Table of contents for March/April 2021 in Grit

Doubtless many of you have already put seed in the ground for this year’s garden, and plenty more have tomatoes and peppers started on windowsills and in greenhouses. If you’re like me, you’ll have been organizing seed packets for weeks and poking sticks into the ground to mark future rows. I often start my garden plan with the cold-hardy seeds I can direct-sow early on. I’m putting bush peas in where I grew a tiny stand of popcorn last year, to help replenish the nitrogen in that soil, and planning a row of climbing peas along the short, northern end of the garden. I go through a lot of greens, so this year, I’ll devote a block of the garden to a succession of spinach, collards, and lettuces. Garlic is…

This past year increased many people’s interest in growing their own food and increasing food self-reliance. If you’re among them, maybe growing food is part of your response to COVID-19, or maybe you just want to leap into spring. Either way, you’re probably wondering what can bring the fastest results with early harvests. Here’s information on some vegetable crops that offer fast returns, and some sources for more information. A note for newbies before reading: “Thinnings” are small plants pulled from a direct-seeded row that are removed to leave enough room for the chosen ones to grow bigger. The smallest thinnings (when you thin to an inch apart) can be used for salads of baby greens, and the larger ones (when you thin to 3 inches) can be lightly cooked…

I hunt, fish, and forage to fill the freezer and put food on my family’s table. To make that happen, every shot should count. The shot must be ethical, and the kill as quick and humane as possible. No animal should suffer because I made a poor shot. And that means I need to spend a great deal of time on the firing range, learning the limitations of both myself and my firearm. All too often, I encounter other hunters in the woods who have the latest gear, but no clue how to use it. They can’t tell me how their rifle shoots or understand good range (the distance at which you can consistently hit the target). These hunters have no real idea what they, or their firearm, can do.…

Foraging is a rewarding and enjoyable activity, as well as an emergency technique. Plus, it allows you to add variety to your meals while lowering your grocery bills! But writing a survival article on wild foods that will be relevant to readers in a broad range of areas and terrains is difficult. Therefore, I’ve tried to include a variety of widely distributed plants that can be easily identi_ ed and are, for the most part, available throughout the year. When you set out to gather wild edibles, you must do so with a great deal of caution. Some people might have allergic reactions to otherwise “safe” plants, and a number of factors — including the time of collection and method of preparation — can make a big difference in both…

Plant Once, Pick Forever Asparagus is relatively expensive at the grocery store, so, if you love it, grow your own! Many asparagus beds last 20 years or more, and may produce ½ pound of spears per foot of row over the 8-week harvest period in spring and early summer. For a bountiful harvest, follow these steps: Check the pH of your soil. Asparagus likes a pH of 6.0 to 8.0. Plant asparagus deeply to protect the crown from the deep cultivation needed for weed control. For each row of asparagus, dig a trench 12 inches deep and 12 to 18 inches wide. Allow 3 feet between rows. Fill the trench half-full of rich, organic soil, with its top slightly mounded. Place each crown on top of the mound, and spread…

I've attached some wildlife pictures from our yard and around our house. We live in Soldotna, Alaska, and have a bounty of wildlife to view. Even in the city, wildlife is abundant. In our yard alone, we see moose, caribou, rabbits, squirrels, otters, ermine, porcupines, and birds. And while we haven't seen them in our yard, our neighbors have bears around their house. There’s a Steller's jay at our kitchen window that appears every morning just after we wake up; we assume he can hear us moving around. Peanuts are a favorite of the jay, and if we don't get them out soon enough to suit him, he’ll stare at us and peck on the window until we take his treat to the feeder. The caribou that came through were…

Owners of small rural acreages often find themselves with limited options when it comes to acquiring hay. Buying hay on the market can be expensive, and the quality may not always be up to your standards. Even if you have a hayfield on your property, if you don’t own baling equipment, your only option is to find someone to bale the hay for you. Having someone bale hay for you can be expensive; at the very least, it’ll result in splitting a percentage of the crop in lieu of payment, which can leave you short of your hay needs. If you use fewer than 100 bales per year, it’s probably more economical to buy hay from a reputable seller. If your needs surpass 100 bales, however, or if you want…

The first thing we needed to do after moving onto our dream farmstead, even before we’d completely unpacked, was to build some fences. We already had horse pens, but our dogs and kids needed to be kept in, and wild critters kept out of, our backyard. So, there we were during the hottest days of August, sweating and pounding with all our might to drive in T-posts that bent instead of going into the ground. We’d discovered that a hardpan clay laid beneath our property on the eastern slopes of California’s Mendocino National Forest. This ground wouldn’t willingly receive a fence post until the spring rains came several months later. That’s when we decided to build a fence that didn’t require postholes. Although it’s relatively easy to build fences with…

To take on a project like this, you’ll need a significant amount of equipment; we used multiple chainsaws, a brush saw, a limbing saw, a trail mower, an ATV, multiple trailers, water tanks and pumps, and, of course, our venerable 1980 F-350 work truck. Acquiring this equipment can cost several thousand dollars, so if you don’t already have it, you may want to hire professionals. Using chainsaws and felling trees are potentially hazardous activities. We treat safety seriously. Amy and I have both been previously certified as Wilderness First Responders. Basically, this means we know how to treat acute injuries until more definitive medical care is available. We always carry a comprehensive first-aid kit, which includes several “maxi pads” in the event of a serious laceration and blood loss. Fortunately,…

Long before I was a butcher, before my musings evolved from why people eat animals to how, I sat in an open-air restaurant in Hanoi, Vietnam, with a young friend named Min. I didn’t consider myself a picky eater at that point, but looking back, I’d say I had a narrow frame of reference for what constituted food. I thought my gastro-ignorance was acceptable — until Min ordered a collection of dishes, none of which I remember very vividly, except for a heaping plate of wobbling cubes of white and clear jelly, which magnetized my curiosity and commanded my full attention. “What … is that?” I asked Min. She snagged one of the jellies with her chopsticks and gleefully ate it, smiling at me under the turning fans. “Oh! It’s,…

2021 is a landmark year as we celebrate 5 centuries of cattle culture in North America. The animals first arrived on the continent in 1521, when Gregorio de Villalobos, viceroy of New Spain, rebelled against Spanish law prohibiting cattle trading in Mexico. He acquired six Spanish cows and a bull from what we now know as the Dominican Republic, and brought them to Mexico. Remarkably, we still have breeds descended from these first arrivals and others that followed shortly thereafter. They’ve changed little over centuries of adaptation to some of the harshest living conditions known for cattle, such as the wet, hot environment of the Deep South, and the dry, hot lands of the Midwest and Mexico. Most of these breeds are highly endangered, but they’re slowly making a comeback…

FABRIC I would like some fabric. I was sick, I moved, and I got rid of my fabric. Now, I'm back to making gifts. Smallest block is 2½ inches and up. Vera Leach 4323 W. County Road 500 S. Frankfort, IN 46041 PEN PALS I'm looking for pen pals. I live in the small rural town of Reedley, California. Since 1946, Reedley has been known as the “world’s fruit basket,” because we lead the nation in shipping fresh fruit. Elizabeth Koop 1776 12th Street, Unit 103 Reedley, CA 93654-3064 COMIC BOOKS AND STAMPS I'm a retired vet who loves to read comic books. If anyone wants to dump some, I'd love to have them. I would also like used worldwide stamps, for churches and charities. Bob Kantanick 170 Markle Street…

Spring is an exciting time of year for poultry enthusiasts. The weather begins to warm, the sun shines longer, and the hens think everything’s just right. It’s the season when all the hard work of keeping our flocks safe and comfortable through the cold winter is rewarded. One happy day we find the first warm, beautiful egg resting in the nest box. And then we find another, and another, and then four more, until we’re bringing in eggs by the basketful! With the proper nutrition, a faithful laying hen in her prime can produce anywhere between 150 and 300 eggs in one year (depending on breed), and a number of those will be concentrated in the spring rush. Each of these eggs is a powerhouse, delivering complex nutrition to our…

I’ve always gravitated toward items that serve several functions. I also like making things, which is why I like assembling and using paracord firearm slings. Originally designed for the military to be used as suspension lines on parachutes, parachute cord, or paracord, is made from nylon, with a braided outer sheath and several strands in the core. It has a breaking strength of 550 pounds, thus the name “550 paracord.” Because it’s strong, somewhat elastic, rot-resistant, and lightweight, it has a multitude of uses and can be very helpful if you find yourself in a survival situation. With this homemade paracord sling, you’ll have nearly 100 feet of paracord attached to your firearm to use if the need arises. It’s comfortable, and it weighs the same as a manufactured sling.…

Over the past five years, I’ve written many articles for Grit about weather, from life-threatening storms to weather folklore. This time, I want to tell you where to get weather information and how to use it. All the sources I’ve cited are from the United States and Canadian governments’ official purveyors of such data, and all the information is free. You can break down weather data into two groups: climate and weather. Climate deals with long-term weather conditions over a period of years. Weather refers to the current and future weather conditions, out to maybe a year at most. Climate Looking at the past climate, we can tell what the basic weather parameters have been. We can compute averages, highlight extremes, and determine trends of factors such as temperature and…