Utah Preppers

#Gardening

41 articles tagged with this topic (Including both blog posts and archived content)

Backyard Chickens
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
#Food #Gardening #Links +4 more
Review: The Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers
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&amp;tag=prepper-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399373&amp;creativeASIN=1599555107"><img src="http://ws.assoc-amazon.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&amp;Format=_SL160_&amp;ASIN=1599555107&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ID=AsinImage&amp;WS=1&amp;tag=prepper-20&amp;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=&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=1599555107&amp;camp=217145&amp;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&amp;tag=prepper-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=217145&amp;creative=399373&amp;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=&amp;l=as2&amp;o=1&amp;a=1599555107&amp;camp=217145&amp;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
#Books #Canning #Food Storage +4 more
Food Production Systems DVD Giveaway Winner Announcement
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&amp;tag=prepper-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=217153&amp;creative=399701&amp;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
#Food #Food Storage #Gardening +1 more
Upcoming Giveaway!
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
#Education #Farming #Gardening +2 more
Book Review: What's Wrong With My Plant?
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&amp;tag=prepper-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;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
#Books #Gardening #Reviews
Growing and Harvesting Dry Beans
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 #Gardening #Reviews +2 more
Liquid or Powdered Pectin
Food Storage

Liquid or Powdered Pectin

Well, over on her own blog, my wife made a comment about something she's learned this year.  Go check out what she's learned on the difference between<a href="http://halls.lug-nut.com/2009/09/23/liquid-pectin-or-powdered/" target="_blank"> liquid and powdered pectin</a>.

Jayce
1 min read
#Canning #Food #Food Storage +2 more
Dehydrating Peppers
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
#Dehydration #Food #Food Storage +2 more
Gardening in Beds
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
#garden #Gardening #Howto
Skills as a prep
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
#Food Storage #Gardening #Practice +2 more
Gardening In Utah
Links

Gardening In Utah

Recently I had a small message in my inbox that came in via the contact form here on the blog.  It was somebody named Alex mentioning that he had a blog we might be interested in.  A quick check showed that he was right, <a title="Utah Gardening" href="http://www.vegenag.com/" target="_blank">VegNag</a> is a blog about vegetable gardening in Utah.  I know I'm always looking for all the help I can get, so it's nice to have somebody that can give advice that is local.

Jayce
2 min read
#blogs #garden #Gardening +1 more
Gardening resources (local and mail-order)
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
#Gardening #Links #Seeds
To Bee or not to Bee?
Events Food Storage

To Bee or not to Bee?

<br /> [caption id="attachment_1488" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Note the Queen on the Bottom right"]<img src="/images/uploads/2009/03/bee1-300x209.jpg" alt="Note the Queen on the Bottom right" title="bee1" width="300" height="209" class="size-medium wp-image-1488" />[/caption] My name is Bryan. I am one of the 3 B’s. The three B’s are as follows: Bryan, Brian, and then there’s the other Bryan. I tell you that so you don’t get us confused. We are all beekeepers. If you were to tell any one of us a few years ago that we would be beekeepers, we all would have told you that you were stone cold crazy! Yet here we all are keeping honeybees…..and loving it!!! So…what happened? <!--more--> We all have the strong desire to want to provide for our families, and prepare for whatever may lie ahead. No, we don’t have spare time gracing us at every turn. We all have our families with several young children. However, we all have a desire to be a part of helping something bigger than just our families. Enter the Honeybees. I came across a news article years ago explaining the importance of honeybees in our society. The more I read about the honeybees, the more I found I was feeding an appetite that I never knew I had. The more I read the more I wanted to know. What I found was absolutely astounding. I can’t think of another insect that has had such a profound affect on civilization than the Honeybee. Honey, beeswax, propolis, pollen, royal jelly, all products of the beehive, has played an important role in the health, and wellbeing of mankind for ages. That does not even take into consideration the pollination work that the honeybee does. The honeybee was brought across the ocean to the Americas by the settlers (known as the white man’s fly to the Indians) to ensure the success of the crops they planted. I’m not even beginning to scratch the surface here. [caption id="attachment_1489" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Catching my first Swarm!!!"]<img src="/images/uploads/2009/03/bee2-300x200.jpg" alt="Catching my first Swarm!!!" title="bee2" width="300" height="200" class="size-medium wp-image-1489" />[/caption] So…why honeybees? The bottom line is that they need our help….. and, we need theirs. About 1/3 of our food supply is dependant on the honeybee for pollination. Disease, pests, and development have virtually eliminated the feral honeybee populations. It turns out that a fruit fly has five times the capability of fighting off disease than the honeybee. It is becoming more and more important to have managed honeybee colonies. We live in a time when “going green” is in. Honeybees definitely play an important role in keeping the planet green. We, along with all kinds of plants and animals need this important species buzzing around. From the liquid gold of the sweet honey (which does not spoil if stored in a sealed container and will help relieve allergy symptoms!!!) , the increase of the yield in my home garden and fruit trees, to the lip balm made from the beeswax collected from the hive, my family has been blessed by having this truly remarkable species around. So, if you are contemplating getting involved in this remarkable journey, it is time to jump in. [caption id="attachment_1490" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Swarms 1 Stings 0!!!)"]<img src="/images/uploads/2009/03/bee3-300x200.jpg" alt="Swarms 1 Stings 0!!!)" title="bee3" width="300" height="200" class="size-medium wp-image-1490" />[/caption] If you are thinking of getting started in keeping bees, you will need to get started on it soon. The bees will be arriving about mid April. You need to pre-order them right away. They always are sold out right after they come in! [caption id="attachment_1491" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Picture of my 6 yr. old helping me install a swarm I caught."]<img src="/images/uploads/2009/03/bee4-300x200.jpg" alt="Picture of my 6 yr. old helping me install a swarm I caught." title="bee4" width="300" height="200" class="size-medium wp-image-1491" />[/caption] For all kinds of helpful information you can visit the Utah County Beekeepers Association web site, or attend an association meeting: <a href="http://www.utahcountybeekeepers.org">www.utahcountybeekeepers.org</a> <h4>Bee Hive Plans</h4> Top bar hive Plans: <a href="http://www.backyardhive.com">BackYard Hive.com</a> Langstroth Hive Plans: <a href="http://www.beesource.com/plans/index.htm">BeeSource.com</a> <h4>To purchase hives/frames and bee keeping products:</h4> <a href="http://www.jonesbee.com">Jones Bee</a> <a href="http://www.mannlakeltd.com">Mann Lake Ltd.</a> <a href="http://www.dadant.com">DadAnt</a> <a href="http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com">Brush Mountain Bee Farm</a> <a href="http://www.utahcountybeekeepers.org">Utah County Bee Keepers</a> –go to the classifieds section. <h4>To purchase bees packages:</h4> <a href="http://www.knightfamilyhoney.com">Knight Family Honey</a> <a href="http://www.jonesbee.com">Jones Bee</a> If you are interested in getting started in Bee Keeping, there is the <a href="http://www.utahpreppers.com/2009/03/beginning-bee-keeping-class-in-orem/">Bee Keeping Class in Orem</a> on March 20th. If you would like to learn more now though or would like to avoid the class fee, I will be conducting an informal class at my house in Mapleton this Friday, March 13th at 7 PM. We will be going over much of the same information from that class. In addition, we will be putting together a group order for bees and the recommended equipment you need to get started in Bee Keeping. If you are interested in attending this informal class, please RSVP to Bryan Esquivel by e-mailing maplemountainbees@q.com

Ekim
4 min read
#Bees #Education #Event +4 more
Gardening: Getting Ready for the Season
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 #Saving Seeds #Starting Plants
Prepping for Prepping
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
#Gardening #Leatherwork #Pandemic +3 more
Drying Herbs
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
#Canning #Food #Food Storage +2 more
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