On Moldy Jam

July 27, 2020

...be processed 10 minutes. Use of sterile jars is preferred, especially when fruits are low in pectin, since the added 5-minute process time may cause weak gels. One additional tip: remove the rings once you’re done canning. Jam that leaks out during processing can creep under the ring and go moldy. The rings are just for processing and transport. Once the jars are on the shelf you don’t need them. Initially, the restaurant in this scandal took to I...

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Sources for Interesting Perennial Crops

Mr. Homegrown

October 17, 2012

Fruit Trees, Gardening, Permaculture

17 Comments

...t sources CRFG members are always on the hunt for interesting varieties of fruits. Note that this list of nurseries covers the entire US, not just California. Permaculture Activist plant sources The website is somewhat of a graphic design nightmare, but if you’re looking for unusual edible perennials, this would be the place to start. Hop Roots – where to get them… Hoptacular! A list of hops nurseries from the Oregon State Hops Commision. Also not...

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Composting: Nothing is Wasted

Mrs. Homegrown

May 7, 2015

Back to the Garden, Composting, Gardening

23 Comments

...dress our needs, everything from smart refrigerators which promise to keep veggies longer, to plastic storage containers with replaceable charcoal filters in the lids. My response, as you probably predicted, is to suggest that we deal with our guilt and our rotten vegetables by first, trying not to be so wasteful, and second, by composting, because spoiled food is not the end of a journey, it’s simply the beginning of a new journey. O, Compost, my...

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Tiny House Dweller as Contemporary Hermit in the Garden

Mr. Homegrown

November 4, 2016

Thoughtstylings

1 Comment

...erend hermit grew The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell, His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well. It’s not too great a step from this picturesque melancholy to full desert father style escape from the consumer matrix. Right now we’re riding high on an economic boom. Inevitably there will be another bust. No sane person knows when that bust will happen again, but when it does I predict we’ll see more garden hermits and fewer tech bros....

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Ill advised grafting projects

Mr. Homegrown

January 21, 2016

Gardening, Vegetable Gardening

4 Comments

...the level of nicotine was within acceptable ranges, tobacco-grafted tomato fruits were considered to be safe for consumption. Self-grafted tomato cultivars also had flowering time onsets almost 11 days earlier. However, self-grafting caused 6.0% and 7.6% less total fruit yield per cv. It does remind me of the unsuccessful attempt back in the 1970s to graft hops onto cannabis root stock with the goal of creating a legal looking plant containing THC...

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