By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

My grandmother always had strawberry pots lined up on her back porch.

They were filled with strawberry plants that produced the most wonderful red fruit.

This fruit filled our cereal in the morning and delighted us with a cool treat after dinner that has never been duplicated.

The treat that I reminisce about was my grandmother’s homemade strawberry ice cream.

Years later after my grandmother’s children and grandchildren moved away she converted her beloved strawberry pots into works of art. She tried growing different types of plants in each strawberry pot. First Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

As I was searching the Internet I found a response on a website that dealt with agriculture that sadden me.

A boy from Africa had a question on fertilizer.

He was doing a project in school and reached out to the global community for the answer or at least for some direction or hop.

Throughout his response he mentioned how the government was pushing for the farmers in Africa to use more and more synthetic fertilizer to compensate for reduced yields. He reached out to the global community with a simple question that still rings in my ear.

This question was simple and brief. “How long does it take for our soil to recover when soil fertility is gone?”

Soil fertility much like the Gulf after this disaster is hard to bring back to its original state. We as a society have lived through the Exxon spill, the dust bowl, and the black blizzard but as human history goes we have not learned a thing. But you as a gardener can start today by growing your own fertilizer.

Starting Comfrey

Comfrey’s name comes from the term Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

As I sit in my backyard enjoying my green tea I take stock of my space.

I have my vegetable garden, my kitchen garden, my orchard, my historical garden, and a grazing area for my rabbit Rufus.

What more could I want?If I wanted more where could I put it?

My garden grows on 1/5 of an acre and while container gardening was an option I still had the problem where to put them.

Last Saturday I went to a talk put on by my local chapter of Master Gardeners that helped me think outside the box. Vertical gardening for apartments, balconies, and anyone who had run out of space like me was the topic. This was not the “vertical gardening concept” purposed by Mr. Dickson Despommier but instead dealt with rooftop gardens and living walls. I was fascinated by this concept especially living walls.

This was something I could do without changing the whole structure of my roof for a rooftop garden. This series of blogs will Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Dinner and a movie has become a family tradition that we all look forward to every summer.

There is nothing like spreading the sheet over the fence and projecting our movie or choice on the homemade screen.

We can relive or introduce the time of drive-ins without leaving the backyard.

But this year is different.

My children are bringing their “special” friends to share our family tradition. I look forward to the new recipes, new movies, and new memories that these “special” friends will bring to our movie night. But most of all I am looking forward to my kids’ calling from their own homes wanting to know when “Family Movie Night” is going to be and helping them pass on the tradition of “Family Movie Night” to their own children.

Below is what we have planned for our Lady and the Tramp movie night. But be creativity in your own movie night that is how memories are made.

Snacks: Carmel Corn, Gummy Worms, and Italian Ice
Drinks: Sparkling grape juice with dinner and Lemonade with Basil frozen Ice Cubes
Entree: Homemade Spaghetti and Meatballs with Garlic Bread and Mixed Breed Salad (mixed green salad)
Dessert: Spumoni

Recipe for homemade Spaghetti and Meatballs

Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 Cups water Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

As I sit in my backyard and survey my beautiful and hopefully bountiful garden I crack open a new reference book.

I discovered this book at the local feed and seed store in my community.

The title and cover caught my eye among the canning, 4-H books, assorted DIYs, and tractor maintenance manuals.

The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre! edited by Carleen Madigan was not just another gardening book but represented a modern day movement that is cropping up everywhere. You can find it on the Internet, in neighbors’ backyards, and even at your child’s school.

The Backyard Homestead claims that 1,400 eggs, 50 pounds of wheat, 60 pounds of fruit, 2,000 pounds vegetables, 280 pounds of pork, and 75 pounds of nuts can be grown on a quarter of an acre. This sounds great and in a perfect world we would never have to go to the grocery store again but Read the rest of this entry »