Tabla de contenidos para July - August 2020 en Grit

Tomato Tutorial The most popular homegrown edible plant is surely a healthy tomato, just as the most disappointing one is undoubtedly a diseased tomato. For a bountiful crop, keep an eye out for these spoilers, and act accordingly: Blossom-end rot is a dark or watersoaked area on the blossom end that turns a brown or black color and becomes sunken and flat. It can result from extreme fluctuations in soil moisture, calcium deficiency, or too much nitrogen or salt in the soil. To avoid blossomend rot, prepare deep, well-drained soil; apply calcium if needed; water uniformly and regularly; add mulch; and don’t overfertilize. Yellowing and wilted lower leaves and/or stunted plant growth may be a sign of fusarium wilt or verticillium wilt, both of which enter through the roots. Destroy…

Many years ago, after my wife and I had established our first homestead, a friend came out to visit. As we walked around the property, Ben would occasionally bend down, collecting what seemed to me to be nothing but weeds or bark or other scraps of plants and vegetation. He’d also point at a mass of tangled green plants, mentioning a number of names that made no sense to me at the time, and rattling off different ways they could be used as food or medicine. Ben was a forager; he was intimately familiar with the benefits of the abundant plant life all around us, something that most of us — including our family at the time — completely missed. Recognizing Elder The elder plant is a perennial with large…

If you’re a cheese lover, or a hiker, you’re sure to become a fan of the Oberhasli goat. In the mountainous regions of Switzerland where the breed originated, they’re known as gemsfarbige gebirgsziege, or “chamois-colored goat,” in reference to their dominant chamois color pattern. Chamois, or chamoisee, is described as a reddish-brown with a black belly, black legs up to the knee, a black stripe along each side of the face, a black muzzle, and a black stripe along the back to the tail. Beyond their striking looks, Oberhaslis have earned a reputation for their steady milk production, calm demeanor, and quality packing abilities, resulting in a loyal following of this versatile breed. Registration, Recovery, and Recognition The Oberhasli arrived in the United States in the early 1900s, and most…

I grew up on a 70-acre farm in central Ohio. We had cows, chickens, horses, and a mule team rescued from an auction. I have such fond memories of my childhood. On my sixth birthday, I was elated when my parents gave me an adorable 3-month-old fox terrier. I pondered what to name him as the pup licked my cheek and I stroked his head. Suddenly, the puppy jumped from my lap and raced to the front door. As soon as I opened the screen door, he sprinted across the porch and chose Mom’s flower bed as his target. In less than a minute, he raced back to me and dropped a poppy flower at my feet. I named him Poppy. While my folks put a wire mesh fence around…

Each spring, I grow legions of onions and shallots from seed, and my biggest challenge is keeping them weeded. Last year, I planted pinches of arugula between the short rows of shallots, and the leafy, fast-growing arugula smothered any weeds and showed remarkably little damage from flea beetles, which often plague it. The arugula was ready to harvest just when the shallots needed room to grow. In a eureka moment, I realized I’d discovered a vegetable companion-planting partnership I could use year after year to make my garden healthier and more productive. The idea of companion planting has been around for thousands of years, during which time it’s become so besmirched with bad science and metaphysics that many gardeners aren’t sure what it means. The current definition goes something like…

Have you ever been in the middle of a woodworking project and fallen just one piece short? Or been making roof repairs during a break in a storm, but then discover there’s not a single piece to fit the space you’re covering? What do you do? Both of these things have happened to me. Luckily, I have a pile of scrap wood, and I was able to find what I needed when I needed it. My parents grew up during the Great Depression. Long before recycling became a catchphrase, they learned to make do on less, wasting nothing, and reusing whatever they could. When I was growing up, my parents saved everything. While my dad was by no means a woodworker, we had coffee cans filled with nuts, bolts, screws,…

Back in 2015, you might have noticed a new product in the beer aisle called Not Your Father’s Root Beer. This was an alcoholic beer, 5.9 percent alcohol by volume (ABV), that tasted like root beer soda. Depending on your father’s age, the name was likely appropriate. In recent decades, “root beer” typically refers to a sweet, nonalcoholic (or “soft”) soda. But if you spoke to your grandfather or great-grandfather, you’d probably find their root beer was alcoholic. Drinks based on root extracts are found in almost every culture. Early North American colonists made beverages from the roots of sassafras (Sassafras albidum), sarsaparilla (Smilax ornata), licorice (Glycyrrhiza lepidota), and other plants. Beverages made from birch bark (Betula lenta), wintergreen leaves (Gaultheria procumbens), vanilla beans (Vanilla planifolia), and other botanical extracts…

SWAPPERS WANTED I’m looking for any seeds, stamps, stickers, stationery, postcards, and coupons. Joe Perlot 3321 E. Almeria Rd. Phoenix, AZ 85008-3839 BUMPER STICKERS My grandson is looking for vintage bumper stickers that advertise rural and small-town radio stations for a community project. Adam Michaels 1 Priority Lane #300 Murrysville, PA 15668 COMIC BOOKS I’m a vet who loves to read comic books. If any of you want to dump some, I’d love to have them. Bob Kantanick 170 Markle St. Philadelphia, PA 19127 SCRAPS I’m looking for leftover scraps of mohair yarn to complete an afghan I’m making. The scraps can be any color, should be 70 percent or greater mohair content, and never stored with mothballs. I’ll gladly pay for postage. Daisy Strasinger 615 Chestnut Ave., Apt. 1208…

The coronavirus pandemic upended business as usual for our seed company friends. Due to wildly increased demand, many were forced to temporarily shut down website orders and stop answering phone calls and emails. Four companies answered our questions about the dramatic changes that have affected their businesses this year. When did you realize something was up? When the national emergency was declared on March 13, we experienced a 250-percent surge in visitors to our website, our phones were ringing, and orders came flooding in. — Johnny’s Around St. Patrick’s Day, we noticed a jump in online sales as well as increased traffic in our small retail shop in Asheville, North Carolina. It became clear that people were panic buying when we had to enlist a bouncer to limit the number…

OPTION A FOR SIDE, QUARTERS, OR PRIMALS FOREQUARTER (NECK TO END OF RIB) Cuts from Chuck Primal Rolled boneless neck roast Chuck eye steaks Boneless chuck roasts Denver steaks Petite tender Ranch steaks Ground beef Soup bones Cuts from Foreshank/Brisket Primal Boneless brisket Ground beef Soup bones Cuts from Rib Primal Bone-in ribeye steaks Cuts from Plate Primal Bone-in short ribs HINDQUARTER (LAST RIB TO HIND HOOF) Cuts from Short Loin Primal Porterhouse steaks T-bone steaks Soup bones Cuts from Flank Primal Flank steak Skirt steaks Bavette Trim for grinding Soup bones Cuts from Sirloin Primal Sirloin center steaks Top sirloin filet Coulotte steaks Trim for grinding Soup bones Cuts from Round Primal Top round London broil Sirloin tip roasts Western griller steaks Rump roast Eye of round roast Crosscut…

If you’re into bees, whether you keep one hive or a thousand, you know that the wish list of equipment can seem endless — and expensive. Some items are an absolute must, such as hive bodies, frames, a hive tool, and, most would argue, a smoker and a veil. On the other hand, items for extracting that luscious liquid gold — honey — tend to be more on the wish list of expensive “wants” for many of us. But there’s good news: They don’t have to be. With a bit of ingenuity, and maybe a few dollars, you can start building your extraction equipment one item at a time, starting with a simple solar wax melter. Many variations are possible, so let the following methods be a starting point. Keep…

Permanent chicken houses and fenced runs are wonderful if you have the space and the means to keep them clean, compost the litter, and spread it around. However, if you want your chickens to be productive workers in your yard and garden, you might want to control where they scratch and peck. The advantages of moving your chickens around include preparing the garden for planting, cultivating the garden (without killing your crops), pest control, and even mowing and fertilizing the yard. If you operate on a larger scale, movable chicken pens are useful for enhancing pasture fertility and health, fly control, and grazing-animal manure management. Bottom line — let the chickens do the heavy lifting so that you don’t have to. Portable poultry enclosures are nothing new — pasture-reared birds…