Bachelor’s Buttons (cornflowers) are easy to grow edible flowers that attract pollinators and birds to your garden. Learn how to start these charming garden favorites from seed, plus how to harvest, dry, and use the pretty flower petals. Bachelor’s Button in Your Garden Hardy, drought-tolerant, and refreshingly unfussy, Bachelor’s Button (Centaurea cyanus) is a tall…
Learn how to grow, harvest, dry, and use calendula – an herbal flower that’s easy to grow in your garden and has tons of useful benefits! Calendula’s nickname is pot marigold, but it’s important to note that calendula (Calendula officinalis) is not the same plant as common garden marigolds (Tagetes spp). Check out our article:…
Dragon tongue wax beans, sometimes called Dragon’s tongue beans, are large, deliciously tender, stringless, and flavorful! Able to get up to 7″ long without getting all tough and leathery, these beans have dramatic purple striping on yellow pods that stands out among the greenery. This is a bean that’s hard to miss, come harvest-time! This…
Learn how to grow and enjoy Chinese Red Noodle Beans, a variety of yard long bean that produces plentifully and performs well in hot weather! Let them get a bit unruly and overgrown though, and you might just find yourself having a fright- the overgrown beans that grow close to the ground can sometimes look…
Learn how to grow your own peanuts at home – it’s fun and easy! This guide covers the basics of growing peanuts from start to finish: preparing the soil, planting, caring for, harvesting, and curing. About Peanuts Peanuts! Lovely, lovely peanuts. Where would we be without peanut butter, or peanut brittle, or all those other…
After you’ve grown your own peanuts, try turning them into homemade peanut butter! Our version is naturally sweetened with a touch of maple syrup, with a pinch of sea salt added for flavor. Don’t have homegrown peanuts? No problem – you can make this recipe with store-bought too. Preparing Homegrown Peanuts Start by shelling your…
Growing pansies and violas from seed isn’t difficult to do and will reward you with masses of uniquely colored flowers to enjoy! Pansies and violas, the sweet little darlings of the garden! These small, cold-hardy flowers are always met with delight when they first show up in garden centers in early spring, all bright blooms…
Learn why currant tomatoes are an excellent addition to your garden and how to grow them! We’ll also focus on two varieties of currant tomatoes- Gold Rush Currant and Sweet Pea Currant. Both tomatoes are grown and cared for in the same way. About Currant Tomatoes These bright, pea-sized heirloom delights look similar to currants…
Learn how to harvest and use Usnea, a gray-green forest lichen with medicinal benefits! Also includes recipes for usnea tincture, infused oil, salve, and wound powder. Usnea (Usnea spp), is also called beard lichen, lungs of the forest, or old man’s beard. It’s considered a cooling, drying herb and is valued for its powerful action…
Learn how to choose the perfect pumpkin for pie-making, plus how to make, store, and freeze pumpkin puree! Choosing a pumpkin No matter if you’re buying a pumpkin or growing it yourself, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got the right kind before you turn it into pie! The sort of pumpkin you’d pick out…
Learn how to grow Antler Reishi (Ganoderma lucidum sensu lato) using an indoor grow kit. It’s a super easy way to produce your own medicinal mushrooms at home! While we selectively forage wild reishi mushrooms from our land, and also grow them on inoculated buried logs down near our creek, we can’t resist buying indoor…
Learn how to identify and harvest reishi mushrooms, plus how to dry and use for tea and tincture. Reishi’s distinctive look makes them friendly for the beginner mushroom hunter! There are multiple species of reishi worldwide – all are thought to have some forms of medicinal properties and none have poisonous lookalikes. Here at our…