#we also need fewer cucumber and eggplants this year

[housecow]

Any weekend plans, you big soft cute cowgirl?

getting the garden ready for the spring!!!

i am choosing tomatoes to plant (yellow pear, juliet, celebrity, cherokee purple, and maybe a couple heirlooms in pots bc they don’t produce enough to justify using bed space. yellow accordion?), preparing walkways (weeding 👹), preparing to spread compost!! also need to trim trees. reinforce wire to keep deer out.

[merrybrides]

How To Plan A Summer Wedding

The Skinny on Summer Weather

Slap on that sunblock, because in nearly all parts of the country you can usually count on temps in the 70s (or higher!)—especially in the dog days of summer, like late July and August.

While sweet summertime means blue skies and balmy breezes most of the time, there are still some weather concerns to be aware of. For example, many east coast areas can experience torrential rain in the form of thunderstorms—soooo not ideal for an outdoor wedding! Then there's the south and southwest, where the thermometer can get up to 100 degrees fahrenheit or higher. An outdoor ceremony in this heat gives new meaning to the phrase, sweating for the wedding.

And, while less likely, there's the potential for natural disasters that can occur in the summer months. On the west coast, drought conditions frequently cause large-scale wildfires that bring hazy skies, poor air quality, and even evacuations. The opposite side of the country comes with the nasty Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1 and peaks in late August.

So…to play it safe, know what weather is forecasted for your wedding day, make sure to give your out-of-town guests whatever wardrobe tips they need to be prepared, and always—we repeat, ALWAYS—have a bad-weather backup plan. Just. in. case.

Summer Holidays

Besides fabulous weather, summer seems to be the least limiting in terms of holidays and other potential hiccups. While you won't have to compete with many major holidays, the months of June through July are some of the most popular times to get married AND go on vacation. You'll want to keep your guests' wallets in mind by giving them plenty of time to book flights and plan travel. Trust us, they'll thank you.

Here are a few dates to keep in mind:

Memorial Day – Always a Monday in May (Technically this is a spring holiday, but widely considered the unofficial start of summer)

Father's Day – Always a Sunday in June

Independence Day – Always July 4th, but days off can vary

Labor Day – Always a Monday in September

Hint: Save-the-dates for destination weddings typically get sent out 8–12 months in advance, while save-the-dates for local weddings can be sent out closer to 4 months in advance.

Summer Wedding Pros & Cons

There are so many advantages to getting married in the summer:

Typically gorgeous weather. Break out those sunnies!

There are fewer holidays to work around. Plus, it's widely considered PC to have an Independence Day or Labor Day weekend wedding.

The "Yes" RSVPs are more likely to roll in. Guests are often more willing and excited to take time off work and travel to a summer wedding!

Your outdoor venue and location choices are wide-open. Think barns, mountaintops and, of course, toes-in-the-sand beach weddings. The choices are endless!

However, there are a fair number of disadvantages to be aware of:

Summer is the most popular season to tie the knot. Venues and vendors often up their prices during this time, especially on weekends. Keep an eye out for peak-season rates when planning your wedding budget.

Destination wedding and honeymoon prices are also hitting their peak as most Americans book their vacation during the summer months.

Your favorite venues and vendors could be booked up months to years in advance for popular summer wedding dates.

Summer Color Palette

Unlike other times of the year and their seasonal hues, the sunshine-filled days of summer complement nearly any wedding color palette. While you'll typically see bright colors at summer weddings, there's no need to shy away from deep blues, rich grays, or even black. Don't be afraid to think outside the box when it comes to putting together your own colors!

Bridesmaids and Groomsmen

When it comes to dressing your bridal party, comfort needs to be at the top of the list. If you're tying the knot in the Deep South in late July, chances are your 'maids and groomsmen won't appreciate being buried under layers of fabric and accessories. Consider shorter dresses or lighter fabrics, like organza or charmeuse.

For groomsmen, you'll want to be extra certain you won't be causing sweat overload before the ceremony has even started! Stick with lighter suit jackets and vests—or ditch the jackets altogether. Look into a variety of different hot-weather-friendly looks like khaki, rolled sleeves, suspenders, or even shorts and flip-flops!

Working With What's In Season

When you buy what's in season, you get food and flowers at the peak of their supply when costs are normally lower. Plus, when they're locally grown they don't need to be shipped halfway around the globe. So not only do you save money, but you also reduce your carbon footprint. Win-win.

—Summer Wedding Food—

Much like spring, summer is peak harvesting season for fruits and vegetables. Summer's sunshine means there's no excuse to serve food that doesn't include a little color! As for veggies, the sky's the limit as to what's in season: green beans, cucumbers, eggplant, peas, and corn—just to name a few.

While fruit harvests are bountiful during this time of year, the weather can affect when they're ripest. Be on the lookout for melons, peaches, plums, raspberries, and blackberries because all of these are at their juiciest in the summer months. Fortunately, the abundance of produce in the summer can lead to lower prices, which is especially great if you're planning a farm-to-table wedding!

—Summer Wedding Flowers—

No matter where you are in the country, it seems that beautiful blooms are popping up all over the place. There are literally hundreds of options, but here are a few of our favorite summertime flowers:

Sunflowers. This classic is the poster child of summer, but we love how they add a pop of bright yellow to any bouquet.

Hydrangeas. These fluffy blossoms are summer staples that come in a wide variety of pretty colors.

Calla Lilies make a statement when bundled in a bouquet, and add a classy accent to any summer arrangement.

Amaranthus. From deep reds to fresh greens, this rope-like accent flower is perfect for boho or beach weddings, or even a more elegant affair!

Cacti. Use succulents like aloe and you can't go wrong.

Eucalyptus is a floral trend we're seeing year-round, and we're not complaining!

Pro Tip: Since some flowers are more prone to wilting in the summer heat than others, be sure to double-check with your florist before committing to any one flower or greenery.

Summer Catering Trends

With a cornucopia of fresh fruits and veggies to choose from, you may have already started your search for the perfect hand-lettered sign to direct your guests to the salad bar. Not so fast! There are oh-so-many ways to pay homage to the tastes of the season, not all of which involve plants. If your personal faves include poultry, beef, and seafood, they can easily be incorporated into lighter versions of classics. Or, consider fun, non-traditional alternatives like tapas (Spanish small plates), a festive taco bar, or even good old-fashioned barbecue!

Your reception wouldn't be complete without a summer-inspired dessert! How about wine-flavored sorbet, yummy ice cream, or other frozen treats like snow cones, granita, or gelato to cool your guests down on those warm summer days! Or, what about a classic summer staple like cobbler or pie? There are so many options to choose from, so go wild!

Summer Wedding Cake Trends

Play with light and refreshing flavors like lemon, raspberry, and coconut instead of rich, fudgy chocolate—unless that's your thing, of course! If you're not into the "naked" cake trend, ice your cake with summery frostings that showcase coconut, cherry, or Tahitian vanilla. Dress it up with sprigs of lavender or rosemary, some gold leaf, or a pretty ombré pattern. The latest trend we're partial to? Colorful brush strokes paired with bright blooms. You could even ask if your baker is willing to collab with your florist to match your cake to your bouquet! Your wedding cake—assuming you even have one—should be as unique as you are!

Summer-Inspired Wedding Favors

Your guests will no doubt appreciate customized hand fans to keep cool or neon-colored sunnies to block summer's harsh rays. Or, hit up Old Navy's $1 Flip-Flop Sale to stock up on cheap sandals for tired feet to change into. You can also pick up miniature bottles of rosé, tiny potted succulents, homemade jam, and even travel-sized bottles of sunscreen with a custom sticker slapped on. And if you're really on a budget, how about some fresh seasonal fruit for your guests to enjoy?

Summer Signature Cocktails

If you're serving cocktails on your big day, there's no better time to get creative than during the summer! Sparkling wines, champagne spritzers, and fruity cocktails are just the tip of the iceberg. Hit up your bartender (or just the drink-maker at your fave hangout spot!) for custom cocktails inspired by you and your fiancé. Refreshing berry mojitos, vodka-infused Arnold Palmers, boozy sangria, and mango bellinis—oh, yes! Just be sure to have water available for your guests at all times to keep them hydrated. Drink up!

[repost-this-image]

Important historical references for Castlevania fics

Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse and the Netflix series based on it are both set in the late 15th century in Wallachia (now the southern part of Romania).  For those of you who don’t specialize in history from this period, there are a LOT of things that were dramatically different back then that you probably never heard about.

So here’s a list of things that the average person might not know about food and clothing, that are relevant to Castlevania fics and other stories written in that time period:

(and it’s a LONG ONE, so I’m putting it behind a cut.)

First, fabrics.  Cotton was rare and expensive, and is actually harder to dye than the other fibers available at the time.  Cotton only became cost-effective for the average person to buy a few centuries later, when slavery--and later, mechanical separation of the seeds and other debris from the boll--drove the cost of production down.  (Well, the financial cost, anyway.  Ethically, this was obviously Not Good.)  Commoners were as unlikely to wear cotton as silk or ermine.

So what did most people wear?  Linen, wool, and leather.

Let’s start with linen.  Linen is made from flax, which has very strong fibers.  It is first soaked in water for a few months to soften up the fibers (yes, this means that flax has to rot before you can use it to make cloth).  The fibers are then spun and woven into linen fabric.    Linen is lightweight and cool in the summer, and because it’s soft, sturdy, and easy to wash, most undergarments and nightclothes were made of linen.

Wool, as most people know, comes from sheep.  Just like in the game Minecraft, you get wool by carefully clipping it off a sheep with shears.  (Modern shears are electric and look like the clippers used by a barber to cut human hair.)  An experienced shepherd is very good at shearing a sheep without cutting the skin, getting most or all the wool off.  Wool takes most natural dyes very easily, requiring only the dye itself and some kind of acid to use as a mordant.  (A mordant is basically the chemical that makes the dye “stick” to the fabric.)  I have literally dyed wool yarn with Kool-Aid and boiling water; the unsweetened packets contain food-safe dyes and citric acid.  Wool is basically AWESOME to use for your outer garments.  It’s warm, relatively water-resistant when felted, it wicks away sweat from your skin and undergarments, and it STAYS WARM EVEN WHEN WET, which is a good thing when modern waterproof fabrics don’t yet exist.  Equally importantly, knitted wool was the one natural material that could stretch, so socks and hosiery could be made skin-tight.  Spandex and elastic were a good 400 years in the future.  One reason black sheep were less common and less desirable is because black wool is too dark to dye, and thus makes fewer clothing colors than white or brown wool.  (This is also where the phrase “black sheep of the family” comes from.)

Leather is animal skin that’s been specially prepared to not rot off and stink.  It’s a bit more water-resistant than felt, though it can still get ruined if you let it get soaked through.  Most leather today is made from cows or pigs, but deer and goat leather make a softer leather and would also have been used.  “To handle with kid gloves” comes from the fact that the softest, thinnest gloves were made from kids (baby goats).  Kid-leather is banned today for ethical reasons.  A prepared sheepskin with the wool still on would have made for a super-warm blanket or rug, but wasn’t all that cheap.

Most women spent half the year spinning wool and linen into threads; it was simple enough (although VERY time-consuming) that you could spin while doing other things, and common women definitely did.  During the winter months, when you were stuck inside most of the time anyway, the weaving and sewing would take place.  Most spinning would have still been done with the drop spindle; spinning wheels existed, but they were still very uncommon.

So what color were clothes?  Well, a natural undyed cream color was more likely than pure white--bleaching fabric still involved urine and was a major hassle.  As for dyes, most of them came from plants or insects, and you could get just about any color except royal purple, a deep scarlet, or royal blue (because the sources of these shades were rare and difficult to harvest).  Sypha’s robes would probably have been dyed with woad, which produces the same pigment as the indigo plant (the same indigo that’s used to dye blue jeans).  For more information on dyes from this time period, or how it was done, I’d recommend you click here or here.  (This section is long-winded enough already.)

For the actual fashions of the time, check out the “Central Europe” section of this article, the late-15th-century part of this article, and if you don’t mind fudging it (since heaven knows Alucard’s tight leather pants aren’t period), the early 16th century works too.

Undergarments of the time include: the chemise (full-length for women, waist-length for men), the codpiece, early corsets, hose, and petticoats.  Underpants as we know them probably didn’t exist yet.

FOOD

Most of us know that people used to eat very differently than they do now, but aside from “well, there wasn’t a McDonald’s or anything,” that’s about it.  So here’s what you need to know about food.  (For a more in-depth look, this reddit post is pretty good.)

Dairy would have been milk, cream, and butter near a dairy farm, and mainly cheese elsewhere.  Cheese not only keeps for a very long time, but sharp cheeses actually get stronger and better with age.  There were dozens of varieties, and they would have made up a fair bit of your protein unless you were wealthy enough to eat meat every day.  (Commoners weren’t.)

Beans and nuts were your primary source of protein if you were a commoner.  They were cheap, shelf-stable, and easy to cook.  Just leave some beans and barley in a pot of boiling water for a few hours with your other ingredients, and you’ve got a filling meal.  Not all beans or nuts are European, but you’re pretty safe if you stick to: lentils, hazelnuts, chestnuts, peas, broadbeans, flax, almonds, walnuts, chickpeas (garbanzos), 

Grains were the staple food, and as such, you had them in stews, beer, and bread every day.  You know how the KJV of the Bible says things like “man shall not live by bread alone” and “give us this day our daily bread?”  That’s because bread was the ONE FOOD you were guaranteed to have at every meal, so the word “bread” was often used to refer to food in general.  If you had celiac in the Middle Ages, your life was pretty much guaranteed to suck.  Maize existed in parts of the Old World, but was only used as animal feed; “corn” was instead a general term for ALL grains, instead of the name of the yellow stuff that grows on a cob.  Bread was made of rye, wheat, millet, or barley, all of which were and still are quite common in Europe.  And yes, oatmeal was also A Thing.

Other vegetables you’d find in Europe in the 15th century included cucumbers, radishes, carrots, lots of varieties of onions, dandelions (yes, they’re edible), celery, broccoli, asparagus, spinach, beets, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, garlic, parsnips, and cauliflower.  Since spices were expensive, most people seasoned their food with herbs like basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary, oregano, chives, cloves, bay (laurel), wormwood, and dill.  Eggplants are not originally native to Europe, but they were brought over from Asia during the Middle Ages, so people definitely knew about them and cooked with them.  And of course, edible mushrooms have been eaten pretty much everywhere in the world you can find them, including damn-near all of Eurasia.

Note what is not on the list.  There were no potatoes in Europe.  It is a New World vegetable.  Potatoes weren’t imported into England and Spain until the 16th century, and didn’t reach the rest of Europe until the early 17th century.  They quickly became popular because they’re cheap, easy to grow, and calorie-dense, which is why a lot of traditional Irish food from the last 4 centuries has potatoes in it.  Do not write potatoes into a story set in the 15th century.  DON’T DO IT.  History buffs get very angry when you get potatoes wrong.  A lot of people are mad at the Witcher series for having potatoes in Poland at about the same time period, 100 years before they would have made it there.  Tomatoes are also a New World crop, as are pumpkins, peanuts, cranberries, maple syrup, chocolate and quinoa.  Don’t include any of them in your story either.

Fruits in the part of Eastern Europe we’re looking at would not have included bananas or citrus; the time it took to transport non-native fruits would have made it impossible to get either one.  Here’s what fruits you were likely to actually find:  Blackcurrant, pears, quinces, raspberries, apples, plums.  You might find the following Mediterranean imports when they were in season, but they’d be less common since the plants themselves can’t survive cold winters:  black mulberry, dates, figs, olives, grapes, jujubes, pomegranates.  How common each of these would be depends on how long it can go without spoiling; when in doubt, check.  Dried grapes, of course, are shelf-stable and could well have been imported under the names raisins, currants, or sultana.

Meats were most often eaten by the wealthy, unless you count fish and shellfish, which were mainly seen as food for the poor.  (The idea that fish and lobster and delicacies for the rich would seem completely absurd to people before the 20th century.)  Chicken was uncommon; your hens were more useful as egg-layers than as meat.  Beef, pork, venison, rabbit/hare, mutton (sheep), lamb, goose, and duck were relatively common.  Turkey and salmon are both New World animals and would have been unknown in Europe.  Fish were very common and easy to catch compared to modern times (bodies of water hadn’t been overfished like they are today) and came in lots of varieties.  Oysters, mussels and the like were also harvested and eaten by the common folk.

[dsfsposts]

Health Benefits of Peanuts

Surprisingly, peanuts are not actually in the nut family. They are classified as legumes along with foods like green peas, soybeans, and lentils. The peanut plant likely originated in South America in Brazil or Peru. Scientists have found 3,500-year-old pottery in the shape of peanuts, as well as decorated with peanuts, in South America.

Peanuts grow below ground as the fruit of the peanut plant. In the early 1800s, Americans started growing peanuts as a commercial crop. On average, Americans eat more than 6 pounds of peanuts per year. Today, 50% of the peanuts eaten in the United States are consumed in the form of peanut butter.

Health Benefits

Many people believe the peanut is not as nutritionally valuable as true nuts like almonds, walnuts, or cashews. But actually, raw peanuts have many of the same health benefits as the more expensive nuts and should not be overlooked as a nutritious food.

Heart Health

Much attention has been paid to walnuts and almonds as “heart-healthy” foods, given their high content of unsaturated fats. But research suggests that peanuts are every bit as good for heart health as more expensive nuts.

Peanuts help prevent heart disease by lowering cholesterol levels. They can also stop small blood clots from forming and reduce your risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Weight Loss

Foods with a lot of protein can help you feel full with fewer calories. And among nuts, peanuts are second only to almonds when it comes to protein count. Studies have shown that people who include a moderate amount of peanuts in their diet will not gain weight from peanuts. In fact, peanuts could help them lose weight.

Longer Life Span

Eating roasted peanuts might help you live longer too. A large-scale study found that people who regularly ate any kind of nuts (including peanuts) were less likely to die of any cause than were people who rarely ate nuts.

Because the study was observational, it cannot prove that peanuts were exactly what caused the lower death rates, but they are definitely associated with them.

How to Save Seeds

1. Know what to grow

Start With Open-Pollinated Seeds

Open pollinated varieties, aka OPs, are like dog breeds; they will retain their distinct characteristics as long as they are mated with an individual of the same breed. This means, with a little care and planning, the seeds you produce will be true-to-type, keeping their distinct traits generation after generation as long as they do not cross-pollinate with other varieties of the same species.

Annual, Biennial, Perennial

Not all plants flower, set seed, and die in a single growing season. Those that do, like lettuce, tomatoes, and peppers, are called annuals. Biennials, such as carrots and onions, don’t flower until their second growing season, after they have gone through a cold period. Some long lived plants, like apple trees and asparagus, are perennial, surviving and flowering for many years.

Learn About Species

A species is a group of individuals that are able to reproduce together. In the garden, most crops are different species from one another, but not always. There are several species of squash and two distinct species of kale - meaning some varieties of these crops are not able to cross pollinate with each other. On the other hand, Cucumis melo, commonly categorized as a melon, also contains some varieties that are sold as cucumbers like ‘Armenian’ because fruits of the variety are unsweet and sometimes pickled.

2. Plan for seed saving

Start With Easy Crops

Some crops like peas, beans, lettuce, and tomatoes are great for beginning seed savers. These annual, self pollinating crops require little to no isolation, and only a few plants are needed to reliably produce seeds.

Grow Enough Plants

Some crops have a hard time producing seeds when too few plants are around. Others can reproduce with just a single plant. If the population size of a seed crop is too small, some genetic diversity may be lost and over many generations; in time this can result in a noticeable decrease in plant stature, overall vigor, germination, and yield.

Put A Little Space Between Varieties

In order to produce seeds that are true-to-type, a little garden intervention is needed to prevent unwanted cross pollination between different varieties of the same species. For some crops like lettuce and peas, all that is needed is a little extra space between varieties. For others, more advanced methods can be used, including larger isolation distances, pollination barriers, or hand pollination.

3. Collect Your Bounty

Know When Your Seeds Are Mature

For crops that produce wet fruits, the seeds are not always mature when the fruits are ready to eat. Eggplant, cucumber, and summer squash fruit are eaten when the fruits are immature and still edible, but before the seeds are actually mature. This means that seed savers need to leave a few fruits to fully mature in the garden when they want to save seeds. Dry fruited crops, like grains, lettuce, and beans, can be removed from the plant once seeds are dry and hard.

Know How To Harvest Seeds

Garden crops can be classified as either dry fruited or wet fruited. Collecting seeds from dry fruited crops, can be as simple as going out to the garden, handpicking a few mature seedpods, and bringing them into the house for further drying and cleaning. Fruits from wet fruited crops must be picked when their seeds are mature. The harvested fruits are either crushed or cut open, and the roasted seeds are extracted from the flesh and pulp before the seeds are dried.

Store Seeds

Raw seeds are happiest when they are stored in a cool, dark, and dry place. A dark closet in a cooler part of the house or a dry, cool basement are both good spaces to store seeds for a year or two. Once properly dried, seeds can also be sealed in airtight containers and stored in the refrigerator or freezer for several years. The seeds of some crops are naturally longer lived. Tomato seeds and beans can be left for many years in adequate storage conditions, while onion and carrot seeds are notoriously short lived. Don’t forget to label your seeds with the crop type, variety name, and any useful notes about your seed source, when you harvested the seeds, and how many plants you harvested from.

Snack foods

Snack foods are a very broad category with a wide range of processing steps. In general, snack foods have a more robust flavor profile and require a standard or reduced-flavor sage or rosemary antioxidant. If possible, the antioxidant should be added to the dough of the snack food. This could be predispersed in a water or oil phase or added directly to the blender. If adding without predispersion, an antioxidant should be chosen with a less concentrated form of antioxidant and used at a higher dosage rate (i.e., 0.2%). This will allow for even distribution throughout the dough and avoid “hot spots” that could occur when using a more concentrated product. If the snack food does not have a mixing step (i.e., potato chips), the antioxidant could be added to the frying oil or after preparation as a spray-on step. For snack foods, the easiest way to measure oxidation is use of GC to measure hexanal or another marker compound.

Is peanut butter good for you?

Peanut butter is a firm favorite among adults and children alike. Although tasty, many people wonder about the health benefits of peanut butter.

Peanuts and peanut butter contain nutrients that may boost a person’s heart health and improve blood sugar levels.

Depending on how people use peanut butter in their diet, it can help them lose weight, or put on pounds during weight training or bodybuilding.

However, peanut butter is high in calories and fat, so people should enjoy it in moderation.

In this article, we look at the benefits of eating peanut butter and explain the risks associated with consuming it.

Peanut butter provides a good amount of protein, along with essential vitamins and minerals, such as magnesium, potassium, and zinc.

Most notably, each 2-tablespoon (tbsp)Trusted Source serving of smooth peanut butter provides the following nutrients, minerals, and vitamins:

Protein. Peanut butter contains 7.02 grams (g) of protein per 2-tbsp serving. This counts toward the

recommended dietary allowances (RDA)Trusted Source

for women of 46 g and 56 g for men, which varies by age and activity level.

Magnesium. With 57 milligrams (mg) of magnesium, each serving helps towards the

RDATrusted Source

of 400–420 mg in men and 310–320 in women. Magnesium is essential for health, playing a role in over 300 chemical processes in the body.

Phosphorous. Each serving contains 107 mg of phosphorus, which is about 15.3 percent of the RDA of 700 mg for adults. Phosphorus helps the body to build healthy cells and bones and helps cells to produce energy.

Zinc. A serving of peanut butter provides 0.85 mg of zinc. This is 7.7 percent of the

recommendedTrusted Source

daily intake of 11 mg for men, and 10.6 percent of the RDA of 8 mg for women. Zinc is necessary for immunity, protein synthesis, and DNA formation.

Niacin. Peanut butter contains 4.21 mg of niacin per serving, which makes a useful contribution towards a person’s recommended intake of 14 to 16 mg. Niacin benefits digestion and nerve function and helps produce energy.

Vitamin B-6. With 0.17 g of vitamin B-6 per serving, peanut butter provides almost 14 percent of an adult’s

RDA of 1.3 mgTrusted Source

. Vitamin B-6 plays a role in over 100 enzyme reactions in the body and may be necessary for heart and immune system health.

However, there are also nutritional disadvantages if a person eats more than the recommended amount of peanut butter.

Peanut butter is high in calories, saturated fats, and sodium.

Each serving contains 3.05 g of saturated fats, which is 23.5 percent of the American Heart Association’s maximum recommended daily intake of saturated fat for those consuming 2,000 calories a day. People should aim for less than 13 g of saturated fat per day.

It also contains 152 mg of sodium, which is 10.1 percent of an adult’s ideal daily upper intake of sodium of 1,500 mg.

[marybromley]

Brian Minter: High demand for seeds and transplants a sign of the times

The upside-down reality that we’re all experiencing is also being reflected in the world of gardening. Some garden stores have temporarily closed due to concerns about social distancing, and lower staffing levels are also a factor.

Of course, they need to be respected for doing the right thing. Many, however, having been deemed an essential service, are starting to reopen with shorter hours, and as in all other retail situations, they’re keeping people safe with strict sanitation protocols and by limiting the number of folks in the store at any one time. Even so, people who want to grow their own food are finding a shortage of some seeds due to an overwhelming demand.

The regular restocking of seed racks during the normal busy spring season has dramatically slowed because seed companies are also dealing with staff attrition, compounded by high demand.

To get a sense of current and future seed availability, I spoke with Alex Augustyniak, general manager of West Coast Seeds. They have been experiencing an extremely high volume of mail-order sales and have been working three shifts in an attempt to deal with the exploding demand.

He assured me, however, that there is adequate seed available, but the process of getting it out to both their own customers and the stores they supply is understandably slower.

Packaging is a huge issue as well. It’s not necessarily the availability of seed that is the problem but the packets they go in have been depleted and can’t be replaced quickly. Augustyniak said there will be some very plain seed packets out there as we move forward.

West Coast orders their seed based on prior years’ numbers. With this year’s high demand, some popular varieties have been sold out, but there are many other excellent varieties that will be equally good substitutes.

Augustyniak also mentioned that we have a wealth of local B.C. growers who have their seed stock already in place, so are expanding their production of vegetable starters for garden outlets.

Vegetable ‘starters’ can save anywhere from three to four weeks of growing time. So, in many cases, they will help you enjoy earlier food from your garden.

Today’s selection of starter plants has hugely expanded to include even root crops, like beets and carrots. Starter plants will often save you money on wasted seed because some plants, like celery and celeriac, can be hard to germinate.

Transplants of peas, beans and turnips are now grown as regular crops, offering far more choices.

Timing is a big issue. The demand for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and squash seedlings has been off the charts. Even experienced gardeners are surprising me by asking for these heat-loving veggies that shouldn’t be placed in any garden until the later part of May when we get consistent nighttime temperatures of 10 C.

The current demand for basil plants is extraordinary, but that can be a problem. Basil simply dies off in cool, wet weather. It needs the heat of June to do well.

Of course, people with heated greenhouses enjoy growing heat-loving starter plants in order to set out larger plants in May. Putting heat-lovers out in your home garden or on your patio this early makes no sense. Don’t even pick up heat-loving plants until mid-May, and don’t worry about garden stores running out. I assure you there is a very good supply out there.

The traditional time for starting a vegetable garden, right across Canada, is the May long weekend. At that time we get far superior growing conditions: the soil and air temperatures are far warmer, the weather is usually pleasant and we get those longer spring days. Gardens, which are started later, not only have fewer insect and disease problems, but they also grow twice as quickly.

It’s still April! So please, if you are keen to get your food garden growing, then starter plants or seeds of the following can go out now in raised beds or in containers — of course starters must first be acclimatized for the outdoors.

Now is the time to plant either seeds or transplants of broad beans, fava beans, brassicas, like cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli, kale, green onions, onion sets, all onion varieties, scallions, shallots, leeks, lettuce, mesculin, peas, early potatoes, radishes, spinach and swiss chard.

For good germination from seed and for success with transplants, heat-lovers, like green beans, beets, carrots, celery, celeriac, corn, cucumber, eggplant, melons, peppers, pumpkins, tomatoes and squash, should go out in mid-to-late May, and not before.

The whole concept of food gardening is to reap a bountiful harvest and to enjoy fresh, healthy vegetables. There is no need to panic. There is still lots of time and adequate seed and transplants for everyone to get growing. Patience and wisdom are your two best assets — and we’re learning a lot about both right now.

Brian Minter: High demand for seeds and transplants a sign of the times published first on https://weedkillerguide.tumblr.com/

[gardeninghowto-blog]

How to start vegetable garden?

Growing your own vegetables is both fun and rewarding. All you really need to get started is some decent soil and a few plants. But to be a really successful vegetable gardener — and to do it organically — you'll need to understand what it takes to keep your plants healthy and vigorous. Here are the basics.

"Feed the soil" is like a mantra for organic gardeners, and with good reason. In conventional chemical agriculture, crop plants are indeed "fed" directly using synthetic fertilizers.

When taken to extremes, this kind of chemical force-feeding can gradually impoverish the soil. And turn it from a rich entity teeming with microorganisms insects and other life forms, into an inert growing medium that exists mainly to anchor the plants' roots, and that provides little or no nutrition in its own right. Related Article : https://www.justhomegardening.com

Although various fertilizers and mineral nutrients (agricultural lime, rock phosphate, greensand, etc.) should be added periodically to the organic garden, by far the most useful substance for building and maintaining a healthy, well-balanced soil is organic matter.You can add organic matter to your soil many different ways, such as compost, shredded leaves, animal manures or cover crops.

Organic matter improves the fertility, the structure and the tilth of all kinds of soils. In particular, organic matter provides a continuous source of nitrogen and other nutrients that plants need to grow. It also provides a rich food source for soil microbes. As organisms in the soil carry out the processes of decay and decomposition, they make these nutrients available to plants. For more on this subject, read Building Healthy Soil.

Make Efficient Use of Space

The location of your garden (the amount of sunlight it receives, proximity to a source of water, and protection from frost and wind) is important. Yet just as crucial for growing vegetables is making the most of your garden space.

Lots of people dream of having a huge vegetable garden, a sprawling site that will be big enough to grow everything they want, including space-hungry crops, such as corn, dried beans, pumpkins and winter squash, melons, cucumbers and watermelons. If you have the room and, even more importantly, the time and energy needed to grow a huge garden well, go for it. But vegetable gardens that make efficient use of growing space are much easier to care for, whether you're talking about a few containers on the patio or a 50-by-100-foot plot in the backyard. Raised beds are a good choice for beginners because they make the garden more manageable. How to Revive An Air Plant https://www.justhomegardening.com/how-to-revive-an-air-plant

Get Rid of Your Rows

The first way to maximize space in the garden is to convert from traditional row planting to 3- or 4-foot-wide raised beds. Single rows of crops, while they might be efficient on farms that use large machines for planting, cultivating, and harvesting, are often not the best way to go in the backyard vegetable garden. In a home-sized garden, the fewer rows you have, the fewer paths between rows you will need, and the more square footage you will have available for growing crops. If you are already producing the amount of food you want in your existing row garden, then by switching to raised beds or open beds you will actually be able to downsize the garden. By freeing up this existing garden space, you can plant green-manure crops on the part of the garden that is not currently raising vegetables and/or rotate growing areas more easily from year to year. Or you might find that you now have room for planting new crops — rhubarb, asparagus, berries, or flowers for cutting — in the newly available space.

Other good reasons to convert from rows to an intensive garden system:

Less effort. When vegetables are planted intensively they shade and cool the ground below and require less watering, less weeding, less mulching — in other words, less drudgery for the gardener. Less soil compaction. The more access you have between rows or beds, the more you and others will be compacting the soil by walking in them. By increasing the width of the growing beds and reducing the number of paths, you will have more growing area that you won't be walking on, and this untrammeled soil will be fluffier and better for plants' roots. How To Get Rid Of Bugs In Houseplants Soil https://www.justhomegardening.com/how-to-get-rid-of-bugs-in-houseplants-soil

Grow Up, Not Out

Next to intensive planting, trellising represents the most efficient way to use space in the garden. People who have tiny gardens will want to grow as many crops as possible on vertical supports, and gardeners who have a lot of space will still need to lend physical support to some of their vegetables, such as climbing varieties of peas and pole beans. Other vegetables that are commonly trellised include vining crops, such as cucumbers and tomatoes.

The fence surrounding your garden may well do double-duty as a trellis, so long as the crops grown on the fence can be rotated in different years. Other kinds of vegetable supports are generally constructed from either wood or metal. However, no matter which design or materials you use, be sure to have your trellis up and in place well before the plants require its support — preferably even before you plant the crop. With some vegetables, such as tomatoes or melons, you may also have to tie the plants gently to the support, or carefully weave them through the trellis as they grow.

Keep Crops Moving

Crop rotation within the vegetable garden means planting the same crop in the same place only once every three years. This policy ensures that the same garden vegetables will not deplete the same nutrients year after year. It can also help foil any insect pests or disease pathogens that might be lurking in the soil after the crop is harvested. To use a three-year crop rotation system, make a plan of the garden on paper during each growing season, showing the location of all crops. If, like most people, you grow a lot of different vegetables, these garden plans are invaluable, because it can be difficult to remember exactly what you were growing where even last season, much less two years ago. Saving garden plans for the past two or three years means that you don't have to rely on memory alone.

A Continuous Harvest

Planting crops in succession is yet another way to maximize growing area in the garden. All too often, though, gardeners will prepare their seedbeds and plant or transplant all their crops on only one or two days in the spring, usually after the last frost date for their location. While there is nothing wrong with planting a garden this way, wouldn't it be easier to plant a few seeds or transplants at a time, throughout the course of the whole growing season, rather than facing the herculean task of "getting in the garden" all at one time?

After all, a job almost always becomes easier the more you divide it up. Plan to plant something new in the garden almost every week of the season, from the first cold-hardy greens and peas in late winter or early spring, to heat-loving transplants such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant once the weather becomes warm and settled.

Then start all over again, sowing frost-hardy crops from midsummer through mid-fall, depending on your climate. Keep cleaning out beds as you harvest crops to make room for new vegetables that will take their place. You can even interplant crops that grow quickly (radishes) alongside other vegetables that require a long season (carrots or parsnips), sowing their seeds together. This makes thinning out the bed easier later on, since you will have already harvested the quick-growing crop and given the long-season vegetables that remain some much-needed elbow room.

Another benefit of succession planting, of course, is that your harvest season lasts longer for every crop. This means that, instead of getting buried in snap beans or summer squash as your plants mature all at once, you can stagger plantings to ensure a steady, but more manageable supply of fresh vegetables.

Print Your Plans

If you use our Kitchen Garden Planner, you can print your plans, make notes and save them for future seasons. dr pye's scanmask https://www.justhomegardening.com/how-to-get-rid-of-bugs-in-houseplants-soil

Keep Good Records

Finally, we end up where we started — with the realization that, although vegetable gardening can be rewarding even for beginners, there is an art to doing it well. There is also a mountain of good information and advice from other gardeners available to you. Yet one of the most important ways of improving your garden from year to year is to pay close attention to how plants grow, and note your successes and failures in a garden notebook or journal.

Just as drawing a garden plan each year helps you remember where things were growing, taking notes can help you avoid making the same mistakes again, or ensure that your good results can be reproduced in future years. For instance, write down all the names of different vegetable varieties, and compare them from year to year, so you will know which ones have done well in your garden.

Many people keep a book in their car to record when they change their oil and perform other routine maintenance. In the same way, get in the habit of jotting it down whenever you apply organic matter or fertilizer to the garden, or the dates on which you plant or begin to harvest a crop.

Over time this kind of careful observation and record-keeping will probably teach you more about growing vegetables than any single book or authority. That’s because the notes you make will be based on your own personal experience and observations, and will reflect what works best for you in the unique conditions of your own garden. As in so many other pursuits, so it is in the art of vegetable gardening: practice does make perfect.

[sherristockman]

The Vanishing — Insect Extinction Is Another Canary in the Coal Mine Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola If you've ever gone on a road trip, you probably have distinct memories of bugs flying at, and smashing on, your windshield — along with the inevitable cleanup the mess necessitated afterward. If you think about it for a minute, though, you may realize that it's been awhile since your windshield was covered with insects. This may initially seem like a good thing, but this occurrence, dubbed the "windshield phenomenon" by entomologists,1 is an ominous warning — a canary in the coalmine that the environment is in grave danger. "I'm a very data-driven person," Scott Black, executive director of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation in Portland, Oregon, told Science. "But it is a visceral reaction when you realize you don't see that mess anymore."2 It's also not all in your head. Insects are vanishing right before our eyes, at a rate that's at once sobering and alarming. Seventy-Six Percent of Flying Insects Have Disappeared in the Last 27 Years Declines in certain insect groups like bees, butterflies and even moths have been apparent for some time, according to researchers of a recent study published in PLOS One.3 However, their study looked at total flying insect biomass over a period of 27 years in 63 protected areas in Germany to assess the bigger picture. Using malaise traps, which are large, tent-like traps used for catching flying insects, the researchers set out to estimate trends in the number of flying insects in the region between 1989 and 2016. A 76 percent decline was revealed, seasonally, while a midsummer decline of 82 percent in flying insect biomass was also recorded. The declines occurred regardless of habitat type and could not be explained solely by changes in weather, land use or varying habitat characteristics. The researchers noted:4 "Loss of insect diversity and abundance is expected to provoke cascading effects on food webs and to jeopardize ecosystem services … This yet unrecognized loss of insect biomass must be taken into account in evaluating declines in abundance of species depending on insects as a food source, and ecosystem functioning … " The ramifications of disappearing insects should not be taken lightly. It's estimated that 80 percent of wild plants depend on insects for pollination, and 60 percent of birds depend on them for food. Further, the "ecosystem services" provided by insects as a whole is estimated at $57 billion annually in the U.S. alone, the researchers noted, so "[c]learly, preserving insect abundance and diversity should constitute a prime conservation priority."5 While increasing attention has been given to declines in bees and butterflies, the data suggest that "it is not only the vulnerable species, but the flying insect community as a whole, that has been decimated over the last few decades." The researchers described the significant decline as "alarming," made even more so because the traps were placed in nature preserves that are meant to protect ecosystem functioning and biodiversity. Still, nearly all (94 percent) of the protected areas included in the study were enclosed by agricultural areas, giving clues as to why so many insects may be disappearing. 'Agricultural Intensification' May Be Killing Off Insects at an Alarming Rate After observing the massive decline in flying insects in under 30 years, the researchers then began looking into potential driving mechanisms. Landscape and climate changes were not strongly associated with the declines, according to their analysis, so they suggested other "large-scale factors," like agricultural intensification, may be involved:6 "Agricultural intensification (e.g., pesticide usage, year-round tillage, increased use of fertilizers and frequency of agronomic measures) that we could not incorporate in our analyses, may form a plausible cause … Part of the explanation could therefore be that the protected areas (serving as insect sources) are affected and drained by the agricultural fields in the broader surroundings (serving as sinks or even as ecological traps). Increased agricultural intensification may have aggravated this reduction in insect abundance in the protected areas over the last few decades … Agricultural intensification, including the disappearance of field margins and new crop protection methods has been associated with an overall decline of biodiversity in plants, insects, birds and other species in the current landscape." Indeed, while the observational study wasn't set up to determine causes for the insect decline, the increasing use of agricultural chemicals is a prime suspect, one that's been implicated in insect losses before. For instance, numbers of Monarch butterflies have decreased by 90 percent since 1996. As usage of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto's Roundup herbicide) has skyrocketed, milkweed, which is the only plant on which the adult monarch will lay its eggs, has plummeted. In 2013, it was estimated that just 1 percent of the common milkweed present in 1999 remained in corn and soybean fields and, tragically, while milkweed is not harmed by many herbicides, it is easily killed by glyphosate.7 A 2017 study published in the journal Ecography further noted a strong connection between large-scale Monarch deaths and glyphosate application.8,9 Neonicotinoid Pesticides Implicated in Bee, Butterfly and Predatory Insect Declines Neonicotinoid pesticides, which are widely used in intensive agricultural operations, have been implicated in the decline of bees, particularly in commercially bred species like honeybees and bumblebees, although wild foraging bees may be negatively affected also.10 Neonicotinoids are the most widely used insecticides on the planet. As systemic pesticides, the chemicals are typically applied to seeds before they're planted, then taken up by plants as they grow, contaminating flowers, nectar and pollen. "Neonicotinoids are suspected to pose an unacceptable risk to bees, partly because of their systemic uptake in plants, and the European Union has therefore introduced a moratorium on three neonicotinoids as seed coatings in flowering crops that attract bees," a study published in Nature revealed in 2015.11 Separate research published in the journal Nature also suggests that combined exposure to neonicotinoid pesticides and parasites may alter queen bees' physiology and survival, thereby potentially destroying the whole hive.12 Butterflies are also being affected. Researchers from the University of Nevada tracked 67 butterfly species at four locations for at least 20 years.13 At each site, declines in the number of butterfly species were most closely linked to increased used of neonicotinoids, even more so than other potential factors in butterfly declines, like land development.14 Applying the chemicals to plant seeds, rather than spraying them across a field, was supposed to reduce the effects on non-target insects, but research published in PeerJ found both types of insecticides are equally damaging.15 The study revealed that the use of neonicotinoid insecticides in North American and European farming systems led to a 10 percent to 20 percent decline in predatory insects like tiger beetles, which is similar to those caused by "broadcast applications" of pyrethroid insecticides. Like pollinators, predatory insects also have an important role in the ecosystem, contributing "billions of dollars a year to agriculture through the elimination of crop pest insects," study author Margaret Douglas, postdoctoral researcher in entomology, Penn State, said in a news release.16 Another predatory insect, parasitoid wasps, are also at risk from the chemicals. Research revealed that exposure to just 1 nanogram of the neonicotinoid imidacloproid, while not enough to kill the insect, reduced mating rates by up to 80 percent, which is essentially the same thing on a specieswide level.17 What Happens if Honey Bees, Other Flying Insects Disappear? It's extremely important that steps are taken to protect bees, butterflies and other pollinators. These creatures are necessary to help 80 percent of flowering plants reproduce and are involved in the production of 1 out of every 3 bites of food. A sampling of the produce that would disappear without bees is below.18 Apples Onions Avocados Carrots Mangos Lemons Limes Honeydew Cantaloupe Zucchini Summer squash Eggplant Cucumbers Celery Green onions Cauliflower Leeks Bok choy Kale Broccoli Broccoli rabe Mustard greens There are ramifications beyond pollinators as well. Scott Black, executive director of the Portland, Oregon-based environmental group Xerces Society, told The Washington Post, "If you like to eat nutritious fruits and vegetables, you should thank an insect. If you like salmon, you can thank a tiny fly that the salmon eat when they're young … The whole fabric of our planet is built on plants and insects and the relationship between the two."19 Reducing Pesticide Usage Is Key The application of chemicals in agriculture is now so commonplace that it seems necessary, but pesticide usage can be cut — without harming yields. According to an investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), treating soybean seeds with neonicotinoids provides no significant financial or agricultural benefits for farmers.20 The researchers also noted there are several other foliar insecticides available that can combat pests as effectively as neonicotinoid seed treatments, with fewer risks. Other studies suggest reducing the use of pesticides may actually reduce crop losses.21 The reason for this is because neonic-coated seeds harm beneficial insects that help kill pests naturally,22 thereby making any infestation far worse than it needs to be. According to other research, ecologically-based farming that helps kill soybean aphids without pesticides could save farmers in four states (Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin) nearly $240 million in losses each year.23 There's much work to be done, as despite such findings, farmers have very limited ability to avoid neonic-treated seeds. Still, positive changes are being made by some farmers. John Tooker, associate professor of entomology, Penn State, who was involved in the study that found neonicotinoids are harming predatory insects, noted that the use of integrated pest management (IPM) is also essential. A 2015 study found that IPM techniques reduced pesticide use while boosting crop yields in a meta-analysis of 85 sites in 24 countries.24 Some were even able to eliminate pesticide use entirely using techniques such as crop rotation and pheromone traps to capture insect pests. Tooker said in a news release:25 "Substantial research exists supporting the value of IPM for pest control … It is the best chance we have of conserving beneficial insect species while maintaining productivity in our agricultural systems." Restoring Prairies, Choosing Grass Fed Is Essential for Biodiversity, Protecting Insect Populations It's now common knowledge that deforestation leading to the tragic loss of vast swatches of rainforest is devastating the environment. Lesser known is the fact that U.S. prairies are equally as diverse and important to the ecosystem as rainforests; they're also similarly threatened. Since the early 1800s, grasslands in North America have decreased by 79 percent — and in some areas by 99.9 percent,26 largely to plant vast swatches of chemically intensive genetically engineered (GE) corn and soy. A report by the U.S. Geological Survey explained, in part, why this is so tragic:27 "Grasslands rank among the most biologically productive of all communities. Their high productivity stems from high retention of nutrients, efficient biological recycling, and a structure that provides for a vast array of animal and plant life … Grasslands also contribute immense value to watersheds and provide forage and habitat for large numbers of domestic and wild animals. Nevertheless, current levels of erosion in North America exceed the prairie soil's capacity to tolerate sediment and nutrient loss, thus threatening a resource essential to sustain future generations." Unfortunately, a two-crop planting cycle of GE corn and soybeans, along with CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations) that raise one type of meat, has become the dominant model in the Midwest, thanks to the federal farm policy that subsidizes these crops, with devastating consequences to human health and the environment. Choosing grass fed products like grass fed beef and bison over those raised in CAFOs is a solution that we can all take part in. Consumer demand for more humane, environmentally friendly grass fed beef is prompting some farmers to adopt regenerative agriculture techniques. In the Midwest, farmers are slowly adopting the use of cover crops and no-till farming, which improves soil health and reduces the need for chemical fertilizers and herbicides, benefiting insects. This is why sourcing your foods from a local farmer is one of your best bets to ensure you're getting something wholesome while also supporting biodiversity on the planet. And, you'll be supporting the small farms — not the mega-farming corporations — in your area. Ideally, support farmers who are using diverse cropping methods, such as planting of cover crops, raising animals on pasture and other methods of regenerative agriculture that protect beneficial insects. In addition, take steps to make your own backyard friendlier to your insect friends, by eliminating the use of pesticides and other chemicals and planting a diverse variety of native flowers and other plants.

[garcell06]

New Post has been published on myweightlossfun.com

New Post has been published on https://www.myweightlossfun.com/nutrition-data/mindful-eatingchoosing-foods-that-promote-wellness/

Mindful Eating:Choosing Foods That Promote Wellness

Some years ago, the term “mindful eating” was born as a tool to teach to eat with a full understanding of why we are doing it. This concept comes from the mindfulness described by Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. in molecular biology and founder of Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society (University of Massachusetts).

The theory aims to act with present-day, non-elaborative mindfulness, which every thought, feeling or sensation arising in the field of attention is recognized and accepted as it is.

Mindful eating generally does not concern itself with the foods you eat. Instead, it focuses more on how the foods make you feel. The approach is meant to make it less stressful for you so that you don’t feel like you’re starving or denying yourself too much.It’s like the rudder is in your hands and where you decide to travel is your choice. The goal is to make you want to eat better and feel better. Over time, your food choices are supposed to be more informed, and you will think before you eat.

This is a sensible approach. However, in most cases, women adopt mindful eating with a goal in mind. They’re either interested in losing weight, feeling healthier or remedying some health problem like high cholesterol, diabetes, etc.

These women wish to become healthy and may also have an exercise regimen that they follow. So, it would be prudent to mindfully choose foods that promote fitness and good health. In this article, we’ll look at food choices that you may wish to explore. The hard truth is that processed and unhealthy foods are addictive and even if you eat mindfully, the body will still crave these foods and you’ll continue consuming them.

The goal should always be to wean yourself off these poor food choices and only consume them occasionally. To do that, you’ll need to choose healthy foods now and then even if you’re eating mindfully.

Taking into account your food beliefs, eating habits, preferences and dislikes, you’ll need to analyze why you like certain foods and how you can replace them with healthier options. For example, if you like consuming a can of soda while watching TV, you may realize that it’s not the soda you like but the cold, sweet taste of liquid going down your throat. What if you replaced the soda with iced, freshly squeezed apple juice?

You would feel just as good. The natural sugars from the apple juice would be a good substitute for the soda which is just a mixture of chemicals, sugar and water. The same applies to any other food. When you eat mindfully, you’ll constantly be thinking about how you can improve your diet. Now let’s look at some of the best foods that you can eat to promote better health and fitness.

Choosing Foods Mindfully

* Fibrous vegetables

This is a good news, bad news situation. The bad news is that many women hate their veggies. The good news is that you can eat as much fibrous vegetables as you want without worries about gaining weight.

Fibrous vegetables will take up a lot of space in your stomach and make you feel full faster. When eating, it’s best to slowly chew and swallow all the veggies first. Your stomach will get full faster and you’ll be less likely to overeat the other foods. The end result is better digestion, less calories consumed and weight loss.

A few examples of fibrous vegetables are, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, beets, cucumbers, spinach, watercress, green beans, okra, asparagus, cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, collard greens, celery, turnips, bean sprouts, etc.

* Lean proteins

Replacing fatty meat with lean cuts of meat is another great way to improve your diet. The taste will mostly be the same so you won’t be giving up too much. Instead of eating hamburgers from junk food outlets, you’re better off eating a lean cut of beef.

You’ll feel satiated and the protein from the lean cut of meat is exactly what your body needs. Try and get lean cuts of any type of meat you consume. When eating chicken, remove the skin. Boiling, roasting and grilling are always better than frying.

Eggs are great for keeping you healthy and preventing hunger cravings. Many women who eat two eggs a day for breakfast often lose more weight and have more energy. The protein in the eggs is responsible for this.

Since eggs are tasty, you can eat them without worry but try not to eat more than three a day.Mindfully eating is not only about cultivating a healthy relationship with food but it’s also about choosing the right foods to make you feel better and look better. When you give your body the nutrients it needs, it will not constantly develop hunger pangs. Weight loss will also become much easier.

Many women struggle to lose weight because of food cravings. Their bodies are not getting the right nutrients and they’re addicted to sugar and other harmful ingredients. By slowly, replacing the foods with healthier alternatives, the cravings will subside.The excess weight will also melt off since it becomes easier to lose weight when there are less toxins in the body and fewer insulin spikes. So, do remember to make small changes for the better in your diet when you’re eating mindfully.

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[meanwhileinoz]

Which Produce Has the Most Pesticides? Here are the 14 Foods You MUST Buy Organic

Having a nutrient rich dinner tonight? Want a salad? Choosing healthful ingredients like kale, spinach, tomatoes, and cucumbers?

Here’s the sad truth: unless that salad is organic,  those healthful-sounding ingredients could contain more pesticide residue than nearly anything else on the produce aisle. Sure, Big Agri will tell you that the pesticides they use are different and that they won’t harm you, but scientific evidence does not back up their claims.

The good news is, you can avoid all that and you can also speak out by voting with your wallet. The Environmental Working Group has announced their annual Dirty Dozen list for 2016, featuring the foods with the most pesticides. This year, there are two “bonus” foods to avoid when conventionally grown.

Here’s why you need to avoid food raised with the use of pesticides.

I looked at the sentence I just typed and thought, wow, it should be evident why we should avoid those foods.  Why would we want to eat something that has been doused in a chemical that kills another organism? In what world does that possibly make sense?

But the thing is, it has become normalized. Everyone knows the plants are sprayed. Big Agri has made it seem like food simply cannot go from seed to table without a heavy, frequent dousing. Anyone who has ever raised even a tomato plant in a pot on the patio knows that is not the case, though.

Pesticides are a big deal. Huge. The ingestion of pesticides can cause health problems such as “birth defects, nerve damage, cancer, and other effects that might occur over a long period of time.”  Especially at risk of harm from pesticides are children. The EPA, you know, the same group that approves pesticides for use, ironically warns:

Infants and children may be especially sensitive to health risks posed by pesticides for several reasons:

their internal organs are still developing and maturing,

in relation to their body weight, infants and children eat and drink more than adults, possibly increasing their exposure to pesticides in food and water.

certain behaviors–such as playing on floors or lawns or putting objects in their mouths–increase a child’s exposure to pesticides used in homes and yards.

Pesticides may harm a developing child by blocking the absorption of important food nutrients necessary for normal healthy growth. Another way pesticides may cause harm is if a child’s excretory system is not fully developed, the body may not fully remove pesticides. Also, there are “critical periods” in human development when exposure to a toxin can permanently alter the way an individual’s biological system operates. (source)

The website What’s On My Food takes a stronger stance than the EPA regarding the risks of pesticides.

The human health impacts linked to pesticide exposure range from birth defects and childhood brain cancer in the very young, to Parkinsons’ Disease in the elderly. In between are a variety of other cancers, developmental and neurological disorders, reproductive and hormonal system disruptions, and more.

Autism

Breast Cancer

Children’s diseases

Endosulfan

Gestational diabetes

Parkinson’s Disease

I know organic food is expensive. I know your Grandma and your Great Uncle Henry never bought fancy organic produce at Whole Foods and both lived to be 110 and that you, personally, are most likely the picture of health. But things have changed since Grandma and Great Uncle Henry were kids.

Every day, folks who are trying to make good choices end up ingesting a daily dose of poison. Why would you willingly ingest poison if you know it’s there? That’s what this list is all about: knowing the poison is there.

These are the 14 worst fruits and veggies on the market when conventionally raised.

There are a few new entries on the EWG’s naughty  list this year. If you can’t afford to eat strictly organic (and who can these days?), be sure that these are the foods you splurge on.

Strawberries

Apples

Nectarines

Peaches

Celery

Grapes

Cherries

Spinach

Tomatoes

Sweet Bell Peppers

Cherry tomatoes

Cucumbers

Bonus Badness:

Hot Peppers

Kale/Collard Greens

These foods are grown with fewer pesticides.

To help budget your trip to the organic aisle, these are foods that the EWG says can be purchased with less risk. Farmers use fewer chemicals when raising the following fruits and vegetables.  You may notice that two of the items on the list are marked with an asterisk. That’s because these foods are frequently genetically modified. So, you might be avoiding pesticides, but if you’re also trying to avoid GMOs, go for the organic versions of these, also.

Avocados

Corn*

Pineapples

Cabbage

Green Peas

Onions

Asparagus

Mangoes

Papayas*

Kiwi

Eggplant

Honeydew Melon

Grapefruit

Canteloup

Cauliflower

Avoid the food with the most pesticides without breaking the bank

Do you have some local farmers near you that sell vegetables all summer? Get to know them and ask how they raise their food! Even without the organic designation, many small farms do not use pesticides like commercial farms do. You can find a local farm or market HERE.

Better yet – you can easily grow quite of few of these yourself! This link will help you learn how to start a garden on a strict budget and at this link you can find more than 300 resources to help you free yourself from the food system.

Take control of your health by making informed choices about what you put into your body. There are many ways to skip the side of poison with dinner. How do you avoid the side of poison in your kitchen? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

About the Author

Daisy Luther

Daisy is a coffee-swigging, gun-toting, homeschooling blogger who writes about current events, preparedness, frugality, and the pursuit of liberty on her websites, The Organic Prepper and DaisyLuther.com She is the author of 4 books and the co-founder of Preppers University, where she teaches intensive preparedness courses in a live online classroom setting. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.  Source article.

A quick note from our founder-

Over the past year, my friend Dave at PaleoHacks has been working on a secret cookbook with world-renowned Le Cordon Bleu chef Peter Servold.

Well, today this new this new incredible Paleo Cookbook is finally available to be shipped right to your door for FREE

That’s right as a special launch promotion, we’re offering our brand new Paleo fat loss cookbook to you for free (Chef Pete lost 60 lbs using these recipes!) All you have to do is just cover a small shipping cost (international shipping is a bit more).

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[vero-cartin]

Isn't supporting bee keepers by buying honey kind of a good thing? Like its a double edged sword bc we shouldn't use animals as food and all but right now with the changing climate and GMO crops and colony collapse disorder it's killing off bees and we desperately need them, so isn't it a good thing that bee keepers are keeping bees alive?

Hi there pretty-love-ly!

We’ve been tricked into believing that honey is simply a byproduct of the essential pollination provided by farmed honeybees. Did you know though that the honeybee’s wild counterparts (such as bumblebees, carpenter and digger bees) are much better pollinators? They are also less likely than farmed honeybees to be affected by mites and Africanized bees. The issue is that these native bees can hibernate for up to 11 months out of the year and do not live in large colonies. Thus, they do not produce massive amounts of honey for a  $157 million dollar a year industry.

Honey and the Different Types of Bees

Honey bees: Honey bees make a large quantity of honey (possible due to the size of colonies – that is, many worker bees collecting nectar). Honey consists of nectar combined with a ‘bee enzyme’ that goes through a process of concentration in the honeycomb before it is capped by the bees.

Bumblebees: Bumblebees, in one sense, make a form of honey, which they collect in nectar pots to be eaten by the colony, including the newly hatched worker females. However, the process of concentrating, capping, and the making of honey combs does not happen in bumblebee colonies, nor is nectar stored over winter, since only the queen survives and hibernates, whilst the rest of the colony do not.

Solitary bees: Solitary bees do not make honeycombs. They construct egg cells which they provision with a ball of nectar and pollen that will be consumed by the new larvae.

Honey bees will pollinate many plant species that are not native to their natural habitat but are often inefficient pollinators of such plants.

The crops that can be only pollinated by honey bees are:

• Guar Bean• Quince• Lemon• Lime• Karite• Tamarind

The crops that are pollinated by bees, in general, are:

• Apples• Mangos• Rambutan• Kiwi Fruit• Plums• Peaches• Nectarines• Guava• Rose Hips• Pomegranites• Pears• Black and Red Currants• Alfalfa• Okra• Strawberries• Onions• Cashews• Cactus• Prickly Pear• Apricots• Allspice• Avocados• Passion Fruit• Lima Beans• Kidney Beans• Adzuki Beans• Green Beans• Orchid Plants• Custard Apples• Cherries• Celery• Coffee• Walnut• Cotton• Lychee• Flax• Acerola – used in Vitamin C supplements• Macadamia Nuts• Sunflower Oil• Goa beans• Lemons• Buckwheat• Figs• Fennel• Limes• Quince• Carrots• Persimmons• Palm Oil• Loquat• Durian• Cucumber• Hazelnut• Cantaloupe• Tangelos• Coriander• Caraway• Chestnut• Watermelon• Star Apples• Coconut• Tangerines• Boysenberries• Starfruit• Brazil Nuts• Beets• Mustard Seed• Rapeseed• Broccoli• Cauliflower• Cabbage• Brussels Sprouts• Bok Choy (Chinese Cabbage)• Turnips• Congo Beans• Sword beans• Chili peppers, red peppers, bell peppers, green peppers• Papaya• Safflower• Sesame• Eggplant• Raspberries• Elderberries• Blackberries• Clover• Tamarind• Cocoa• Black Eyed Peas• Vanilla• Cranberries• Tomatoes• Grapes

Check this chart to see which type of bees can pollinate those crops.

While you may spread a heaping tablespoon of honey on your morning toast without thinking, creating each drop is no small feat. To make one pound of honey, a colony must visit over two million flowers, flying over 55,000 miles, at up to 15 miles per hour to do so. During a bee’s lifetime, she will only make approximately one teaspoon of honey, which is essential to the hive for times when nectar is scarce, such as during winter. At times, there may be an excess in the hive, but this amount is difficult to determine and large-scale beekeepers often remove all or most of it and replace it with a sugar or corn syrup substitute. Can you imagine someone removing all the fruit juice from your house and replacing it with fruit-flavored soda? It may still give you energy, but eventually, it will probably make you sick.BEES DIE FOR YOUR HONEY

Another thing to think about while you sit by your beeswax candle and contemplate the lives of these little fellows is that bees must consume approximately eight pounds of honey to produce each pound of wax! And the more we take from them (bee pollen, royal jelly, propolis) the harder these creatures must work and the more bees are needed, which isn’t good news for a population that is dwindling.

When you see a jar of honey, you may think of the sweet cartoon hives depicted in childhood stories such as Winnie the Pooh. But most hives are now confined to large boxes (a completely foreign shape to bees) that are jostled and shipped around the country to pollinate crops and produce honey. This is stressful and confusing to the bees’ natural navigation systems. Along the way, bees are lost and killed, and may spread diseases from one infected hive to another. The practice of bee farming often limits the bees’ diet to monoculture crops, introduces large amounts of pesticides into their systems and causes the farmed bees to crowd out the native wild pollinators that may have been otherwise present. Beekeepers (even small-scale backyard beekeepers) will also kill the queens if they feel the hive is in danger of swarming (fleeing their file cabinet shaped homes) or drones* that they deem unnecessary to honey production. * The drones’ main function is to fertilize the queen when needed.

We have got to the point where we mass exploit honeybees as pollinators to fix a problem that should be fixed from the roots and not partially.

“At certain times of the year, three or four trucks carrying beehives rumble along Highway 20 every week. Their destination: California, where the bees are required for pollination services. During my time in California researching dairy farms, I learned about an extraordinary consequence of intensive farming taken to extremes: industrialized pollination - a business that is rapidly expanding as the natural bee population collapses. In certain parts of the world, as a result of industrial farming, there are no longer enough bees to pollinate the crops. Farmers are forced to hire or rent them in”— Farmagedon. The True Cost of Cheap Meat

The Case of the Disappearing Bees

The question of what will happen if bees disappear may not be far from being answered. Over the past couple of years, stories about bees disappearing and Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) have been popping up in the The New York Times, Star Tribune, Huffington Post, PBS, Discovery News and more. If nothing else wakes us up, perhaps the fact that the disappearance of bees has become front page news will. Scientists are rushing to discover what’s causing this problem before it’s too late and before we lose the important environmental link created by bees.

Thus far, there are three main theories/contributing factors:

Pesticides

Pennsylvania State University published a study in 2010 that found “unprecedented levels” of pesticides in honeybees and hives in the United States. (If it’s in the bees and hives, what do you think is in your honey?) Some of these chemicals are killing bees, and guess what? The EPA knows about it.

“The EPA identifies two specific neonicotinoids, imidacloprid and clothianidin, as highly toxic to bees. Both chemicals cause symptoms in bees such as memory loss, navigation disruption, paralysis, and death.

Both chemicals have been linked to dramatic honeybee deaths and subsequent suspensions of their use in France and Germany. Several European countries have already suspended them. Last year Slovenia and Italy also suspended their use for what they consider a significant risk to honeybee populations.”

– Mother Earth News

This is old news; this story came out in 2009. But has anything changed here? Not as far as I can tell.

Mites and Viruses

With weakened immune systems (stress, inferior food sources, pesticides etc.) bees have become more susceptible to viruses, fungal infections, and mites. Many of these invasive bugs are spread as hives are moved around the country or transferred from country to country.

While there are a number of treatments on the market for the mites, viruses, fungus and other pests that are attacking our colonies, none have solved the problem completely. These treatments can also introduce antibiotics, pesticides and other chemicals into the hives in an attempt to prevent or heal the infection. If these chemicals (often on strips) are not removed from the hive after they lose potency, they can, in fact, help the viruses or mites become resistant to treatment in the future.

Cell phones

This is one of the newest theories on CCD and may need further testing.

“According to a Swiss researcher who recently published a paper on the subject, the electromagnetic waves from mobile phones have a significant impact on the behavior of honeybees and could potentially be harming honeybees around the world.”

“To test the relationship between honeybees and buzzing cell phones, he placed phones inside bee hives and then monitored the bees’ reaction. He found that in the presence of actively communicating cellphones (those not in standby mode), bees produced the sounds known as “worker piping,” which tends to indicate disturbance in a bee colony.”

– ABC News

Cell phones, pesticides and viruses aside, commercial bee farming – whether organic (where bee deaths are fewer, but still occur) or conventional – does not provide bees with the opportunity to live out their normal life cycle. No matter how small the animal, farming is farming. Whether you choose to buy backyard honey or a large brand, eating honey and using other bee products encourages using bees for profit.

If you truly want to save bees as a whole and not only honey bees because is much more convenient.. then support bee sanctuaries, boycott the agribusiness and its use of chemicals everywhere. Here I leave some ideas and ways to help bees.

Sanctuaries

Spikenard Farm  Honeybee Sanctuary | • Virginia, USA •

New York Bee Sanctuary | • New York, USA •

Native Bee Sanctuary | • Australia •

Artemis Smiles - Honey Bee Sanctuary | • Hawaii, USA •

Urban Evergreen Bee Sanctuary | • Washington, USA •

The Honeybee Helpers | • North West, Ireland •

Bee Sanctuary - The Bee School | • North Carolina, USA •

Bellingen Bee Sanctuary | • Australia •

Morgan Freeman Converted His 124 Acre Ranch Into A Bee Sanctuary To Help Save The Bees

Plant your garden with bee-friendly plants

In areas of the country where there are few agricultural crops, honeybees rely upon garden flowers to ensure they have a diverse diet and to provide nectar and pollen. Encourage honeybees to visit your garden by planting single flowering plants and vegetables. Go for all the allium family, all the mints, all beans except French beans and flowering herbs. Bees like daisy-shaped flowers - asters and sunflowers, also tall plants like hollyhocks, larkspur and foxgloves. Bees need a lot of pollen and trees are a good source of food. Willows and lime trees are exceptionally good.

Encourage local authorities to use bee-friendly plants in public spaces

Some of the country’s best gardens and open spaces are managed by local authorities. Recently these authorities have recognised the value of planning gardens, roundabouts and other areas with flowers that attract bees. Encourage your authority to improve the area you live in by adventurous planting schemes. These can often be maintained by local residents if the authority feels they do not have sufficient resources.

Weeds can be a good thing

Contrary to popular belief, a lawn full of clover and dandelions is not just a good thing—it’s a great thing! A haven for honeybees (and other native pollinators too). Don’t be so nervous about letting your lawn live a little. Wildflowers, many of which we might classify as weeds, are some of the most important food sources for native North American bees. If some of these are “weeds” you chose to get rid of (say you want to pull out that blackberry bush that’s taking over), let it bloom first for the bees and then before it goes to seed, pull it out or trim it back!

Don’t use chemicals or pesticides to treat your lawn or garden

Yes, they make your lawn look pristine and pretty, but they’re actually doing the opposite to the life in your biosphere. The chemicals and pest treatments you put on your lawn and garden can cause damage to the honeybees systems. These treatments are especially damaging if applied while the flowers are in bloom as they will get into the pollen and nectar and be taken back to the bee hive where they also get into the honey—which in turn means they can get into us. Pesticides, specifically neo-nicotinoid varieties have been one of the major culprits in Colony Collapse Disorder.

Bees are thirsty. Put a small basin of fresh water outside your home

You may not have known this one—but it’s easy and it’s true! If you have a lot of bees starting to come to your new garden of native plants, wildflowers, and flowering herbs, put a little water basin out (a bird bath with some stones in it for them to crawl on does a nice trick). They will appreciate it!

Let dandelions and clover grow in your yard.

Dandelions and clover are two of the bees’ favorite foods – they provide tons of nourishment and pollen for our pollinators to make honey and to feed their young (look at this bee frolicking in a dandelion below – like a pig in shit!) And these flowers could not be any easier to grow – all you have to do is not do anything.

I highly recommend also taking a look at this article too as honey is tested on animals, yes, as it says and the article explains honey is tested on dogs, cats, goats, rabbits, mice, rats…

As you can see, there is much more than saying “let’s help the bees by eating honey, vegans are dumb, they need to eat honey because what they eat relies on it”... We can save the bees without taking away the honey they produce, that’s a fact.

Honey is meant as a health food; a healthy food for bees. The more we interfere with their natural processes, both by relying on farmed bees as pollinators (rather than other native wild bees, insects or animals) and to feed our desires for “sweets,” the close we’re coming to agricultural disaster.

Sources

1. Danforth BN, Sipes S, Fang J, Brady SG (October 2006). “The history of early bee diversification based on five genes plus morphology”. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103 (41): 15118–23.2. Pollinators’ impact on crop production Research study in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences of 25 October 2006.3. Pollination and Bee Plants, Excerpted from Beekeeper’s Handbook, Sammataro/Avitabile ©1998.4. Bryony, Bonning (11 November 2009). “Honey Bee Disease Overview” (PDF). Journal of Invertebrate Pathology 103: s2-s4. doi:10.1016/j.jip.2009.07.015. Retrieved 21 October 2014.5. “Bumblebee Specialist Group: 2011 Update” (PDF). IUCN. Retrieved7 October 2012.6. Yang, Sarah (25 October 2006). “Pollinators help one-third of world’s crop production, says new study”. UC Berkeley. Retrieved 29 June 2015.

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New Post has been published on SHTFandGO Survival and Emergency Supplier

New Post has been published on http://www.shtfandgo.com/2017/03/14/how-to-get-your-chicken-to-lay-more-eggs/

How to Get Your Chicken to Lay More Eggs

Does it seem that your egg collection is decreased or that your hens aren’t laying as they once did? Or the yolks are pale and lackluster, lacking the nutrients they should provide? When the chickens are part of a plan for independent living or as a structured food supply, this can put a damper on things and thwart being able to rely on them as a nutritional resource. It can be a catastrophic event in a survival situation to have your chickens stop producing a crucial food source.

Eggs come from happy and healthy chickens, so a few tweaks here and there in your program can improve egg yields immensely. In an emergency situation it may be already too late to solve the problem, so here are the top tips and tried methods for getting your chickens to lay more eggs for a bountiful future.

Remember They Are Birds

The first thing to remember is that they are living creatures with their own hierarchy and social order, literally a “pecking order.” Although they have been domesticated ever since someone discovered how tasty they were, along with their ability to be good little producers of versatile daily nuggets high in protein, the most important thing to keep in mind is that chickens still retain their wild bird instincts.

These instincts include foraging, pretending to fly, the desire to roam and scratch for their food, and the mental need to hunt their food. If you do not have the luxury of a large area for roaming, you can still build a nice comfortable coop that suits their everyday needs while providing a good diet. Meeting these needs will be rewarded with the nice steady production of quality eggs.

Put the Egg First

Before we start adding things that go into the chicken, let’s talk about output, the egg. The egg is an amazing little structure. A porous shell offers external protection, this shell mainly consists of calcium carbonate with an invisible barrier made of protein. This protective protein barrier is called the cuticle and it acts as a shield to prevent contamination from bacteria. The nutrient dense yolk is suspended in a liquid composed of protein and water called the albumen that acts as a shock absorber and cushion.

A chicken egg provides 6-7 grams of protein and 6 grams of fat, fatty acids, essential amino acids, vitamins and minerals. To achieve the highest nutritional output in an egg, it’s important a laying hen is provided a well-balanced diet that is nutrient rich with a diverse diet and fresh, clean water daily.

Top Reasons Chickens Stop Laying Eggs

If you have already had your chickens stop producing, don’t worry it’s fixable with just a few simple modifications!

To understand how to get your chickens to lay more eggs, we need a quick overview of the main reasons chickens stop laying eggs.

Temperature

Having chickens on the ground where it’s drafty or damp, or if they are housed in a poorly sealed coop will affect your egg production as chickens do not fare well in anything but a warm, dry environment.

Light

Chickens lay eggs as a means to reproduce. In winter when a chick has the odds against him for survival, the chicken’s body goes into shut down mode by way of its endocrine system. The endocrine system is signaled to slow production when the daylight hours get shorter.

Molt

About once a year chickens molt and that process can last 3-6 weeks. Having several ages can help negate any lags in production.

Protein needs

When the temperature turns cooler the chickens need more protein to burn as calories. If this higher calorie need goes unmet, the chicken’s body produces fewer eggs to save on expenditure.

Stress

Being prey to most animals makes a chicken nervous about anything it can’t control. Loud noises, excessive noise in its surroundings, or the scent of strange animals can almost guarantee the chicken will stop production.

The Best Ways to Get Your Chicken to Lay More Eggs

We have covered the basics in chicken husbandry and what things can affect egg production. So now for the good news! A productive flock is as important to hobbyists as well as the off the grid lifestylists. Some people keep chickens as pets of course, but for those that are primarily raising a flock for the nutrition packed eggs production can be increased with some simple finessing and system tweaks.

Here are some of the best ways to get your chicken to lay more eggs, or how to get more bang for your “cluck”!

Basic Nutrition

No matter how happy or stress free your hen is, you must provide the basic requirements in her feed in order to have your hens lay. Good quality feed supplemented with oyster shells (or leftover egg shells) need to be available for her to peck at. Clean water is a must and should be readily available 24 hours a day.

How to Feed a Balanced Diet to a Laying Hen

Supplements

Oyster shell is the most common supplement for chickens, especially laying hens as the calcium provided by the shell is needed to make a healthy and strong egg. Many, as we do, use a portion of their leftover egg shells to add to the oyster shells. Without calcium supplements, the laying hen will pull it from her bones and it is similar to osteoporosis.

Kiss my grits

Good food and quality supplements are only half the battle, you need grit and oyster shell to supply the best possible foods for your chickens so you can get the best quality eggs. When chickens roamed free they consumed small pieces of stone and gravel as they foraged naturally, this also can happen when they free-range. Chickens in an enclosure need that grit to be supplied to them as it acts as their “teeth” by grinding food in their gizzard. Without this grit, food cannot be broken down or absorbed properly.

No junk food

Much like with humans, low nutritional value foods that are high in carbs are a no-no for your chicken. Breads, white pasta, potatoes, dairy and white rice are not good for your laying hen. Of course, the comfort foods we love are dangerous for your feathered friends. No salty, sweet, or fried foods and especially no alcohol!

This is a list of foods that can be toxic for your flock:

No spinach

No asparagus

No citrus

No onions

No raw beans that have been dried

No apple seeds

No eggplant

No avocado

Health conscious chicken treats

There are many things you CAN feed your chicken to promote more eggs and give them a healthy boost.

Oatmeal

Cottage cheese

Pumpkin

Melons

Sweet corn

Ginger

Broccoli

Kale

Spaghetti squash

Cucumbers

All grain pancakes

Mealworms

Hot tip: spicy. I had many people tell me that adding some red or green peppers boosted vitamin C and the chickens loved them.

Shed Light on the Subject

A hen needs 12-15 hours of light a day to provide the best production numbers in eggs. Installing a light can help keep the production even during winter, or on cool nights. Lights infused with red can prevent cannibalism and keep the coop soothed and calm.Most chickens lay their eggs by 10 am, so after egg collection it’s time for your hens to go out and get some fresh air and light.

Build a Proper Coop with These Tips

There is no one specific design that is best for a chicken coop. But there are a few basics to consider when making a coop.

Personal space

Allow 2-3 square feet of space per laying hen and it is easier to build out later on if your flock increases in size.

Flooring

Dirt is not a deterrent to predators as they can easily dig under the edges. Wood can rot and house parasites. Concrete is expensive and can crack over time. The most current materials used for chicken coop flooring are vinyl over plywood. Plywood also can be easily replaced as needed.

Roosts

Each hen should have at least 8 inches of roost space.  The most common way is to use a 2×4’ with the wider side facing upwards for the roosting bar. This protects those delicate feet in winter from biting cold and frostbite.

Make nest boxes a priority

A good way to make egg collecting easy is to use nesting boxes. A nesting box also protects the egg and helps keep it clean. One rule of thumb is to have one nesting box for every 3-4 birds, and install them about 2 feet off the floor. A layer of soft litter like wood shavings or hay can provide cushion for the egg while absorbing droppings.

Coop ventilation

Year round air ventilation is a must for a healthy coop. A good measure of thumb is 1/5th of your wall space should be vented. We used hardware cloth to cover the vents to keep off the little varmints and creepy crawlies. Be sure to use washers and screws to secure it down and check it regularly for any rips or holes.

Keep a Clean Coop

No matter what system you employ, the main thing is to provide a nice place to live, avoid overcrowding your chickens, and keep them in a clean and dry environment. A regular schedule of laying fresh litter in their houses and removing droppings will help the hens from tracking feces and dirt into nesting boxes and the eggs within. Hens flourish in hygienic conditions and it is advisable to have a quarantine period for any new stock before they are introduced into the flock.

Disinfection

There is a lot of controversy on this. Many swear by bleach, but I do not like it around my animals or eating stock. After some trial and error, I use vinegar to disinfect my chicken coop and lots of elbow grease. I like to disinfect at least every few months by cleaning out everything and then giving it a good hosing. A liberal spray down with vinegar is next and then time drying in the sunlight, which also helps kill bacteria. I soak any bowls or feeding dishes in it, then leave them to dry in the sun also.

If you have your chickens on a dirt floor, you may want to use hay over barn lime to keep things dry and hay is dust free, unlike straw. It does need to be changed every week, but it can be added to the compost.

For smaller flocks, use a tarp. You can lay it out and then cover it in hay. It is easy clean up, as when cleaning time rolls around just fold that sucker up and drag it to the compost pile. Disinfect with vinegar before adding more hay and rebedding.

Rodent Control 101

Rodents can be devastating to a coop and any community they move too. Unfortunately chicken coops are a magnet for mice and rats. The main timeframe is the harvest in fall. Its then that rats will try to invade as their main food supply source is depleted. Colonies of mice will spring up by buildings and they tend to stay inside.

The biggest indicator that you have a problem is droppings. A rat has 40 droppings daily versus a mouse’s 80! This contaminates feed and exposes you, your livestock and your flock to diseases which can include salmonellosis, toxoplasmosis, cryptosporidiosis, and brucellosis.

Rodents are also responsible for more than 25% of all farm fires classified as “unknown origin.” These nocturnal dwellers can easily be underestimated, and can wreak havoc on your flock. They are predators and will seek out chicks. Rat infestations can consume hundreds of chicks a day.

The best steps to take to eliminate a rodent infestation around your chickens can be summed up in these 5 methods.

Tidy the coop

Deter the vermin by taking away all places they could set up shelter. Brush, woodpiles, or scrap piles should be well away from your coop.

Lock the feed up tight

Metal trash cans or drums are the best at deterring the little disease carriers, make sure the lid locks tight.

Build a wall or barrier

A mouse can squeeze into openings the size of your little finger, so sheet metal is the best bet to line your coop. Make sure your doors are in good repair with no entry points.

Trapping the pests

Physically removing the rats and mice is the best remedy. Place traps around the perimeter. Colony traps that hold many mice at once may be a good option.

Rodenticides

A last resort of course, and rodents can become immune, so switching it up is needed. Keep it away from other livestock and only in extreme circumstances do I use this. But if it’s between my flock and the mice, I do what I have to.

Thoughts on Confinement Vs. Free Range

Confinement and free-range options for keeping your flock have their advantages and disadvantages. Birds that can free-range will have more room and more opportunity to fulfill their need to be “free” to forage and hunt. But risks are abundant with threats by disease and predators. Being able to identify and find eggs quickly, as well eliminate problems in a timely manner is a plus to being in an enclosed environment.

Access to the Outdoors can help provide variety in their diet as well as plenty of time to take sunbathing and dust bathing seriously. But to me it’s not worth the risk to have them outside and unprotected 24 hours a day so we use a chicken tractor in summer and poultry netting in spring.

What Is a Chicken Tractor?

A chicken tractor is an attachable mobile coop with a trailer hitch that can be moved around so the chickens can have fresh grass and foraging area. It helps spread their fertilizer around the fields as well as keep bugs down as they have fun “exploring” their new surroundings. A happy, healthy hen is your most productive hen.

Exercise

Hens with more belly fat are impeded when it comes to producing eggs, so basic exercise is a must for physiological and mental health. Letting them scratch for their food gives them an activity that boosts base metabolic rates and keeps them warm and limber in winter. Throwing the girls leftover veggie table scraps or fresh cut grass and weeds straight from the garden will keep them happy little ladies.

Cabbage heads (the ends) and older lettuce pieces are fun to peck and I use the compost provided as they turn their food into the dirt and manure for my melon and survival gardens. Other ways to boost compost value would be to add corn cobs, carrot greens, melon rinds, kale, corn silks, or any other veggie leavin’s you may have. My girls love the after dinner treats and are lined up at the chicken yard’s gate waiting for them every evening!

Give Them Things to Do

Nothing is as fun to watch or as sweet as observing hens taking a dirt bath. Chickens like being clean and dirt baths are a way to do this and they promote healthy feathers by whisking away oils, sweat and parasites. If you do not offer a dirt bath, most flock owners come to find their chickens in the flower garden or in the crops.

A few sources claim wood ash is good for a bath or diatomaceous earth, but I believe if I need a mask to be around it then it will get into my flock’s lungs also. I much prefer building my own dirt bath with a simple container that’s 24 x24” and at least a foot deep, or dig a hole and fill it. I use sand and dirt. This type of bath promotes sweet smelling ladies that are lice free, and it’s chemical free so you can’t beat that.

Stress Reduction

Stress is one of the top reasons why chickens stop egg production. A big stressor is also the cold on the body, as well as parasites irritating your chickens. Irritants such as pets, children, and loud music can affect production also. Chickens need a quiet, safe area to relax and claim as their own.

When bringing in new chickens, keep in mind that is a big stressor and production may stop for a few days to weeks as they adjust to their new surroundings. This is normal and soon they will pick back up where they left off when the transition is over.

Do you need a rooster to get your chicken to lay more eggs?

A rooster adds commotion and not much value to your flock unless you plan on raising hatchlings. For egg production, a rooster can make things worse. Plus half of your hatchlings will be roosters so be prepared to find new homes or cull the male chicks.

Culling for Optimum Production

Many people do not like the thought of culling their flock. For optimum production taking out the older laying hens and replacing them with young pullets not only keeps a chicken rotation going, but will release the need for the care of the older hens into retirement.

It is much more humane to find a loving home if you are attached. In situations where every resource has to not only produce, but be a functional part of a homesteaders life, it is better to butcher the older hens than let feed than can go to younger ones in their prime laying years be wasted on them. Soup stocks and frozen meat can last quite a while.

Final Thoughts

Life with chickens is a rewarding experience in any homesteader or food self-sufficient lifestylists program as there are so many ways chickens can help in a garden and around the homestead.

Integrating a chicken flock can benefit a homestead with a constant supply of nutritional eggs, quality compost, and meat when needed. Starting a flock is inexpensive and with just a few tips and tricks you can have those chickens laying more eggs and start to stockpile your bounty. In the old days, every yard had a few chickens pecking around as the eggs were a means of survival. Now it is becoming more and more popular to raise your chickens as the nutritional value and taste of fresh eggs are so much better than anything you can buy in a store.

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New Post has been published on myweightlossfun.com

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Mindful Eating:Choosing Foods That Promote Wellness

Some years ago, the term “mindful eating” was born as a tool to teach to eat with a full understanding of why we are doing it. This concept comes from the mindfulness described by Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. in molecular biology and founder of Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society (University of Massachusetts).

The theory aims to act with present-day, non-elaborative mindfulness, which every thought, feeling or sensation arising in the field of attention is recognized and accepted as it is.

Mindful eating generally does not concern itself with the foods you eat. Instead, it focuses more on how the foods make you feel. The approach is meant to make it less stressful for you so that you don’t feel like you’re starving or denying yourself too much.It’s like the rudder is in your hands and where you decide to travel is your choice. The goal is to make you want to eat better and feel better. Over time, your food choices are supposed to be more informed, and you will think before you eat.

This is a sensible approach. However, in most cases, women adopt mindful eating with a goal in mind. They’re either interested in losing weight, feeling healthier or remedying some health problem like high cholesterol, diabetes, etc.

These women wish to become healthy and may also have an exercise regimen that they follow. So, it would be prudent to mindfully choose foods that promote fitness and good health. In this article, we’ll look at food choices that you may wish to explore. The hard truth is that processed and unhealthy foods are addictive and even if you eat mindfully, the body will still crave these foods and you’ll continue consuming them.

The goal should always be to wean yourself off these poor food choices and only consume them occasionally. To do that, you’ll need to choose healthy foods now and then even if you’re eating mindfully.

Taking into account your food beliefs, eating habits, preferences and dislikes, you’ll need to analyze why you like certain foods and how you can replace them with healthier options. For example, if you like consuming a can of soda while watching TV, you may realize that it’s not the soda you like but the cold, sweet taste of liquid going down your throat. What if you replaced the soda with iced, freshly squeezed apple juice?

You would feel just as good. The natural sugars from the apple juice would be a good substitute for the soda which is just a mixture of chemicals, sugar and water. The same applies to any other food. When you eat mindfully, you’ll constantly be thinking about how you can improve your diet. Now let’s look at some of the best foods that you can eat to promote better health and fitness.

Choosing Foods Mindfully

* Fibrous vegetables

This is a good news, bad news situation. The bad news is that many women hate their veggies. The good news is that you can eat as much fibrous vegetables as you want without worries about gaining weight.

Fibrous vegetables will take up a lot of space in your stomach and make you feel full faster. When eating, it’s best to slowly chew and swallow all the veggies first. Your stomach will get full faster and you’ll be less likely to overeat the other foods. The end result is better digestion, less calories consumed and weight loss.

A few examples of fibrous vegetables are, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, beets, cucumbers, spinach, watercress, green beans, okra, asparagus, cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, collard greens, celery, turnips, bean sprouts, etc.

* Lean proteins

Replacing fatty meat with lean cuts of meat is another great way to improve your diet. The taste will mostly be the same so you won’t be giving up too much. Instead of eating hamburgers from junk food outlets, you’re better off eating a lean cut of beef.

You’ll feel satiated and the protein from the lean cut of meat is exactly what your body needs. Try and get lean cuts of any type of meat you consume. When eating chicken, remove the skin. Boiling, roasting and grilling are always better than frying.

Eggs are great for keeping you healthy and preventing hunger cravings. Many women who eat two eggs a day for breakfast often lose more weight and have more energy. The protein in the eggs is responsible for this.

Since eggs are tasty, you can eat them without worry but try not to eat more than three a day.Mindfully eating is not only about cultivating a healthy relationship with food but it’s also about choosing the right foods to make you feel better and look better. When you give your body the nutrients it needs, it will not constantly develop hunger pangs. Weight loss will also become much easier.

Many women struggle to lose weight because of food cravings. Their bodies are not getting the right nutrients and they’re addicted to sugar and other harmful ingredients. By slowly, replacing the foods with healthier alternatives, the cravings will subside.The excess weight will also melt off since it becomes easier to lose weight when there are less toxins in the body and fewer insulin spikes. So, do remember to make small changes for the better in your diet when you’re eating mindfully.

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