From the Garden to the Kitchen
The botanical name for cauliflower is Brassica oleracea, and it is related to cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts. It is an inflorescence vegetable where the part that is eaten is part of the inflorescence of the plant itself (buds, flowers, stems, etc.). The head of …
A gorgeous book all about dahlia flowers. Dahlias are a tuberous flower native to Mexico and Central America, and the dahlia flower is actually the national flower of Mexico since 1963. If you are looking for a good book that specifically details this special flower, …
Herbarium: The Quest to Preserve and Classify the World’s Plants by Barbara M. Thiers is a great book on the history of herbaria with color plates mixed in the pages. It was fascinating to read how old explorations for commerce and nature expeditions resulted in so much information for the world about botany today.
The pictures of the explorers, maps, colored photographs of specimens and locations, as well as historical illustrated botanical plates all add to the great reading of this book. The chapter Herbarium Digitization was a fascinating read on how digitizing and modernizing collections help researchers worldwide.
Below are pictures from the book from the publisher (visit the link for more inside pages).
A truly excellent read for anyone into botany. While it is a little on the academic side, the pictures break up the text and people interested in biographies and history would find this a great book to read and to add to their library collection.
Disclosure: This book was provided by the publisher and any opinions are my own. Any affiliate links help to support this site. Thanks 🙂
Medicinal Herbs for Family Health and Wellness: 123 Trusted Recipes for Common Concerns, From Allergies & Asthma to Sunburns & Toothaches by JJ Pursell is a great reference for keeping the family healthy using herbal medicine. The same author wrote Medicinal Herbs for Immune Defense. …
Grow Bag Gardening is everything related to grow bag gardening! This was something new to me and I actually had no idea how useful this type of gardening could be. What is Grow Bag Gardening? Wikipedia gives a very basic definition of what it is: …
The Self-Sufficiency Bible is a wonderful reference for anyone wanting to survive on their own, and for those who just want to know how to do basic stuff on a small homestead.
The book contains 12 chapters on everything you need to know: The Kitchen Garden; The Home Baker; The Home Dairy; The Home Brewer; Natural Solutions: Health, Beauty and the Home; Arty Crafty Bits; Livestock; Meat Preparation and Basic Butchery; Curing and Preserving; Foraging; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle; and Greener Energy.
I can’t decide which chapter is my favorite because every topic is a wealth of information. There are brief illustrations throughout the book, and they more are illustrative and decorative than actually are guidelines of what to do.
The butchery section has basic cuts of meat, and the garden chapter has a nice growing chart. The foraging section tells where and when to look for food, along with tips to be legal, ethical and safe when foraging. The livestock section is brief but the info here is great for people looking for an introduction on raising animals. There are many recipes to try but as a baker, the stinging nettle cupcake recipe in the foraging chapter looks very interesting to try.
Below is a recipe from the book, and since this comes from the UK, you may not be familiar with HP Sauce. It’s a cousin of sorts to ketchup and both are made by Heinz. It’s a savory condiment with a bit of spice and it goes great with roast meats. This version contains apples and prunes with malt vinegar and just enough cayenne to give it some legs.
A tangy brown sauce similar in use as HP Sauce.
Place the apples, prunes and onions in a large non-reactive pot and cover with water. Bring to boil, and cook until everything is soft. Drain and pass everything through a non-metallic sieve and return to the pot.
Add in rest of ingredients and mix everything together. Bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer until it has cooked down and reduced to a saucy paste.
Pour into a container with a lid, and store in the fridge. Author of the book says indefinietly.
Book Info:
Disclosure: This book was provided by the publisher and any opinions are my own. Any affiliate links help to support this site. Thanks. 🙂
If you’ve ever thought about creating your own medicinal items in your kitchen but didn’t know where to begin, then this book is just what you need. Medicinal Herbs for Immune Defense has 104 recipes for all sorts of ailments that you can create at …
The Preserving Answer Book by Sherri Brooks Vinton is filled with many questions related to food preservation as well as definitions to many preservation terms. The Preserving Answer Book Contents There are 17 chapters separated into 3 parts: Getting Started: the basics of canning with …
I’m always looking for ways to improve my garden and understanding composting is one way of doing that. I have yet to get a compost pile started in my backyard, but after reading No-Waste Composting by Michelle Balz, I’m wondering if there is no time like the present.
There are 7 chapters in this book, each giving you better insight on what composting is, how start and maintain a compost pile, and great tips for small space composting. The seven chapters are: No-Waste Lifestyle and Benefits of Composting; Composting Basics; Low-Maintenance Outdoor Composting; Integrate Composting into Your Garden; Unique Indoor Composting Systems; Composting Pet Manure in Your Backyard; and Harvesting and Using Your Finished Compost.
The best thing I love about this compost book is the author’s theme of no-waste and her emphasis on reducing an individual’s carbon footprint and “shopping with intention:”
Setting aside food scraps for composting in your backyard makes you keenly aware of how much food you waste. Some things, such as banana peels and melon rinds, are unavoidable. Others, such as the slimy zucchini forgotten in the back of the produce drawer and the moldy strawberries we meant to eat, could have been avoided.
Definitely something to think about when you write up your grocery list and meal plan.
Helpful pictures are throughout the book as well as multiple DIY projects and troubleshooting charts to help resolve issues for basic composting problems. If you are new to backyard composting then this will definitely get you going. If you don’t have room in your backyard, never fear – Balz goes into detail with three unique indoor composting systems with DIY plans for each: terra-cotta pot composting, vermicomposting, and bokashi.
And if you have a compost pile that is ready to go, the book provides an easy way to turn it into a fertilizing tea for the garden. The recipe is adapted below.
After reading this book, there is every reason to take a look at composting since she provides so many methods of starting one.
This non-drinkable compost tea recipe shows you how to make a liquid "tea" to fertilize your garden using your own compost.
Fill the bucket with water to a few inches from the top. If the water is chlorinated, allow the water to set for a few hourse to remove the chlorine, allowing it to evaporate out.
Place the compost into the pantohose and push it all the way to the bottom toe area. This will be your "tea bag." Place this tea bag into the water
Add in molasses to the water and stir until molasses is dissolved. Place the aerating part of the pump into the buck, and weigh it down if needed to keep it down. Turn on the pump and let it brew with pump on for 24 hours. If you do not have a pump to use, then make sure you stir every 20 minutes to 3 hours for proper aeration. You should start seeing some froth at the top of the tea after 24 hours.
Pour the tea into a watering can and dilute 1:1 with plain (dechlorinated) water and use to water garden plants.
This recipe can be scaled up easily for larger buckets.
Notes: Garden recipe adapted from No-Waste Composting. Recipe is NOT intended to be actually used for drinking - it is used to fertilize the garden.
Disclosure: This book was provided by the publisher and any opinions are my own. Affiliate links help support the site, thanks. 🙂
Pelargonium tomentosum, Peppermint scented geranium, is a type of edible geranium with soft, felt-fuzzy leaves and tiny flowers when it blooms. The leaves are large and and release a wonderful mint aroma when ruffled or rubbed between your fingers. I planted this in my herb …
Papaya is a flavorful and fragrant fruit, and starting seeds is relatively easy. Provided the soil is warm and kept moist, the success rate for each seed germination is nearly 100 percent for most viable seeds. Wild Papaya – Carica cauliflora. Papaya from Central America. …
