Gardening
35 articles in this category (Including both blog posts and archived content)
Books Cooking
Preparedness items at local Sam's Clubs
Preparedness items at local Sam's Clubs
Ekim
1 min read 
Family Preparedness Food
Backyard Chickens
<img alt="" src="http://www.motherearthnews.com/uploadedImages/Blogs/The_Happy_Homesteader/GardenEggs1.jpg?n=7491" title="Backyard Chickens" class="alignright" width="500" height="350" />Over the past year, I have noticed an increased interest in raising chickens arising all over the nation. Locally, <a href="http://www.ksl.com" title="KSL">KSL</a> has published several articles recently about this phenomenon (see below) as has the <a href="http://online.wsj.com" title="Wall Street Journal">Wall Street Journal</a> (also below) and most prepper blogs. My family started keeping backyard chickens about four years ago and have had some good success. In this article we’ll summarize some of the benefits to raising chickens, what you’ll need to get started and some links to resources to help you out once you’ve got your flock.
Ekim
8 min read 
Books Gardening
Review: The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599555107/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&tag=prepper-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1599555107"><img src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=1599555107&MarketPlace=US&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&tag=prepper-20&ServiceVersion=20070822" alt="" align="right" border="0" /></a><img style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=1599555107&camp=217145&creative=399373" alt="" width="1" height="1" align="right" border="0" />Walking along the book aisle in Costco the other day, I came to a rather sudden stop as a specific books caught my eye. With a name like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1599555107/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=prepper-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1599555107">The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers</a><img style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=&l=as2&o=1&a=1599555107&camp=217145&creative=399373" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" />, can you blame me? This was obviously a book stocked for a local audience, so I hope our non-Utah readers can find a copy. Author <a title="Caleb Warnock's blog" href="http://calebwarnock.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Caleb Warnock</a> is a local (Alpine, Utah) writer, year-round gardener, and teacher of "Forgotten Skills" classes. It also helped when I noticed one of the people listed in the special thanks section is a friend of mine, and <a title="Eric James Stone" href="http://www.ericjamesstone.com/" target="_blank">local sci-fi author</a> (how's that for a tight-knit Utah Valley).
Jayce
5 min read 
Food Gardening
Food Production Systems DVD Giveaway Winner Announcement
<a href="/images/uploads/2011/06/backyardfoodproduction.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-3793" title="DVD we are giving away!" src="/images/uploads/2011/06/backyardfoodproduction.jpg" alt="" width="245" height="226" /></a>We recently posted a review of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0578046725/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=prepper-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217153&creative=399701&creativeASIN=0578046725">Food Production Systems For a Backyard or Small Farm </a> DVD (see it <a href="http://www.utahpreppers.com/2011/06/food-production-systems-dvd-review-and-giveaway/">here</a>. As part of the review we were proud to offer a free DVD to one of our readers who commented on the review. Friday night I used <a href="http://www.random.org/">Random.org</a> to randomly select a winner from the 40 eligible (Sorry <a href="http://www.utahpreppers.com/author/jayce/">Jayce</a> and <a href="http://www.utahpreppers.com/author/cboyack/">Connor</a>) entries.
Ekim
1 min read Family Preparedness Food
Food Production Systems DVD Review and Giveaway
Food Production Systems DVD Review and Giveaway
Ekim
8 min read 
Books Gardening
Upcoming Giveaway!
<img class="alignright" title="Backyard Food Production DVD" src="http://backyardfoodproduction.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/general_page_thumbs/FPS_DVD_w_discs_out_noBCKGRND_smallest.jpg" alt="" width="280" height="253" /><br /> Next week we'll be posting a review of the <a href="http://backyardfoodproduction.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/general_page_thumbs/FPS_DVD_w_discs_out_noBCKGRND_smallest.jpg">Backyard Food Production DVD</a>. The producers of the DVD have been kind enough to send us a copy of the DVD to reward one of our lucky readers.
Ekim
1 min read 
Gardening Reviews
Book Review: What's Wrong With My Plant?
<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-3507" title="whats-wrong-with-my-plant" src="/images/uploads/2011/02/whats-wrong-with-my-plant.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="304" />The other day I picked up a new gardening book from the hardware store. Its cover wasn't cluttered with photographs like so many other gardening and home improvement books; in fact, the only photo on the cover was of an obviously-distressed leaf. The rest of the cover was largely devoted to the full title of the book: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0881929611?ie=UTF8&tag=prepper-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0881929611">What's Wrong With My Plant? (And How Do I Fix It?): A Visual Guide to Easy Diagnosis and Organic Remedies</a>, by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth. This was actually the first thing that caught my eye. I don't like when books try to glam themselves up in an attempt to conceal the vapid content inside. This book looked like it was ready to get down to business, and so I picked it up and started leafing through it. It didn't take me long to decide to buy it.<!--more-->
TechHat
4 min read 
Events Gardening
Bee Keeping Classes in Utah County, Early 2011
Bee Keeping Classes in Utah County, Early 2011
Ekim
2 min read 
Gardening Recipe
Super Easy Currant Jelly
Our currant bushes finally put on enough currants this year that the kids couldn't keep up with eating them all, so we had currants left to make some currant jelly.
Angela
4 min read Announcement Equipment
Beginning Bee Kepping Class in Utah County April 17th
Beginning Bee Kepping Class in Utah County April 17th
Ekim
2 min read 
Books Gardening
Book Review: All New Square Foot Gardening
Reviewing the square foot gardening book from a new gardener.
TechHat
5 min read 
Food Gardening
Growing and Harvesting Dry Beans
One of my garden experiments this year was growing dry beans. Most of the "survival seed" packs have a variety of beans in them. I had five different kinds of dry bean seeds in addition to my usual favorite green bean varieties, so had plenty of beans growing in the garden this year. The dry bean varieties I planted were Calypso, Jacob's Gold Cattle Bean, Jacob's Cattle Bean, Black Valentine, and Mayflower. I also planted Blue Lake Bush Beans and Royalty Purple Pod Beans just for eating.<!--more-->
Angela
7 min read 
Food Food Storage
Dehydrating Peppers
Harvest season is upon us here in Utah, so I've been pretty busy preserving the harvest. This year I grew pepper plants from seed and have LOTS of peppers in my garden. Some are hot and some are mild. This is a good thing if you like peppers a lot, but I do not. Thankfully my husband does, but even a pepper lover like him can only eat so many peppers. So what do we do with all those peppers? We eat a few, put a few in salsa, and save the rest for later by dehydrating them.
Angela
3 min read 
Equipment Food Storage
Freezing broccoli and cauliflower
Freezing broccoli and cauliflower
Wade
4 min read 
Gardening How To
An attempt to build a rotating compost bin
An attempt to build a rotating compost bin
Wade
3 min read 
Family Preparedness Gardening
As my Garden Grows - So do my weeds!
My new garden is nearly a quarter acre, I had forgotten just how many weeds show up in a brand new garden!
Phil
7 min read 
Gardening
Gardening in Beds
I'm a relatively new bed gardener (just got ours built last year), but have already found that there are many benefits to laying out a garden in beds rather than rows.
Angela
3 min read 
Gardening TEOTWAWKI Survival
Survival Seeds in a Can-9 Years Later
Survival Seeds in a Can-9 Years Later
Angela
5 min read 
Family Preparedness Food Storage
Skills as a prep
A few weeks ago a guest author on a popular preparation blog discussed the value of gardening as a resource. He put forth the opinion that while he enjoys gardening as a pastime, the decision as to whether to engage in it should be based solely around time and cost. Citing the inability to move a garden in an emergency and the amount of labor required to get to harvest, he concluded that it is better to save your seeds for a bug-out and expend today's efforts and money on a trip to the grocery store. "It's all about time," he says, "not a skill or desire."
Wade
4 min read Events Food Storage
Self Reliance Class April 7th in Spanish Fork
Taught by Debbie Kent who is a preparedness/food storage specialist in her stake in California. Debbie has taught numerous classes on every aspect of preparedness and has consented to share the latest up to date methods and ideas on how we can each secure what we need for the future.
Ekim
1 min read 
Gardening
Gardening resources (local and mail-order)
Gardening in Utah can be a wonderfully enjoyable and productive experience. Knowing how to get started however can be a major deterrent for many people. Fortunately, there are a number of local resources we can rely upon in order to help us to get started on the path to productive, self-sufficient gardening.
Wade
3 min read 
Food Storage Gardening
Adding to your long term supply using dehydration
Adding to your long term supply using dehydration
Ekim
1 min read Events Gardening
Home Gardening Course in North Mapleton
Home Gardening Course in North Mapleton
Ekim
1 min read 
Gardening
Gardening: Getting Ready for the Season
<img class="alignright size-full wp-image-927" title="pottingsoil" src="/images/uploads/2009/01/pottingsoil.jpg" alt="pottingsoil" width="200" height="314" />All the authors on this site are avid gardeners and like any gathering of gardeners, we all have different approaches, best practices and preferences. This planting season will be the first one that we've had this site running so you can expect a lot of posts from us on our gardens! Each of us will be writing posts showing you how we grow our gardens and we'll hopefully have some great guest author posts as well.
Phil
6 min read 
Gardening How To
Prepping for Prepping
Prepping - it's an endless activity that has few rewards, and those rewards often are not close in payout to the amount of time and effort that went into them. The interim rewards in prepping include not having to run to the store constantly to keep your food stocked. When you're a Prepper your grocery store is in your own house, going to an actual store is akin to going to a warehouse to get resupplied. The other reward is great personal satisfaction and comfort in knowing that you are ready for anything - well, almost ready - there's ALWAYS something else that can be done. The big payoff rarely comes for a Prepper - and that is when things get bad enough that you're able to make it through it solely because you were prepped. This lifestyle, with it's small rewards and rare big payoff, can be tiring - even overwhelming at times.
Phil
8 min read 
Food Storage Gardening
Drying Herbs
It's getting to be harvest season, which means plenty of work around my household trying to preserve some of what we've grown. Because of our love for flavorful food, we've tried to expand the variety of Herbs around our household over the last several years. Herbs are an excellent way to expand the flavor of those rice and beans we've all been stuffing into our long term storage. Those wonderful foods that make up such a major part of our plans will become quite monotonous though, if we cant' get some flavor variety in them.
Jayce
4 min read