It is so empowering to be able to make something like homemade mayonnaise in your own kitchen you thought you had to buy from a store!
This is such an easy staple to be able to swap out, and so much healthier for you and your family too- with all real ingredients and it tastes so much better than anything you can buy in the store!
With a stick blender and some simple ingredients; oil + egg + acid you’ll be amazed at how quickly this comes together!
Making small batches like this recipe’s proportions with a stick blender means it’s lots easier than most recipes which call for a food processor, plus much larger quantities which always spoiled before I could use 4-6 cups of mayonnaise. This makes just around 1 cup, a perfect mount for whipping up egg salad! (Especially when all those Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs need to be eaten)!
The trick to making this recipe work is using a jar that is just barely bigger than your stick blender. For me this is a wide mouth (straight sided) pint-sized mason jar.
You can use lots of different oils; I prefer avocado or sunflower oil. But you can find your own blend from favorites like: avocado, olive, untoasted sesame, sunflower and coconut oils. Use what you’ve got, knowing whatever oil you do use will end up affecting the overall flavor of your finished homemade mayonnaise. *I do suggest staying away from using all olive oil as it won’t taste right, at least to me.*
Yield: 1 cup of mayonnaise
Homemade Mayonnaise Ingredients
1 large (or two small) raw egg- room temperature
1 T lemon juice or raw apple cider vinegar
1 T Dijon
1 pinch of salt
3/4 C to 1 Cup Oil
Place room temperature egg (temp is important here!), lemon juice or vinegar, mustard, and salt in the jar, add oil(s) to the top.
With the blender blades over the yolk, keep the blender firmly on the bottom of the jar and start blending.
You’ll see the oil and egg start to emulsify almost immediately.
Keep blender blades at the bottom for around a minute and once most of the ingredients are blended you can raise the stick blender up a little to incorporate any extra oils.
This will not feel quite as thick as store bought mayonnaise right away, but once refrigerated it will firm up and spread like any store bought mayo – but it will taste SO MUCH BETTER!
You can add other seasonings after the main emulsifying process, like garlic mayo, spicy mayo etc…
You can add more vinegar, mustard, or salt to suit your tastes with each new batch.
This mayonnaise will keep refrigerated for three to four weeks.
Perfect for egg salad and deviled eggs… which is something we eat a lot of since we raise our own backyard chickens!
Let me know if you liked the mayo and how you used it most.
Let’s get your garden dreams onto paper so you can make harvesting from your garden a reality this summer! A little planning can go a long way. To that end, I’ve created a step by step Garden Planning Guide for you.
First – let’s get clear on what YOUR garden goals are. Setting an intention up front (and knowing it will change with/in the seasons) can be a welcome guidepost later in the planning process. Try to not to compare your gardens or goals to anyone else’s.
Also, I’ll suggest you start small and manageable and plan to add on as you get comfortable with growing more and more. I really want gardening to be a joyful experience for you- not a slogging chore hanging over your head.
Did you know I have a FREE Garden Design Class video on my YouTube Channel? We go over all the basics covered here plus even more details so check it out if you’re looking for more information.
Let’s Dig In!
Before We Dig In
Let’s plan making our vegetable gardens places of beauty for us and the rest of nature that we want to invite in!
The more you start using your front and back yard, the more you’ll want to make the most of every square foot.
Mapping it out on paper will help you see your space in new ways. Keep in mind water, easy access, electrical and zoning requirements for sheds, chicken coops etc.
There are as many ways to design and implement a garden as there are gardeners. And, if there’s a friend or neighbor’s garden that you admire, ask them if you can use their plans in your space; imitation is the highest form of flattery…
Focus on growing what you and your family like to eat, and what will grow well in the space you have. Know Your Growing Zone! Follow THIS LINK to find your USDA Plant Hardiness Zone.
Call Before You Dig
#811 is the national number to call to request that all buried utilities be marked before you start digging. Plan to give them a few days lead time to mark buried electrical, cable and water lines.
Layout Basics
Garden beds function best when built to the 3-4-foot wide range.
Main pathways are best kept at 2 feet wide. Some smaller gardens can get away with 18” pathways, but if you need to get a wheelbarrow into a space, you’ll need a minimum of 2 feet.
Just a reminder that beds do not have to be straight. Depending on materials, the shapes are limited only by your imagination and the space itself.
Basic Planning Steps
Draw the garden perimeter.
Draw in hardscapes. These non-plant items include fences, paths, and fixed items, now you’ve got a ‘Base Plan’. STOP and make copies at this point so you can play with design.
Draw rough outline of garden bed shapes and sizes.
Make a list of all the plants you want to grow in your garden (grow what you eat).
Draw plants into beds (remembering orientation, spacing, trellising, harvesting accessibility).
Add in companion planting options.
Add in succession planting options.
Revise, revise, revise.
Save your plans from year to year and make notes and use for planning crop rotation.
Orientation
When starting your plant layout keep in mind the suns’ orientation. Plant taller plants on the north end of the bed so you don’t block sun from other shorter plants (unless you want to create shade for lettuces etc.). If you plan on making any of your raised beds into cold frames, know that an east west orientation (with the window slanted towards the south) is recommended.
Design Your Layout Sketch
Next is sketching the shape of your garden. Get outside and measure existing spaces or walk the area and measure it out. Draw the perimeter of the space to scale on graph paper. Most garden beds will work well drawn to a scale of 1 foot to 1 square on regular graph paper. Next, add existing hardscapes that won’t be moving. Then, stop and make copies of this ‘base plan’ so you can markup many drafts without having to repeat this step again!
Now’s the time to refer to the list of ‘want to grow’ plants you’ve been gathering. If your list of what you want to grow is longer than what you have space for, narrow the list down by considering what your original garden goals were. Keep in mind what your family likes to eat most, what you could buy from a local farmer instead, and what is most cost effective to grow. This is the tough part- rarely is their room for all the things we want to grow. Now is the time to compromise.
Plant Spacing
How you space your plants is going to depend a little on the kind of gardener you are… Do you like things orderly, or does a little chaos feed your soul? Of course, read the seed packets and consider their recommendations. Many of those packets focus on ‘row’ gardening, although some are starting to include square foot spacing as well.
Most gardeners (us included!) struggle with remembering just how big plants really get by the end of the growing season. Giving plants ample space will help them flourish and make your late season gardening jobs more enjoyable too.
Spacing plants too close can decrease air flow and light, both of which can lead to weakened plants. Weak plants are more susceptible to disease and pest pressure. I tend to crowd my plants a little but am aware that I need to pay extra attention to them. Also of note, the more crowded the plants, the trickier the harvest.
For me, spacing ends up looking like this in a 4 foot wide beds:
24 carrots
12 onions or garlic
8-10 beets
4-5 pak choi, celery, head or leaf lettuce
3 broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, kale, peppers or potatoes
2- Tomatoes
1 zucchini, summer or winter squash
Row spacing will vary based on plants, and you can really play with space when it comes to plants you’ll trellis like pole beans, cucumbers and squash! More information on Playing with Space by Growing Vertically in my online class, coming soon. I also tend to interplant a lot which can alter plant spacing.
Place Your Plants
Taking into consideration the elements we talked about before: orientation, vertical planting, and plant spacing, start placing plants into your ‘Base Plan’. Know you’ll likely move things around quite a few times as you work this out.
This is the step where some garden alchemy happens – you’re using your imagination along with your experience. This process gets easier to see each time you do it. Think about your garden through the seasons, imagine pollinators, harvesting, and how the sun changes. Envisioning your garden in fall can help you get the most out of your space without it becoming overwhelming!
*Confession: It is still hard for me to remember how big broccoli plants really get as I’m transplanting tiny seedlings into the garden!
Getting a plan on paper will help you visualize the garden better but remember there’s nothing like seeing a garden grow throughout the seasons. Living the experience is really what it’s all about- and nature is the best teacher.
Try keeping a record of what you grew in which garden spaces. I tend to lean on my Instagram account and story archives for this, along with a spreadsheet of seed starting dates and a few notes on how plants performed. This practice helps you fine tune your garden skills year over year. It also helps you practice crop rotation in the future.
Plan space for companion flowers to help with pest defense too. Flowers add beauty, pollinators, habitat and joy to any vegetable garden.
Consider succession planting options for growing multiple crops in the same garden beds throughout the season.
Consider the rest of the ecosystem when garden planning, see your garden as part of nature and work with it instead of against it.
All that dreaming you’ve done up to this point will pay off in the long run with happier plants and heartier harvests.
I hope this helps you Dig In and plan your best garden yet!
Soil blocks produce some of the best transplants from seed starting I’ve ever grown. This is my hands down favorite way to start tomatoes, peppers and my earliest cold hardy crops.
The method uses a metal ‘press’ that you fill with an oversaturated (think cement slop for the right consistency) seed starting mix. You get this mix packed into the ‘press’ and push a lever to pop out the cutest soil cubes you ever saw. And if the mix is done right, they stick together great, even though it seems like they’re defying the laws of gravity.
This has proven a great way to get your seedlings off to a solid start and use less plastic. It was brought over to America in the 1970’s by Eliot Coleman, the OG Organic Gardener.
Soil Blocking Benefits
There are a few stacked bonuses to starting seeds this way. One is that it uses less plastic overall. It also creates a good environment for a seedling’s roots to ‘air prune’. This basically means the root hairs stop trying to grow out and instead bulk up closer to the plant. This avoids any circling of roots in a pot so no worry about root gridling. The air pruning process primes the plants for less transplant shock as well. The soil blocks also have great germination rates. They’re almost impossible to overwater as the blocks shed excess water right away.
The standard for seed starting trays is the “1020” which is roughly 10” X 20”. I mostly use a solid 1020 tray with a mesh 1020 nestled inside this for my soil blocks. But, I also have an assortment of older pots that I use to plant into, always with a solid 1020 tray underneath. I absolutely swear by Bootstrap Farmer’s trays. They cost more up front but will literally never need to be replaced- so much stronger then the box store trays!
You can also start soil blocks on any tray with a lip, and I’ve got some old school lunch room trays I’ve repurposed for this.
Getting the Seed Starting Mix Right
Start with a sterile seed starting mix. Do not use regular garden soil. There are quite a few good brands out there, I’ll use Promix if I’m buying a pre bagged blend. But when I do my main seed starting, I mix up my own, to be able to control the exact contents (yes, I’m a control freak) and to save money!
I buy compressed bricks of organic coco coir, like these, to make up about half of this mix. You’ll get roughly 2.5–3 gallons from one compressed brick after soaking in 1+ gallon of water and letting it expand for a few hours.
I have used peat in my soil blocks for years, knowing that it is a hotly debated medium for seed starting I’d been looking for alternatives in addition to the coconut coir. I trialed wool pellets from Kestrel Farms Pellet Co. for the first time in 2024 for my soil blocks. I am loving this medium so far. It is holding together like the peat and holding water as well too. I will update on my trial once the results are in!
There are lots of opinions and ways to create a good seed starting mix. Here’s what I found works well for me when starting soil blocks. If you’re making a seed starting mix for starting seeds in pots instead of soil blocks, you can skip the peat moss altogether.
🌿Soil Blocking Mix🌿
3 parts coconut coir 3 parts peat moss (*or 2 parts wool pellets) 2 parts compost or 1-2 parts worm castings 2 parts perlite 1/4 cup blood meal < 1/4 cup bone meal < 1/4 cup Azomite (aka rock dust)
SOAK COCONUT COIR FOR AT 2+ HOURS PRIOR TO MIXING
Here’s a link to my Amazon seed starting page if you’re interested in seeing all the products together. But remember, reusing any existing trays, pots and food grade plastic is an option too!
The soil blockers cost a little more than trays and pots but can make endless soil blocks for you – and all your garden friends. This is something I love demonstrating at schools too- it really is like playing with mud!
Enjoy starting seeds however you choose to go about it- and marvel at nature’s will to grow!
As an avid gardener and garden writer I’ve listened to a lot of garden podcasts- and some are better than others. I’ve also had the joy of being interviewed by a dozen podcast hosts (you’ll see some of their names below).
There’s something soothing about listening to others who have been there and done that. I love listening as I work with my hands or out on walks. If you’re not a podcast listener, I have to say (even as a writer) you are missing out!
Stephanie and I during a farmers market shopping spree!
Listen to podcasts where my coauthor Stephanie and I are interviewed about our book, Small-Scale Homesteading HERE, scroll about ½ way down for the list of links.
The following podcasts have given me inspiration, new ideas and company as I go about my days. While these are mostly gardening focused, I figured I’d share all my favorite podcasts… in a general order of how many episodes I’ve listened to over the years.
My Favorite Garden Podcasts
*Note – these either link to a main website or the Spotify podcast page as I did this from my desktop computer*
The Joe Gardener Show Joe Lamp’l is a legend and for good reason, he’s interviewed so many experts, plus talks in depth about how he grows great gardens- I absolutely love garden geeking out with him!
The BEET – The Epic Gardening Daily Podcast Kevin Ispiritu of EPIC Gardening doles out daily 5-10 minute podcasts where he interviews experts and riffs on questions asked by gardeners in these short, easy to binge listen!
Cultivating Place Jennifer Jewell’s delightfully deep-dive program focused on conservation, natural history and gardening. She really brings on enchanting guests that makes this seasoned gardener question things!
Homesteaducation hosted by two well-known homesteaders Angela Ferraro-Fanning and Mandi Pickering, who talk about gaining the skills and mindset of modern homesteaders. Pretty infrequent posts lately.
Minnesota Gardening Podcast Brad Tabke talks about gardening in the north and so much more. Focusing on eco-friendly gardening practices, this is one I always try to catch.
Beginners Garden Podcast Jill McSheehey guides listeners through both interviews and personal experience. She’s got great garden tips, resources and ideas for home gardeners.
Food Garden Life Show Steven + Emma Biggs are a father daughter duo from Canada. They keep it real and do both interviews with experts and deep dives into how they grow, especially growing food that shouldn’t be able to grow as far north as they are.
Growing Joy with Maria Focused on the indoor plant lover, Maria interviews all shades of plant lovers, while letting plants nurture us in return.
The Good Dirt is hosted by the mother daughter duo of Mary & Emma and focuses on sustainable lifestyle from the soil on up. I appreciate listening to their relationship as much as the topics covered.
Podcasts can help us envision better gardens and better ways to tend them and ourselves.
Well Loved Plant Podcasts
In Defense of Plants Matt Candeias offers up his true love of plants in these shows that take deeper dives into specific topics about plants – not necessarily on how to grow them better, but about reverence for them.
Let’s Argue About Plants The editors of Fine Gardening bring this fun, informative podcast tackles all things gardening. You’ll listen to the insights (and polite arguments) and hear from today’s leading horticultural minds.
My Favorite Non-Garden Podcasts
On Being with Krista Tippet “Wisdom to replenish and orient in a tender, tumultuous time to be alive. Spiritual inquiry, science, social healing, and poetry. Conversations to live by.”
Coffee with the Chicken Ladies is hosted by best friends Holly & Christie is all about chickens. I love how they break up their podcast into segments including interviews, breed deep dives and product reviews.
Good Together The Brightly brand’s podcast on eco-friendly sustainable living
Suggestions from Readers like You
The Grow GuideA newer grower, Maggie Wysocki teams up with master grower Dave Hanson to chat on all those questions that new gardeners have, but with a deep dive. They’re in Manitoba so this is especially for my northern gardeners.
Pioneering Today is hosted by Melissa K Norris and homesteading focused.
Foodie Pharmacology , hosted by ethnobotanist, Dr. Cassandra Quave, this looks at food topics through a scientific lens.
I love listening as I harvest, weed and preserve from the garden
Audio Books I Adore
Have you heard of Libro.fm? it’s a way to listen to audio books that supports local book stores! It’s my new favorite way to sidestep amazon/audible.
I hope these garden podcasts and audio books help us all dream of doing better with the plants, earth and time that we have.
So, what’s your favorite podcast? Please share here or on one of my social media sites because as you can tell- I’d love to listen… Let’s continue the chat on Instagram or Facebook!
This will not only warm your body and soul, but makes your home smell like the holidays along the way… once I start making this Hygge season has officially arrived on our homestead.
Simple and completely able to tailor to your tastes, this recipe lets you add more or less of ingredients as you like.
Cinnamon sticks, cloves, allspice, ginger root, peppercorns and a nutmeg pod.
Ingredients
3-4” of fresh ginger, chopped or grated 3 Sticks of Cinnamon (ground cinnamon will make the tea gritty) 2 tsp Whole Cloves (or 1/2 tsp ground) 1/2 of a Whole Nutmeg (or 1 tsp ground) 1 tsp Peppercorns ( do not substitute ground) 2 tsp Allspice Optional: 6-8 cardamom pods or 2-4 Star Anise 1 Vanilla Bean (or add 2 tsp vanilla extract after you take off heat)
Directions
Simmer all the above in a medium pot with 3-4 cups of water for 15-20 minutes.
Add 6-8 black tea bags, turn off heat and let steep for 5 minutes.
Strain into a heat proof container. Store in refrigerator for up to a week.
To serve, heat tea concentrate and then add milk, or milk with a splash of cream , or half and half- yum! Up to a 50/50 ratio. Sweeten with honey or maple syrup.
I will often keep the strained ingredients in a pot on the stove, and keep simmering in water like a stovetop potpourri!
One of my all-time favorite condiments has always been the slightly sweet, slightly vinegary and always crunchy pickled daikon + carrot ‘salad’. This is typical in Vietnamese dishes like Banh Mi and rice noodle salads. I’m also known to just eat this straight out of the jar.
A typical quick dinner, with pickled veggies playing an important supporting role!
I feel so lucky to have grown up around the Twin Cities where I’ve been able to savor all the flavors of the metro area. Growing up more on the east side of the metro, on the outskirts of St. Paul, I always had ample Vietnamese options. My dad used to work at the state capitol, and I would beg him to bring me to lunch at The Lagoon, an old school Vietnamese restaurant that used to be tucked in right there on University Avenue.
Hence, my days of slurping pho, nibbling spring rolls with fish sauce and eating all variety of bun (rice noodles) started early – and never really stopped.
Pickled Daikon + Carrots Unite!
I love making this as a way to pack a few more fresh and crunchy veggies into meals, especially late in the fall when I have so many daikon and carrots coming out of my garden!
I used to make this with rice wine vinegar and enjoy it as a quick pickle. But then I read about fermenting foods even if the brine includes some vinegar. The main idea is that vinegar usually slows (or potentially stops) the fermentation process. Salt also slows the process.
So, this recipe uses salt to wilt the veggies, and then is rinsed off. Then we add a mild vinegar and sugar brine and let it ferment for a few days at room temperature. You can absolutely make this without fermenting, as a quick pickle- and the cooler the ambient temperature the less/slower foods ferment in general anyways.
After looking up traditional Vietnamese recipes and playing with fermenting the veggies even though they had vinegar, plus adding in some ginger… I’ve come to a happy place. A very happy + crunchy place indeed.
I love playing with my food, and making items and recipes my own… I hope this recipe makes you feel comfortable playing in your kitchen too. Know that this recipe is a place to jump off from or follow exactly. I’m happy as long as you’re trying new veggies!
Ingredients
½ lb Daikon
½ lb Carrot
1” ginger knob (optional)
1 TBSP Salt
Vinegar Brine ½ C water
4 TBSP Sugar
4 TBSP Vinegar (white distilled) or Rice Wine
Instructions
Peel (or just scrub really well) daikon and carrots. Either Julienne them if you have mad knife skills, or use a mandolin on a medium size shred. Peel ginger and leave whole or slice in two- the flavor will infuse and be easier to remove the larger it is.
Sprinkle with salt, massage in and let sit for around 10-15 minutes.
Combine brine ingredients, bring to a simmer for a minute to make sure all the sugar is dissolved.
Rinse the now wilted veggies gently and squeeze off excess liquid. I do a two-hand squish here. But don’t go overboard, it needs to retain a little salt.
Then pack a jar quart jar with the shredded veggies, and pour brine over, making sure to fully submerge veggies. Use a pickle pebble or weight if needed.
Ferment for 5-7 days depending on temperature and your taste preferences. You’ll be able to taste a different kind of tang to the veggies once they start to ferment. You may also find some white bubbles forming. This is called kahm yeast and is to be expected, scrape off the top and carry on.
Boom. You have your pickled Daikon + Carrot.
Store in refrigerator up to 1 month. Veggies will continue to soften so you can make in small batches as both carrots and daikon can hold their freshness better in the refrigerator than in this relish.
A little crisp on the top layer, dense and perfectly spiced with chunks of warm apple throughout… This baked apple oatmeal recipe is so easy, uses a single bowl and can feel like a hearty breakfast or delicious dessert depending on how you dress it up!
I love the ‘idea’ of baked oatmeal but so many recipes can fall apart and feel like a good attempt gone wrong. This recipe teeters between baked oatmeal and oat cake/muffins, but I’m 100% comfortable with rocking the oat boat like this- because these are absolutely delicious!
Oat Power
Oat Comparison- fresh ground flour on the left, and whole on the right.
I love making oat flour out of my oats and think this is my second favorite gluten free flour of all time. So, this recipe uses the humble oat in three ways. We use whole rolled oats (not the instant kind please), oat bran and then more of the rolled oats, pulverized to a flour to bring all the health benefits of oats but help it hold this dish together like a flour. Because it only uses oats, it is also naturally gluten free!
I don’t want to call this a health food, because there is maple syrup (or brown sugar) and butter (or coconut oil) in it- but the oat’s naturally high amounts of soluble fiber (specifically called beta glucan) lowers blood glucose and cholesterol levels. The oat bran also provides high levels of antioxidants. Oat groats and steel cut oats both naturally contain oat bran. But oat bran is also sold on its own, usually in the bulk bins from your local coop.
And I’ll give a shout out here to farmers growing grains sustainably and organically. It takes a lot more land to grow marketable amounts of these grains compared to vegetable farming operations. I see you and appreciate you!
Back to the Apples
It’s the perfect pairing of the nutty oats with a spiced fall apple flavor. I am not an apple snob, so I say use whatever apples you have on hand, but I do prefer a slightly tart apple in these.
Granny Smith is the classic, but I prefer Honeycrisp, Cortland, Macintosh or if you can find them Northern Spy. Whatever apple you use, these will be simply satisfying.
I’ve also baked these in a 9X12” (lots of crispy edges and tops), a 9” round (almost overflows), and muffins (this makes a slightly awkward 18 muffins) – all are delicious. I will suggest you steer clear of paper muffin liners because this is such a wet batter going in that half the muffin will stick to the liner when you’re trying to eat them.
Baked Apple Oatmeal Cake Recipe
Ingredients
2 ½ c. rolled oats – 1 cup pulverized into flour
½ c. oat bran (or another ½ cut rolled oats)
1tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2tsp. kosher salt
1/8tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground (or 1/2 tsp fresh) ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves +/or cardamom *optional
2 large eggs
2c. milk (2% or whole)
1tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4c. maple syrup (or brown sugar)
2 small apples cored, peeled, and chopped (about 2 c.)
4tbsp. (1/2 stick) butter (or coconut oil) melted, plus more, softened, for pan
1/2c. chopped nuts (pecans, walnuts or hazelnuts) *optional
Preheat oven to 350F.
Grease pan of choice with coconut oil
Start by mixing the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
Measure 2 cups of milk into a 2 cup measurer- then you can crack and beat two eggs (gently) and add the vanilla, pour and then measure the maple syrup all in the same measurer before pouring into the dry ingredients. Melt the butter (I use same now empty measuring cup) and add to batter.
Mix and let that mixture soak up the liquids while you peel, core and chop enough apples to make around 2 cups. Chop and add nuts if using. Mix with the other ingredients.
Grease your pan or muffin tins with coconut oil. and fill to just under the rim. These do not expand much.
Bake in 350F oven for allotted time:
9X12 – 20-25 minutes
9” Round- 25-30 minutes
Muffin tins- 20 minutes
Enjoy it Your Way
And then we can dress it up. My one son LOVES whipped cream- and straight cream with a little vanilla extract whipped in is a delightful topper. I also push whole fats with my boys and paired with the oats this is a healthy way for them to eat them.
I prefer whole fat Greek yogurt spiced with vanilla, cinnamon and ginger, maybe cardamom too… the yogurt feels like a breakfast, but the whipped cream brings this fully into the dessert realm in our home.
For More Apple goodness check out my post An Apple A Day that has loads of delicious ways to cook with and preserve the fall apple bounty!
Seeds and centuries of gardening knowledge feed a community at Dream of Wild Health farm.
Inspired by the people it serves and centuries of gardening knowledge, Dream of Wild Health embodies working with nature. One of the oldest, continually operating Native American nonprofits in the Twin Cities, Dream of Wild Health’s intertribal working and teaching farm brings together the best of seed saving, Earth-focused farming practices and youth development. In short, this farm is flourishing.
“We are working to repair the health of our relatives through food,” says Neely Snyder, St. Croix Ojibwe tribal member and executive director of Dream of Wild Health. “We believe food is medicine. This starts with our young ones, so they understand that nutrition is vital to our overall health.
“Our families wanted to reclaim their traditional relationship with the Earth, which is how the organization began,” Snyder says. “We are working to restore the health and well-being of our community through increased access to the foods that we grow.”
One last harvest deep into winter from all my veggies grown under cover
Fall temps can quite literally cool our northern garden jets once September hits its stride and apple season arrives. But for those of us that enjoy those frost sweetened crops and don’t mind gardening into the cool of autumn, Season Extension opens another mini-season of gardening and harvesting!
For those just getting started on season extension, you may be wondering why we bother with this extra work?
For me the reason is that by keeping plants alive in the ground, it allows them to hold onto their nutrients, compared to if we harvested at the first sign of frost. Food loses around 30% of its nutrients within three days of harvest.
Practicing season extension can add weeks or even months of harvesting FRESH FOOD from your garden. And isn’t harvesting healthy food one of our main goals?
If you love growing beautiful medicine, that also attracts the pollinators then let me introduce you to Aronia Berry, aka Chokeberry. Actually, you may have already met Aronia Berry while walking in the woods or edges of prairies in the Midwest of America.
Officially named Aronia melanocarpa this cold hardy North American native woody shrub is worth adding to your landscape for its adaptability, form, fall color and of course, its fruits!
Knowing + Growing
The Aronia Berry tends to stay around 8 feet tall (depending on variety) and is much less picky about soil as it has deeper roots than the Elderberry. They are hardy to -40F or USDA Zone 3. They’re also don’t have any pest issues and are disease resistant.
