Passion Fruit Juice: Glass Full of Magic

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Savannah

Have you ever had a glass of homemade passion fruit juice? If you haven’t, well it is truly a glass full of magic.

Passion fruit grows on a big vine. When it gets hot the vine grows extremely beautiful flowers. The flowers then turn into an oval shaped green fruit. As long as it stays warm the fruit will continue to turn a deep purple. When they fall off the vine they are ripe and ready to eat. If you’re not ready to process them right way, don’t worry because they will keep for quite awhile on the counter. Even if they’re shriveled up and not looking so good, they’re still fine to eat. After you’ve gathered up enough fruit, it’s time to make juice.

Image via Wikipedia

Here’s the recipe…

Ingredients:

2.5 cups of juice
5 cups of cold water
1/3 – 1/2 cup of sugar (more or less depending if you like sweet or tart juice)

Directions:

Cut of the tops of the fruit
Scoop the seeds into a fine mesh colander
Separate the juice from the seeds by mashing them over a bowl
Add the sugar, water, and passion fruit juice together
Stir it up and enjoy!

Passion fruit juice: Liquid Gold

When you add those three key ingredients you get delicious tasting passion fruit juice that is like no other. If you try this recipe you are bound to like it.

Have you ever had passion fruit juice? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Spring Planting: What’s Being Planted In Your Garden?

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Savannah

If you haven’t started already, now is the perfect time to be preparing for your spring garden.

Here’s a list of some of the things we’re planting in our garden…

: Image via Wikipedia

peas
a variety of herbs
a variety of lettuce
string beans
strawberries
garlic
pinto beans
a variety of tomatoes
corn
a variety of peppers
a variety of squash
a variety of cucumbers
broccoli
cabbage

In my opinion the best way to plant seeds is to start them indoors. A great way to do that is to use a Jiffy Greenhouse. You simply get the kit, water the Peat Pellets, plant the seeds, and watch them grow! Then, when spring arrives you’ll have a head start on your garden.

If you don’t want to buy anything, there are many ways to make homemade pots for your seeds. Gardenbetty.com has some great articles showing how to create earth friendly, biodegradable seed pots from things you might otherwise throw away. Make sure to check out her articles on making newspaper pots and eggshell pots. I’ve tried them and they work great. My corn is loving their eggshell starters.

What are you planting in your spring garden? Let us know by leaving a comment…

Homemade Outdoor Vermicomposter

Posted on October 2, 2011 by Todd

Photo by Sippakorn Yamkasikorn from Pexels

Inspired by an article on building a worm composter that I read on Vegetable Gardener this morning, I decided to build one for myself.

Rather than driving down to the hardware store and spending money on supplies for my vermicomposter, I decided to check around the property to see if I had enough old scrap laying around to get this project done. Honestly, I found about 99% of what I needed and I only came up short a few screws required to secure the hinges to the lid. Luckily for me, I had a few 10 foot redwood 2×6’s that were part of an old deck that I used for the sides vermicomposter, and an old piece of 3/8 inch plywood that I used for the lid. This should amount to one of my cheapest projects ever.

Continue reading →

Photos From The Urban Farm

Gallery

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Todd

Assorted mix of fresh vegetables grown in a southern California residential neighborhood.

This gallery contains 11 photos.

Some may call it urban farming, while others may simply dismiss it as gardening. It’s true, but in my case, I call it urban farming because approximately 30% of my little one-third acre of residential property is dedicated to growing … Continue reading →

Garden Tip: Recycle Your Sunflowers

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Todd

Homegrown sunflower with some photo processing done for additional character

One way to avoid purchasing expensive pre-made trellises and cages for your garden is to make your own from wood or bamboo, but those materials can also be quite costly these days. One alternative is to grow your own!

Sunflowers are not just a great source of beauty for you garden, but they can also be recycled into some pretty nice lightweight stakes.

For best results, I recommend planting the taller varieties of sunflowers. We have several different varieties of sunflowers growing throughout our property and most of our sunflower stakes are in the 5-7 foot range with some of them bearing a diameter of up to 2 inches.

I like the idea, but how do I turn my sunflowers into garden stakes?

Once the flowers have completed their bloom and the plants start to die, simply dig up the sunflowers, remove all the leaves, and then carefully saw off the root balls and let the stalks dry out a bit. The thicker stalks are obviously the strongest, but even some of the smaller stalks prove to be strong enough to help support lightweight vine-type plants in your garden. Keep in mind that sunflower stalks are not wood and they can be crushed or broken so it’s best to tie them to each other as often as possible in order to help distribute any weight that they will bear.