How to Make “Willow Water” root hormone

Here is the procedure for making willow water:

1. Collect young first-year twigs and stems of any of willow (Salix spp.) species, these have green or yellow bark. Don’t use the older growth that has brown or gray bark.
2. Remove all the leaves, these are not used. Don’t waste good green material though, compost the leaves or throw them in the garden as mulch.
3. Take the twigs and cut them up into short pieces around 1" (2.5cm) long.
4. The next step is to add the water. there are several techniques to extract the natural plant rooting hormones:
   a) Place the chopped willow twigs in a container and cover with boiling water, just like making tea, and allow the “tea” to stand overnight.
   b) Place the chopped willow twigs in a container and cover with tap water (unheated), and let it soak for several days.
5. When finished, separate the liquid from the twigs by carefully pouring out the liquid, or pouring it through a strainer or sieve. The liquid is now ready to use for rooting cuttings. You can keep the liquid for up to two months if you put it in a jar with a tight fitting lid and keep the liquid in the refrigerator. Remember to label the jar so you remember what it is, and write down the date you brewed it up, and to aid the memory, write down the date that it should be used by, which is two months from the date it was made!  
6. To use, just pour some willow water into a small jar, and place the cuttings in there like flowers in a vase, and leave them there to soak overnight for several hours so that they take up the plant rooting hormone. Then prepare them as you would when propagating any other cuttings.
   The second way to use willow water is to use it to water the propagating medium in which you have placed cuttings. Watering your cuttings twice with willow water should be enough to help them root.

Reprinted from https://deepgreenpermaculture.com/diy-instructions/home-made-plant-rooting-hormone-willow-water/

Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Prep time

1 hour

Cook time

14 mins

Total time

1 hour 14 mins

Author: MaryAnn Dwyer

Servings: About 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. culinary lavender
• 1 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• pure cane sugar for sprinkling

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, sift together flour and salt. Set aside.
2. Place 1 Tbsp. of the granulated sugar, lavender, and lemon zest in a mortar and grind lightly with the pestle.
3. Place lavender mixture in large bowl with remaining sugar and butter. Cream together until smooth. Add vanilla. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture until it forms dough. Shape into a disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside. Roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into shapes (I used a 1 3/4 inch cutter) and place on prepared sheet. Sprinkle with some pure cane sugar, then place in the freezer for 15 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
6. Bake cookies for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned around the edges. Cool on sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Can be store in an airtight container for 5 days.

Time to start planting for the fall. But consider this

What to consider when planting crops in August: how fast they grow, and how frost-tolerant they are. Here are a few good crops to plant in August.

Fast-Growing Crops

These fast-growing crops can be planted early enough to avoid a frost:

1. Baby carrots – Harvest in 30 days.
2. Leaf lettuce – Harvest in 30 days.
3. Radishes – Harvest in 30 days.
4. Spinach – Harvest in 45 days.
5. Bush beans – Harvest in 40-65 days.

Survives Light Frost

If you generally experience light frosting early on, these crops are capable of surviving:

6. Kohlrabi – 50-60 days to maturity.
7. Leaf Lettuce – 30 days to maturity.

Frost-Tolerant Crops (Survives High 20s Fahrenheit)
These three crops can really extend your growing season past the first frost:

8. Beets – 50-60 days to maturity.
9. Green onions – 60-70 days to maturity.
10. Peas – 70-80 days to maturity.

Frost Tolerant Crops (Survives Low 20’s)
These crops are the hardiest of the hardiest. They will survive after everything else has died and is in your canning jars.

11. Cabbage – 50-90 days to maturity.
12. Collard Greens – 40-65 days to maturity.
13. Kale – 40-65 days to maturity.
14. Radishes – 30-60 days to maturity.
Again, depending on where you live, August doesn’t have to necessarily spell the end of your gardening season. By getting out of the old habit of planting only after the last frost, we can really extend our growing season.

Sad news on the homestead

Yesterday we experienced a sudden death of one of our wyandotte hens and as surprised as we were
this is often quite common with chickens.  I wondered was there things we could have done but even after a full inspection of the carcass there were no  signs of mites, infections or even trauma, though the night before I did close up the coop because the temp dropped to almost freezing.  In the morning she was her usual noisy self and fighting the other hens over sunflower seeds and when I got home from work I was only greeted by five hens and there she was in the dusting area half buried in the dirt.

I let the rest of the hens out so I could remove her and clean out any feathers or debris where she was.  Still puzzled I did some research and found this was not uncommon and though we did not process the carcass for consumption, due to not being able to tell how long she had been dead and it was a rather warm day, I did inspect her wings, vent, neck and head area because after the very first cold spell at the start of the winter she was not looking well.  She was disoriented and shaking her head a lot.  So we brought her in to warm up and let her rest in a dog carrier.  After two days she went back out and seemed fine, but as winter set in we started only getting 5 eggs on average, so one of them was not laying (we never forced laying and let the girls do their thing) but on occasion we would get one extremely large egg, jumbo +, often it was wrinkled shell and extremely think walled.  Just over the past week we had four occasions to find rubber shelled eggs, so we watched and egg production returned to normal.  Then poof day after six normal eggs she died.

There could have been other signs, like she never roosted with the other hens, she would go to a higher spot in the coop and not share body warmth from the others.  She often was last to eat but had a bit of a temper with the other chickens.  She was not a runner and barely followed the flock when they all saw one of the others getting something good to eat, or so they thought.  She hated worms, while the other girls would relish at the opportunity to get into the compost bin to get the worms, she did not.  She hated to be picked up and would go to great lengths to get away.

In the end we still have no idea how she died but are a bit concerned and will watch the other girls for the next week or so to make sure they are fine.  I did run across this article from Mother Earth News on sudden chicken death, all seem plausible based on what we observed.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/sudden-chicken-death-zbcz1404

Stackable Potato Bin

Spring is here and it is time to start to think about building raised beds and planning your garden. Why not add potatoes to your yard.  Americans consume about 34,980,000,000 lbs of potatoes per year, that is a staggering $20,988,000,000 spent nationally, an average of 88 5 lb. bags per person for a family of four or $264 per year on potatoes.

So why not grow your own?  A bag of seed potatoes cost about $5 and will yield about 50 lbs. of potatoes.  You can even save a few of those store spuds and replant them, saving even more.  We are not going to cover growing the potatoes just yet because we wanted to focus on ways to plant them.

Of course you can plant the directly in the ground, though the preparation of the soil to keep it loose and good quality can be a daunting task.  Then there is the bucket, a five gallon bucket works well for fingerlings and small spaces and early season potatoes, same is true for planter potatoes.  Then there is the trash can potatoes, an excellent choice if growing late season potatoes but often difficult to harvest without dumping the whole thing out.  Paper bag and general bag potatoes are also an option. The one we like the most is the stackable bin.  For a cost of lumber or even scrap lumber you can build two for about $50 and they will last up to 10 years.

For this project you will need the following:
(One bin)
4 - 2x2x8 pine boards
4 - 1x6x8 pine boards
1 cardboard box for weed barrier
4-8 bags of garden soil (make sure each bag is 2 cu ft. for each layer)
1 bags of late season seed potatoes
36x36 inch piece of chicken fence to cover bin and keep squirrels out from stealing the seed potatoes.
Box of 2" deck screws

You can use cedar, maple, oak or hickory for the lumber, all will last different lengths of time but all have a higher cost.  DO NOT USE PRESSURE TREATED LUMBER. We have also used pallets for this project, just make sure they are stamped HT (Heat treated) anything else usually contains pesticides or preservatives that can be toxic if ingested.

Step one - Cut that wood
1. Take the 1x6x8 and cut into 24 inch lengths (4 per 8 foot board)
2. Take the 2x2 and cut those into 6 inch lengths

That is it for cutting now lets assemble

Step two - Assemble
1. Take four 1x6x24 and four 2x2x6's for the base.

2. With one 2x2 and two 1x6 set your first corner.  Using the deck screws attach the 1x6 to the 2x2. If using Pine it is advised to pre-drill your holes to prevent splitting.  Be sure to offset the 2x2 2" above the top of the base.  This will create the pegs for the second layer to sit on top of the first and subsequent layers.  Follow this process until all four sides are assembled.

3.  Follow the same process for the second layer except build it assembled on top of the base.  This will help keep the corner 2x2's at the correct height for the next level.  Continue this process for the remaining layers.  When completed you will have one bin 24" deep.  Remove each layer and leave just the base.

Step three - Planting
1.  Put the base on level ground where the planter will get full sun.

2.  Line the bottom with cardboard to keep the weeds under control.

3.  Fill the base with soil, just to the top.  Install the second layer but do not fill with anymore soil.

4.  Plant your seed potatoes per the planting instructions.  Late season potatoes take up to 90 days to grow and this method works best for those.  Early season should be planted using another method such as the 5 gallon pail.

5.  Water and place the chicken wire over the top.  We secure ours with roofing nails and stretch the fence tight so the bushy tails can't get under or pull off.  We have also used bricks at the corner to hold it down.  Use whatever method works best for you.

6.  When the plants get to about a foot high, add more dirt. cover all the leaving about four inches of the plants about the soil.  What this will do is allow those buried leaves convert to roots for additional potatoes to grow.  Do this right up to the last level.  At that point the chicken fence can be removed, the squirrels tend to avoid areas with dense vegetation.  Once the leaves turn brown, the potatoes can be harvested.

We recommend only harvesting what you need, because the bin, if not saturated with water will store the potatoes for some time.  We have left them and periodically harvested through out the winter, by covering the bin with boards to keep water out so the soil does not freeze.  Each bin usually will work well for about 50-100 lbs of potatoes.

Dried bean, today, tomorrow and forever

If we could encourage every person to grow one thing it would be beans. Dried beans that is. Most
are low maintenance, low water needs, and while pole or climbing beans might be hard to control they take up very little space. Most can be planted 6 to 12 inches apart in rows 12" apart. This makes them one of the easiest to grow in small spaces, square foot gardens or containers.

Cranberry Bean

Sister bean (adebakwal)

We grow a heirloom black bean similar to Black Turtle Beans as well as a cranberry bean type, Abenaki Beans, they tend to tower anywhere from 5 to 7 feet tall and continue to produce through out the season and do not need to be harvested until the pod dries. Tolerant to light frost and high heat, if watered daily, they seem to love heavily fertilized soil (we use chicken waste and wood chip compost), they also control ground weeds well. The biggest asset is they store well in sealed quart jars, which is about three cups of dried beans or almost 6 cups of cooked beans that is four to five meals per jar, not to mention save the beans and replant some next year. Talk about a return on an investment!


The largest issue is how to use those dried beans and well we are still learning how to use them, because unlike canned beans or even bagged dried beans, these can remain quit hard and unpalatable for some time. Today we share a piece from Joybilee Farm on how to cook dried beans
Read more here:
http://joybileefarm.com/how-to-cook-dried-beans/

Get ready now for spring!

Five Important Things You Should Do On Your Homestead During The Last Weeks Of Winter Are:

1. Preparing for seeds.

Make sure you have the seeds, pots and area is ready to start seeds. Check schedules for starting indoors.  Items like celery and hot peppers should already be started indoors for all zones below 6.  Make sure your seed stock is fresh.  Many store bought seed packets are only viable for one to two years if not placed in cold storage.

2. Implement maintenance.

Now is the time to be sure your tools, mechanical and otherwise, are in sound, working condition. For hand tools, sharpen the edges, oil the blades and repair or replace splintered or broken handles. Sharpening the blades of mower decks, tillers, plows and other implements now will allow spring ground-breaking to get off to a smooth start.





3. Stocking up on the essentials.
If you produce your own soaps, detergents and other household products, stocking up now will ensure you make it through the busy spring and summer months without setting aside precious time to whip up more.  This also includes any homemade insecticides or inoculates you make or purchase such as neem oil or other essential oils you need.


4. Preparing soil amendments.
Not all of the prep work can be done indoors, so take advantage of those warmer days in the last
weeks of winter to work outside. Enrich garden soils by adding a top layer of compost to the rows.  Great time to start sifting soil, compost to get ready for seed pots.  If you purchase garden soil or compost, now may be a good time to get your order in for delivery in the next few weeks.