Indholdsfortegnelse for March/April 2022 i Grit

My dog, Peanut, and I have a morning routine these days: When he hears me scoop up chicken feed and slip on my chore boots, he comes prancing to the back door. His job is to bounce in circles around me while I walk to the chicken yard. If it isn’t too cold to linger, I trade the feed pitcher for his rope toy, and he shows off how fast he can race across the yard for about five minutes. By the end of that performance, he’s ready to nap until lunchtime at least. As many of you know, I live in town and have no real need for a working dog — the chickens are my only livestock, and they live in a fenced-in run. Something tells me a…

TUNE IN TO OUR PODCAST The “Mother Earth News and Friends” podcast is produced by our sister publication, Mother Earth News. Explore these episodes and more at www.MotherEarthNews.com/Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. EXPLORE GRIT.COM 10 Urban Beekeeping Tips By Zan Asha As a third-generation beekeeper, I can attest to the many fun and rewarding aspects of beekeeping. As an urban New Yorker, I also can tell you that you can keep bees even in the city. Just follow these urban beekeeping tips, and you’ll be well on your way to beekeeping bliss! 1. Make sure it’s legal to keep bees in your area. Although some places, such as Detroit, Chicago, and New York City, allow for bees, not all urban areas are beefriendly. Double-check your city ordinances to…

Tomatoes are the stars of the home garden. A mealy, store-bought tomato will never compare to a sunwarmed heirloom straight off the vine. As a farmsteader, they’re one of my favorite crops, both for their multitude of culinary uses and their beautiful range of colors, sizes, and flavors. Unfortunately, tomatoes are also susceptible to many diseases. Even for the experienced gardener, it can be tough to recognize tomato diseases, and even more challenging to treat them. I’ve found that prevention is key to a successful tomato harvest. Here are five common tomato diseases and how you can prevent them in your garden. Common Diseases Blossom-End Rot It’s devastating when you grab what looks like a gorgeous tomato, only for your fingers to close on a dark, rotten spot on the…

Readers, we’ve occasionally used recipes from our archives in Comfort Foods, and this installment is a special case. A few months ago, a reader sent us a marvelous piece of history that had been tucked among her mother’s cookbooks: a booklet titled 50 Favorite Recipes that was originally published by Capper’s Reader Service. In her letter, Donna Miller noted that a few ingredients stood out to her: 1 cup fat, 1 ⁄2 cup lard, and 3 tablespoons cooking fat, in various recipes. “Times certainly have changed! My mother was born in 1903 and lived in Bladen, Nebraska,” she wrote. We’re sure many of you have seen dietary fat praised and disparaged by turns over the years, like most of the ingredients that go into beloved comfort foods. How the times…

When I was growing up in sunny Florida, my grandmother had a backyard full of citrus trees, along with an avocado and pecan tree. My older sister and I claimed the latter two as our personal climbing trees. Whenever we became “lunch-y” during the fall months when we played outside, there was no need to have to stop and go inside to eat. We’d simply snack on the abundance of freshly fallen pecans from the grand, old pecan tree. I’ve always felt a little nostalgia surrounding each tree’s first fruits of fall. For me, it brings back those sweet memories of eating the pecans at my grandmother’s house. There’s nothing quite like the simple joy of taking the nutcracker and cracking into those fresh pecans from the backyard pecan tree.…

Unwanted garden visitors can be a constant struggle in a gardener’s growing endeavors, posing a threat to fruit, leaves, or even a whole harvest. You can build this simple 3-by-8-foot raised bed and hinged cover to help keep damaging pests away from susceptible vegetable crops that don’t require pollination. This cover is mainly intended to be a floating row cover top, but bird netting is another option in place of row cover to protect lettuce plantings from a variety of nibbling critters. Use this bed on a three-year crop rotation plan by growing cabbage family crops one year (to keep away aphids, cabbage loopers, cabbageworms, and diamondback moth larvae), beet family crops the next year (to thwart leaf miners), and perhaps onions in the third year (if onion maggots are…

Northern Michigan and central California couldn’t be more different—in climate, topography, flora, and more. Yet both places have at least one strong parallel: a deep-rooted love for foraging. I’ve had the honor of calling both locations home, and, like my fellow community members, I have been trained in the foraging traditions of these places. Every year, residents like me venture into the forests, hills, and fields to respectfully gather beloved seasonal specialties. No matter where you dwell, foraging brings families and communities together and offers timeless escapades into nature, all in the name of good food. Here are some of my favorite foods to forage in each season. Spring As the rains of winter subside and the formerly parched golden grasses turn green, the bounty of central California’s coastal range…

Poultry is a popular addition to farms and backyards everywhere. When shopping for birds, though, beginners may be overwhelmed by the hundreds of breeds available. A good place to start is by learning the difference between heritage and crossbreed poultry, and evaluating which type is best for your situation. The Livestock Conservancy (TLC) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to protect endangered poultry and livestock breeds. TLC defines heritage poultry as those whose characteristics have been standardized (usually called “standard bred”) by the American Poultry Association (APA). A heritage breed bird can mate naturally without extreme measures of assistance; has a slow growth rate; and has a long, productive outdoor life span. Usually, heritage birds produce eggs for a longer period of their lives and have greater disease resistance…

Whether you’re a new or seasoned gardener, author and garden pro Susan Mulvihill shows you how to handle pest issues by growing healthier plants, properly identifying the culprits, and nurturing the overall ecosystem of your garden in The Vegetable Garden Pest Handbook. You’ll learn how to get rid of squash bugs with minimal effort, screen out root maggots, nurture the bugs that help control tomato hornworms, and much more. Identifying and controlling common vegetable garden pests have never been favorite tasks of gardeners, but with Susan’s help, positive results will be easier than you think! This title is available at Store. Grit.com or by calling 800-234-3368. Mention promo code MGRPAMZ5. Item #10898.…

When you hear “prickly pear,” you probably think of desert-loving plants full of sharp spikes. But did you know that not all of these cacti live up to their name? Mostly considered a novelty plant today, spineless cacti were once bred to be a versatile food crop, much like corn. Unfortunately, the thornless cactus got off to a bit of a rough start in the commercial plant world, causing it to fall into obscurity for a time. As such, spineless prickly pears aren’t cultivated nearly as much as their thorny counterparts, but they’re starting to make a slow comeback as gardeners and farmers recognize their potential as a lowinput, high-yield food source. A Prickly Past Opuntia, commonly known as “prickly pear,” is a genus of flowering cactus plants in the…