork Board also allocated $100,000 from the Pork Checkoff to this fund. The USMEF’s fund will be used to help alleviate food shortages in Japan.

While Caldwell says the destruction in Japan is immense, with many projecting it to be “the single largest disaster in world history from an economic standpoint,” she says she’s awed by the response she’s seen from the U.S. farming community.

“Their response has been wonderful. … Their heart goes out when someone else is in need of help.”

To find out if there’s a corn- or grain-donation program in your area, contact your local farmers’ co-op or growers association. To make a cash donation to the American Red Cross, visit their secure online-donation site.

Tags farmer, farmers, grain-donation program, Japan earthquake, Japan relief effort, nuclear disaster in Japan

Urban Farming

Top 2011 Green Cars Released

Post author By Dani Yokhna
Post date April 26, 2011
No Comments on Top 2011 Green Cars Released

Green car

Courtesy Nissan

The Nissan Leaf topped Kelley Blue Book’s green-car list for 2011.

The editors from Kelley Blue Book, the leading provider of new- and used-car information, recently released its list of the top-10 green cars of 2011. This annual list comprises a variety of fuel-efficient vehicles along with detailed EPA-estimated fuel economy numbers and commentary on why each model made the year’s top-green-car list.

Along with the green-car list, Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence released data from a March 2011 survey detailing consumer sentiment and opinions on gas prices. According to the survey, gas prices are increasingly influencing car shoppers’ vehicle purchase considerations.

The number of survey respondents reporting that gas prices have changed their mind about the vehicles they are considering to buy increased 5 percent from February 2011 to March 2011. Further, the number of respondents who identified better fuel economy as the primary reason for purchasing a new vehicle also has been on the rise over the past three months, with 15 percent claiming that as their No. 1 reason in the recent survey. On average, consumers taking the March 2011 survey said that a vehicle would need to get at least 26.2 highway miles per gallon in order for them to consider it for their next vehicle purchase.

Another survey by Baum and Associates supported the trend, showing that high gas prices and a recovering economy led to a 46-percent increase in hybrid-vehicle and clean-diesel-vehicle sales in March 2011 compared to March 2010. The jump was about three times higher than the increase in the overall car market last month, according to an auto analyst from Baum and Associates.

The Kelley Blue Book editors kept consumer sentiment about gas prices in mind when selecting the 2011 green-car list and found a much wider range of vehicles worthy of consideration compared to years past. Not only did they find more hybrids than ever before but also more high-efficiency gas-powered vehicles.

“The sheer number and types of choices in the green-cars category have grown remarkably in the last year, with new plug-in electrically driven vehicles alongside an increased number of traditional gasoline-powered cars with improved fuel economy, as well as hybrids and diesels,” said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book.

To be considered for the 2011 green-car list, each vehicle was required to offer fuel economy and CO2 emissions superior to the bulk of vehicles in its class, while providing safety and comforts features that would make it pleasant to own. The variety of green vehicles included the 2010 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid, the 2011 Hyundai Elantra and the 2011 Honda Insight, among others.

One of the key trends identified by the Kelley Blue Book editors for 2011 is that fuel-efficient conventional gasoline cars are making a statement, with combined EPA fuel economy numbers in the high 30s and highway ratings nudging more than 40 miles per gallon. Because these vehicles also are significantly less expensive than hybrids, the Kelley Blue Book editors expect them to have a big impact with consumers who are seeing gas prices hit $4 per gallon.

However, in 2011, the auto industry also has witnessed the rise of the electrically powered vehicle. Nissan created a stir with its all-electric Leaf, which topped this year’s green-car list, daring to plunge into territory that General Motors found untenable more than a decade ago. But GM has learned from its past experience and launched the Chevrolet Volt, an electric car that carries a gasoline engine to power the vehicle only on rare occasions. As plug-ins, both the Leaf and Volt relieve drivers of gas-station fuel-ups.

As the consideration process continued, the kbb.com editorial department was confronted with the fact that, in terms of green cars, there are more good choices than ever before. While it makes the editors’ job of choosing the top 10 a bit tougher, it is nothing but a positive for all of the American drivers who are considering an environmentally friendly car these days.

Bucking Up for Sustainability

Asparagus Raised Beds—Check!