Seed Spacing in the Home Garden

Forget everything you think you know about seed spacing. In the home garden we can easily double or triple our yields by giving up on planting our garden according to the guides on the back of our seed packets. Those guides are great for certain applications. But let's be clear, that isn't in the home garden. That's because those seed spacing guides are designed for large scale farming where seeds are planted in perfect rows because it makes mechanical harvesting easier. Row spacing is dictated so that specialized tractors can span several rows and their large tires can fit neatly between rows. In the home garden, we aren't using specialized equipment to harvest, so why are we even planting in rows? Take a look at how much we can gain with our carrots, spinach, onions, and cabbage when we give up planting in rows:

If we plant in rows, using traditional spacing, yields of these common vegetables is relatively low in a 4'x4' bed. At this level of production, it's no wonder so many home gardener's say it's not worth it. However, if we discard planting in neat rows a foot apart, we can produce as much as 3 times the yield in the same space! And since we're working in a 4 foot raised bed, we don't need rows to walk (or run equipment) through; we can reach those plants in the center perfectly well.

Lets also not forget, we can plant even more if we intend to harvest some young plants. Onions and spinach in particular can be planted at twice the rate shown above, and harvest every other plant for eating when young, allowing those left to grow to maturity.

Notice on the left the already more than tripled production when we stop planting in rows, but we don't need to stop there. Because young onions and spinach are so much smaller than mature plants, they can be planted with only half the distance between plants. Then, as they mature we can selectively harvest as shown by the outlines in the right picture to allow those remaining plants enough space to grow to maturity.

The effect of this type of planting is two fold. First, it allows us to have twice as many plants in the same amount of space, effectively doubling our harvest. Second, because the plants are spaced much closer when small they will quickly shadow any weeds that might try to grow between plants preventing them from taking root thus decreasing the need for weeding.

So many home gardeners find themselves plagued with low yields and heavy weeding. That's because the traditional methods of planting seeds aren't designed for the home garden. When we rethink how we plant and harvest our garden we can double, or even more than triple the harvest without a need for increased garden beds. And in the case of spinach and onions, we can reap more than 5x the produce by interspersing our baby spinach and green onions with those plants we intend to allow to grow to maturity. And we can do all this while decreasing the time invested weeding our beds. It doesn't get any better than that!

Let's get planting!

Nicole

Surviving School Snacks

My middle daughter started Kindergarten this fall, and it was requested that she bring a small snack in each day.  Sounds easy enough, right?  I mean, she had a small afternoon snack at home every day, so sending one in should be no problem. 

Yea...  I found out pretty quickly how easy it is to fall into the trap of sending high calorie, low nutrition snacks based on either carbs and salt, or sugar.  These snacks are so easy, because it's what they sell individually packaged in every grocery store.

Determined to find a better alternative, I've come up with some great options.  For starters, don't ditch those store bought snacks all together - there's a reason they're so popular - because kids love them!  This is especially important for picky eaters.  We want our kids to eat healthy snacks, but what good does it do them to send the most nutritious snack with them if it ends up in the trash?  If your child will only eat applesauce and cheese crackers, make sure you're getting no sugar added applesauce, and try cheese crackers with peanut butter for a bit of protein.

Here's how we've managed to survive school snacks:


1. Invest in a small insulated cooler pack, and reusable ice pack - like the kind used for baby bottles.  Keep it small to reduce the bulk in their backpack.  Having the availability to keep food chilled until snack time means you can pack things like yogurt, cottage cheese, sliced fruit and veggies, or cheese
2. Those prepackaged little portions are so unbelievably expensive, and while buying in bulk and using zip top snack size bags might seem like a perfect solution - we found that most foods you'd want to put in them ended up crushed and undesirable.  We invested in reusable cups with lids (that were like $2 for a 6 pack) and it's allowed me to save money by buying large quantities of foods like crackers, nuts, berries, chips, and even breakfast cereal and divide them up. 


3. Don't be afraid to send veggies.  Baby carrots, celery, cucumber sticks, bell pepper slices, and grape tomatoes all hold up well during transport.  If your child really needs ranch, you can squirt some in the bottom of your Tupperware, then put your veggie sticks in and close it up.  But skip the ranch if you can get away with it.

4. This may seem silly, but talk to your child about snacks. Thanks in part to changing dietary standards in schools, your child will likely spend a little bit of time talking about healthy eating in school.  Use this to your advantage by asking her what healthy snacks are her favorites, what healthy snacks other children are taking, and what unhealthy snacks children are taking and why she shouldn't have them every day.


6. Set up a "snack station" and let your child choose each day.  Have lots of options ready to go so you're not scrambling every morning, and just let your child choose one of the healthy options you've already prepared for them. This might be the single most important key to healthy snacks for us.  My daughter loves dried fruit and nuts and will choose this every time over generic fruit snacks or cheese crackers, but if the chips or crackers are already packaged and the nuts and fruit are not - guess which one I'll put in her bag... If the healthy choices are ready to go, then they DO go!

5. Don't look on Pinterest.  Just don't. 

I think, above all, I learned that I have to pack what I know my child will eat, and how much my child will eat.  I can pack all the gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free, corn-free, oven-baked barley biscuits I want - but it doesn't make me a better mother if my child is just throwing them in the trash and going hungry...

~Nicole

That Last Bit Of Jam

You ever have some jam or preserves so good you're scraping the sides of the jar just to get that last little bit?  I have.  And I've spent 5 minutes just trying to get that last little nibble, then felt heartbroken when I had to throw it in the trash without scraping it perfectly clean.  If you ever find yourself in this predicament again, let me introduce to you the Sundae in a Jam Jar:

I realize this isn't exactly an earth shattering revelation... But it was awesome.  Just take those last bits of jam, a scoop of ice cream, and a dollop of fresh whipped cream, and you no longer need to feel bad about wasting those last bits of preserves.  Why did it take me until 30 to learn this lesson?  All those years of jam wasted...

2 Ingredient, Microwave Fudge

Yes, this delicious fudge is made in the microwave with only two ingredients!

Okay, so I have to give props to my mom for this recipe.  I was visiting a little while back and she made this microwave fudge that was so delicious I just had to ask for the recipe.  And she promptly laughed at me.  That's because the recipe said "heat tub of frosting and bag of morsels in microwave safe bowl."  Yep:



Yes, you mix these two ingredients together in a microwave safe bowl, nuke for a minute or so, mix, nuke, mix, continue until smooth.  Then you pour them into a pan to cool.  To make things easier you can grease the pan, or better yet, line it with parchment paper.  Let it cool in the fridge until it's nice and firm (a few hours), then serve it up!

And the absolute best part?  You can pretty much use any flavor tub of frosting and any flavor morsels!

For a traditional fudge flavor use chocolate frosting and milk chocolate morsels.  For a super dark chocolate fudge you can try dark chocolate frosting and dark chocolate morsels.  You can also experiment with white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, etc.

I'm going to try using Ande's mints instead of morsels!  Or maybe make a vanilla fudge and crumble some Oreo's in there.  Oh, this is dangerous.

Happy Fudge Making,
Nicole

Ultimate Taco Seasoning

We love Love LOVE tacos in my house, but the taco seasoning you buy in packets in the grocery store is so darn expensive in the long haul, and is full of extra ingredients like corn flour and colorants.  This is why I've developed my own recipe!

There's ton's of recipes out there, and they're all different, coming in different portion sizes, with different ingredients, and different spice ratios.  I've tried to use and compare as many mixes as I could before deciding what worked best for me.  Plus, I've come up with a recipe for both a bulk and individual size!  How nice of me :-D

So, without further ado, I've included teaspoon measurements if you'd like to halve the recipe:

bulk recipe taco seasoning:

1/3 C. (16 tsp.) Chili Powder

 1/4 C. (12 tsp.) Paprika

3.5 T. (10 tsp.) Cumin

3 T. (9 tsp.) Onion Powder

 2 T. (6 tsp.) Garlic Powder

2T (6 tsp.) dried oregano

2T (6 tsp.) dried cilantro

1T (3 tsp.) Salt

Use 2 T. per 1lb. ground beef, plus or minus to taste, plus 1/2 cup water.  Simmer 3-4 minutes to distribute flavors.

Mix all ingredients thoroughly and store in your preferred, air-tight method.  My favorite storage right now is mason jars with shaker lids scavenged from old Parmesan bottles!  And maybe someday I'll even get around to giving them pretty labels.  But for now, white stickers and black sharpie will just have to do:

Also, I've tried smoked salt and/or smoked paprika and both are delicious!  I especially like these flavors on chicken and pork tacos.  You could also add crushed red pepper or cayenne pepper for a spicier variety.  Just start with small amounts, you can always add more if necessary. 

For a single serving, this isn't exactly the same spice ratio, but it's darn close!

single serve taco seasoning:

1.5 tsp. chili powder

1.25 tsp. paprika

1 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. onion powder

.5 tsp garlic powder

.5 tsp oregano

.5 tsp cilantro

.25 tsp. salt

mix all ingredients in small bowl and sprinkle over 1 lb. ground beef, adding 1/2 cup water.  Simmer 3-4 minutes and enjoy.

 Enjoy!
~Nicole