Should I Try Tomato Grafting?

...graft tomatoes onto potato plants (two crops in one!) as well as graft tomatoes onto eggplants for plants that are more hardy in soggy soils. In the bad idea department, you can graft tomatoes onto tobacco (for nicotine laden fruit) and jimsonweed (for poisonous fruit–note this strange incindent). The Illinois Extension service has detailed tomato grafting instructions and notes on root stock selection here. So what do you think? Intrigued? Comme...

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I picked a peck of pickled peaches

...to his pickled green almond recipe (p. 103) West notes that immature stone fruit such as peaches and nectarines can be pickled in the same way as green almonds (almonds are a stone fruit too). If you don’t thin this branch it will break off. I’d share Kevin’s recipe with you but he’s a fellow author and you really should own his book, Saving the Season. It’s the classiest food preservation book out there. Plus Kevin could have me killed and pickle...

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George Rector: M.F.K. Fisher’s Dirty Old Uncle

...“A Touch of Eggomania”), not least because it has introduced the term “hen fruit” into our lives: For eggs Benedict, you need Hollandaise sauce, an additional contribution of the hen fruit to the pleasures of the palate, and to the confusion of cooks. Hold on to your hats and we’ll round that curve. Add four egg yolks, beaten to the thick, lemon-colored point, to half a cup of butter melted in a double boiler. Stir as you add the eggs and keep sti...

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085 Rishi Kumar: Abundance in Suburbia

...ne on their website The Growing Club. During the podcast we mention: Jamun fruit (Syzygium cumini) Sheet mulching Growing fruit trees close togther Raccoons! Quail and chickens Water harvesting vs. rain barrels How the Growing Home became the Growing Club, Sarvodaya Farms and the Growing Commons. May 28th greywater workshop. Many thanks to our Patreon subscribers for making this podcast and blog possible. If you’d like to leave a question for the...

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The Fine Art of Determining Peach Ripeness

...ess to a few tools that can make ripeness determination easier such as this expensive gadget that measures firmness or a brix meter for determining sugar content. These tools could only be justified if you were planning on growing, shipping and selling fruit. More useful for us backyard growers is this gallery of peach fruit color stages. I’ve been picking them a little on the green side and letting them ripen inside in order to stay ahead of the...

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