How to Seed a Pomegranate

...r. Take a spatula or other sturdy object and then spank the back until the seeds release (this sounds more erotic than it actual is). If I’m lazy I just pick out the pith from the bowl. If I’m more thorough I’ll fill the bowl with water so that you can easily skim off the pith which floats to the surface. Our tree gifted us with an abundant crop, so this has been a daily practice for the last month. This is also confirmation of my theory that the...

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Our new front yard, part 6: it’s all potential at this point

...zy looking handrail!): But it is truly all potential. There are wildflower seeds waiting to sprout and other surprises to come. I hope to be able to show you something wonderful this spring. So stay tuned. In the meantime, I will update this series if anything comes up– any new mistakes or discoveries or victories on the road to developing a meadow community. Doing this project has made me aware of how often we expect instant results with our land...

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Ill advised grafting projects

...grafting tomatoes to tobacco root stock (though it seems Homer crossed the seeds) and the technique shows some promise. According to this study, Tobacco grafting had a positive effect on the tomato plant cultivation performance; the onset of flowering was almost 15 days earlier and the tomato flower and fruit yields increased in both tomato cultivars. Tobacco grafting resulted in 5.0% and 30.1% increase in total fruit weight for cv. Sweet and cv....

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Salted Spruce Tips and Pine Infused Garlic Salt

...ngers will fade when the plant dries out.) • Seaweed salt. Add some sesame seeds for furikake-like flavor • My favorite salt so far has been piñon pine with garlic. I need me some more piñon! What do you do with it? Herbed salts are nice on vegetables and popcorn. They can add that extra oomph to soups and stews. They can be used as meat rubs. They can be kept at table and sprinkled on everything. Regarding pine toxicity There was a single study t...

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Baking Bread with Specialty Malts

...of bitter bread. To soak or not to soak Usually when I add whole grains or seeds to bread I like to soak them for a few hours in hot water. But when I tried this with the specialty grains I ended up inadvertently starting the beer making process. Much of the syrupy goodness flowed out the grain and was lost when I had to drain it prior to adding it to my dough. Instead, I got better results by starting with a wet dough and letting the grain soften...

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