It’s an age-old debate, and likely one that you’ve found yourself engaged in with old fashioned canning enthusiasts and new-age canners alike from time to time. Do you need to sterilize your canning jars? The short answer…. most of the time. But if you’re unsure of whether you need to sterilize – or how, exactly,… [read more]
How to Prevent and Get Rid of Corn Smut
If you have a backyard garden in one of the warmer growing zones, you’ve likely been left scratching your head a time or two over corn smut. This disease is a fascinating – albeit troublesome – beast, found typically in small, urban gardens instead of in large, commercial productions. This disease appears on the ears,… [read more]
How to Grow Bay Leaves
There’s nothing quite like a crunchy bay leaf to lend a savory flavor to your soups, stews, or stir fries. If you’re familiar with growing herbs and are looking for a more challenging option, you might want to consider growing the bay leaf plant. Also known as bay laurel, sweet bay, and laurel, this plant… [read more]
How to Prevent and Get Rid of Early Blight
You have worked hard to cultivate a gorgeous crop of tomatoes. From sunup to sundown, you’ve been out in your garden planting, watering, fertilizing, and pruning your plants, all in the hopes that your tomatoes will grow tall, verdant, and productive. And then it hits – the early blight. Blight is one of the most… [read more]
How to Prepare Your Flower Beds for Spring
The weather is starting to warm up, and while you may be focusing all your efforts on preparing your vegetable gardens and animal pastures for spring, make sure you don’t overlook your flower beds. Everybody wants a touch of color on the homestead, and flower beds are also beneficial in that they attract pollinators and… [read more]
How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Winter Squash
Colorful, unique, and easy to grow, winter squash is one of the most popular types of vegetables grown in gardens all over the world. A nutritious and delicious crop, winter squash has a long storage life, allowing you to keep it with minimal care for many months without having to worry about spoilage. Luckily, growing… [read more]
How to Prevent Raspberry Worms
Move over, aphids. Your garden has a new pest that you’ll need to watch out for (and worry about!). If you have fruit plants, like raspberries, blackberries, grapes, blueberries, cherries, peaches, or strawberries, you may have heard of the raspberry worm. These nasty pests aren’t picky – in addition to raspberries, they’ll also infest the… [read more]
How to Grow Sweet Banana Peppers
Let’s be honest about banana peppers – you either love them, or you hate them. These tangy peppers are not a common garden staple for most homesteaders, yet they have a place on just about every dinner table. Hosting a myriad of health benefits, banana peppers can really spice up your diet and are incredibly… [read more]
How to Travel with Eggs
Picture this – it’s the holidays, and you’re headed home to visit your friends and family. What better gift to bring from your homestead than a dozen fresh eggs? Unfortunately, if you need to hop on a plane or travel across country, shipping or traveling with eggs doesn’t have to be bad. I have always… [read more]
How to Plant, Grow, and Harvest Corn
Corn is the quintessential American plant. Cultivated in North America for thousands of years, this plant is a favorite of gardeners all around the world. Fresh, golden corn is easy to grow in a backyard garden, allowing you to cook dozens of ears at a fraction of the price you would pay at the supermarket.… [read more]