I planted my first (personal) garden this year. (I grew up with a family garden). And I was a bit unsure how to proceed at the end of the growing season.

I just read the above listed article and it was very enlightening, a good, fun, easy read, and very helpful.

Thank you for posting it. And, if possible, please thank the author, Ms. Clay.

Many thanks!

Briana Rae

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Very well written/edited. Kudos to all and thanks a million.

Meryl Logue

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This message is coming from the red hills of western Oklahoma adjacent to the TX panhandle. We are subscribers. Came here to a rural area because of the stability of the economy, safety factor and low crime. Many many jobs in the oil field. Newspapers full of adds for truck drivers and other oil field workers every week. Excellent tax base and taxes are low. Property values are low. We bought 5 acres, a brick air conditioned home and shop building for $69,900 in 2004. Population density is about 3 people per square mile. We have a hospital, a pharmacy, a real home town bank, a dentist, two doctors, one bar, 3 eating establishments, lumber yard and a variety store. There are NO national franchise stores in the whole county. There is not a single stop light in the whole county. We have a national park. Deer, turky, quail and other small game plus a resident population of mountian lions are present. Kinda neat place this Roger Mills County OK.

We have been here 6 years. Our garden has an above ground watering system into each of the 16 garden plots. It extends into the orchard of 15 trees, two blackberry bushes and numerous grape vines on the fence. All of our garden plots can be watered via soaker hose setups except for the strawberries. We water the strawberries with a movable unit overhead.

Most of the fruit from the trees was blown off in many windy days. The orchard harvest will consist of only perhaps 30 or 40 apples.

The mantra is: grow a garden; raise some food; save some money; can the excess; be more food independent. The last two years we have put on some 400 bags of commercial steer manure on the garden. Believe me when I say our soils are sandy. The top layer is mostly blown in sandy material from the dirty thirties. Rely on my judgement as I am a retired Soil Conservation District Conservationist. I know my soils. Last winter we hauled in some 4000 lbs of composted and dried cow manure from a feed lot. All of this went on the garden also. Finally this spring the soils looked beautiful. Dark, earthy, loamy and fertile.

Our estimation of the situation was the summer was going to be a scorcher. We were correct. So we planted lots of potaotes for an early crop two weeks ahead of the recommended time. Our last freeze was weeks before the normal. We have had an excellent potatoe crop of Yukon and Pontiac Reds. But three weeks ago the grasshopper hoards stripped the leaves off of every plant. So we dug them, washed them lightly and they are in the tornado celler. We think we harvested 180lbs. Also planted 1400 onions. Began pulling them yesterday because the 100+ daily temperatures  and 20 to 35 mph winds just dried them out.

Our corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, beans, cabbage and okra are struggling for existence. We water twice a day. Even with a 70 ft long row of wooden palettes with discarded rugs nailed to them for a windbreak has not stopped the winds from wrecking havoc on our  arden. Usually the winds are from the SW but we are getting lots of west and north winds.

I have planted Okra 5 times and the young plants come up and die. They need to be watered every other hour to survice. I have saved 7 out of 50ft of rows.

The grasshoppers are numerous this year but many of the other insects we normally see are not here. Too dry. We are harvesting everything we can and abandoning the garden quickly.

Growing conditions are extreme. Local people in this area are having house water wells go dry for the first time in years and years. Cattlemen are jamming up the sales ring with cattle. No feed for them. Round bales are going for $125 each.

For anyone wanting to be independent and relying on a garden. This would be the starvation year for this area.

We are drier than the dirty thirties. Range fires are numerous.

At my home site we have had only 2.61 inches of rain since last December. Last week our yard thermometer read 119, 120 and 111 on three different days. Official temperatures from the weather bureau 40 miles away were 107 and 108. I think my thermometer was correct. Temperatures here have been excessive.

If, not when scarcity becomes the most important topic about grocery stores and Wally World you better have some stored food to start with. We do. Counting on the garden this year is not panning out. The only thing we are going to have it appears are the potatoes and onions.

The late summer crops of peppers, tomatoes, corn, Okra, beans are very much in doubt. Our corn is up to 6ft tall but I am not seeing any ears develop on it. The beans are slowly dying.

This is not a good year for a garden in this area. We have developed our soils and constructed a good watering system. However the trump card this year is the weather.

One more note: my two calibrated radiac meters from KI4U are recording a steady 0.3 rads/hour of radiation for the last 6 weeks. Normaly they only show a slight bump on the scale after zeroing. Hello Japan.

Have you read the ‘Weather Conspiracy’ published in 1972? It is a good read about why we are now having the weather patterns that are being expressed.

Have a good week end and enjoy our national holiday. we will fly our flag…..

Cordially,

Joe and Dar Cullen
Cheyenne, OK

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Your article really made me examine how we do things here on our hobby farm.  We have goats and have gone that way and I have always wanted to try out the family cow.

Thanks for the article.  It was nice to read and I am going to give it a try.  Wish me luck in finding the cow.

Kevin Gross

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We have a piece of land that has been vacant for about 10 years. People have been throwing their old tires there for years and we were perplexed on how to properly dispose of them and really wanted to recycle them. This is saving us hundreds of dollars and offering us some peace of mind in being environmentally sound and organic with our gardening.

Thank you!

Lindsey McClure

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Thank you for the articles on the Morels and Propagating Plants. The scope and details (including pictures) in these articles is exactly what was on my “to do” search list.

Please consider an article on how to find ginseng? Other people, who have since moved on, have had our permission to harvest morels and ginseng on our property. With full retirement around the corner, we are interested in both activities.

Again, thanks.

Alice Riffle
A subscriber for many years

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I must write to tell you how much I have enjoyed Jackie Clay’s books.

I just finished reading “Starting Over.” It is a wonderful read, very entertaining but also very educational. On every other page or so, I learned something new. She didn’t just write that some project was accomplished, she explained how it was done, in detail! I expected to enjoy reading about her life and how her homestead unfolded. I never expected to learn so much or be so encouraged by her words.

I also just finished reading the Self Reliance book “Recession Proof Your Pantry“. I thought I knew about all there was to know on the subject, and still learned more. The same with “Growing and Canning Your Own Food.”  I would recommend all of these books to anyone interested in homesteading and self reliance.

“Starting Over” should be required reading for any woman attempting to homestead (or farm) on her own.

Thank you to Backwoods Home and to Jackie Clay,

Mary Hartsock

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I have had a keiffer pear tree for a number of years, this year quite a large yield, but the fruit is always like a rock. Her article was very helpful regarding the use of the pear and what to expect from it.

Joanna
Skokie, IL

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I will never be insecure about making bacon again! IT was a lot easier than the mixes I have bought in the past and it tasted better!

To start with, I do not have any fresh sides of pork but I improvised. There was a sale on pork shoulder roasts and each one had a thick piece of fat on one side. So, I cut that off along with a little underlying meat and I used that.

I sliced it as thinly as I could and I mixed it with 1/2 cup of honey and 1/4  cup of salt. I then set the dish in the fridge for 2 days: in the article the gent marinated it for a week but I sliced mine first and he did not. I figured that slicing the meat would make the brine penetrate more quickly, and make it faster to smoke.

Then I soaked it for a bit, and it was ready to smoke.

I draped the strips inside of my backyard grill, started a fire in a metal bowl, dropped soaked twigs on top of the fire and closed the lid. I did this twice that afternoon and then I simple cooked the bacon in the usual way.

It was EXCELLENT! The fat part tasted like bacon with a touch of ham flavor, and the lean part tasted like ham with a bit of bacon flavor. It made for a very good dinner and my husband was impressed!

My only thought was that next time I would use more salt and less honey, as it was a bit sweeter than I prefer. It was a sweet as the maple sugar bacon found on the grocery store shelf, and that is too sweet for me also!

Terri

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I harvest them at the seaside this time of year in Maine (they grow prolifically here as elsewhere, and the idea that the ocean has enriched them with its energy is irresistible to me).  Curious onlookers always ask what I’m doing and what I plan to do with them.

After this I will refer them to this article if they are serious about learning to use them.

Thank you again,

C Anne

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