Non-Toxic Cleaning for the Home

...ctive. Other have used lines of baby powder or even lavender buds. If your fruit bowl went bad and now you are plagued by fruit flies, try squirting them midair with rubbing alcohol (your electronics spray will do just fine) If you have an outbreak of pantry moths, throw away all suspect food or freeze it for several days to kill moth eggs. Wipe down all of your cabinet shelves with vinegar, making sure to get it in the cracks between the walls an...

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How do I keep squirrels and rats from eating my grapes?

...t exposed in the hopes that they would eat that first and leave the bagged fruit alone. It’s also hard to tell when the fruit is ripe when it’s in a paper bag. I’m thinking the long term answer is to make custom fruit cages out of hardware cloth. If the grapes were neatly tended on a vine it would be much easier to net them. Netting is not an option on our arbor. Look carefully in this image and you can see one of the “perps” reaching out to grab...

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The End of California Citrus?

...ses. Oranges are juicier and easier to peal than the spiny and seed filled fruit of the prickly pear cactus. But the long term odds of having a reliable supply of prickly pear fruit are a lot higher than a steady flow of orange juice. I may get a few spines in my fingers, but it will be the citrus farmers who will be losing sleep. As Seneca says, “If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to people’s opinions...

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Olive Questions

...gle olive hosted olive fruit fly maggots. This summer, to reduce the olive fruit fly population I put some torula yeast lures in a McPhail trap in the tree and removed any fruit that had any signs of infestation. I change out the yeast tabs every month. The strategy seems to have greatly reduced the infestation. I lost probably around a third of the olives but had more than enough un-maggoty olives to fill three half-gallon jars. Today I plan on s...

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Home Orchards for Year Round Food Resiliency

...can maximize the amount of time during the year that you’re likely to have fruit. Here in California, if you have enough space, you can have fruit year round. The handy chart above from Dave Wilson nursery (head here for a downloadable version) can be used as a guide to planting for year round food resiliency. Results may vary. Due to a high squirrel population stone fruit doesn’t work well in our yard. But at least I have avocados and the olives...

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