Fritz_Monroe

How about some "free" plant labels?

 

Instead of buying those plastic labels to mark your garden plants, make use of that old mini blind that you were going to throw away. Cut the strings, then cut the slats into 6" strips. A single blind gives you literally hundreds of labels. Don't have an old mini blind? Ask on Frecycle, or the cheap ones are only about $4, much cheaper than those "real" labels.

You don't have to use grow lights, flourescent lights work just fine. But I just found something that said that using lights instead of sunlight will produce less and will extend the time it takes to produce by 2 to 4 times.

 

edit: I just found an article about growing under lights. I didn't read the whole thing, but skimming over it, it looks good.

We don't have it in the yard, but I've seen this stuff all over the nearby parks. Thanks for pointing it out, I'll have to keep an eye out for it in areas that are not sprayed.

I'd like to add Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. They are located in VA, so for the mid-Atlantic region, they are fairly local. I've only ordered from them this year and they were fantastic. I ordered a carrot that was sold out. They refunded my money and sent me a different type of carrot to try out. Shipping was extremely fast also. I will definately buy from them again.

 

Cookie, I didn't think about reusing them. I don't live in an area that is hit by many natural disasters. I felt the plastic used and I don't think it would be used more than one time.

 

Campy, that's a good price on those barrels. Thanks for the link. I'll definately look at this guy once we can move.

I have that as an emergency item in the bathroom. My view is that if I need it, I wouldn't be able to refill it anyway since the water would be out. Then after the situation is over, I'll get some more of them.

As for places to get barrels, maybe a gardening place? The farm places probably carry the water tanks that are up in the 500 gallon and up range. Check the business to business section of the phone book.

We also have a pod for in the bath tub in case of emergency. Ours is the Aqua Pod Kit. I didn't reallize there were so many brands out there. I think that when we finally get to buy a new house, we will have one of these in each bathroom.

 

We will also be doing the rain barrel and I'll check out the water barrels to see if I can find a local source. That shipping is a killer.

 

This was the chemical responsible for the pet food recalls of 2007. Definately not something you want to consume.

I'm glad you started this thread. I've been thinking of getting an AA, but that cost... Anyone have a link to a comparison of the various brands? Maybe which have gaskets, which have guages, etc.

 

This year we move and start a garden. Time to get a canner and get some practice.

Anyone have a good source for vanilla beans? Darn things are incredibly expensive in my area.

That's exactly why we bought a couple of the "cooking with storage" cookbooks. We've gone throught and made up a couple dishes, but not all that much yet.

I did a quick search after posting and came up with 2 different ways to use newspaper to make seed starting pots.

 

Create Seed Starting Pots from Newspaper

Newspaper Seed Starting Pots

Thanks for posting your experiences. We are planting our first ever garden this year. We are hoping to move this summer and we don't want to put all that effort into a garden just to move when the crops are coming in. So, it's time for a container garden.

 

I've learned a couple things about gardening already. First, I won't start so soon next year. It would be fine for the tomatoes and peppers, but the beans definately don't need to be started this early. Second thing is that when starting early, I will never again use those little black plastic starter cells. They are a pain to get the transplants out. For now on I'll use the peat pots, or I may be able to find a way to make a reusable seed starting cells. Or maybe I can find a way to recycle newspaper into seed starting pots.

Good idea about the panels up there. If you used plywood to store your ammo and other heavy stuff up there, you could just use construction adhesive to attach ceiling panels to the plywood.

 

We do have a basement with exposed joists, but since we plan on moving this summer, won't be doing this quite yet. If we can't move, then this is on my "to do" list.

 

How would this be done?

And no, I don't think I'd be able to eat this one.

I turn on the light in the oven. That keeps the inside of my oven right at 78 degrees. Works fantastic.

 

I've also heard of people putting a pan of hot water in the bottom of the oven to bring that temp up to rising temps.

Great pics folks, that's some good looking bread. I've always been told to slash the tops right before baking, obviously I need to do it before the second rise.

This is an awesome resource. One of our favorite meals is chicken tacos with Mexican rice and refried beans. Next time out, much will be from scratch.

 

For the person asking about Wondra flour.

 

It is a processed flour that absorbs liquids almost instantly. I used if to make popovers. You mix this up and can cook them right away. If I use regular flour, I have to leave it sit over night. I have no idea how to make a substitute, but I know that you can just use regular flour and let it sit several hours.