Briggs says that people from about a 50-mile radius brought their sorghum cane to Old Pinch in the mid 1940s to have it processed at a cost of 44 cents per gallon. Sorghum is pretty hardy and grows well in dry, hot areas.
This ancient grain has been a staple crop for centuries and is gaining revival on small farms across the country. Here are some of the ways you can put it to use on your farm. Simply peeling it with a carrot peeler can eliminate this problem if your juicer...
After a non-killing frost, do not allow animals to graze for two weeks because the plants usually contain high concentrations of toxic compounds. “Because prussic acid is a gas, the longer the gas has to dissipate out of the plant, the less dangerous...
You won't regret it.Photo credits go to DiOhio, TuttiFrutti and toxicodendron. Drain and then smother withbutter and salt to taste. Your best bet is to do a little recon in the summer.
In addition, sorghum sudangrass care is minimal, as seed needs little moisture to germinate and seedlings thrive in heat and low water regions.The biggest need for this versatile grass is at least 8 to 10 weeks of fine weather before harvest.
The company opened a store there in October 2007 and she's been visiting with the producers of some of her newer food finds. After all, we hunt the supermarket aisles, picking through every imaginable food from all points of the globe to find what we...
Don't run out of hay for your livestock this winter. Hay stored outdoors has about 20-percent wastage (i.e., a waste factor of 1.2); hay stored indoors has about 7 percent (or 1.07 WF).
Consult edible wild plants field guides for additional information. With some help from knowledgeable naturalists, I am learning to identify and appreciate the diversity of spring flowers that have been growing naturally for many centuries.
It's easy to get carried away. With the first glimpses of warm weather, many of us can get carried away and begin to wear summer clothes and eat lots of salads, but it's important to remember that we are in transition.
Many of our national parks are initiating restrictions and bans on the harvest of ramps, and that is a good thing. A surge of interest in ramps that rivals that of the foodie movement may arise if science confirms what the Native Americans knew all along:...
They grow in shady areas well before most everything else, which helps to identify them. How To Identify Bunches of tall, incised green leaves come up very early, typically in grass You'll likely recognize them immediately.
I was surprised that some were invasive species, such as Japanese honeysuckle ( Lonicera japonica ). I also participated in a Native American herb walk with Cindi Quay, of the Menominee Nation.
I've often thought mushroom identification is a skill I want to master, and after attending this workshop, I know that is an unattainable goal. Maybe we can learn best by spending more time in the woods with all the teachers there.
They regularly slow their farm equipment as they drive by to get a glimpse of all the “crazy” going on here at our farm. Several of my favorites stock quite a few weed seeds. In some cases, you will find them mixed in with the vegetables.
Brought by the Romans to the British Isles, by monks to northern Europe, by settlers to North America and Oceania and by gardeners to Japan, it now ranges across the temperate zone.
How to Spot It: Cinquefoil has five-toothed leaves in a hand-like shape and yellow flowers with five rounded petals. The tree itself isn't tall—about 40 feet—with a rounded crown.
How to Spot It: You will first start to notice chicory in early summer, when spindly, sparsely leaved stalks emerge from the ground topped with periwinkle, daisy-like flowers that open in the early parts of the day.
It's one thing to want to mimic indigenous crafts for the sake of function and beauty, but it can become so much richer and more rewarding to connect the craft to its environment and the people who developed it through lengthy and complex relationships.
It seems there are quite a few agrarian legends tangled up with some of the ideas. When I finally started to make progress one year, I went out during late winter to find that some of the neighborhood deer had eaten my cherry trees down to living matchsticks...
There are so many plants that are reputed to be aphrodisiacs. Choosing one or two is simple, but because many of the most popular “love plants” are tropical, we need to have special equipment—namely a greenhouse or a sunroom—to enjoy watching...
At the end of our week away, the friends who loaned us their cabin came to visit and offered my daughter and me an ATV ride through a nearby park. It was mentioned by herbalist Nicholas Culpeper in the mid 17th century as a topical remedy for both common...
I love them! There is no way I would be unable to identify a species of nettle—or so I thought. It is found in both wet and dry grounds and shade and open prairie. The most common guess was that I was trying to identify nettles .
Unfortunately for the hedge apple, it's believed that the animal in question was a type of sloth that died out before humans inhabited North America. Pomifera planted closely together and kept trimmed form a living hedge that is nearly escape-proof.
Queen Anne's Lace ( Daucus carota ) jeurey/Pixabay As a child, I was told the story of Queen Anne. It bloomed and was harvested on the Day of St. John (June 24), a day that celebrates the disciple of Jesus.
When we carefully pulled out the wild garlic bulbs individually, the tiny bulblets next to the main bulbs were left behind to grow for next year. The thin green stalks and white bulbs must smell like onions or garlic.
I've used wadded up newspaper and a sharp knife. I realized that I am not so far removed from that era. Karen Lanier Now, I wish I could say I have a lot of experience making prickly pear jelly or roasting up nopales (the pads), but I don't.
It has oval-shaped leaves about 1 inch wide. Here is a handful of my favorite winter herbs you can look for when foraging. The size will vary from about the size of a pea to the size of a marble depending on the rose type.
