At the end of 2021, we had a beautiful garden full of tropical fruit trees, berry bushes, okra plants, ginger, hibiscus and tropical spinach. I was especially proud of my mango tree, which had grown considerably in a short time and my first potential bunch of bananas. My husband and I knew that in January … Continue reading What’s happening with our garden?
Category: Food
Food, you can’t live without it — at least not for long. We want to share what we are doing to grow our own food and what we do with it. You’ll find some of our favorite recipes here and other food-related posts.
Discovering Ingredient Applications Can Be A Challenge – A Balsamic Adventure
By Alex Todd This story begins with some treasured friends gifting a bottle of authentic Italian balsamic vinegar (or Aceto Balsamico de Modena, as they say) to me for Christmas. I thought at that time that I didn’t like balsamic vinegar, having never tried the real stuff. But I knew my wife loved it on … Continue reading Discovering Ingredient Applications Can Be A Challenge – A Balsamic Adventure
Book Review – Permaculture in a Nutshell
Book Review by Alex Todd - NetZero Homestead Permaculture in a Nutshell by Patrick Whitefield (copyright 1993) If I had to express my feelings about this book in as few words as possible, I’d have to say: Fantastically eye opening. From the get go you’ll see that the author has his own viewpoint on things. … Continue reading Book Review – Permaculture in a Nutshell
2021 Update – our final animal addition – Chickens!
When we got our ducklings, we had the mistaken idea that as soon as they were fully grown, we would start getting eggs. Not true! Even after they were fully grown, we had to wait another two months before they started laying. Our second poultry addition came to us by chance. We were visiting with … Continue reading 2021 Update – our final animal addition – Chickens!
2021 Update – Part 3 – Lots of Ducks!
Next, fowl adventures or possibly, the tale of our first of two poultry additions to our homestead. That’s right, we were after some laying and meat birds at this point so again I did some research. After a lot of reading about different kinds of ducks, I decided on the Silver Appleyard as our breed … Continue reading 2021 Update – Part 3 – Lots of Ducks!
2021 Update – Part 2 – Goats!
Next, we added goats. The breeder who sold us the pigs said he’d have Kiko does for sale in January, but these are meat goats. We really wanted dairy breeds. I had met a local farmer some years earlier who had dairy goats, so I reached out to her again to see if she had … Continue reading 2021 Update – Part 2 – Goats!
Sprouts, Floods and Squirrels – Oh, my!
When we finally finished moving into our new house, one of our first objectives was to start growing food. Florida’s summers are so hot that most people grow typical summer crops like greens, broccoli, spinach and cabbage in the winter. Our location in central Florida only gets one or two nights of freezing weather each … Continue reading Sprouts, Floods and Squirrels – Oh, my!
Our first holiday in the new house!
A lot has happened in the six months since we moved into our house back in October – November of 2020! It took until the end of the year to finish moving everything and get our house set up for the holidays, but we had a good Thanksgiving with friends and an equally pleasant Christmas … Continue reading Our first holiday in the new house!
Fruit Trees as a Survival Strategy – Abbas Zawawi
Peaches are fun to grow. Mulberries taste like sunshine and morning dew dipped in honey. But bananas are prolific. Nothing out-produces bananas, and you can pack them into a small space, which is great for a front yard. Give them lots of sun and water, and they will give you an abundant harvest throughout the … Continue reading Fruit Trees as a Survival Strategy – Abbas Zawawi
Banana Overload and Ways To Handle
My friend, Abbas, has a banana grove in his front yard which is very productive. Last fall, he had a huge number of bananas. In a stroke of genius, he decided to have a spur-of-the-moment Banana Sundae Party for some friends and make the ice cream from bananas also. With eight people eating up frozen … Continue reading Banana Overload and Ways To Handle