Month: November 2022

Simple farm tools were in the history of vegetable growing and are still indispensable tools with which you can grow and cultivate various vegetables, plants, or fruits. If you want to make a salad with your vegetables without going to the supermarket or worrying about pesticides, then this is the sign that you need to start creating one. Your vegetable garden can be a method by which you could have fresh vegetables at your disposal or a therapy through which you can relax.

To create your small vegetable garden around your house, you need to have some knowledge and some simple tools to make your work easier. Don’t make the mistake of venturing out or being influenced by all the super tools you see in the store. For starters, you must focus on the basics. If later the passion expands and you really want to become a farmer, then you can also purchase other fancy tool or agricultural machinery.

In today’s article, we have proposed to offer you eleven tools to help you create and maintain your vegetable garden.

Gardening gloves

Since this activity involves working with soil and water, the first essential tool you need to purchase is a pair of gardening gloves. The gardening gloves will protect your hands by keeping them dry and clean while preventing the risk of blisters. They are available in a wide variety of colors and equipped with robust, water-resistant materials that will keep your hands clean when in contact with water or wet soil, but also with breathable parts that will improve the airflow.

Garden Hose with Adjustable Nozzle

Plenty of water is the basis for growing healthy vegetables. A garden hose is an indispensabletool that you must purchase. It will help you water your plants and other decorative plants, flowers, or trees in your yard. The garden hose comes in several diameters, but it doesn’t matter which one you choose to take as long as you intend to buy also an adjustable nozzle. The adjustable nozzle will help you control the water pressure and the spray radius. The spray radius is important in watering leguminous plants because it will water the root without touching the leaves.

Garden Shears and Knife

The garden shearswill help you to keep your garden clean and tidy. This tool is sharp and has soft grip handles for comfortable use. With its help, you can cut flowers, new branches, or young shoots.However, if you do not want shears, you can also purchase a garden knife that has a sharp blade that will do the same thing as scissors, namely to clean up the garden in spring or autumn.

Hand Fork

Another small but useful tool is the hand fork. With an ergonomic handle and some stainless steel teeth, the hand fork is the one that will help you aerate and loosen the soil. Moreover, you can use it…

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Don’t Miss These Posts On Homesteading… | Homesteading Simple Self Sufficient Off-The-Grid | Homesteading.com <![CDATA[ window._wpemojiSettings = {"baseUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72×72/","ext":".png","svgUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/","svgExt":".svg","source":{"concatemoji":"https://homesteading.com/wp-includes/js/wp-emoji-release.min.js?ver=6.0.3"}}; /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(e,a,t){var n,r,o,i=a.createElement("canvas"),p=i.getContext&&i.getContext("2d");function s(e,t){var a=String.fromCharCode,e=(p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,e),0,0),i.toDataURL());return p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,t),0,0),e===i.toDataURL()}function c(e){var t=a.createElement("script");t.src=e,t.defer=t.type="text/javascript",a.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(t)}for(o=Array("flag","emoji"),t.supports={everything:!0,everythingExceptFlag:!0},r=0;r tallest) { tallest = thisHeight; } }); group.height(tallest); } equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); $(window).resize(function() { equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); }); }); ]]>

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Dehydrating, or drying, requires a simple process that preserves a surplus of fresh foods for use when those ingredients are long out of season. It has been a common method of preserving throughout history. Today, though, it’s more often associated with making snacks.

Whether you want to make your family healthier, homemade fruit leather or your own beef jerky for a weekend camping trip, an at-home food dehydrator can help you create it. 

What is often overlooked is how dehydrating foods expands tastes and textures when cooking at home. Once fully dried, some foods can be used to deepen the flavor of simmering soups while others can be used as crunchy toppings when serving the soup. 

Keys to Success

The most time-efficient tool for dehydrating foods is an electric food dehydrator. An affordable and compact option that costs less than $100 is fully capable of doing the job. These appliances allow for optimal temperature and time control. They also promote appropriate air circulation, which plays an important role in dehydrating.

Success requires a temperature that is low enough to gradually remove all of the moisture from the food but not so high that it cooks during the process. Removing moisture is the key to shelf-stable dehydrated foods that don’t grow mold or rot. 

The ideal temperature for dehydrating is 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Most food dehydrators have multiple temperature settings. You’ll find many recipe instructions for foods with varying temperature suggestions. 

Feel free to follow tested recipes and their suggested temperatures. But there really isn’t a need for so many fluctuations in temperature settings.

Over time, you’ll become familiar with your model of dehydrator. You’ll likely find a consistent temperature for dehydrating and learn the ideal time that results in foods dried to your liking. I find that staying just under 140 degrees at the 131-degree setting on my machine to be effective for drying most fruits and vegetables. It’s the temperature setting used for all the foods we’ll discuss here. 

Times & Temps

Dehydrating requires patience. But the good news is that it’s a fairly hands-off process. Once the food is prepped and placed in the dehydrator, you can often leave it overnight and the food will be ready in the morning. 

Some manufacturers do suggest rotating trays for better air circulation while the dehydrator is at work. Do some research based on your needs before deciding on a model that is right for you.

Many foods will fully dehydrate in 4 to 8 hours at temperatures between 131 and 140 degrees. Drying times are always approximate due to the impact of humidity. In a more humid environment, foods will take longer to dehydrate. 

Foods that Dehydrate Well 

The more moisture content a food contains, the longer it will take to dry. Most fruits and vegetables, however, can be dried with an electric food dehydrator.

Berries, stone fruits, apples and…

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Keeping Your Barn Animals Cool for the Summer | Homesteading Tips For Summer Preparedness | Homesteading Simple Self Sufficient Off-The-Grid | Homesteading.com <![CDATA[ window._wpemojiSettings = {"baseUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/72×72/","ext":".png","svgUrl":"https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/14.0.0/svg/","svgExt":".svg","source":{"concatemoji":"https://homesteading.com/wp-includes/js/wp-emoji-release.min.js?ver=6.0.3"}}; /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(e,a,t){var n,r,o,i=a.createElement("canvas"),p=i.getContext&&i.getContext("2d");function s(e,t){var a=String.fromCharCode,e=(p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,e),0,0),i.toDataURL());return p.clearRect(0,0,i.width,i.height),p.fillText(a.apply(this,t),0,0),e===i.toDataURL()}function c(e){var t=a.createElement("script");t.src=e,t.defer=t.type="text/javascript",a.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(t)}for(o=Array("flag","emoji"),t.supports={everything:!0,everythingExceptFlag:!0},r=0;r tallest) { tallest = thisHeight; } }); group.height(tallest); } equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); $(window).resize(function() { equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); }); }); ]]>

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Sun rays begin to pierce through the early-morning fog as hens coo softly in their coop. The Guernsey cow waits patiently by the gate, ready to be let inside the barn. She swishes her tail as a couple of flies dance around her. The chilly fall morning makes you shiver inside your warm coat, but a feeling of satisfaction soon fills you as your hands work a steady stream of warm, frothy milk into the pail. 

Keeping cattle on your homestead is a big step towards self-sufficiency and less reliance on the supermarket for all of your family’s food needs. If there is an issue with the food supply or a weather-related reason that you can’t make it to the store, it won’t cause as much concern. You’re already used to going to your backyard for meat and dairy needs!

Whether you have a dairy cow or raise a couple of butcher steers for beef, you will find that raising cattle can offer a multitude of benefits. Here are some reasons you should consider adding cattle to your homestead. 

Fresh & Safe Homegrown Products

How much more peace of mind do you feel knowing the farmer down the road raised your produce, as opposed to seeing it shipped in from another country and placed on a store shelf? 

By raising your own cattle, you can control not only what the animal is fed but also the medications, vaccines and treatment it is given. These can all play a huge part in the quality of meat after it is butchered. 

Another reason to enjoy butchering a whole beef is that when you eventually take your steer to the butcher, you will be able to come back with not only ground hamburger, but a variety of steaks, roasts and other cuts of meat to stock your freezer with. If you cook a lot, you’ll greatly enjoy having a good selection of meat in the back freezer.

Read more: These tips help you choose the right beef cattle for your homestead!

Extra Income

Each time I come back from the butcher, I race to stuff all that frozen meat in the freezer. While I love having plenty of food, it can be stressful dealing with such a large quantity at one time. 

If you don’t plan to use a whole beef, consider selling some of it after it comes back from the locker. Or you can make a plan with a neighbor ahead of time to divide it in half.

It might be a good idea to also check with your local meat locker before you butcher, too. That way you make sure that each party can call in with their own cutting instructions for their half of the meat. 

Food Security 

Given our ever-changing world, I’ve been pondering more and more what life might look like if we were to face shortages, whether in the food supply…

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The following recipe for zucchini cheese pancakes was kindly sent to us by SurvivalBlog reader M.N.R..

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• I/4 tsp salt or to taste
• 1 cup shredded zucchini (using more or less is okay)
• 3/4 cup shredded cheese (cheddar is a yummy choice)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp sugar (optional)
• Enough milk to make the mixture the consistency that you desire

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together.

2. Heat butter in skillet.

3. Pour pancake-sized amount io batter into a skillet.

4. Cook until light brown.

Chef’s Notes:

We prefer one larger (5-inch diameter) thicker pancake per person, but you make them any way you like.  We get about 5 large pancakes out of a batch of this batter.  It’s a yummy way to use up that extra zucchini, or the zucchini that you still have shredded and frozen from last year’s harvest.

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Do you have a favorite recipe that would be of interest to SurvivalBlog readers? In this weekly recipe column, we place emphasis on recipes that use long term storage foods, recipes for wild game, dutch oven and slow cooker recipes, and any that use home garden produce. If you have any favorite recipes, then please send them via e-mail. Thanks!

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Creative Raised Bed Garden Ideas: Yard Decor For Every Season tallest) { tallest = thisHeight; } }); group.height(tallest); } equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); $(window).resize(function() { equalHeight($(“.dg-grid-shortcode .dg_grid-shortcode-col”)); }); }); ]]>

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Senator Ron Wyden revealed in a letter today and announced by Yahoo! News that the U.S. State Department allows 25 federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies to freely access to a key database of personal information, the Consular Consolidated Database (CCD). Sen. Wyden called for the State Department to implement reforms to (1) develop a policy to limit access to CCD to legitimate purposes, (2) provide notice when the State Department disseminates information to other agencies, (3) publish annual statistics on outside agency use of CCD, and (4) engage with agencies with more privacy expertise to align use of the CCD with privacy best practices.

Data in the CCD is pulled from applications for visas, passports, and American Citizen Services and includes names, addresses, birthdates, fingerprints, facial images, racial identifiers, social security numbers, alien registration numbers, and countries of origin. There are no apparent warrant requirements or meaningful procedural limits on using the database. Wyden’s investigation stems from an earlier Yahoo! News report that a Border Patrol agent at the National Targeting Center used government databases to wrongfully surveil a reporter. Wyden is seeking additional information from the State Department about law enforcement access to the CCD.

Sen. Wyden’s letter expands on documents EPIC obtained in EPIC v. State Department, a FOIA case revealing how the State Department allows many agencies access to its Consular Consolidated Database. The CCD contains current and archived data about U.S. persons (i.e., citizens and legal permanent residents) and non-U.S. persons (i.e., foreign nationals). EPIC obtained and published memoranda of understanding between the State Department and more than a dozen federal agencies allowing access to the CCD, include the Department of the Interior, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security/ the FBI. EPIC works to document the information contained in government databases and advocates for access restrictions and minimization requirements for personal data collected by the government.

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Every year, I add compost to my raised garden beds, providing a nutrient boost while replacing soil lost to the annual removal of spent plant root balls. This year, I’m going a step further by working shredded sugar maple leaves into the beds.

They’re a good source of carbon and offer other valuable goodies like calcium and magnesium.

Why You Should Shred Leaves

There are many mature sugar maple trees on my farm, including a quartet of massive specimens that stand alone in the yard. Come autumn it’s not hard to gather a virtually pure collection of sugar maple leaves.

But rather than dump them whole into my garden beds, I wish to shred them first. This speeds up their decomposition and lessens the likelihood of leaves compacting into water-impermeable mats.

A dedicated leaf shredder is a good way to shred leaves. I lack such a machine, though, so I decided to use my riding lawn mower instead. A large volume of leaves had accumulated on the edge of my lawn, at a point where the grass starts growing taller and prevents them from blowing away.

I figured I could drive my lawn mower up and down this area a few times and quickly shred the leaves into small pieces perfect for my garden beds.

Read more: These 4 steps will  help you get your garden beds ready for winter.

Merits of a Mower

So did my mower shred these leaves well? Yes … and no. To my surprise, the results were mixed.

There’s no doubt my lawn mower is capable of shredding leaves nicely. It’s a garden tractor with a 20-horsepower engine and a 4-foot mower deck raised and lowered by hydraulics.

It’s a quality machine. But it wasn’t ready to deal with the sheer volume of leaves I asked it to tackle.

It’s not a stretch for mature sugar maples to produce more than 100,000 leaves in a year, and when four of those mature trees have dumped all their leaves in a yard … that’s a lot of leaves. Even figuring that some blew away down a nearby slope, the number of leaves caught on the edge of the field had to be substantial, measuring well into the thousands.

Certainly the accumulated area I intended to mow measured 6 inches deep, maybe deeper.

Read more: Consider these 4 types of mowers for your farm needs.

Too Many Leaves!

Therein lay my problem. Even with the mower deck raised to its highest point, and even while creeping forward at a speed barely above zero miles per hour, the lawn mower couldn’t swallow up all the available leaves. As I drove forward, leaves started piling up against the front of the deck … and around the front tires … and on top of the mower deck … and even under the mower deck, where the blades evidently couldn’t chop up leaves…

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Are you a home gardener in need of corn shellers? There are plenty to choose from, each with distinct features and benefits. They come in various shapes, sizes, and modes of operation, from manual to electric, hand-held to tractor-mounted. This article will explain what they are and what they do so that you can make an informed decision about which one to purchase and what they stand to offer you.

What is a Corn Sheller?

A corn sheller is a device that separates the kernels from the cob. The machine can be operated manually or electrically. It is typically used to process corn for animal feed or human consumption, such as cornmeal or tortillas.Lester Denison, an inventor from Sayville, Connecticut, patented a corn sheller in 1839, and his machine is credited with launching an industry that once employed several hundred people. Denison’s machine was a stand-alone upright design.

Corn shellers typically have a small footprint, high work efficiency, and are portable. It is simple for to move one from location to location. The corn sheller machine’s main structure consists of a frame, a material inlet, a threshing device, a screen, an engine (motor, gasoline engine, or diesel engine) wheel, a corn kernel outlet, a corn cob outlet, and so on.

All local maize varieties, including hybrid and composite kinds, are shelled using maize machines. There are two types of maize shellers: cylinder and spring type. A fluted spinning cylinder, a rotating disc, and a spring pressure plate make up a spring-type sheller.

The cobs are fed into a fluted spinning cylinder, and the kernels are scraped off the cobs as they pass between the cylinder and disc. The blower removes light material, and clean grain is collected separately. These shellers come in many sizes, including domestic, single-hole, and double-hole shellers.

Small farmers can shell small amounts of maize with a hand-operated domestic sheller. A maize threshing machine is useful for domestic corn threshers because of its attractive look and extended lifespan.

How Corn Shellers Work

A corn sheller works similarly to a threshing machine but with a few modifications to account for corn’s larger grain size and other variations from wheat and other crops. Hand cranks, tractors, stationary engines, electric motors, and stationary engines can all be used to power corn shellers. They are fed whole corn cobs.

The cob is dragged between two metal, typically toothed, wheels. The directions in which the wheels revolve are counter to one another. The teeth remove the corn kernels from the cob until none are left. The kernels are discharged via a screen and into a bucket or container positioned beneath the machine.

Since the cob cannot travel through the screen, it is subsequently ejected outside. Some models incorporate a “walker” that looks like a threshing machine or combined to remove the cobs.

Shelling your homegrown corn…

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