Insteading
Homesteading & Sustainability
Some folks have huge, lush gardens full of growing produce and gorgeous flowers. Some (currently) can only dream of having huge, lush gardens full of growing produce and gorgeous flowers. And some are …
Continue Reading about Sprouts: An Easy Way to Grow Fresh Food Without a Garden →
Lettuce is the most-consumed leaf vegetable (a fact that I find rather sad as I am a cheerleader for greens and believe many of them deserve far more time in the limelight). I suppose it’s somewhat …
There are probably few crops as simultaneously valuable and undervalued as the squash. These generous plants grow freely, and feed people through the summer as zucchini and yellow crookneck. Then …
Okra intrigued me as a child. My classmates had never eaten it -- betraying our northeastern roots where the plant would have struggled to survive, and the pods weren’t part of our regional fare. But …
In the past, I've had a love-hate relationship with cucumbers. I loved their crisp, sweet flavor, so cooling to crunch on a hot summer day, and the way their aroma filled the kitchen with a fresh …
Peppers started out as a tiny berry hidden on perennial bushes in the mountains of Mexico and Central America, but they’ve come a long, long way since they were domesticated 6,000 years ago. Ever …
If you're accustomed to planting simple annual seeds where all you need to do is open a packet, put seeds in dirt, and then wait for them to sprout, the process of more difficult seed germination …
Continue Reading about Seed Germination Techniques: Soaking, Scarifying, Stratifying, and Smoking →
Beans are an incredibly exciting plant to grow. This may come as a surprise to folks whose experience with the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is limited to the limp, gray-green cylinders that glorp …
Originally titled "How to Save Brassica oleracea Seeds (Cabbage, Kale, Collards, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Kohlrabi, Brussels Sprouts, Gai Lan)." I know it's a mouthful, so you can see why the title was …
Continue Reading about How to Save Brassica oleracea Seeds →
“No. No, no, NO! ARGHHH!” This is typically not the sound you want to hear coming from the squash patch. But I had reached my wit’s end and was throwing a (teeny tiny) hissy fit over my plants …
If you are a gardener, chances are you’ve grown tomatoes. There are few plants more adored and widely grown across the gardener landscape from carefully watered patio pots, to the sprawling volunteer …
Eggplants are one of my favorite fruits. I feel conflicted admitting that, however, as they’re one of the more challenging plants to grow on my dry Ozark hill. Since I don’t spray plants with …
As we dip into the cold stillness of winter, the garden lays silent and still under its mulch blanket. The trees are bare, the birds quiet, and anything green and growing seems like a distant memory. …
Heirloom seeds offer much to the backyard and homestead gardener. They reproduce true-to-type, affording you seed self-sufficiency if you grow and save them from year to year. But for those who …
Continue Reading about 10 Heirloom Seeds and Their Strange Histories →
