Yes! I have heard that certain cover crops are really good for nitrogen fixing and for keeping the beds from eroding, etc. I just purchased a 4lb bag of buckwheat that I am going to try the same thing on my resting side of the garden. I was actually thinking of throwing it IN the wood chips, not sure how successful that will be, but I guess I will find out. Good idea on wood chips for pathways-the traffic can make it a muddy mess, otherwise. Good luck with yours, let us know how it works for you! Thanks for sharing!

@JoyfulHomestead77 i will be uploading videos of the progress

With scraps from your kitchen, it is always good to have a compost bin or a vermicomposting (earthworm) bin for that stuff. Very little of it will do its best work if put directly on your soil, but will be great if broken down over time, THEN put on your garden. I think kitchen composting is an awesome idea, but it certainly takes some planning and foresight to do it correctly. We are fortunate because our kitchen scraps go to the chickens, then the chicken manure is mixed in with our wood chips- so we have a "middleman" to make quick work of it!

@@JoyfulHomestead77Briilant!

Yes we are super excited that we are able to network with a local tree service! They get the benefit of a shorter trip and a FREE drop of chips as opposed to the landfill, and I get the benefit of FREE compost on a gigantic scale! I always recommend that gardeners try to allow some "fallow" time (2-6 months) each year for their gardening spaces, and wood chips helps that rest time become really productive....

This information should be very helpful to you subscribers.

Glad you were able to navigate it. Technology can be tricky-we are still learning things about this (editing/commenting/etc.) all the time!

Glad you enjoyed!

Yes, kind of like the bone meal that you can buy in the store for the same purpose!

You too!

Of course!

Thanks for sharing!

Our experience with plants that aren't quite as cold hardy as, say, kale, is that if left to thaw out on their own in the sun, the leaves tend to get mushy and die off. Lettuces are a good example of leaf vegetables that will lose their leaf turgor and the affected leaves will become inedible. You may not lose the plant, but you might lose a lot of growth....

Thanks! If you want more content like this, we would love to have you stop by more often!!!

To clarify, I have never had a jar not SEAL after taking out of the canner. Yes, I have had some break IN the canner. If you have some sort of a rack or plate, that would be excellent, but because we use our regular stock pot, there is nothing we have found yet to act as that barrier. It is probably a better practice, and we do have one for our pressure canner (larger bottom circumference, so we can't use that for our stock pot). Good question!!! It's not necessary to put a lid on the pot. The only reason I might consider a lid would be to keep the water (steam) from escaping and causing the water level not to cover the jars completely. However, in only 15 minutes of cook time, that really does not have a chance to be an issue.

Oh right, sorry!

That makes sense about the water level.

Thank you so much! Yes, we are new to this and still working out the occasional glitches. We appreciate the feedback from an experienced hand at this! Blessings to you from across the sea!!!

Hello friend! This is Heidi. I do the editing, and I'm sorry to say that there was a transfer issue with the music when uploading the finished video to KZbin, so the louder volume of the music was definitely not intended. But thanks so much for writing, and we hope to chat with you more in the future! :)

@JoyfulHomestead77 hiya lovely Editing can be a painful process 🤣 I've watched a few more of your videos and unfortunately the music is definitely a issue in all I've watched to be honest I wouldn't add any and make life easier for yourselves but that's just my personal opinion take care Xx

Hi Cyndi-We appreciate you watching our channel! If you are willing, could you give us a little detail on why it appears you didn't like this content? We are trying to build a community here and love getting comments. It makes everyone better. Even if some reactions are not what we would have hoped, we really want to discuss all kinds of ideas even if someone disagrees. That said, hope to see you back soon and hear from you again!

It's not, really. We admit that we were anxious the first time, then it became very common. The next step after pressure canning veggies it to try meats! That is a whole new level of trust, because we are all so used to our meats being frozen and refrigerated....so to just have your meat sitting preserved on a shelf is kind of weird.

Thanks! Giving you some education to keep your mind stimulated while you have some down time.... ;)

For immunity maintenance in a "healthy" adult, 1 tablespoon is sufficient. If you feel you are getting sick or are sick, 1 tablespoon every 4-6 hours will be required until symptoms subside. Young children would be 1/2 those numbers.

Thank you so much, Laurie!!! We really appreciate your encouragement!

Yes, garlic will sometimes sprout because the conditions are right. If left long enough, healthy bulbs will even sprout in your fridge! I actually had this early sprouting happen to me last fall (and I was a bit anxious as well!), but the crop ended up just fine. If you do get some growth, feel free to add a little additional insulating mulch and compost around the sprouts just before you start getting the really cold weather (consistently at or below freezing during the daytime). One way to "prevent" early growth would be to plant a bit later, but if your weather does not tend to get BITTERLY cold at any point, that really isn't necessary-the shoots will overwinter just fine with a little TLC!

Thank you!

To answer your question, I will go back to the garden. If covered (not exposed to ANY sunlight) and the ground is not too moist, sweet potatoes can stay "fresh" in the garden soil for weeks and even a couple of months after the aerial parts die off. And that would typically be after the first freezes have occurred. So, I will say yes, if kept out of strong light and kept dry, freezing temps shouldn't bother your cold storage tub. HOWEVER, there are limits to everything, so deep frozen ground or long freeze spells (like storing in your freezer bin) will affect the taste and feel. Another point- our homestead attic gets pretty cold in the winter, since it is not an insulated space, but I don't know if it gets to freezing. It would be similar to a garage, an outbuilding/shed, or any sort of "3 season" space, I would imagine. I believe that you could put your cold storage tub in spaces like that with no issues. Especially in southern climates. I would think the sand would help a great deal to "insulate", so it would be a neat experiment to test this.

I was actually thinking of my uninsulated garage, so that helps. Thanks!

We are so glad you are a loyal member of the community! We hope to learn lots more together in the future!

They are our buddies! We hope to feature some of our other critters in future episodes!

That is awesome!

Glad it was helpful!

Thank you! 👍

Yep, that is the classic example!

Thanks! We like to show our personalities a little bit....otherwise, where is the joy, right?!

You bet!

Awesome!

I know there are a lot of varieties of rosemary, and some of them have more "succulent" (fleshy) stems. Those might be a little more difficult to foster in this way, but if you have one of those varieties, give it a try! The beauty of this is that it really costs you nothing to try it out in all sorts of conditions with all sorts of plants! As far as tomatoes, yes, they will grow roots from the stems. In fact,one good way to strengthen your tomatoes is to bury the stem a soon as the plant starts getting "leggy", leaving just the top and leave exposed. That stem will "anchor" with new/additional roots and make your tomato plant explode!!! Not sure about tip layering, as the plant is fleshy and bruises easily, but it would be a fun experiment to see if you can get it to the "isolation" stage where you snip it from the mama plant. By the way-welcome to the channel!!!!

Great question! Well, our newest "plan" is to put a small container of moth balls at a couple of strategic points along the fence near the tree. I (Dan) just cut the bottom off of a gallon milk jug and attached it to the top of our wooden fence post. About 10 or so moth balls in each container *seems* to have warded off the little critters to this point, at least! The deer, on the other hand, don't seem to be deterred by moth balls, so they get the bailing twine and pie plate strategy! :)

Thank you! And yes, it's a special thing to see!

😄

Yes, there is medicinal value in both the flowers and leaves. As Heidi mentioned in the video, the only caveat is for those who have latex allergies. You don't HAVE to include the leaves, as the flowers themselves make a really satisfying cup.

It is literally everywhere! If you have a park or greenway near you, that might be a good start.

Thank you so much!

There are some cider makers that use whole apple chunks in their cider. Unfortunately, those chunks will just add to the cider process and not become anything different. In addition, the "pulp" of your apple cider processing becomes a bit funky-not sure you would want to eat that! If you want to process apples differently, I would suggest brined apples or trying some lacto-fermentation.

The brand is Delove. Not sure how we acquired it, but I am betting you could find it on Amazon! Probably about $20.

Oh, and yes, it is SO handy for anytime that we are putting anything in jars!!!

Glad it was helpful!

We have made the decision to use lower end knives, but to keep them well sharpened. The downside of that is that the low-end knives need replaced more often, while a really high-end knife set will last years longer and maybe hold their edges better. Dan is a bit of a nerd when it comes to sharpening the kitchen knives. He even taught a session on knife sharpening using descending grits of sandpaper in our homestead group last year! The brand you see in most of our videos is just something we picked up at IKEA. We like the feel of them in our hands. Nothing more magical than that.

Yes you can! However, keep in mind that anything you put on your fruit and veggies might clean it well, but can leave a bit of a residual taste....I think tea tree oil tastes nasty!

It's a very old spice box that I found at an antiques shop in Blowing Rock. I love the look of it!

@@JoyfulHomestead77 I do too!

Thank you so much! It's definitely a passion of mine! :)

😊 thank you