Designate an Area

Yes, picking out an area, or designating a spot, is the best first step. You may have an extra room in your home or extra space in the basement to store. Ideally, a food pantry would be best in an area that is easily accessible by the family, that is cool and dark, and void of moisture. If you choose to start building your food pantry in your basement, make sure you perform preliminary moisture and mold checks before you start. Doing so will dramatically reduce the rate of food spoilage.

For the sake of example, we are going to choose a spare room in your home. This room will be the room with the least amount of sunlight per day and generally the coolest room in the house. This room need not be terribly big, but it should be large enough for a few storage shelves to hold your food items. A family who is serious about storing food may need to sacrifice an office or the like in order to make this happen. If you are among the ones who need to sacrifice for space, your family will thank you when you have stored up enough food for their survival! Remember even if you can’t designate an entire room, you could designate a corner area to achieve this task.

Shelving

Proper shelving is imperative to creating a functional survival pantry system. Most families simply buy their shelving from department or hardware stores. You will be able to find a variety of options to suit your needs. Depending on what you plan on storing, you may opt to purchase heavy-duty plastic, metal, or steel shelving. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages. In order to find out what will suit your needs best, do preliminary research on the three types, and choose wisely. Take into consideration your space, your budget, and the amount of food you and your family plans on storing. It may seem like a daunting task, but read on— it’s easier than you realize!

Prepare now for surging food costs and empty grocery store shelves…

What to Buy?

Okay, here is where most people begin to have mental spasms. They don’t know what foods to buy for their families, so anxiety sets in. This need not be the case with you! It’s quite simple. Buy foods that are ready to eat or need little preparation in order to eat. Why? In most true crisis situations, all normal utilities such as water, electricity, and gas are unavailable. Therefore, you need to think ahead to that time. You do not need to have a pantry full of food that needs to be cooked when you do not have electricity or gas to cook it… do you? Of course not! In disaster situations, time is precious when it comes to the survival of you and your family. And there’s certainly not a need to go buy out the grocery store all at once. Every time you and your family go to the market to buy your groceries, buy a little extra. Make room in your food budget every week in order to add a little bit at a time to your food pantry.

Canned Foods

These are the first types of foods that may come to your mind, and rightly so, because canned foods are the primary stock in all home survival pantries. What kind of canned foods are good? Just about any kind you can think of. Most commonly are canned beans, vegetables, fruits, meats, soups, chili, pasta, and such. One good thing to remember is to buy what your family likes to eat now. In a survival situation, eating foods that are familiar to them will increase the morale and life expectancy of your family.

Breakfast Bars, Granola Bars, and Candy Bars

These are great for energy boosters. Include granola and breakfast bars into your pantry for a quick pick-me-up. Energy bars, although a little more expensive, can be a good option as well. Candy bars are widely available but can stale quickly. Be mindful of expiration dates when purchasing bars.

Oatmeal and Hot Cereals

Oatmeal is a favorite quick meal that can be made in just a minute and a little bit of water. Most supermarkets have large containers of oatmeal and hot cereal to purchase. Make sure you purchase the “quick cook” or “instant” variety for ease in cooking. Most quick cook oatmeal has a shelf life of two to three years.

Dry Beans & Dry Rice

Dried beans and rice are a favorite as well. These can be stored for long periods of time like they are when purchased from the grocery. For increased shelf life, remove the beans and rice from the bags and freeze them for about seventy-two hours. This will effectively kill any rice and bean bugs that may be inconspicuous. After this, repackage them into another airtight container and safely store your items.

Condiments

Many do not think to include condiments such as salt, pepper, sugar, and other spices. Ketchup, mustard, and peanut butter can also be included in this category. Adding these items will benefit both you and your taste buds, and some of those common condiments serve other purposes, including medicinal needs. Condiments come cheap at some discount stores, so stock up!

Expiration Dates & Rotation

Be sure to check the expiration dates on all items that you purchase for your pantry. There isn’t anything worse than spending your hard-earned cash on a bunch of expired food. Be care when shopping at deep discount outlets because they tend to sell a lot of expired items to the public. This is not illegal, unfortunately, so just spend a little extra time and check the dates.

It is also important to rotate your food supply, eating the old food first and rotating the newer stock to the back. It is okay to prepare your family’s everyday meals from the stock of your emergency food pantry. What’s the point in having a pantry full of food if you don’t eat it, right? Just be sure to replace what you used with newer (expiring later) food. For instance, you are preparing a can of beans for dinner. Instinct tells us to eat the “fresher” things first, but fight this impulse and grab the can that is expiring within the current year. The next time you are at the market, grab a couple of cans to replace what you used. Most canned foods have a shelf life from three to four years, but shelf life can be extended by the condition of your pantry.

Planning your pantry is easier when you know how to get started, what you need to do, and what you need to buy. Preparing for a time when food is of shortage is not always a pleasant task and equally not a pleasant thought to entertain. But you can equip yourself with the knowledge and skills you need in order to plan and build your home emergency pantry. The website http://www.ready.gov/ offers handy tips for Americans to prepare for the next disaster. Using all information that is available to you, and applying that knowledge gained to the preparation process, you will efficiently stock your home emergency pantry with the proper foods needed for survival.

How much your garden is affected by disease depends partly on your climate. Gardens in dry climates with cold winters suffer fewer disease problems than warm, moist climates. This is one aspect of gardening that you don’t have much control over. Fortunately, how you tend your garden also plays a big role in controlling disease.

Disease prevention starts with careful planning and garden preparation. Vigilance during the growing season can ward off major problems. Healthy, vigorous plants are much less likely to suffer from disease problems than struggling ones. If you find that you must use fungicides to control diseases, opt for those labeled safe for organic use and apply them early in the season, when appropriate. Below are more tips on maintaining a disease-free garden.

Before Planting

• Plan your garden location carefully. Place your garden in an area that gets at least six to eight hours of sunlight each day. In most areas, the south or southwestern area of your yard is an ideal spot for the vegetable garden. In the south, you can probably get away with a northern or eastern location. Place the garden where it has easy access to water.
• Amend the soil. Poor soil accounts for more than 80 percent of vegetable garden failures, yet it’s one of the few aspects of gardening that you have control over. Vegetables need fertile, well-draining loam. In clay, the roots can’t get oxygen and drown. Plants are also more susceptible to root rots and other diseases. In sandy soils, water and nutrients leach too quickly out of the soil, causing drought stress and nutrient deficiencies. Here’s an easy way to amend the soil: make raised beds out of wood, rock or other materials. You can even make raised beds if you prefer. When adding soil to the bed, alternate regular garden soil with layers of compost, dried leaves and peat moss. Then, annually, add an additional 2 inches of compost to the soil surface. Add in a balanced fertilizer every year before planting, based on your soil type and fertility.
• Choose disease-resistant plants. Whether you start seedlings yourself, buy nursery transplants, or seed directly in the garden, good plant selection is vital to keeping a healthy garden. Talk with a county extension agent or visit your state’s master gardener site to learn about plants that are adapted to your region. Look for plants or seeds that are known for their disease resistance. Tomato varieties, for example, might be labeled VN or VNF, which indicates the plants are resistant to specific diseases. Buy transplants that are short and stocky and avoid those that are leggy. Avoid any that have pale, yellow or blemished leaves. Heirlooms are particularly hardy because they’ve stood the test of time.

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During The Growing Season

• Plant seeds and transplants at the appropriate time. Cool-season plants like carrots, lettuce, spinach, and peas grow best in spring and fall. Plant them about four weeks before the last expected frost. Plant warm-season vegetables, such as beans, tomatoes, peppers, and pumpkins only after the last expected frost. Planting these crops early often stunts their growth and makes them more susceptible to disease.
• Spread floating row covers over plants or use hoop tunnels. Floating row covers and hoop tunnels can keep out many insect pests. They also protect young plants in the spring from late frosts and chills. Remove the covers during the heat of summer and when the plants are blossoming so pollinators can reach them.
• Space plants according to the seed packet directions. Plants spaced too closely together compete for water and nutrients and are also more prone to disease. Air should circulate freely.
• Separate plants that belong to the same family because these plants usually carry and spread the diseases. For example, separate tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, as well as cucumbers, melons and pumpkins. Remember to rotate crops so they don’t grow in the same location from year to year.
• Keep the plants dry and avoid working in a wet garden because many diseases are spread by wet leaves. Use soaker hoses instead of overhead irrigation and water early in the morning.
• Mulch the soil with untreated grass clippings, straw, or black plastic. Mulch offers so many benefits. It keeps weeds down, which can harbor disease, and it also keeps the soil moist. Organic mulches build the soil as they decompose and they keep plants off the bare, wet ground.
• Control insects that spread disease. Many insects can spread disease from weed plants to the vegetable garden. For example, aster leafhoppers can spread aster yellows from dandelions to carrots.
• Remove diseased plants immediately and bury them away from the garden or bag them and dispose of them. Don’t compost them. In most cases, there is no cure once a vegetable plant becomes diseased. Your best bet is to remove it before it infects other plants.
• In moist, humid climates you may have to resort to fungicides to control diseases. Most fungicides work best to prevent disease, rather than to cure existing infections. If you know that your cucumber and melon crops always succumb to powdery mildew, for example, start a spray program mid-season, when powdery mildew usually appears.
• Water vegetable crops regularly. When plants are drought stressed, they are more susceptible to disease. They also suffer more non-pathogen problems. For example, tomatoes that are subjected to alternate periods of drought and overwatering might develop blossom end rot. Water two or three times each week, as needed to keep the soil moist 1 inch beneath the soil surface.
• Trellis or stake vegetables when possible. Fruiting vegetables that sprawl on the ground are more susceptible to disease. Trellis tomatoes, cucumbers and small melons. Try growing pole beans instead of bush beans.
• Harvest vegetables as soon as they become ripe. Don’t allow fruit to remain on the vine to rot, which attracts insects and makes your garden more susceptible to disease.

After The Harvest

• Remove every last bit of plant debris from the garden and compost it. Don’t add diseased plants to the compost bin, though, because the composting process might not kill the pathogens.
• Wash trellises and cages with hot soapy water if the plants suffered from disease. You don’t want these pathogens lingering around.
• Make records if you haven’t already of where you planted crops so you can rotate them the following year.

The meat was perfectly preserved, tender, and flavorful. Since it was already cooked, I could use it for spur of the moment, quick meals. Canning meat is also a great money-saving strategy. Even when the freezer’s full, by canning meat, I can stock up when prices are at their lowest—think about the $6 turkeys every November. From a survivalist standpoint, having some canned meat on hand makes sense too. If I lose my power, I can still make a satisfying meal with canned meat.

Read on to learn more about how to can meat and poultry safely in your own home. The process may seem complicated, but canning meat is one of the simplest canning projects you’ll find.

Canning Meats And Poultry

The first thing to remember is that meat and poultry is a low-acid food so it cannot be canned safely in a water-bath steamer. You must process these foods in a pressure canner to avoid dangerous food-borne illnesses like botulism.

Additionally, keep in mind that if you live 1,000 feet or more above sea level, you must make some adjustments in pressure. If you have a weighted gauge, adjust the pressure to 15 pounds above 1,000 feet. If you have a dial gauge, set the pressure to 11 pounds for 2,000 to 4,000 feet above sea level. Increase the pressure by 1 pound for each additional 2,000 feet above sea level you live. You should also leave a bit more headspace (1/8 to 1/4 inch) at the top of each jar at higher altitudes to allow for expansion.

There are two methods of canning meat and poultry—raw pack and hot pack. I prefer hot pack because the broth gives the meat more flavor. However, the pressure cooker will cook the meat completely so you can pack it using the raw pack method too. Some people can chicken and other meats with the bone in. Again, this is a matter of personal preference. I prefer to remove the bones to make the most of the space in the jars (and on my pantry shelf). I also prefer the convenience of canned meat that is already cubed and ready to add to recipes.

Prepare now for surging food costs and empty grocery store shelves…

Canned Beef

To can brisket, roast, London broil, or other cuts of beef, simply cut it into 1 inch cubes or long strips. Place the meat in a roasting pan or baking dish and add 10 cups water. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Pack the hot, partially cooked meat into hot jars. Fill the jar with the broth, leaving 1 inch headspace. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to pint jars, 1 teaspoon of salt to quart jars. Remove air bubbles with a plastic spatula and wipe the rims. Place the lids and rings over the jars. Process beef at 10 pounds pressure at sea level. Process pint jars for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Process quart jars for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

To can hamburger or chopped pork, brown it in a large pan. Add 6 cups water, tomato juice, or broth. Pack the meat into the jars with the broth, leaving 1 inch headspace. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to each pint and 1 teaspoon of salt to each quart. Process your filled jars at 10 pounds of pressure. Process pint jars for 1 hour and 15 minutes; process quart jars for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Canned Poultry

Place whole chickens or turkeys in a roasting pan and add 6 cups water. Cover the poultry with foil and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. If you prefer, you can simmer the meat in a pot on top of the stove.

Cut the partially cooked meat into cubes or strips and pack into hot clean jars with the liquid. Leave 1 inch headspace. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to pints and 1 teaspoon of salt to quarts. Remove the air bubbles and wipe the rims. Secure the lids and process at 10 pounds of pressure. Process pints for 1 hour and 15 minutes; process quarts for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Canned Pork

Cut pork tenderloin, chops, or roasts into cubes or strips. Place in a roasting pan and cover with 6 cups liquid. Cover with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Pack into hot, clean jars with the liquid, leaving 1 inch headspace. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to each pint jar, 1 teaspoon of salt to each quart. Leave 1 inch headspace. Secure the lids and process at 10 pounds pressure. Process pints for 1 hour 15 minutes and quarts for 1 hour 30 minutes.

Using Canned Meats And Poultry

You can use canned meats and poultry in place of fresh or frozen meat in almost any recipe, but I like them best in casseroles, soups, and stews. Try the following:

• Mix canned beef with salsa, corn, black beans, and onions. Top with cheese and a cornmeal batter and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes for a delicious, fast tamale pie.
• How about Italian beef sandwiches? Heat a jar of canned beef in a slow cooker with some sliced onions and peppers. Add 1 package of Italian dressing seasoning and a little red wine or beef broth. When the onions are tender, spoon the beef and vegetables onto Kaiser rolls. Top with provolone cheese and toast in the oven for 5 minutes.
• Canned beef is a great foundation for chili. Add a can of kidney beans, some chili powder, dried onions, garlic, and tomatoes, and simmer for 20 minutes.
• Use canned chicken or turkey in chicken noodle soup or chicken pot pie.
• Mix canned chicken or turkey with mayonnaise, celery, diced apples, grapes, and seasonings for a terrific chicken salad. This is my teenage son’s favorite lunch food.
• Heat canned pork or chicken with hominy. Add green chilies, onions, tomatoes, and chili pepper for a savory posole stew. Top with cheddar cheese and cilantro.
• Use canned pork for sweet and sour pork or shredded pork sandwiches.

Quick Tips on Canning Meat and Poultry

• Always examine any canned food before eating. Discard any that have a bulging lid, spurting liquid, or off odor.
• Add onion, celery, and carrots to the cooking broth for extra flavor. Discard the vegetables before you place the meat in the jars.
• Adapt these recipes to any type of wild game, including venison, pheasant, or rabbit.

But do hybrids belong in the same category as GMOs? Do hybrids pose a safety risk, and just what are the differences between the two? Read on for everything you need to know about hybrids and genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

What Are Hybrids?

The process of hybridization occurs continually in nature as open-pollinated plants pollinate each other. Over years and years, plants may change slightly, developing better disease resistance or larger fruits.

Humans have been harnessing this power since the beginning of organized agriculture – taking seed from the healthiest, most productive plants and pollinating those plants to create better offspring. For most of history, this process relied on hybridizing open-pollinated plants. But creating a hybrid with superior characteristics took a long time – as many as ten generations.

In the mid-1800s, researchers discovered how to create a hybrid in just one generation. Using a controlled environment, floating row covers, and hand pollination, they could predictably create a new plant cultivar. These hybrids are known as F1 hybrids.

Hybrids aren’t dangerous, and they often have many benefits. Hybrids are usually more disease-resistant than heirloom varieties, and they may produce more vigorous plants. On the other hand, through the process of hybridization, unique characteristics, such as sweetness and flavor, are sometimes bred out. For example, most commercial tomato growers use hybrids, which are bred for disease resistance and firm fruit that ships well. Ditto for strawberries. The fruit might survive long trips to supermarkets, but it lacks the intense flavor of the heirloom crops.

Seed companies love hybrids because they can be registered. Only the company that developed the F1 hybrid can produce and sell it. Seeds collected from a hybrid plant won’t grow true, so gardeners must buy new seeds each year. Many gardening experts worry that this seed monopoly gives too much power to seed companies. It also limits the diversity of crops, a potentially devastating situation if serious plant diseases occur. Finally, there’s something satisfying about biting into a tomato variety that your grandmother grew. Growing heirlooms gives us a link to our agricultural past.

In short, hybrids have both positive and negative traits. If you regularly use hybrids in your garden, try using heirloom seeds occasionally, as well. Heirlooms are almost always more interesting to grow and often taste better, as well. Best of all, you can collect and save seed at the end of the growing season to increase your self-sufficiency.

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What Are GMOs?

Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are another animal together. While hybrids simply harness a naturally occurring process, GMOs are created in a lab using techniques, such as gene splicing, that are foreign to the natural world. Genes from completely separate kingdoms are combined – something that almost never happens in nature. A genetically modified corn manufactured by Monsanto, for example, is loaded with genetic material from Bacillus thuringensis (Bt), a naturally occurring soil bacteria that can kill corn borers and other insects.

Currently in the U.S., GMOs are found in almost all corn, soybean, and cotton crops. They are also found in rapeseed (which is used to make canola oil), sugar beets, potatoes, peppers, peas, squash, and rice. Monsanto has plans to advance further into the fruit and vegetable market. Cows are fed GMO feed, and honeybees make honey from the pollen of GMO crops. The FDA does not require products containing GMOs to be labeled as such. In fact, unless you eat an entirely organic diet, you probably consume GMOs every day, especially if you eat a highly processed diet.

Proponents for GMOs say these products significantly increase farmers’ yields, allowing them to produce food more profitably and potentially reduce hunger worldwide. Whether these claims are true is open to debate, but many researchers are worried about the potential for harm. Below are a few of the potential risks of GMOs.

Human Health

Never before has man had the ability to manipulate nature as scientists are now, and we simply don’t know how GMOs will behave in the human body or even in the environment long term. There is growing evidence that GMOs can cause harm, though. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine believes GMOs have the potential to cause immune dysfunction, allergies, infertility, inflammation, and a host of other health problems.

The Autism Relief Foundation believes GMOs may be contributing to the increase in autism spectrum disorders, as well as cause further damage to children identified with such disorders.

Animal Health

Currently, GMOs serve two purposes. First, pesticides are genetically spliced into seed to combat insect pests. Unfortunately, these pesticides kill beneficial insects such as ladybugs, butterflies, and lacewings along with the bad guys. In April, 2013, the European Union banned the use of certain pesticides and pesticide-laced seeds believed to be impacting honeybee populations. Another potential problem is that of pesticide resistance. As insects consume GMOs, they can build resistance to the pesticides. Over time, “super bugs” can evolve, which are even more difficult to control.

Farmers report that livestock fed a GMO diet suffer more health problems and infertility. Offspring have higher mortality rates and more health problems, as well.

The second way seed manufacturers manipulate GMO seeds is by building plants that can tolerate high doses of glysophate herbicides (Roundup) without being killed. What this means is that the food you consume may contain higher amounts of herbicides than ever before. Glysophate has been found to cause birth defects in amphibians and birds and cancer, infertility, and endocrine dysfunction in many animals. Several studies have shown that glysophate causes soil damage and can even cause plant diseases, making farmers even more dependent on chemical use.

Financial Loss

A handful of companies control most of the world’s seed banks, a potentially devastating situation. For example, the cost of soybean seed has quadrupled since Monsanto gained licensing rights, according to the New York Times.

Monsanto has sued many farmers over the years for patent violations and won, even when the farmers unknowingly gained access to the patented genetic material through wind pollination. As the agri-giants gain more control, farmers and consumers alike pay a heavy toll.

So what’s an individual to do? First, become as self-sufficient as you can. Choose organic, heirloom seeds and save your own seed whenever possible. Buy products labeled non-GMO. Write to your state representatives expressing your desire for more government oversight of GMOs.

There are numerous growing kits available from so-called mushroom boutique stores, and they can allow you the opportunity to grow portabella, oyster, shitake, and button mushrooms, along with several other kinds. This is a great way to experiment with various types of mushrooms, but it can also be somewhat on the costly side. The best method is to contact a commercial seller of mushroom spawn so that they can provide you with what you need to get your button mushrooms growing and thriving. You may need to purchase commercial quantities of mushroom spawn, but the long-term cost-savings is absolutely worth it once you get your mini mushroom farm off the ground.

Getting Started

There are several tools and pieces of equipment that you will need in order to grow your mushrooms, and these same tools will actually be very useful to you should you decide to branch out into other types of mushrooms later on down the line. You will need the following:

• Well-aerated space (like a large shed)
• Fans to circulate the air
• Newspaper
• Water mister
• Mushroom spawn
• Organic compost
• Peat moss
• Growing trays (plastic or wooden)
• Temperature gauge

The type of growing trays that you use should be easily maneuverable, so it is typically best to construct or select trays that are three feet by two feet. This way you can easily move them around when they are in use and then stack them up in a compact space between uses. Wood is a budget-friendly material to use to construct the boxes, but you may find that a plastic box can be better sterilized between uses, in order to reduce the growth of unwanted bacteria.

The organic compost that you use will depend greatly on your preferences, but you will find that the professionals love a mixture of horse or cow manure in order to produce the best quality mushrooms. However, any good quality compost will do the job nicely. The compost should be a chocolate-brown color and have little to no ammonia scent to it; while ammonia is a naturally occurring by-product of the compost process, it can actually create a very toxic environment for your mushroom spawn.

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Fill your growing trays with at least six to eight inches of compost and mist well with your water mister. The key to properly prepping your compost is to ensure that there is even moisture in it, but that it is not soggy and waterlogged. Pick up a handful of the compost and squeeze it: it should maintain its shape easily but should crumble rapidly when you touch it.

Once your compost is ready, mix one or two cups of the spawn flakes into the compost. Mix it well in order to evenly distribute the spawn throughout the growing tray. Ensure that the temperature in your growing space is maintained at sixty-five to seventy degrees in order to get the best results from your mushroom growth. Good air circulation is necessary as well, so use a fan if necessary. Mist the compost twice daily with tepid water. The water temperature is key because extremes either way could adversely affect the growth of your mushrooms. Misting is also important, versus spraying with a hose, as the force of poured water could be disruptive to the growing process.

Within as little as two weeks you will start to see a type of white-colored webbing forming on the surface of the soil as the fungus starts to grow. Remember that the mushrooms we eat are actually the fruit of the fungus that is growing, just like tomatoes are the fruits of the plants they grow on.

Apply a two-inch layer of organic peat moss on top of the fungus, ensuring that the peat moss is damp first. The moisture in the peat moss will promote the mushroom growth, so be sure that it is in fact moist (without being soggy). Place several layers of newspaper on top of the peat moss, and spray the newspaper down with your water mister. Keep the newspaper misted twice a day in order to maintain even moisture for your mushrooms to grow. Do your utmost to maintain the temperature at no lower than fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit and no higher than sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit; otherwise you will find that it takes a lot longer for your mushrooms to start. After ten days, you should remove the newspaper from atop the peat moss. If you don’t already have mushrooms peeking up from the compost yet, then you will see them within a few short days. This is called pinning.
Pinning is called that because when the mushrooms first start to grow through the peat moss, they look like very tiny white pinheads.

Continue to mist the growing boxes twice a day. Once the mushrooms have started the pinning process, they will start to grow somewhat rapidly. You can pick the mushrooms at any point, so it is entirely up to you and your personal preference for mushroom size.

Keep in mind that picking the mushrooms when they are young will give you a nice firm mushroom that is ideal for enjoying fresh in salads, on sandwiches, or simply as a snack. If you allow the mushrooms to grow to full maturity, the gills underneath the mushroom cap will open up and you’ll find that the button mushrooms have a flavor that is much more robust and bold. The majority of button mushrooms sold in grocery stores are picked young enough that the gills have not yet opened, so consider allowing a few of yours to reach maturity so that you can experience the intense and robust flavor that homegrown button mushrooms can offer you.

From your original growing trays you should be able to harvest a new batch of mushrooms every seven to ten days for up to six months. Grow several trays at different stages so that you have a continual harvest of fresh mushrooms to enjoy all year long.

Mushrooms can be frozen, dried, or enjoyed fresh. Because they are such a popular kitchen staple, you may also find that they are a huge hit when given as gifts or used to trade with friends and neighbors for some of their excess bounty.

Once you are comfortable with growing the popular and easy-to-grow button mushrooms, you can move on to experimenting with growing porcini mushrooms, which are baby portabellas, as well as the mature variety of portabellas. Oyster mushrooms are also a great choice, because some of them actually have a mild seafood flavor, which can impart rich flavors to your favorite dishes.

Tobacco has been a cash crop for many, many years. Growing and curing chewing tobacco is a process that you can learn to do at home, whether or not you actually use the product. In fact, being able to supply items like alcohol or tobacco can be a real boon in a survival situation, as many people will be willing to pay or barter quite a bit for them, which can keep you living comfortably in an otherwise difficult situation.

Tobacco Growing

First, you need to find a good tobacco source. You can buy tobacco seeds from other tobacco growers. (You can store seeds for two to three years if you buy too many.) Choose your seeds based on what you are going to do with the tobacco. Different types are used for smoking and chewing. Tobacco will grow in all fifty states so you shouldn’t have to worry about where you live. However, certain varieties may be more suited to one environment over another. Choose a variety that is adapted to your region in order to maximize your crops.

When germinating seeds, you should count on one tobacco plant to produce about five ounces of dried tobacco. Plant your tobacco about four feet apart to give you room to walk between the plants. When you see flowers forming at the top, you should remove the terminal bud. This is called topping the plant, and it allows the leaves to get much thicker and larger than they would be if left untopped. Remove the top before the flower opens and watch for the suckers to appear on each leaf. These suckers must be removed manually to increase the tobacco yield.

Harvesting and Curing

The first tobacco harvest can begin when the lower leaves start showing a yellowish color. This is typically three to four weeks after topping the plants. You can then remove leaves at one-to-two week intervals. You can also harvest the tobacco by cutting the entire stalk down and hanging it upside down to cure. Either way works, so you can choose the method that fits your lifestyle.

Once you have your tobacco harvested, you need to cure it. You can string your tobacco leaves on a cord or wire that you run through each leaf. You need to space the leaves an inch apart to give them room to breathe while they dry. You should hang your tobacco in a room that is warm, dry and has good airflow. You need to leave your tobacco leaves hanging until they are a light to medium brown color. If you prefer a mellow tobacco, let them hang even longer.

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Many people avoid tobacco production due to the time involved in curing. It can take one to three years to cure a tobacco harvest properly. Home tobacco growers have to rely on air to cure their tobacco. Commercial curing is quicker due to using heat. It is not practical for the home grower to use heat; however, there are some home growers who have build home curing facilities and may offer them for sale.

Next, you need to prepare the tobacco for aging. You can shred or chop it by hand or using a food processor. This breaks the tobacco down to a usable size. If you are making chewing tobacco, you can base your chopping on the size you normally find in a pouch of tobacco.

You are now ready to make your flavoring agent that will keep your tobacco moist and prepare it for aging, if you are going to age it. Reduce two cups of apple juice until it is thick, approximately half the original volume. Add one or two tablespoons of molasses for taste. Next stir in your chopped tobacco and mix well to coat.  You can now seal your tobacco up for use or store it for aging.

Aging

Commercial tobacco is aged before it is packaged and sold for use. Aging can take anywhere from one year to five or six years. Home tobacco growers may find this the most difficult part, as it takes patience and the proper moisture conditions to age without mildew and rot ruining the tobacco. Aging is a trial-and-error procedure for the home grower, much like using flavoring agents. Many home tobacco growers store their tobacco in oak casks while it ages. The length of time you allow your tobacco to age will depend on your personal taste. When you are satisfied with the product, you can seal it in baggies for use.

Advice for Home Growers

Growing tobacco may not be the huge success you want it to be on your first harvest. However, give yourself time, and you will master the art of growing, harvesting, and curing tobacco at home. These tips will help you get started.

• Sun curing your tobacco leaves will cause them to turn yellow and have a very sweet flavor.
• Many home growers soak their dried tobacco leaves in green tea. The green tea draws some of the nicotine out of the leaves.
• If you don’t have room to plant rows of tobacco plants, you can grow them in three-gallon containers with one plant per container.
• Make sure you check your local laws before growing any tobacco product.

Here’s The Best Part For Non-Smokers:

If we find ourselves in a real economic meltdown, there’s going to be a lot of smokers out there going through tobacco withdraws.  Tobacco will be a great barter item.  If you and your family are in need of weapons, food, and fuel, tobacco will be a very high value barter item.

Disclaimer:  As always, growing tobacco should be done according to all local and state laws.

Here’s the low-down on organic versus inorganic fertilizers. First, both supply nutrition to plants, primarily in the form of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Synthetic fertilizers are usually made using petroleum products, which makes them less environmentally friendly. In fact, excessive runoff from synthetic fertilizers after storms can actually damage the environment. In addition, they usually don’t add organic matter to the soil or build soil microbes, and they may also contain fewer micronutrients.

Organic fertilizers have potential drawbacks, as well. Manure, for example, is an excellent fertilizer because it’s free and widely available. However, it’s high in nitrogen and low in other nutrients, so you might have to supplement it with other fertilizers. Hauling and spreading it is obviously more labor intensive than opening a bag of synthetic fertilizer and sprinkling the little bits everywhere. Price is a consideration for many organic fertilizers, which can cost considerably more than their synthetic counterparts. However, many farmers feel that the benefits their plants and the environment receive outweigh any extra work or cost they might endure.

Regardless of which one you choose, keep in mind that both organic and synthetic fertilizers can cause damage if improperly used. Both can leach into ground water or burn plants. Many gardeners opt to use both – manure and compost to improve soil texture and small amounts of synthetic fertilizers to boost growth. Whichever fertilizer you opt for, get a soil test so you know exactly what your soil needs and you don’t overfertilize. Below you’ll find information on the most common organic fertilizers available.

Plant By-Products

Alfalfa Meal. This agricultural product, usually used as animal feed, can also be used as a fertilizer. Like compost or cover crops, it adds organic matter to the soil, which improves texture and drainage. Alfalfa meal is a good source of trace minerals and has a nutrient profile of 2-1-2. It breaks down over one to four months.

• Advantages: Inexpensive and widely available at feed stores.
• Cons: Might contain weed seeds.

Corn Gluten. Corn gluten is usually touted as a pre-emergent herbicide, but it is also a fertilizer. This natural product, as the name implies, is made from corn. Spread it on your lawn or soil and it dissolves to form a thin layer over the soil when moistened. This layer can inhibit seed germination, which is why it is used as a pre-emergent weed treatment. As the product breaks down, though, it also adds nutrients, and in particular, nitrogen, to the soil. It has a nutrient profile of 9-0-0.

• Advantages: Very safe product and a rich source of nitrogen.
• Cons: Some products contain GMOs. Also, corn gluten is relatively expensive and not yet available nationwide. It inhibits seed germination, so don’t use it until after vegetable seeds have emerged.

Cotton Seed Meal. Cotton seed meal is made from ground cotton seed. This product is high in nitrogen and has a nutrient profile of 6-1-1. Unfortunately, most cotton plants are heavily sprayed with pesticides, which does affect the seeds. Some may be GMOs.

• Advantages: High nitrogen source, widely available in some areas.
• Cons: GMO and pesticide contamination.

Green Manures. Green manures, or cover crops, are planted in late summer. They overwinter and are dug into the soil in the spring a few weeks before spring planting. As the crops break down, they add organic matter and nitrogen to the soil.

• Advantages: Inexpensive, can reduce weed growth. Builds soil while adding nutrients.
• Cons: More work intensive than some methods.

Seaweed. Kelp products, such as kelp meal and liquid kelp, don’t contain macronutrients, but they are a good source of micronutrients and growth enzymes. Use them to rejuvenate stressed plants, such as after a severe storm. Typically, you’ll see new growth within a few days. Unfortunately, these products are often expensive.

• Advantages: Provides nutrients unavailable in other products.
• Cons: Expense.

Soybean Meal. Soybean meal, like alfalfa meal, is most often used as an animal feed. In the garden, though, it is an inexpensive source of nitrogen. It has a nutrient profile of 7-2-1, and it breaks down in one to four months.

• Advantages: Widely available at feed stores. Inexpensive source of nitrogen.
• Cons: Most soybean meal contains GMOs.

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Animal By-Products

Animal Manures. Animal manure is a readily available, renewable source of nitrogen. Cow, horse, sheep, rabbit, and poultry manures can all be used.

• Advantages: Inexpensive. Builds soil texture and improves drainage.
• Cons: Work-intensive. Can burn plants or cause human illness if not used correctly.

Bat Guano. Bat guano is a euphemistic term for bat poop. Harvested from caves, this product is sold as a dry powder. It can be added directly to the soil or mixed with water to make a tea. Bat guano is either high in nitrogen or high in phosphorus, depending on the source and processing method. Nutrient content is either 10-3-1 or 3-10-1.

• Advantages: Easy to spread, breaks down slowly, and stimulates soil microbe growth.
• Cons: Harvesting and processing bat guano is an intensive process; hence, the price for this product is high. It isn’t widely available in all areas.

Blood Meal. A by-product of the slaughterhouse industry, blood meal has more nitrogen than almost any other natural fertilizer product. In fact, if not used carefully, it can burn plants. It is fairly inexpensive to buy at feed stores, but ridiculously costly at garden centers and nurseries.

• Advantages: High source of nitrogen. Its nutrient profile is 12-0-0.
• Cons: Cost at some retailers. Can burn plants.

Bone Meal. Another by-product of the slaughterhouse industry, bone meal is one of the most common natural sources for phosphorus. It has a nutrient profile of 3-15-0.

• Advantages: High amount of phosphorus in a form readily available to plants.
• Cons: Cost. Like blood meal, you should look for bone meal at a feed store, rather than a garden center for the best prices. Also, the phosphorus in bone meal might not be available to plants in alkaline soil.

Fish Emulsion. Fish emulsion products have been around for a long time. These products are made from heat and acid-processed fish waste. They are usually fairly inexpensive and supply a good source of major and micronutrients. Fish emulsion is usually a liquid product, which makes it easy to use. One that is highly regarded is Protogrow™.

• Advantages: Good source of micronutrients.
• Cons: Some have a foul, fishy odor.

Enzymatically Treated Liquid Fish Products. These products have been enzymatically processed, rather than heat or acid processed, for less odor and more nutrients. They have a nutrient profile of 4-2-2 and break down over one to four months.

• Advantages: No odor, more micronutrients.
• Cons: Cost.

Fish Meal and Fish Powder. These products are heat processed and ground into meal or powder. The powder is often combined with water to make a liquid product. Dried fish products are a great source of nutrients. Fish meal has a nutrient profile of 10-6-2, while fish powder has a profile of 12-0-1.

• Advantages: Fast-acting source of nutrients.
• Cons: Cost.

If you are not able to use your herbs within a few days, you should look for a way to preserve them so that you can make good use of them later. There are a variety of ways to consider preserving your herbs.

Drying

Drying herbs is one of the oldest and simplest methods of herb preservation.  In the past, no home was truly a home without bunches of cut herbs drying somewhere.  Though it will not work well in particularly humid areas or with some of the more finicky herbs, it can be used for the vast majority of them. To dry most herbs, you simply go out and cut your herbs and then hang them in an airy, shaded area until they are crisp.  If you happen to have a food dehydrator, your potential for success is even greater, as you will have more control over the drying environment.

It is best to keep your different varieties of herbs separated when drying. This is to avoid any tainting of your herbs’ flavor or accidentally mixing your herbs.  This is especially important if you will be using your herbs for medicinal purposes.  Oregano turns out well when dried, since drying concentrates the oils. I have also had great luck with peppermint, parsley, and dill.

The best time in the growing cycle to cut herbs is just before they flower.  If your herbs have already flowered, you may still cut them and preserve them. They will just not be as strong as if they were cut before flowering.  Generally, morning is the best time of day to cut your herbs and get the most benefits from them, as this is the time of day in which the plants have higher concentrations of their essential oils.  For best results, wait until any early morning dew has evaporated before cutting.  You don’t want any extra moisture to slow down the drying process and contribute to mold in your finished product.

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Once you have cut your herbs, shake them a bit to remove any insects and inspect to be doubly sure there are none there.  Remove anything that should not be on the plant, such as damaged leaves, other plant debris, straw, etc. and choose your method of drying them. Here are drying methods in my order of preference.

1. Hang to Dry

The simplest method of drying is to hang the herbs by their stems to dry.  I personally have a retractable clothesline on my sun porch that I pull out at herb-drying time.  I hang the herbs up in small bundles, using clothespins to hold these bundles to the line.  I can open my doors if there needs to be more air circulation or if the room gets too hot.  I found this especially fun when I had a lot of peppermint to dry.  My porch smelled delicious! (And my cats went a little bonkers….must have been because of peppermint’s relation to catnip!)

2. Food Dehydrator

The best type of food dehydrator to use when drying herbs is one with a controllable temperature dial and a fan to circulate the air.  You will not have great results with the cheap kind that only have a heating element on the bottom, but it can work in a pinch if you make sure to check on them often and be sure to rotate the trays.

If you have a food dehydrator and wish to dry your herbs that way, lay them in a single layer on your trays and set your dehydrator on low to dry your herbs.  Check on them from time to time.  How long it will take to dry will depend on how much moisture is held in your particular herbs.  Most dehydrators come with instructions for drying herbs. Check your particular dehydrator’s instructions for optimal results.

3. Near a Room Dehumidifier

If you happen to be running a room dehumidifier in the season that you are drying your herbs, you can put this machine to use at the same time as an herb dryer.  Simply place your herbs on a cooling rack and situate them in front of the air intake portion of your dehumidifier.  Of course, if you have small children or animals that might disturb this setup, you will have to keep an eye on them.  This might be easier than keeping an eye on the herbs in the oven, though, and it uses less energy than the oven or food dehydrator if you are already using the room dehumidifier.  The drawback is that you cannot dry a large amount of herbs with this setup unless you have many dehumidifiers working at the same time.

4.  Drying Racks

Since I live in a fairly humid climate, I have shied away from drying racks.  I know that they have the potential to dry a large amount of herbs (and food), but I am leery of using them with our humidity levels.  And knowing me, I would forget them one day and forget to bring them in from the rain.  I don’t want to risk wasting all of that work and food when I can easily use one of the other methods of drying.

There are drying racks available for purchase online, as well as plans and instructions for making them yourself.  Check them out.  The concept is very much the same as a food dehydrator, only you are relying on an arid climate and good air circulation to aid you in the drying process.

5. Oven

Drying in an oven, while quicker than most of the other methods, tends to reduce the amount of essential oils in the herbs, reducing the flavor and, if being prepared for medicinal purposes, the effectiveness of the herbs.

If you are planning on using your oven to dry your herbs, you will need a “warm” setting of around 140-200°F, an oven thermometer, and the memory to remember to check on them often.  Warm your oven, place your herbs that have been spread out on pans in the oven, and turn off the oven.  Check on them often to determine whether you need to warm the oven and dry them longer or if they need to come out.

Whatever drying method you choose, check on your herbs often.  When they are thoroughly dry, place them in jars or sealable baggies (suck the air out with a straw) to store.  As an additional aid to keeping them dry, you may wish to put in a nitrogen pack or capsule.  Label and date your containers and store your dried herbs in a cool, dry, dark place.

Some herbs are more tender when it comes to air drying.  These include lemon balm, which will often turn black, and basil, whose thicker leaves tend to mold if not dried quickly enough.  I have been able to dry lemon balm for use as a tea; the key is to get it drying immediately after cutting and to bruise the leaves as little as possible.  Basil tends to do better for me when dried in a food dehydrator than if it is hung to dry; this is probably due to my humid climate and its not being able to dehydrate before the tender leaves start to show signs of oxidation (the reason they turn black).

Freezing

Some people are surprised to hear that you can freeze your herbs in order to preserve them. Freezing herbs helps to preserve their fresh flavor, especially so for herbs such as basil, dill, chives, and green onions, which tend to lose much of their flavor when dried.  I have had especially good luck in freezing basil.  For what it’s worth, basil will turn black when frozen, too. But the good news is that there is a way to prevent that! Read on!

To freeze most herbs, you would cut them, remove any undesirables, lay the herbs flat on a cookie sheet, and place in the freezer for a few hours.  Once frozen, place them in freezer bags and they should be easily removable as you need them.  Depending on your freezer space, you can decide to remove leaves from tough stems before freezing or wait until you are ready to use the herbs and remove them from the stems at that time.

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An alternative to freezing on cookie sheets is to freeze your minced/chopped herbs in ice cube trays.  Simply prepare your herbs as desired, place the desired amount in the ice cube tray compartments (usually about 1 tablespoon of minced herbs), top with water, and freeze.  Once frozen, place in clearly labeled freezer bags.  Now you have measured, easy-to-grab fresh herbs to add to your recipes at your convenience!

One fun way to utilize your herbs is to freeze flowers or leaves of plants such as mint or borage and add as ice cubes to summer beverages. Fancy!

Freezing Basil

Basil is the exception to the “easy to freeze” guideline for herbs.  As I mentioned before, basil has the tendency to turn black when frozen.  To remedy this problem, oil is added to the basil.

Here’s how I do it:

1. Pick the basil and pluck off the leaves. Discard the stems or put them in the compost pile.

2. If your basil is particularly dirty, you may wash with water and use a salad spinner to help speed drying.

3. Place the basil in your food processor and process. As it is processing, stream in a bit of olive oil, continuing to process until your basil resembles pesto.

4. Use an ice cube tray for freezing—spoon the pesto into your ice cube tray and freeze. Alternatively, you may place spoonfuls of the basil/oil mixture onto a cookie sheet and freeze.

5. Once frozen, transfer your basil cubes/blobs into freezer bags and seal.  Now you have basil cubes at your fingertips to use in soups, stews, or even as the beginnings of pesto!

There are more detailed instructions and pictures of this process on my blog, Living Healthy in the Modern World.

You can use the same method for freezing basil to freeze other herbs.  Be sure to label your freezer bags of herb cubes, or you may have some “interesting” herb combinations in your future!

Flavored Oils

Another option to try if you have a lot of extra herbs to play with is to make flavored oils.

To make flavored oils, you will need:

• Pan
• Funnel
• Sterilized glass jars and lids
• Mildly flavored oil of your choice (you will be heating it, so keep that in mind as you decide which type to use)
• Fresh herbs, garlic, and/or chilies of whatever combination you choose

1.  Gently heat your oil until it is warm. It should only take a few minutes, depending on how much oil you are heating.

2. Place your herbs of choice into your sterilized jars.

3. Using a funnel, pour the oil into your jars.

4. Allow it to cool while uncovered. Then, place the lids on your containers.

5. Store in a cool, dark place. It will keep for about six months.

An alternative to heating your oil on the stove is to place your herbs in your sterilized jars, top with oil, place the lids on the jars, and place the jars on a sunny windowsill.  Allow the oil to steep for two weeks, shaking the jar daily.  Test for flavor after the two weeks.  If you want a stronger flavor, strain the oil, add more fresh herbs, and repeat the steeping process.  Once the oil has met with your approval, store it in a cool, dark place.  These oils should keep for about six months as well.

Herbal Vinegars

Another use for your herbs is to make herbal vinegars.  Use the same methods as for making herbal oils, using a cider or wine vinegar instead.  Distilled vinegar will work in a pinch, but it will not have the same nuances of flavor, and distilled vinegar flavor will be stronger than that of other vinegars.

Herbal vinegars are a delicious, healthier alternative to store-bought salad dressings and marinades.  They may also be used in deglazing pans and for making gravies and sauces.

Herbs add interest and flavor to your food and offer medicinal help.  Savor them fresh, and find a way to make them last through the year.  Try some of these methods and see which methods you prefer for each herb.  Don’t let your herbs go to waste!

People are used to the idea of using wood for heat, and many off-the-gridders have embraced the wood burning option enthusiastically. But many may not be aware of just how easy it is to cook with the heat generated by burning wood, failing to realize that having a wood stove in their home could allow them to kill two birds with one stone while saving valuable power resources in the process. People have been cooking directly over open fires since the very dawn of time, but in our sophisticated modern times we have gotten so used to cooking at home with electricity that it would never occur to most of us that the old ways might still be an option right under our very own roofs. And for the purposes of cooking, wood stoves are actually far superior to open fires because they hold and concentrate the heat they produce and pass it on more reliably and consistently.

Cooking with a wood stove is an art form, and any aspiring culinary artist who chooses to work with the medium of wood must scale the arching peak of a significant learning curve before they will finally be ready to produce four-star meals on demand. But for families and individuals making a go of it off-the-grid or hoping to transition to that lifestyle in the very near future, the versatility of wood heat could make it an ideal solution to the inescapable resource-use conundrum from which complete escape never seems possible. For the conservation minded, it is smart to learn about cooking with wood, and the payoff will make the effort involved in learning how do so successfully more than worth the while.

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If you are thinking it might be cool to give this a try, you have two legitimate options. First, you could make a full-out commitment to becoming the Wolfgang Puck of the wood cooking set by purchasing and installing a wood-burning stove manufactured especially for cooking (these amazing stoves will be the topic of our next article). Or conversely, if you already have a conventional wood stove or are planning to get one to heat your home, cabin, shack, tent, teepee, yurt, or outhouse, through a combination of trial-and-error and careful planning you can learn how to use that stove for food preparation in order to maximize your off-the-grid efficiency. Either way will work; it is just a matter of deciding how much money you would like to invest and how interested you are in using wood as a food producing resource.

Cooking As You Heat: Food Preparation On A Conventional Wood Stove

Wood stoves are fabulous heating appliances. Not only do they produce copious waves of radiated warmth that can keep us comfortable on even the coldest winter days, but they do so using a totally renewable resource that with a little hard work can be replenished in perpetuity – and time spent cutting, splitting, loading, hauling, and storing wood is the very definition of a productive activity, keeping you vital and strong as you supply yourself with a prodigious bounty of a truly fantastic and versatile fuel source.

Believe it or not, the interior of a well-fired wood stove can reach temperatures as high as 1000˚F, while surface temperatures can surpass the 400˚F mark. It is not hard to see the cooking potential in such an appliance; it is just a question of selecting the right cooking materials and supplies and using them in the right way so any food you attempt to fry, sauté, boil, bake, roast, or heat on your wood stove will be thoroughly prepared and safe to consume.

The flat surface of a typical wood stove makes an excellent platform for food preparation. In fact, sometimes the central areas of a wood stove’s surface can actually become too hot, and you may have to move your pots and pats around a little in order to maintain correct cooking temperatures and prevent your food from burning. When choosing pots and pans for use with a wood-burning stove, cast-iron is almost always the best way to go, and in addition to frying pans made of cast-iron, you will most definitely want to purchase at least one Dutch oven for regular stove top use. These heavy-duty lidded pots have been used as cooking containers for centuries, and they work great with wood stoves because they distribute heat very evenly, correcting for any temperature variations on the stove’s surface that might otherwise undermine your ability to cook food properly.

For use on a wood stove – or anywhere, for that matter – all cast-iron cookware must be seasoned first to prevent sticking and rust. To complete this process, your pots and pans should be coated with vegetable oil and heated for 2-3 hours at 300˚F, and afterwards any oil that has not been absorbed into the metal should be wiped away and a scouring pad and salt should be used to scrub out any rough spots or patches. When properly seasoned, cast-iron pots and pans become runaway winners in the “no-stick cooking” category, and this is an important consideration because of the white-hot temperatures that are sometimes produced directly over the firebox on a wood stove’s surface.

Basically any type of food that can be prepared in a frying pan or slow cooker can be cooked on the surface of a wood stove. Dutch ovens with lids sealed tight will function just as effectively as any conventional slow cooker, although it may be necessary to elevate them using a trivet (an iron tripod that will lift a cooking pot off a hot surface while continuing to transfer heat) so the food on the bottom of the pan doesn’t burn and stick. For quality slow cooker-style preparation, the Dutch oven should first be placed directly on the surface of the wood stove, uncovered, until the juices of the food inside begin to bubble. Next, the pan should be placed on a trivet located in the middle of the stove and the lid should be popped on and fastened tightly over the top, completely sealing in the pan’s contents. From this point it should all be smooth sailing, and you can sit back and relax as your delicious supper cooks slowly but steadily throughout the remainder of the day.

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As hot as it gets inside a wood stove’s firebox, it is still possible to bake vegetables or meat in there as long as you wrap what you want to cook in two layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil. This will protect your food from complete incineration, and it will also keep the juices sealed inside to ensure your potatoes, chicken breasts, sweet potatoes, onions, corn-on-the-cob, or what have you are well preserved and come out mouth-wateringly delicious. Before you start baking you, should let your fire burn long enough to build up a decent-sized bed of glowing coals –  one to two hours at least – and you will want to push the burning wood off to the side so you can place your wrapped food directly on top of the coals (with a long pair of metal tongs, since putting your hands inside of a sizzling hot firebox is never a good idea). Cooking times inside a firebox should approximate those of a conventional oven, but you must remember to turn your food over half way through your planned cooking time to make sure things are cooked evenly.

It is also possible to bake on the upper surface of a wood stove. To do so, you will want to start by putting your baking pan and its contents on a trivet or cast-iron cookware cover in the middle of an already-heated stove. Next, place an upside-down Dutch oven over the top of this assembly to hold the heat in and allow the baking process to commence. In all honesty, baking this way can be quite slow, but if you can just be patient, when all it is said and done you should have a main dish, dessert, or loaf of fresh bread that will redefine your conception of what scrumptious food is supposed to taste like.

Learning The Art

When cooking on the top of a wood stove, preparation times will vary tremendously based on the type of wood burned, the characteristics of a particular stove, the quality of the cast-iron cooking pots, the intensity of the fire, and the section of the stove top where the food is being cooked (directly above the firebox is super-hot, near the edges of the surface not so much). There is no getting around it – in order to prepare a multitude of recipes and different types of food on a conventional wood stove, whether baking, broasting, boiling, frying, or steaming, it will be necessary to experiment frequently. Of course this playing-it-by-ear approach is a big part of what makes cooking on top of a wood stove so much fun; learning how to do it magnificently really is more of an art than a science, and trying to figure it all out can be a real adventure for those who love embracing this type of challenge. You will want to take lots of notes as you are experimenting with a wide variety of different recipes, so that when you try to recreate your best recipes in the future you will be able to do so without struggling to remember what you did the last time.

Generally speaking, you will be able to do your best cooking after a fire has burned long enough for a healthy-sized bed of coals to accumulate. The presence of such a bed will prevent you from having problems with a fire that cools too fast and interrupts the cooking process, and it will make it easier to control cooking temperatures on the stove top by opening and closing the damper (on a well-heated stove, a closed damper will cook hotter and an open damper will allow more heat to escape up the chimney).

Just about any sized wood stove should generate enough heat for cooking. However, with some smaller models it may not be possible to sauté or fry. Again, you will have to do a lot of experimenting to find out just exactly what you can and cannot do, and how fast you can do it. But in most instances, you should expect preparation times for food to be longer in comparison to a regular oven and the range of dishes you are able to prepare to be restricted more by a lack of space and time than by any inherent limitations in the technology. And of course, home wood stoves are only useful for cooking during the coldest months, when fire intensities are strong enough to reach food-transforming levels.

But perhaps the idea of cooking with wood sounds so exciting to you that you would like to find a way to overcome some of these caveats and limitations so you could do it all the time. Fortunately, a technology exists that will allow you to do just that, and this is what we will be discussing in our next article.

Nutrient Content

When it comes to the nutrient content of animal manure, rabbit and chicken manures top the list. These two manures are considerably higher in every nutrient than other livestock animal manures. For example, chicken manure contains 1.8 percent nitrogen, 2.7 percent phosphorus, and 1.5 percent potassium. Rabbit manure contains 2.4 percent nitrogen, 1.4 percent phosphorus, and 0.6 percent potassium.

In contrast, cow manure, the most commonly used manure, contains 0.5 percent nitrogen, 0.2 percent phosphorus and 0.4 percent potassium. Horse manure has similar values. Swine manure has the lowest nutrient quality, while sheep and alpaca manure fall between chicken and cow manure.

In addition to its high nutrient content, another benefit of chicken manure is its availability. You might not have the acreage to house larger livestock animals, but even urban homesteaders can keep a few chickens, ensuring that you’ll have not only a steady supply of eggs, but also a steady stream of free fertilizer.

Weed Content

Another thing to consider is the potential for weed seed in manures. Animals that eat hay also ingest a lot of weed seeds, which survive the digestion process. Composting kills most of these weed seeds, but if you use raw manure in your garden, you might unwittingly increase your weeding chores. Horse manure, in particular, is notorious for carrying weed seeds.

Burn Factor

Raw manure contains fresh organic matter, which is very high in nitrogen. This high nitrogen content can actually burn or damage plants. Chicken manure is the “hottest” manure, followed by cow and horse manure. Rabbits and alpacas have very efficient digestive systems and their manures are referred to as “cold manures,” meaning they can be applied raw to the garden with no fear of damaging plants.

Processing Methods

How manure is handled and processed can also determine its quality. Manures that contain a lot of bedding material have fewer nutrients. Manures that have sat around in a feedlot for months on end also lose some of their quality.

Dry commercial manures typically have higher nutrient values than some fresh manure, according to Cornell University. For example, dried, commercial cow manure has more than four times as much nitrogen as raw cow manure.

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Pathogens

All types of manure have the potential to carry pathogens that can make humans sick. For this reason, you should either use manure that’s been thoroughly composted, or use the 90/120 day rule. When applying uncomposted manure to the garden (and this includes rotted manure), apply manure to tall crops that don’t touch the soil, such as corn and staked tomatoes, ninety days before the expected harvest. Spread uncomposted manure for ground crops, such as watermelon, root vegetables, and leafy vegetables, at least 120 days before harvest.

Many people dig manure into the vegetable garden in the fall, which has several advantages. First, with this practice, you can use fresh or rotted manure without fear of pathogens. The soil will have time to settle before you start planting, and you’ll eliminate one task from your to-do list the following spring.

Quantity

How much manure should you use in your garden? This depends, in part, on the quality of your soil, the age of your garden, and the crops you grow. It’s always a good idea to get a soil sample analysis done every three to five years. A soil analysis can tell you the nutrients your soil lacks, as well as the nutrients your soil has in abundance. My Colorado soil, for example, is always lacking in nitrogen, but has plenty of phosphorus. I’m careful not to add a lot of phosphorus in the form of synthetic fertilizers because too many nutrients can be as detrimental as too little. Excess phosphorus in the soil can pollute waterways and streams, choking out aquatic life.

In general, gardeners can safely add two to four inches of manure to a newly established garden. Thereafter, one to two inches of manure or compost is a reasonable amount to maintain soil fertility and texture. For larger gardens, it might be easier to calculate manure usage in pounds. The University of Alaska recommends using no more than 550 pounds of manure for a 1,000-square-foot plot.

Hungry plants like corn or watermelon might need a bit more. Root vegetables and leafy vegetables usually need less. You can also use manure as a side dressing throughout the season. Simply spread a shovelful of manure around the plants midseason and water it in well.

Final Recommendations

Manure has been used for centuries to maintain soil fertility. It’s free or inexpensive, constantly renewable, and readily available. Although an understanding of the various types of manure is helpful, don’t over think the process.

For example, bat guano has one of the highest nutrient profiles of any manure, but how many of us have access to free bat guano? The commercially processed stuff is exorbitantly priced, which effectively eliminates one of the best aspects of using manure—its affordability.

Bat guano isn’t an affordable or practical choice for most gardeners. Instead, use what you have readily available in your area. I currently have neither a truck nor livestock animals. When I first established my vegetable garden, I knew I’d need a lot of manure and I didn’t want to pay premium prices. So, I borrowed a truck from a friend and headed to an alpaca farm nearby. The farmer was happy to have me take his manure, and I was happy to get it at no charge.

Now, most of the time, I buy a few bags of manure from my local garden center. My garden is small enough that ten bags usually does the trick. In the future, I hope to have a chicken coop, which will supply me with plenty of manure. In the meantime, I try to keep things as simple and affordable as possible.

Use composted manure whenever possible. If you get manure from a farmer or your own livestock, you can compost it easily in a large compost bin. Remember, manure counts as a green material unless it’s mixed with a lot of bedding material.

If you opt for raw or rotted manure, spread it during cool weather when it will smell less. Till it into the soil at least two months before you plant anything. A mulch of straw or untreated grass clippings can help with any weed seeds that inadvertently make their way into your garden via the manure.