Plant Based Cookbook

Pyrethrum Daisy

Hearing Loss

Grow lights

I was trying to grow a little romaine lettuce in my window. This year we have had nothing but very cloudy days and the lettuce was almost dead because it was not getting enough light.

That was when I knew I needed to do something because it would not be long when I will be starting seedling for this year.

I found a 4000k led shop light at a local store on sale for $29. That is more in my price range. Yea it might not be as good as a Full-Spectrum LED Grow Light but I am just doing this as a hobby.

Just 2 days after I put up the new LED light I could see a bit of new life in the plants.

Only time will tell if this light will help my seedlings not be so leggy.

Plague, war, famine.. How our ancestors conquered it all...

Bees February 9

This gives me hope that they might make it to spring. When you get a warm day at this time in NY, the bees come out to do a cleansing flight.

Seed Germination Test

Or some old seeds you had leftover.

Fold the paper towel over and spray them with some water.

Place the paper towel in a plastic bag and put it in a warm dark place for 4 or 5 days.

Take them out to see if they started to germinate.

If your seeds did not start to germinate, you will know you need to order some more seeds.

I hope this helps you get ready for the new year of growing.

Hearing Loss

Mung Bean Sprouts

Then drain them and let sit in a dark place. Rinse the seeds off 2 or 3 times a day and drain well.
They will start germinating in about a day. After 4 or 5 days they will grow big enough to eat.

I put them in a plastic bowel in the refrigerator and they will last several days

I like them just eat them as a healthy snack just as they are.
Mung Bean Sprouts are also good to add to your salad.
You can find several recipes for Mung Bean stir-fry on the internet.
Sprouting is fun and easy. Give it a try.

Plague, war, famine.. How our ancestors conquered it all...

Honey Bees

This is an update on how the Honey Bees were doing as they went into winter.

The bee swarm I got last summer was a little bit late. I feed them some sugar water to help give them a good start.

I checked the bees out about 2 weeks after I got them and it looked like they had a good queen. They had several frames of brood. ( new bees in the growing stage from eggs to bees ready to come out as workers.)

A few weeks later the hive was just over full with bees. Being late in the year I added a shallow box to the hive. I checked them for mites and all was good.

Just 2 weeks later when the goldenrod was about done for the year. I did a check to see how much honey they had. The brood area was just full of honey. It looked like they were honey bound. Honey bound is where the bees fill the brood area with honey a fast as the new bees emerge from the come. This leaves no place for the queen to lay eggs.

I took out one of the frames that didn’t have much honey in it. I put in a frame of comb that was drawn out in the middle of the have to give the queen a place to lay eggs. The queen slows down in laying eggs in the late fall. She still needs to lay a few eggs for winter bees to make it through the winter.

The bees stay in a tight cluster to keep warm and eat the honey in the hive to stay alive. If they get damp they will be unable to keep warm. They need to keep dry, keep warm, have enough new bees, and enough honey to make it through the winter.

In early spring when the bees start flying I will need to check and see If they need to be feed sugar water to get them through till the flowers start coming out.

Strawberries

Egg Shells

What do you do with your egg shells?
Did you know they are high in calcium carbonate?

I just put them in an old coffee can. When it gets full a use a 1 inch wood dowel rod to crush them down. I keep adding to the can until it gets almost full.

I then spread them on my garden and work them into the soil. Egg Shell takes a lot of time to break down to release the calcium carbonate. To speed this up you can add vinegar to the shells. It will foam up and help break down the shells. Adding shells to your garden can help stop blossom end rot on tomatoes, peppers and eggplants.

I also use them to add grit to my worm bed. This helps the worms digest their food. It also helps with the PH of the worm castings. I take the crushed shells and place them in the oven to kill off any bad bacteria. Then grind them in an old coffee grinder and grind them up so the worms can use them.

I add this to the food scraps when I feed the worms.

I am sure you have some other uses for egg shells.

Filling my raised bed garden.

The next thing I did was get some of the tree limbs I had and place them in to take up some space.

The town has a place where they take the leaves they pickup in the fall. The leaves are sucked up and run through a shredder. They dump them in a pile and they are packed down. If you are a village taxpayer, you can go there and get them for free. Maybe your town has a place like that. I got 6 garbage bags of these leaves and put them in the raised bed. I found that if I had about that many more leaves it would help me take up more space. The next day I went there and got 6 more bags of leaves. I leveled them out and let them settle in for a couple weeks.

A friend brought me some dirt to top things off. I will leave it till spring to settle in.

Sweet Potato Slips

In mid June when it would be time to plant the sweet potato slips I didn’t have any yet. By midsummer the sweet potato I placed in dirt still did not show any signs of anything happening. In August I was about to throw it out I noticed a small shot coming out of the sweet potato. So I decided to give it a little more time and a couple weeks later I had some nice vines growing.

I cut some of the vines in several pieces.

Placed them in to water to see if they would root.

A few weeks later I checked and the cutting did root just fine.

What I did find out was organic sweet potatoes will grow vines in 6 to 8 weeks. The ones you buy in the store that are not organic are often sprayed with a root inhibitor. That may be the reason it took so long. If you want to give it a try from ones you buy at the store. You may want to start in at Christmas time. Better yet get an organic sweet potato.

Some great gifts ideas for your gardener friends
Medicinal Garden Kit
Big Bat Box
Quality power stations.

Mosquitoes and bugs.

Mosquitoes can carry viruses, bacteria, and parasites in their saliva. They can transmit those pathogens into your body, causing severe and even life-threatening illness.
Mosquitoes are known to be carriers of Malaria, West Nile virus, Dengue fever, Yellow fever, and several viruses that cause encephalitis.

It has been estimated that one bat can eat up to 8000 mosquito-sized insects each night. Mosquitoes are bats primary diet, which make them a great natural mosquito predator.

Bats do eat other variety of insects. Some of the other insects are, Moths, Beetles, Weevils, Flies, Lacewings, Dragonflies, Grasshoppers, and Crickets.
As you can see, Bats are a gardeners friend.

Why not help them out by putting up a place for them to live. A bat house would be a great gift for any gardener. Why not get one for yourself or a friend at Big Bat Box.

Butternut Squash Pie

Ingredients
2 cups Butternut Squash puree
1 8 oz cream cheese
2  Large eggs
2  tablespoons brown sugar
1  teaspoon ground cinnamon
� teaspoon ground ginger
� teaspoon ground nutmeg
� teaspoon salt
1  9” pie crust

Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F
Mix room temperature cream cheese, eggs and brown sugar until smooth.
Then add the spices mix them in.
Then add the Butternut Squash puree and mix until smooth.
Pour into crust. I use a 9” gram cracker pie crust I get from the store.
Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue backing for about 35 minutes.
Check to make sure the pie is done with a knife by inserting the knife 1 inch from crust and it come out clean.

Let cool before serving.

Some great gifts ideas for your gardener friends
Medicinal Garden Kit
Big Bat Box
Quality power stations.

Rolling Blackouts

If demand for electricity exceeds the power supply capability of the network. Rolling blackouts may be put in to effect.

Rolling blackouts may be local or may be more widespread and affect entire countries. This is where the power is shut off for a couple hours. Then back on for a few hours and off and on until demand for electricity lowers to the point the network can handle it.

What will you do for lights, a fan, your computer, or many things you need to use that takes electricity?

If the electricity is out for a longer time your refrigerator or freezer may need power so the food does not go bad.

Here in the north several people use wood pellets or coal stoves to heat with. Most of them use a small amount of electricity to run a small fan to keep them burning.

Stop and think what you would need if you had rolling blackouts.
Here is a tool that may make your life a bit better when the electric goes out. A power station or sometimes call a solar generator. They fill in that gap when you have rolling blackouts. You can charge them up when the power is on and use power out of them when the power is out. You can also use a solar panel to charge them up. This makes them a great tool for any kind of power outage. They are also a good tool for outdoor fun where there is no electric and you need some.

One of the things I like about them is they don't make much noise like a gas generator would. When camping for a long time you could charge them up with solar or a gas generator in the day time and use the power at night. This will keep the others that are camping happy because they will not hear it running.


There are several sizes of power station to fit your needs.

Learn more about these quality power stations.

Beets in a bucket.

I pulled the 5 beets out and cleaned off most of the dirt.

I took them in the house and washed the rest of the dirt off. Put a pot on the stove with water and brought it to a boil. While I was doing that I cut off the tops leaving about 1 inch and put ice and water in the sink. I put the beets in the boiling water for 5 minutes took them out and right in the ice water in the sink. Then I took off the skins sliced them up and cooked them. I had a few for my supper that night.

I like the Cylindra beets because they make more even sized beet slices. They also have a good taste.

I don’t have as much luck with growing in buckets as I would like. Quite often I would find the buckets dry needing water. I think they would have done better if I had at least checked them every day even if it had rained.

Medicinal Garden Kit

Raised Bed Garden

I then stuck it through the hole in the panels and found out the panels were also magnetic.

This held the screw tight agents the panel leaving the screw in plain sight. It was almost like getting the third hand I needed to put this together.

I started putting two panels together so I would have less to do when I put them in place. I used a 10 mm socket on an extension to screw the nuts up hand tight.

I went out where I was going to place the raised bed garden and put down fabric to place it on.

I took the parts out and started putting them together. Because the screws were only hand tight and the side are longer that they would be if it was just one kit. I had to find something to hold the sides up while I was putting it together. I took 2 5 gallon buckets and filled them half way with dirt and found that would do the job.

I finished putting all the sides together. Then went around and tightened all the screws.

It took me about 2 weeks to get this far. Now I need to get it filled so it can settle over the winter.

Walmart for the Holidays

Zucchini

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