Tabla de contenidos para September/October 2022 en Grit

Summer has always been my favorite season. I know, it’s hot and there are bugs galore. But I can’t help it; I’m a summer lover through and through. And now, this September/October time marks the transition from summer to fall, which is always a bit sad for me. Each year, I watch my favorite season fade away with a tinge of longing in my heart for just a few more weeks of warm weather. Sure, summertime is busy. Gardeners are doing everything they can to coax produce out of the earth, and farmers are working long and tiring hours in the summer fields. The hot, humid days can be tough on humans and livestock alike, making it a miserable time for everyone. But it’s also full of so many wonderful…

Juicy, spicy radishes are a quintessential spring crop, and a perfect addition to crisp, fresh salads of choice baby greens straight from soil. Most radishes don’t tolerate heat and require soil temperatures cooler than 75 degrees Fahrenheit for good germination rates. For this reason, radishes take a growing hiatus during the summer. Despite these restrictions, an additional radish crop can be grown during the cooler months of autumn. What a wonderful way to finish your growing season! Try these tips for a bountiful fall radish crop. Deep-Rooted Radishes (Raphanus sativus) have a long history of cultivation. They’re documented as food crops in Egypt as early as 2000 B.C., and they were grown in China by 500 B.C. Radishes arrived in Europe in the mid-16th century, possibly via the Mediterranean. Centuries…

“I just brought home a livestock guardian dog. Now what?” I read this question almost every day on various online livestock guardian dog forums. First, congratulations! Second, here are some tips on how to welcome your working dog to your farm. Hopefully, you’ve located a healthy pup from a good breeder who chooses breeding dogs carefully for their working behaviors, temperament, and soundness. Most importantly, if you want a good working dog, you’ll need to get a pup from a recognized LGD breed or a cross of recognized breeds—and nothing else. LGD breeds were developed through centuries to be perfectly suited to this work, and they inherit a set of genetic behaviors and traits. You can’t train another breed to be an LGD. (See “Guidelines for Selecting an LGD Pup…

Bovine leukemia virus currently infects almost half of all dairy cows and about a third of beef cattle in the United States. It reduces milk production, shortens the infected animals’ life spans, and disrupts their immune systems. The virus is so widespread today that it’s the leading cause of cattle being condemned in the U.S., because of virus-induced lymphoma. And now, some new and highly controversial findings are causing scientists to reexamine if the bovine leukemia virus (BLV) causes health problems in humans. The prevalence of BLV has slowly been increasing since the 1960s and 1970s, when only about 10% of all U.S. cattle were infected. Back then, generations of North American animal scientists and veterinarians were taught that BLV wasn’t worth controlling unless you wanted to export livestock to…

Fall is a wonderful time of year in Ohio. The oppressive heat of summer has been replaced by mild days and cool, crisp nights. More than 100 kinds of deciduous trees put on a fantastic show with the brightest oranges, reds, and yellows imaginable. For the homesteader, the long-awaited harvest is coming in, and the time to unwind is right around the corner. Fall is my favorite season of the year, and what better way to enjoy a fall evening than to kick back with family and friends around a huge fire? My wife and I have hosted many bonfire cookouts over the years. All of them were fun, and they still evoke many special memories to this day. With careful planning and a little know-how, we make sure every…

I enjoyed reading Our View in the January/February 2022 issue. It was my first GRIT magazine! One of my brothers used to walk up and down the Ripley-Butler county line road to deliver the GRIT newspaper to our neighbors. It sold for 10 cents at that time. As a child raised in a large family in southeast Missouri, I’m familiar with homemade quilts. My mother would warm up a blanket by the King heater and run into the cold bedroom, where my two sisters and I shared a full-sized bed, as we laid there shivering. She’d wrap us up from chin to toe. On top of that, she’d add several homemade quilts. Oh, how toasty that felt! I can still feel my body relaxing as the warmth would steal over…

Venison a is one of my favorite foods. After developing taste for home-canned deer meat, I don’t much care for meat from other animals. While I continue to love venison steaks, roasts, and ground meat, one of my hands-down favorite ways to eat deer meat is canned. Home-canned venison is delicious, easy to use, and shelf-stable. Keep reading if you want to learn how to pack your pantry with jars of this healthy meat that you can use later as the main ingredient of yummy meals. Assemble the canning equipment and supplies. You’ll need a pressure canner (not a cooker), glass Mason jars with new lids, canning rings, a jar lifter, a funnel, and kitchen towels. Review your pressure canner’s manual. Make sure the canner’s gauge and gasket are in…

Convenient Kitchen Herb Garden I enjoyed your article on container herb gardens in the May/June 2022 issue (“Small-Space Container Herb Gardens”). We built a sturdy decorative fence outside our kitchen door and planted herbs in 21 ⁄2-gallon calf feeder pails. They had built-in brackets for hanging on a fence rail. It’s not only attractive, but it’s also conveniently close to the kitchen. KELLY WILLIAMSSTILLWATER, MINNESOTA New Use for Old lids I love to find new uses for items that would normally be thrown away, so I was excited to discover that the plastic lids from most standard 30-ounce mayonnaise jars fit perfectly on a regular-mouth canning jar. When a mayonnaise jar is empty, I save the lid. Now, I have plenty of plastic lids on hand whenever I want to…

Laundry is like the mail, in the sense that you can expect some every day. In the warmer months, rural folks often take advantage of the sun’s drying power by hanging their laundry on a clothesline. With minimal investment, you can create an easy and sustainable outdoor clothes drying option that reduces your energy footprint — and the energy bill. Normally, laundry is hung when the sun or breeze is sufficient to dry the clothes by the end of the day. In northern climates, this can typically be done from April through October. In the South, laundry can generally be hung all year long. Be sure to pay attention to the weather, and plan your laundry days to coincide with clear skies. If a sudden storm happens to pop up…

THE HOME-SCALE FOREST GARDEN In The Home-Scale Forest Garden, Dani Baker shares what she learned as she became a forest gardener, providing a practical, in-depth guide to creating a beautiful, bountiful edible landscape at any scale. Baker provides information on planning, planting, and maintaining a resilient forest garden ecosystem. $34.95 Member: $29.71 NEW ITEM! THE REGENERATIVE GARDEN Through 80 DIY projects, author Stephanie Rose of the popular website Garden Therapy introduces you to basic backyard permaculture concepts in an easy-tofollow, logical way. Each of the six chapters represents a living element of the garden, capable of playing a valuable role in its constant regeneration, including soil, water, plants, climate, ethics, and community. #11719 $24.99 Member: $21.24 NEW ITEM! WOMAN’S WORK DIGGER GLOVES: GREEN, MAGENTA, PURPLE OR TEAL These best-selling garden…