Garlic in the Spring

Garlic bed in spring

Garlic!  We love it.

Garlic is a mainstay of our garden.  We dedicate at least one bed to garlic each year.  This small bed has about 60 lush plants growing for harvest in late July.

We use garlic extensively in our cooking for its flavor and health benefits.  Its easy to grow and store.  With its large cloves and bulbs, garlic is another of my kids favorite crop to plant and harvest.

Plant some garlic.  Its fun!

What are some of your tips for best growing garlic?

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Raising a New Batch of Layer Hens

We recently purchased a new batch of chicks to startup our layer flock again. When we first came to our place, we were heavy into raising layers and selling eggs. We got away from keeping chickens for a short time and are excited to get back into raising our own personal-use flock for farm fresh eggs. There’s nothing that beats farm fresh, free range eggs for health and great flavor.

This time, we mainly chose production reds for getting brown eggs. They are a hearty, good sized hen and lay well for the first few years, especially early on. We used to raise primarily barred rocks but they are a little slower to produce than the reds, although still a very winter hearty bird and a good layer.

Below are some pictures of our brooder setup using an old water tank and a few of our chicks. I’ll post more pictures as they continue to grow. I love chickens and like to just watch them as they grow and then do their work in the yard clearing bugs.

 

Brooder tank

 

Production Red chicks

Production Red chick on feeder

What kind of hens do you like to raise?

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Worm Farming: The Next Level – ESP of MO

ESP of MO Worm bin

One of the things I love the most about living in the country is getting to meet other country-loving people, especially those running small businesses. This week I had the great pleasure visiting with Irv and Kathy Huser of Environmentally Sound Products of Missouri (ESP of MO). Irv and Kathy live off the beaten path in rural Missouri and run a worm farm and plant growing operation.

It was a great treat for me to share some time with these fellow worm and plant lovers. One thing that always impresses me with country people is that they are so friendly and eager to share their experience, knowledge and wisdom with others. Irv and Kathy were true to form and I cannot express enough the great time I had with them.

Irv and Kathy started worm farming in 2003 and have grown their operation tremendously since then. First they started mainly raising worms and selling worm castings. Now their business has transitioned to mostly selling plants that are produced from the worm castings. They still have a high demand for worm castings though. They have a great compact operation and have implemented many unique ideas to make it very efficient.

Kathy is a master gardener and she and Irv give presentations at various shows and meetings. They sell their products—worm castings, worms, seedlings and transplants, books and other items—off their farm, in local country stores like Greene’s County Store and at the shows they attend. If you ever get a chance to meet Irv and Kathy or buy any of their products, I highly recommend you do. I believe whole-heartedly in supporting local small business as much as possible. It’s what made America great.

Irv and Kathy at garden show

Below I want share some of the pictures and great tips I learned from them on growing worms and plants.

  • Go for free supplies as much as possible.
  • They get free newspaper for their bedding and shred it using a standard office shredder. Colored paper is okay as long as it is not glossy paper. The ink should rub off on your hand to show the colored paper is good to use.
  • They get free “waste” fruit products from a local grocery store as their worm feed. Irv used to feed the worms this fruit waste only but his worms were “skinny.” Now he includes well aged horse manure and his worms are “fat” and healthy. He says horse manure is his key to “fat” worms. Other manures such as rabbit or goat manure would be good as well but definitely stay away from poultry manure.
  • They use 4 x 8 x 12 wood bins for their larger scale growing. No lids! They keep the lights on the worms to ensure they stay in the bedding and don’t get out.

Worm bin up close

  • They keep the temperature of the worm bedding between 70 to 75 degrees if possible. This is the optimal temperature for best worm production.
  • To keep fruit flies down, they put open cups of apple cider vinegar with a little dish washing soap on top of the beds. The flies are attracted to the vinegar and die in the solution. They catch hundreds this way.
  • Worm bin with fly trap and thermometer

    They harvest the casting after four months in the bed. Mostly all the newspaper will be gone (i.e., eaten by the worms) and the “bedding” will be very dark and full of castings.

  • They harvest the worms and castings through a ¼ mesh first then again through a 1/8 mesh to get the fine castings. The big chunks from the harvesting process can go straight into the garden as high nutrient compost. The worm material should be somewhat dry when harvesting so it doesn’t clump up and you can get good fine castings.
  • When using the castings for planting, they use 10% casting in their germination mix for seed germination. If you use more, you’ll get “leggy” seedlings because of its high potency. The plants will grow too fast!
  • When transferring their seedlings to larger containers, they use 30% castings in their mix. This produces lush, healthy transplants. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Preparing growing mix

  • Speaking of transplants, they now use small, blank transplant bags as their container. I hadn’t ever seen this before. They used to use small plastic containers but their plants were not as dark green as another farmer they knew. They now use these transplant bags, which they can put a little more growing mix in, and their plants are tremendous!

 

Transplant bags

Kathy loading transplant bags

Tomatoes under lights

Tomato transplants in bags

Thank you so much Irv and Kathy for your hospitality and helpful tips! I’m going to start using your ideas right away.

I welcome you to post any comments about your experience with Irv and Kathy. Also, visit their ESP of MO website and like them on Facebook “ESP of MO.”

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Alfalfa: The Jewel of the Homestead

Alfalfa seedlings

Alfalfa is one of those crops that should be in every mini-farm or home garden. Although we humans may not necessarily consume or directly enjoy its valuable production–unless eating sprouts–it brings tremendous benefit to animal and soil alike and the general health of your homestead. Even a little patch is well worth including in your overall plan.

As its name implies—“the best fodder”—it is a key feed source for many farm animals. Being very high in protein, it is a must-have for animals such as goats, horses, cows, rabits and many others.  Chickens and turkeys also love the stuff and it makes for happy hens!

Its benefit to the soil has been known for many centuries. Created with strong, deep roots, this marvelous plant breaks up hard clay soil like we have here in Missouri and pulls valuable nutrients to the soil surface. As a legume, it fixes nitrogen and provides valuable input into both the compost pile and your natural soil fertilization program.

One sowing of an alfalfa patch can last for many years if cared for properly. And, a healthy stand should allow for several cuttings in a season.

This year I started a new large bed to place my alfalfa patch. I’m doing some testing by starting out some seedlings in flats and some direct sown. I’ll see which ones do best or if there is any difference. Below is a picture of the new bed followed by a video of the old Troy Bilt preparing it.

New alfalfa bed

Here is a picture of the alfalfa seedlings in the flat.

Seed flat of alfalfa

Later in the season, I’ll share how the alfalfa stand is doing.

What are your tips for growing alfalfa?

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Flash Mob

My friends and I joined in a Flash Mob group with a local church to share the Easter story in our local malls and stores.  A Flash Mob is a group of people that get together in a public place to share a story and then disperse.

The outcome of our Flash Mob was great! My friend and I had a person come up to us saying how wonderful it was and wanted to see more. Other people came up to our Flash Mob leader in tears. He got to share the gospel several times! However, there were a few people trying to mess us up and make fun of us. Thankfully, there was security all around us and they made sure nothing got out of control.

 

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Old Troy-Bilt Horse Tiller: Dreams of the Past Come True

Troy Bilt Horse Tiller - Early 70's

When I was a teenager living in a small Missouri country town, I would go over to my friend’s house and see his grandparents tilling their garden with an old style Troy-Bilt Horse tiller. This was the big unit with the swiveling handlebars. I was very impressed. I thought, one of these days I would like to have one.

Now back in the country these many years later and my passion for gardening quickened, I mainly wanted to garden using all-natural, no-till methods to rebuild the soil. I thoroughly devoured the readings of Ruth Stout, John Jeavons and many others. I really believe in their methods and have used them extensively. However, the vision of that old Troy-Bilt would still pass through my thoughts.

As I continued to expand my garden, working Missouri clay became a challenge to say the least. Building large new beds with no-till methods in this clay can be very back breaking. I thought it was time to see if I could find one of those old Troy Bilt’s in good shape for a reasonable price.

After searching for several months, I recently found one on Craig’s List near where I live. I was able to purchase it at a price that was good for both me and the previous owner! The Horse, an early 1970’s model with a 6 H.P Tecumseh engine, was owned by his grandfather and passed down to him. My vision of the past has come to life.

The Horse needed some basic maintenance and replacement of the belts and reverse disc along with some clean up. It runs good for being this old and it really does work like a horse. They sure don’t make them like this anymore.

Below is a video describing some of the work I did on the Horse and a cold start. Later I’ll share some other videos of it working in the garden.

I still plan on using no-till methods primarily. But this old horse sure does help get things started and gives some definite back relief.

Do you have any stories of an old Troy-Bilt?

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