Tamarack Nature Center is so many things to so many people!
What everyone can agree on is that spending time in Nature is good for our bodies and our minds.
Tamarack Lake, a short walk from the Nature Center Visitor Center
From gardens and nature play areas to bird watching, maple sugaring and preschool- Tamarack Nature Center (TNC) is a true gem for the Twin Cities nature lover. There are roughly five miles of trails meandering through the 320 acres of widely varied landscapes. You can walk through old growth maple stands, skirt a swamp, round a lake and parade through lots of prairie.
There is also one of the Twin Cities’ largest and most engaging nature play areas, “Discovery Hollow” including a natural waterscape, a log and stick play area, hobbit house and a huge climbing wall with built in caves and sand pit.
No Dig Gardening includes recycling, composting and improving soil all by layering it on! This process is known by a few different names; Hugelkultur, Lasagna Gardening and Sheet Composting, but the ideas are based on “No Dig Gardening”.
Laying out the new beds
Making garden beds this way works with nature’s existing cycles, creating healthy soil, less weeding and happier plants!
This process does NOT need to be created inside a box, just easier to keep layers tidy, I’ve success both in and out of boxes!
Build It and They Will Come!
The idea of setting up a garden bed like this is to let nature do the work for you. You’ll be helping nature create good soil by composting in place- and that requires things for the soil organisms to eat. By giving a diverse group of soil life things to feast on you can create a very active and healthy soil to plant into.
Building Better Soil
Soil biodiversity creates a more resilient garden. I like to equate good soil organisms with good gut health. We’ve likely all heard of pre- and pro- biotics; the helpers of digestion (and so much more). Soil organisms help break things down and make them available to plants in a similar fashion.
Everything from worms and beetles we can see, to bacteria, fungi, protozoa, nematodes and actinomycetes (though I sure couldn’t tell you what those looked like!) have a specific job to do- and many work in relationship with vegetable plant roots to feed them. There is a whole world of info about the soil food web out there, and I suggest watching THIS by Dr. Elaine Ingham if you want to dig a little deeper.
Of course I’m a zucchini lover, I’m a sucker for a veggie that goes overboard and can be used in both sweet and savory ways!
I’ve finally gathered together my collection of recipes and ways I use and preserve Zucchini. I know lots of us vegetable gardeners joke about ‘ding dong ditch’ with these as the season progresses… This is the notorious prolific vegetable. And many get away from me and all gardeners each year (see picture at the end if you want proof of that ;-).
There are so many ways to make use of zucchini! This is such a delicious and versatile veggie. For those of with bounty, or if you just want to savor the sweet summer flavors into winter, read on!
Zucchini Growing Tips
I both start seeds indoors and direct sow- with similar results. I get earlier harvests with the plants started earlier, or more prolific but later with the plants I direct sow. Choose what works for you! They do like lots of compost and can be planted outside a fence, as critters (at least in my area) do not nibble. This is a great news because zucchini plants take up a LOT of space, easily three square feet. A little compost and mulch when planting and you should have oodles of zoodles!
Female flower to the left left, male flower to the right.
Things are different by design on this biodynamic farm.
The first difference you’ll notice on this 5 acre farms is the lack of large outbuildings, big machinery or even an old farmhouse. Also, no overhead electric poles. This farm is completely off-grid.
You will see solar panels, an eggplant-colored tiny house, two hoop houses along with rows and rows of beautiful veggies, perennial fruits and pollinator habitat. A moveable chicken tractor and a sun hive round out the ways Kelsey hosts animals on this land. Each piece is intertwined with the next, serves a purpose and plays it part well.
Biodynamic Farming
Biodynamic Farming Defined: a form of alternative agriculture that takes an ecological and ethical approach to farming, food, and gardening.
Things on a biodynamic farm are thought out in wholistic, interdependent ways before anything is implemented. For Farmer Kelsey this means everything on the farm serves a few purposes. And she really does run this as a one woman show. She does most everything by hand enabling her to observe the plants (and critters) on the land more closely and to see changes in real time. She can decide what to do about those issues based on how it effects the whole system of living things on her farm. Sometimes doing nothing is the answer too…
When I harvest I usually already know what will go in this plant’s place
Succession planting is a simple way to harvest more food for longer in your existing garden space! I am constantly blown away by how many times and how much I can plant in my backyard garden beds.
Succession planting boils down to “out with the old and in with the new.” It’s the practice of planting one crop right after another is harvested. This practice can keep you eating fresh from your garden all season long, even after frosts.
Spoiler: Successful succession planting has a lot to do with planning and picking the right plants.
There are a few ways to go about this kind of planting.
Succession Planting: two or more different crops following each other in the same space
Staggered or Relay Planting: same crop with repeated plantings in the same space
Interplanting / Companion Planting: when you plant multiple things at the same time in the same space that mature at different times and mutually benefit each other.
For now, let’s focus on the practice of planting different crops one after another in the same space—what most people think of as ‘succession planting’. Many of the same plants that star in our Northern spring gardens do well when started in summer to mature in the fall. Choosing cool weather plants that can take a slight frost will grow your summer efforts into delicious fall side dishes.
Bringing wildlife into your garden will bring you higher pollination rates, more food, less pest pressure and the joy that comes from watching an ecosystem thrive. The best part about it is that the ways to bring wildlife in are all tied together, kind of like nature itself. This is a great reminder that we and our yards are part of nature and not separate from it!
There are lots of specifics to follow, but it really comes down to diversity, and making all the things you want to live in your garden feel welcome. This is my take on companion planting in general as well. You can listen in on a companion planting conversation of mine on the Grow It Minnesota! podcast.
We started by deciding to not use synthetic chemicals in our garden. This is a first step that is truly the most important! Then we added a bird feeder and a bird bath and luckily had some beautiful mature trees on our property. Since then, we’ve added more wildlife features as we could, from more native plants they feed from, more watering spots and more cover, creating a little wildlife sanctuary. We actually went ahead and made it official with the National Wildlife Federation as a Certified Wildlife Habitat .
In case you haven’t met yet, let me introduce you to THE SHRUB—the kind you drink. This rhubarb shrub recipe is a bright, sweet-tart way to preserve the season and bring a little sparkle to everyday sipping.
Shrub What?
At its heart, a shrub is a sweetened fruit syrup mixed with vinegar to preserve summer flavors. In practice, shrubs are best sipped with friends who are as bubbly and sweet/tart as the flavors flowing from the glass.
The magic of any shrub is how it brings together the sweetness of the fruit with the acid of vinegar—creating a depth of flavor that lays down a perfect base to build on. But typical of true magic, there’s a third part: the health benefits of probiotics and enzymes from the apple cider vinegar complete the trinity.
Stephanie and I before Covid, at a WBL Farmers Market after she taught a fermentation class
When I first made shrubs, I cooked my rhubarb (and other fruits), then strained the juice and added vinegar. But there is a fresher flavor with fermenting. This may seem counterintuitive, but hear me out. When you skip cooking the fruit, you retain some great high notes from the rhubarb. Similar to fresh strawberry jam versus cooked strawberry jam…
Stephanie Thurow, my friend and coauthor of Small-Scale Homesteading, is also a master food preserver at Minnesota from Scratch. She first opened my eyes to fermenting shrubs and I will never go back!
The name alone gives you a warm fuzzy feeling and I can tell you from personal experience, their greenhouse is wonderfully warm even in the depths of winter… or at least most winters.
Like so many farmers and small business owners, Theresa is always looking to the future, and decided to make a ‘sea change’ in the farm over the last winter. They switched over from Aquaponics to Hydroponics, showing just how nimble small businesses can be.
As Theresa, the main farmer at Bright Future Farms, settles into these changes, she is finding room for growth in new areas. But first – let’s take a look at Aquaponic and Hydroponic development.
A Quick History
Farmers have always been tinkerers. And some Mayan farmers (2,000 years ago!) were farming using an intricate system of open water canals, reservoirs and filtration boxes. Other cultures have used flooding and seasonal water fluctuations to their agricultural advantage throughout the years; think rice paddies.
Flash forward to the 1970’s and Dr James Rakocy at the University of the Virgin Islands developed a commercial-scale Aquaponics system that harnesses the waste of fish to fertilize plants, all within a closed loop system.
Aquaponics or Hydroponics
GrowStones
The main difference between the two systems is that aquaponics grows fish within the system as a way to fertilize the plants, while hydroponics grows plants only. Both systems are soil-less, using ‘growing medium’ like perlite, grow stones, rock wool etc. More info on ways to grow in the fun video by Epic Gardnening. The systems can look quite different and there are lots of small variations.
Hydroponics can be as simple as getting nutrient filled water to flow by plant roots. But even those kinds of systems require a pump. An Aquaponics system also includes:
Rearing Tanks, Clarifier, Filter Tanks.
The water is sent through the rearing tanks, clarifier and filters then onto the hydroponic tanks to water AND feed the produce. For Theresa, if they’re not growing fish, they simply add those fertilizing nutrients into the system.
The beauty of an aquaponics system is that lots of complex natural processes happen on their own… as long as the system is set up correctly. This creates a sustainable, self-contained system that produces nutrient dense foods.
In other terms, the fish produce waste, which is converted to fertilizer for plants, the plants then filter the water that return to the fish.
‘In’ the Farm
Theresa ended up with a single, 24′ X 36′ freestanding greenhouse that has supplemental heat for our cold Minnesota winters provided by a propane furnace.
Nelson and Pade, Inc is a trusted source for Aquaponics systems, and is the Wisconsin company Theresa went through to purchase her original Aquaponics set up. While not cheap to start up, the system is quite efficient once running.
The first thing I did when I visited on that frigid February day was walk through their bio-security system which included washing your hands and walking through a foot bath of a bacterial and parasitic killing solution. This step adds to their ability to say that they’re clean from outside contaminants, and keeps things growing healthy and organically.
Tending the System
When I first explored the greenhouse, it looked a bit like a science experiment, with tubes and tanks all hooked up and going around and around. But Theresa was able to explain it simply.
Theresa checks the water quality by testing levels of ammonia, nitrates, pH level, plus checks the temperature daily. The main input to an aquaponic system is fish food. The fish eat the food and excrete waste. More than 50% of the waste produced by fish is in the form of ammonia secreted in the urine and, in small quantities, through the gills. Monitoring a few key chemical levels assures healthy fish and plants.
Sea Change
Their greenhouse now consists of a Dutch bucket drip system for tomatoes, cucumbers and sweet peppers, and a deep-water raft system for a variety of lettuces.
Dutch Buckets – photo credit Farmer Theresa
All produce is grown without soil or chemicals in very efficient re-circulating systems, within a controlled environment. Their current growing method is hydroponics, but the raft system is configured for both hydroponics and aquaponics.
Floating Raft System
Right now, they are adding the nutrients to the deep-water raft system. On average hydroponic systems use 10 times less water to grow food than traditional field crops. That adds up quick!
“We may raise tilapia again, to have our aquaponics system operating, but are going to compare results of growing lettuce hydroponically before making that decision. Either method of growing produces healthy, delicious and safe food,” says Theresa. As you can see, this farmer is a scientist at heart.
Also of note, composting the unused parts of the vegetables they grow helps add to the general fertility of their outdoor farm garden.
Bright Future Farm also grows a variety of microgreens, also without soil or chemicals, that nicely accompany their other lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers.
Now, more than ever, smaller farms are becoming more popular will feed more of the country. Bright Future Farms combines that small business nimbleness with water wise growing techniques to produce delicious produce – and sometimes fish! In places where water is short, hydro- and aqua- ponics will play a larger and larger roll in food production in the upcoming years.
Theresa and her mom all smiles at market!
Catch Bright Future farm at these upcoming Farmers Markets:
Cambridge Farmers Market: Saturdays starting May 7th 9am-1pm
Lindstrom Farmers Market: Wednesdays, starting July 8th 3pm-6pm
Bright Future Farm’s Future is, well – bright! Check out their website for more info.
Many of you have been asking me about vegetable gardening this year and I love it! I wanted to take this chance to cover (more of) the bases at once.
Specifically, you’ve been asking me about planting seeds versus getting plants later – not sure how COVID 19 will affect things this season… While I don’t have a crystal ball, I have been looking into things, and talking with local garden centers and farm stores, communicating with seed companies and plant distributors here’s what I can gather…
Seeds Stocks
Purchase seeds from local stores, near me in White Bear Lake places like Hugo Feed Mill, Costa’s Greenhouse, Niemczyk Gardens, Egg Plant Urban Farm Supply and Bachman’s are all stocked with seeds (if they carry) and growing out plants for you. Many online seed companies are waaaaaay behind in orders, not taking orders for a while or just closed to everyone but farmers for this season. Places like those above carry seeds from some of the best known and trusted, organic companies around, like Seed Savers Exchange, Renee’s Garden and Botanical Interests. For browsing beautiful varieties check out my earlier blog post about Seed Companies.
My Local Favorites:
Hugo Feed Mill: Phone orders, 651-429-3361, prepayment with curb/dock side pick up. Here’s a BLOG all about this Hugo institution.. Costa’s Greenhouse:orders@costagreenhouse.com or Call 651-653-1269, curbside pick-up. Free delivery over $125. (greenhouse opens April 24th) Here’s a BLOG I wrote about them. Bachman’s Maplewood: Online or phone (612-861-7311) ordering, Curbside or Delivery. Niemczyk Gardens: Online preordering, pickup, (greenhouse opens April 25th) Egg Plant Urban Farm Supply:order@eggplantsupply.com, call back for payment, curbside pickup.
White Bear Lake Seed Library: email wblseedlibrary@gmail.com for FREE seeds, detail on their BLOG. Scheduled seed pickup on Saturday April 25 from 9-10 am at the White Bear Lake library’s parking lot. To pick up seeds on this date you must have your order in by Friday April 24 at 7pm.
Farmers Markets: Yes Farmers markets will continue to run, but with an increase in interest in growing your own food, and market restrictions, it just makes sense to purchase what you can ahead of time. And many farmers markets won’t start until many gardens are fully planted.
**Sadly, all of the small local spring plant sales put on by garden clubs, master gardeners, and even the Friends School Plant Sale are cancelled for this season.**
Hugo Feed Mill
Buy from Locally Run Stores
Same goes with buying plants later in the season (Once spring finally wins this drawn out battle over winter). Try to shop local and small companies that have online or phone ordering with curbside pickup in place. The above stores all have that happening.
Typically, April 15 is our last frost date in MN, but who knows what typical is these days. Tomato plants likely won’t be in stores until much closer to May, when our climate can handle them without cover. So let’s look at what you can get going sooner rather than later!
Seeds to Start + When
There are lots of seeds you can start outside before the frost is gone, such as: peas, spinach, lettuce, kale, radish, beets, kohlrabi, carrots can all be started NOW! Many of the seeds listed will start germination at soil temps of 40-45F. And, even though we’ve been cold, the soil is warming up well!
The next week or two will be a great time to start broccoli, cauliflower, cabbages, Swiss chard and other brassicas outside as well.
If you feel like trying something new, how about making a tiny Greenhouse of your own! Cutting a milk just in half, poking some holes on the bottom and planting cool weather crops in them is a great way to jump start the season! Just don’t plant carrot seeds in these, as root crops don’t tolerate transplanting.
Starting seeds Indoors
**Use only seed starting mix (not garden soil) when starting seeds!**
anything that is sterile with perlite or vermiculite works
The time for starting peppers from seed has mostly past, unless you get the fasted maturing varieties and can wait until August to harvest.
Tomatoes started in Soil Blocks
It’s getting right on the edge of time to plant tomatoes, but still worth it, look for faster maturing varieties- tip* Cherry Tomatoes usually produce a few weeks earlier than full size varieties.
Now and up to the next two weeks is a great time to start both summer and winter squash, cucumber and herb seeds indoors.
Don’t forget the easy to start flowers too, marigolds, cosmos, calendula and nasturtiums love a little head start!
I know this is a LOT of ‘overview’ info, but I wanted to cover the basics in one swoop. If you have other questions, please ask away… And I know we all have lots going on right now, but gardening is a truly calming and rewarding adventure- I hope you give it a try!
**If you are interested in learning more, I’ll be adding a recording of my “Vegetable Gardening Basics” class to my website soon! Stay Tuned!
And, because we all do better together, **please add to the list of places you know that have seeds to start for your garden, or that will have their greenhouses filled with safe and healthy food plants!**
I hope this helps you sort through some of the unknowns of starting your garden this season!
For this suburban Homesteader this means dyeing your Easter Eggs with whatever you’ve got in the house. Plus this means you can actually eat them without worrying about ‘extra’ chemicals.
Bubbles on a dipped egg right out of the dye
Natural dyed Easter eggs have a simple yet stunning charm, plus I think the process is much more manageable for parents with younger kids…
I know we’re all busy but if you can chop a few veggies and simmer them while boiling the eggs you’ve got this!
Another great part is that the kids drop the eggs in the liquid dye containers (old yogurt cup, mason jars, what you have) and then wait to see their creations until the morning!
My boys got into the ‘science’ part of this with labeling the dyes
Natural Dye Basics
These natural dyes take at minimum 3 hours to really set in, and we let ours soak overnight. So, the ‘hands-on’ time for kids is more in the prep of the food items.
I love introducing the idea that food can be used for crafting as well as nutrition with my kids. My boys also love guessing which will be the most blue, dark, beautiful etc. I appreciate the added layer of anticipation this process invites.
That being said – there are obviously as many ways to do this as there are chickens who lay all those eggs, so YOU DO YOU!
PS: All chickens also appreciate the over cooked cabbage, beet peelings and blueberry mash!
If you happen to have a LOT of eggs coming in from your chickens, try making my Homestead Strata recipe!
My Favorite Fruits and Vegetables for Easter Egg Dyeing (*depicts color of processed egg)
Yellow Onion Skins:
Boiling Onion Skins
*RUSSET RED I had saved these for a few weeks, but you may have enough for a small batch just laying in the bottom of your veg bin (or is that just me?) Boil in water 40 minutes to release the color
Lavender Flowers:
*OLIVE I usually have some older and not very fragrant bunches of dried lavender flowers (and leaves and stems) around. Rinse them off, crumble into a pot and boil for 30 minutes.
Red Cabbage:
Boiling chopped Cabbage
*EASTER BLUE I used the wilted outer leaves plus a few more, 6 or 7 leaves in all and chopped them randomly to help them release their beautiful colors. Boil for 30 minutes.
Beets:
*DARK RED I also usually have a few remaining beets from last fall’s gardens in the bottom of my veg drawer. These slightly shriveled beets are perfect for taking thick peelings off of to use for dyeing (and I still save the beets to roast) Boil for 30 minutes.
Grape:
*BLUE/GRAY I usually forage some wild grapes every Fall and freeze the extra juice. So I’ll add some water to the juice I had already boiled to thin it out to have enough to cover the eggs. *This could work well with purchased juices too!
Blueberry:
*BRIGHT BLUE I used a half cup of frozen blueberries and 1 cup of water. Not the most cost effective food use, but wow were these eggs turned vibrant and a fun compliment color to the red cabbage. I mashed and boiled for 5 minutes.
Turmeric:
*YELLOW I use powder so no need to simmer, just mix with water and vinegar before dyeing the eggs.
Kale or Cabbage + Turmeric: *GREEN Cook and smash kale, then mix with water and vinegar before dyeing the eggs. Combine 1/3 cabbage and 2/3 turmeric to get a green- play with proportions as you like. Then mix with water and vinegar before dyeing the eggs.
Egg Dyeing Process
For me part of the beauty of this process is the anticipation it builds by just leaving the eggs in the dye overnight- my kids are used to this way now, so they know what to expect- but if explained to kids as both a science experiment and a way to wake up to a surprise, you really can’t go wrong!
You basically chop up veggies or mash fruit, boil to extract to colors, cool and strain.
Hard Boil the eggs and cool.
Then get into a container that works for submerging the number of eggs you want to dye. Once in the container, right before you’re going to dip the eggs, add 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar per 1 cup of liquid color. Then let the kids dunk away.
One difference between this and the commercial dye kits is the colors can rub off more easily, so be gentle. Also I find the beet dye usually oxidizes to brown within a day, so I added a bit of cherry juice this time (remember just use what you’ve got!) to help it hold the red. I also recommend polishing with a little olive oil once *completely* dry to add some shine.
We leave our eggs soak overnight – and the kids love scooping them out in the morning – we let them air dry and then GENTLY rub them with olive oil. Project done. Kids feel like artists. I like that I didn’t buy anything extra.
Always Experimenting
I finally got to the point of laying pretty flowers and leaves onto these before dyeing and I loved it. I ended up boiling the eggs with the imprints tied on in the onion solution (with vinegar). I followed THESE basic instructions and ended up happy for my first attempt. I can’t wait to try again next year!
Bottom Line: we love making homemade Easter eggs!
Beets, Tumeric powder, Red Cabbage
We’ve come a long way since the first time I tried dyeing eggs without the fake colors and extra plastic + packaging.
But ever since that first year, we’ve been hooked!
These colors are from what you get when left overnight. Let me know if you give this a try, I love seeing everyone’s photos!!
There’s something so fun and even empowering in using regular household things to create art. Plus – We will be able to eat the hard boiled eggs without worry of added toxic dyes. It is recommended to eat hard boiled eggs within a week of boiling.
Happy Spring and Enjoy the return of all the eggs!
