GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Category: Podcast

  • What To Donate To The Food Pantry – GF Radio 364

    What To Donate To The Food Pantry – GF Radio 364

    Rick and Eric talk about what to give then donating food to a food pantry. We read from a great post on Foodlets on what kinds of foods they need.

    Also we suggest your local animal shelter – find yours here -, and Rick likes Heifer International.

    Shop at The Home Depot and GardenFork gets a finder’s fee

    Shop at Amazon and GardenFork gets a finder’s fee

    If you’d like to start a WordPress site, we suggest BlueHost. We use them.

    Here is the waterproof cell phone pouch Rick talked about.

    The  Cruising Chef Cookbook is a favorite of Rick’s.

    Thoughts on Dying Podcast series:
    http://www.ttbook.org/series/death

    Aging in Place
    http://aginginplace.com/

    Home

  • DIY Christmas Cards, DIY Rocketry, DIY Yogurt – GF Radio 363

    DIY Christmas Cards, DIY Rocketry, DIY Yogurt – GF Radio 363

    Make your own DIY Christmas cards, how makers are going into space, and how to make yogurt by GF listener Tish on GardenFork Radio this week.

    Rick tell us of a new portable backup device for  your digital photos. This is great for when you are on vacation and want to back up the photos on the camera’s memory cards. Thanks to GF listener Kevin, Rick bought a portable wireless backup hard drive that you can easily back up your memory cards to. Here is the Amazon link.

    How to make your own Christmas cards is next, Eric made a how to do block printing video and make Christmas cards here.

    We talk about DIY Power Tool Repair, in a recent email newsletter

    Eric linked to one of his power tool repair videos

    Eric mentioned Patrick of Lucky Duck Press   in upstate CT, he has a neat Etsy store  with nicely done cards and printed matter. Patrick will be a guest soon on the show.

    Building your own rocket ship is next from an article from ArsTechnica, a website we like.

    Marcus sent us an email and lets us know about a neat youtube show, the Culinary Fanatic.

    Tish’s how to make yogurt easy post is here

  • New Podcasts We Like and Cooking Turkey GFR 362

    New Podcasts We Like and Cooking Turkey GFR 362

    Good podcasts to listen to and lessons learned on grilling and frying turkeys start off the show, and we talk about viewer mail from Rick on the Left Coast about Eggs.

    Eric was tasked with cooking two turkeys on Thanksgiving, one deep fried like we do in this video, and one grilled on a Weber Grill, which Eric has never done before. Like life, it doesn’t all go according to plan. Rick wrote a post about how to grill a turkey on a Weber Grill here.

    Podcast We Like

    From Steve in Canada:

    Hey Eric, an insightful podcast I like listening to is Tiny House Chat. I’ll probably never own my own Tiny House but my wife and I love the idea and inspiration behind these funky abodes. This podcast is very descriptive and informative on all aspects of building and living in a tiny house.
    Give it a listen! Love your shows, we eagerly await what you’ll teach us next!

    Rick reminds us to check out the tiny house documentary that features our friend Deek, Tiny The Movie.

    root-simpleEric recently discovered the Root Simple Podcast – Low Tech Home Tech, by way of a neat Rocket Stove how to on their site.

    Rick likes the Quick and Dirty Tips podcast, specifically the Nutrition Diva.

    We got a great viewer mail on our chat about eating eggs, based on an article on the NY Times Well column.

    Hi Rick and Eric,
    If you read the egg study carefully, I think the researchers are saying that eggs are “less bad” than other choices, not that “they are good for you.” Comparing eggs to “sugared cereal” is not a terribly high standard to beat. Some of Rick’s worm compost would likely beat sugar-laden cereal.
    Love the show! Rick (on the left coast)

    We end on what kind of fitness monitors or apps you use, and Rick suggests the Moves app.

  • Thanksgiving Emergencies, Eggs, & Cameras – GF Radio 361

    Thanksgiving Emergencies, Eggs, & Cameras – GF Radio 361

    How to defrost a turkey? Rick and Eric tell you how to do this. Based on the info from the epic how to defrost meat quickly video, the Thanksgiving experts save the holidays. Or at least we think we do.

    thanksgiving-emergenciesAnd we talk about the new news that its OK to eat eggs again. We’ve been eating eggs anyway. They are healthy. Here the NY Times Well column says so. This moves into how we both have cut down on sugar consumption, and just how much sugar is in processed foods like soda. Rick gives us this article on how sugar may shorten your life.

    Thanksgiving emergencies are solved by the experts, or at least solved by the GardenFork crew here.

     

    Here are two GardenFork Salad Videos for you:

    dandelion-salad

    Dandelion Greens Salad Recipe Video    Salad Lyonaise – Greens with a Poached Egg Recipe Video

    Here is the beginning of the show in a transcript:

    It’s a wet and rainy day here in Margaritaville North.

    Today we’re going to talk about eggs, Rick ‘s trip to Florida and some camera camera tips. And We answer some Thanksgiving emergency questions
    I read this great article from my the New York Times  about Eggs. For those of us of a certain generation, it was most drilled into our heads that eggs were unhealthy, and they would cause heart attacks and now they’re finding that you know it’s okay to eat eggs, that’s great.

    And the American Heart Association has looked at clinical studies, they no longer condemn eggs in its guidelines. It recommends people limit themselves to consume a single egg that has two hundred milligrams, as well as a mix of saturated, unsaturated fats, including the monounsaturated kind found in olive oil. Olive oil is good for you, right, and eggs are good for you. I love eggs  we keep a dozen eggs boiled a hard-boiled in the refrigerator and I will add them to salads and all kinds of side dishes . From a Doctor who is who is from the Harvard school of Public health, “Eggs are particularly good replacement for less health healthful fare like processed meats and refined carbohydrates. So instead of maybe that processed meat like hams or hot dogs or refined carbohydrates, which is sounds like white bread. The study suggested for most people starting your day with a breakfast of scrambled eggs will have a better impact on your overall cholesterol profile than a bagel or a bowl of sugary cereal.

    Do you know that drinking a twenty ounces of Bob regular soda not diet soda, but sugared soda a day will reduce you lifespan by age four to six years. It wouldn’t surprise me. It shortens the telomeres I’ve got a study here. I’ll send it to you and put the link in the show notes, telomeres are the part of the reproductive part of cells that determine how long cells live, and it turns out, looks like all of the sugar in the that soda is actually aging the cells. Not that the fake sugar is any better.
    We have just about given up all of the other guy sodas and and regular sodas of all that stuff. It’s its water,  tea,  coffee and more coffee. I’ve been having oatmeal for breakfast. I love bagels and live in bagel Central, of course.
    We have eggs for dinner also we have a salad every night, I will throw a poached egg in the salad or a hard boiled eggs. We have several salad recipes and i will put them in the show notes.

    Let us know your thoughts in the comments below, thx!

  • Eric Reads Viewer Mail GF Radio 360

    Eric Reads Viewer Mail GF Radio 360

    On this episode of GardenFork Radio we talk about standing desks and how you can make one from IKEA parts. We also talk about how to use Evernote to keep your to do list and how Evernote can be very very simple or very complicated.

    Our new website is powered by StudioPress Themes for WordPress we’ve used several themes from different WordPress theme companies, and I think StudioPress is the best one. The site loads much faster and I like the clean design we are using.

    We talk about using one of our website hosts, BlueHost , if you want to have your own private email or build a wordpress website, BlueHost has a very affordable plan.

    evernote logoI prefer to keep Evernote simple and it works for me. Also we talked about push lawnmowers, specifically push lawnmowers that don’t have an engine, and they have a cutting reel. GF listener Scott likes one that is made by Fiskars. Tanya writes to tell us about how Gordon Ramsay cooks stovetop pizza.

    We recently had a how-to video on how to make stove top pizza here is the link and Tonya talks about how she makes pizza herself. Finally Jim ass why we have two different garden fork shows now and I talk a little bit about that

    Fiskar reel mower from Amazon

  • DIY Standing Desk and Lawnmower vs. Tractor – GF Radio 359

    Rich tells us how he built a DIY Standing Desk out of Ikea parts, aka an Ikea Hack for much less than what a standing desks costs to buy.

    We then move on to switching from a garden tractor to a push lawnmower, what are the pros and cons of a lawn tractor and a push mower?

    Rich gives us some tips on time management and tells us how to use the Eisenhower matrix to prioritize your tasks and how the some stuff falls off the matrix and that’s ok.

    Find out more about executive coach Rich Gee here.

    diy-standing-desk-and-lawnmower-vs-tractor-gf-radio-359

     

     

     

  • NUTS Nagging Unfinished Tasks and how to deal with them – GF Radio

    NUTS Nagging Unfinished Tasks and how to deal with them – GF Radio

    Rick and Eric talk about NUTS Nagging Unfinished Tasks and how to declutter you life.

    First we deal with some GardenFork news

    Some new changes to the GardenFork site, and a suggestion to try our web host, Blue Host, info here: https://gardenfork.tv/bluehost .

    Then we move on to NUTS nagging unfinished tasks. To Eric, these are those unfinished things that clutter up your mind and keep you from getting the importantant stuff done. Rick suggests not to bring home projects that wont get finished, finish what you already have started at home before bringing home any more.

    We talk about getting rid of stuff and how to sell on ebay, or using craigslist to give away free stuff. Rick tells about a new social network called NextDoor.com which allows you to keep in touch with your neighbors on your block or town.

    We move on to home made pizza ovens like the DIY Pizza Oven we built , and the weber grill pizza oven that Eric wants to try out. Rick thinks you can just cook pizza on weber grill without any extra equipment or hacks, but we know Eric is into pizza oven hacks.

  • Tick Bite, What To Do – GF Radio 357

    Tick Bite, What To Do – GF Radio 357

    Eric tells about the tick bite he got over the weekend and what to do about it. He had the classic red dot around the tick bite and then a larger lighter red rash area around the it. What is key is to be able to save the tick. If you grab the tick from the side, rather grabbing the tick from behind, is the best way to remove the tick. Slowly pull the tick away from your skin. The skin will pull up, and it may smart a bit, but pull slowly. The tick will release and you can then save it.

    tick-bite-gf-radio-357

    According to Wikipedia, and other sources I have read, here are a few precautions to take to avoid getting a tick bite:

    • Wear light colored pants
    • Tuck pants into socks
    • Spray a DEET bug spray on your clothes
    • Put your clothes in a hot dryer after being outside
    • Check your body for ticks after being outside

    My neighbor Priscilla has Guinea Hens, who are great at eating ticks. Priscilla says she does not have many ticks in her yard because of the Guinea Hens.

     

    We launched our New DIY show on YouTube, Please Subscribe Here. To make it easier for people and clearer for me, all the DIY  and how to videos will be posted on our DIY GardenFork Channel, and the cooking food videos will be posted on GardenFork Cooks.

    Feedback on our how to cook steak in a pan video, a viewer suggests we put the box fan in the window, but we turn the fan to one can access the controls on the side rather than the bottom of the fan. Smart, thank you.

    We talk about how to make hard cider, and Eric bought some liquid cider yeast to make a new batch for this fall.

    And don’t forget one of our fall Thanksgiving recipes, Pumpkin Cornbread, and that very cool cast iron skillet with sections

    GardenFork is now on Instagram, what fun.

  • Eric Tries the Gluten Free Thing – GF Radio 355

    Eric Tries the Gluten Free Thing – GF Radio 355

    We follow up on Leda Meredith’s fermentation how to book, and why Rick buys his how-to books in hardcover and not an ebook. Rick likes Leda’s book finding it easy to follow. Links are below.

    breadWe read some mail based on our podcast about dog allergies, its seems a raw food diet helps some dogs with their allergies. A good quality dog food does contain the right stuff, Rick and Eric believes. And you can buy frozen raw food in some pet stores, it looks like frozen bologna.

    Eric tells of his two weeks of gluten free and how he realized how much he loves bread and how it makes him sleepy during the day. We reference Mark Bittman and his books, Food Matters and VB6.

    Rick tells about how he has lost weight by walking every day and avoiding bread. He uses two fitness apps, My Fitness Pal and Moves.

     

  • Easy Fermentation Recipes & Foraging Tips with Leda Meredith – GF Radio 355

    Easy Fermentation Recipes & Foraging Tips with Leda Meredith – GF Radio 355

    New Fermentation recipes are here in a new book by Leda Meredith. Leda, a foraging and food preservation expert joins Eric today to talk about fermentation, making cheese, and foraging. Leda has two new books out, Preserving Everything: Can, Culture, Pickle, Freeze, Ferment, Dehydrate, Smoke, Salt, that has a bunch of easy fermentation recipes and Store and a foraging book, Northeast Foraging: 120 wild and flavorful edibles from beach plums to wineberries. (Affiliate links)

    easy-fermentation-recipesWhat I like about Leda’s new book is the easy way it has. You don’t have to go out and buy a big crock to make sauerkraut, you can use mason jars. Nice.

    Despite many people’s constant use of anti-bacterial soaps, fermentation is becoming very popular, and it celebrates bacteria, the good kind at least. We talk about how to prepare your fermentation properly, how much salt to use, what is a brine, and a neat thing I did not know about, a fermentation starter culture!

    Food prepared by fermentation is safe, and has been done for years. How long you ferment it is a matter of how you like that kind of ferment.

    Leda brings up that you can ferment apples and cherries and other fruit, something most had not thought of before. The fermentation recipes are in her new book.

    There is a difference between fermentation and pickling. Pickling uses acid, usually vinegar to preserve food, but there is no pro-biotic properties to those kinds of pickles.

    A fermentation starter culture is the leftover brine from batch of a fermented vegetable that you pour into a new batch. You can also use the whey from yogurt as a starter. Be sure the yogurt has live cultures , it should say on the container. If you made the yogurt yourself, it has live cultures.

    Something not thought of before is preserving food with sugar, we talk about sugared grapefruit rinds. Take them out of the compost and get something for nothing. Neat.

    We move onto foraging, specifically foraging for edible plants in the Northeast. Japanese Knotweed is edible. Go harvest it when its young and help save the planet.

    Sandor Katz on Fermentation – GF Radio 316

  • Changing Your Headlight bulbs & When to Call the Professionals GF Radio 354

    Changing Your Headlight bulbs & When to Call the Professionals GF Radio 354

    Rick tells of how he tried to change the headlight bulbs on his Toyota Prius, and how it all ended up a the mechanic’s garage instead. We learn when its time to call the professional and walk away from a DIY repair.

    headlightEric has been watching great car repair videos by Eric The Car Guy on YouTube, lots of great car repair how to videos done well. We learned that we will not attempt to change the struts on our car, we will take it to the experts who have the right tools. Eric the Car Guy also has a website and discussion forum on his site here.

    We read a letter from GF team member Kent, or at least Eric tries to read the letter, mangling several sentences.

  • Pet Allergies & Basement Flooding Solutions GF Radio 353

    Pet Allergies & Basement Flooding Solutions GF Radio 353

    dog-allergyWe talk with Monica about her dog’s pet allergies and behavioral problems, and her basement flooding problem. Monica has a 2 yr old mixed breed rescue pup that has developed food allergies and has been become aggressive towards squirrels and rabbits. Rick talks about his experience with pet allergies with his Cairn Terriers and how his vet is doing some interesting research. Eric tells of how they solved his Labrador’s food allergy with a special prescription food, Royal Canin Selected Protein . Its not cheap, but it has saved Henry’s life.

    Basement flooding comes next, Monica tells of her basement flooding with heavy rains. She just had her basement floor re-poured, with french drains and a sump pump. This is the best solution, Eric thinks. The other thing you can do is put drains around the foundation wall footings, aka  curtain drains. These are similar to french drains, but deep in the soil and outside the basement wall.

  • BBQ Rub Recipes And Fix Your Air Conditioner – GF Radio 352

    A few ways to fix your air conditioner before calling the AC repair person and BBQ rub recipes on the show as Mike joins us. Mike talks about BBQ rubs and tells us a few simple things you can do to fix your air conditioner, and if those don’t work, its time to get the experts involved.

    Mike updates us on his BBQ competitions, and we talk about the Ugly Drum Smoker – UDS – that he encountered at a recent Bar-B-Que contest. You can learn more about the UDS smoker on Instructables here.

    bbq-rub-and-fix-your-air-conditionerThe  issue of how to get a clean 55 gallon drum comes up, and we, as usual, don’t have an answer to that. What do you think?

    Talk about BBQ rub recipes, or spice powder one applies to the meat, comes next. Mike thinks doing it the night before works for him. You can make your own rub, or get a store bought one. Whatever works for you. Dry brining comes up, rubbing the meat with salt, which then flavors the meat if you do it ahead of time. BBQ is great and subjective, says Mike.

    For brisket, we go with Daniel Delaney’s base for a rub, salt and pepper.

    Mike’s most simple rub is 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup kosher salt. You can add chili powder and paprika too. With pork, sweet and salty is great, and anything more is a bonus. Rick, we find out, has never heard of the term ‘bark’ when talking about BBQ. He is always learning something from us.

    Eric cites his high school senior thesis teacher Dr. Paul Hirth of Lafayette High School who says, “if you at least try, you can’t fail”

    We move on to car repair, and Mike tells us about how the serpentine belt broke on his Dodge Caravan, and what he did to fix it. While Mike was replacing his serpentine belt, he also replaced the tensioner and idler pulley, two less things to break on the road.

  • Go Out And Dig Post Holes – GF Radio 351

    Go Out And Dig Post Holes – GF Radio 351

    Eric tells you to go out and dig post holes, stop procrastinating about it, its easier than you think. And once its done, he tells you how to fill the holes with cement. Its easy. Then Eric segues into more stream of conscious stuff. There you go.

  • Podcasts we like & cucumbers Rick doesn’t – GF Radio 350

    Podcasts we like & cucumbers Rick doesn’t – GF Radio 350

    Rick joins Eric to talk about new stuff. First off is Eric’s favorite weather website, WeatherUnderground.com . Eric’s personal weather station is connected to the Weather Underground site, where you can get hyper-local weather data and nice radar.

    cucumbersNew podcasts Eric has been listening to lately while repairing plaster and drywall. Eric recently found The History Chicks  http://thehistorychicks.com/ , two women talking about women in history. Its a well researched show, the hosts clearly know what they are talking about, and have an interest in sharing history.

    New Tech City  http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newtechcity/  is produced by WNYC in NYC, its a technology show but it isn’t a super geek nerd type of thing. Recent shows have been about  getting teen girls involved in technology and a startup vs. the postal service.

    Rick likes the You Are Not So Smart podcast http://youarenotsosmart.com/ which explores self delusion.

    Rick drops in some constitutional history and talking for free on a podcast.

    Eric has been watching the PBS documentary series Carrier, a 10 part series on life on the USS Nimitz http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/

    Rick gives his secret recipe for the best way to cook okra, and its clear he likes his okra. And we find that Rick thinks cucumbers are useless.

    We touch on the new GardenFork videos,
    Grilled Pineapple: Noreen of Noreen’s Kitchen  – Youtube channel here – notes that you do not have to cut out the core when grilling pineapple, it cooks nicely. https://gardenfork.tv/grilled-pineapple-gf-video

    A new GF raised bed video using dimensional lumber.

  • Love the Podcast! Viewer Mail – GF Radio 349

    Love the Podcast! Viewer Mail – GF Radio 349

    garlicEric goes solo and reads viewer mail about Garlic, raised beds, weeding from Matty, & free libraries from Christina.

    The NY Times article we talk about is here. More info on Bucky Buckaw is avail here.

    You can watch our how to grow garlic videos here: https://gardenfork.tv/tag/garlic-video

     

     

  • What is Green Manure? – GF Radio 348

    What is Green Manure? – GF Radio 348

    Today we explain what is green manure, how to grow it, and what to do to it. Responding to two viewer mails in one week, we figured we might as well talk a bit about gardening and the use of green manure. Buckwheat is often used for green manure, but there are also other plants you can use.

    You can buy green manures from the Organic Grower Supply division of Fedco Seeds.

    what-is-green-manureBut first we have to talk about how to behave on an airplane. Eric tells of a recent flight and the antics he got to watch and endure. Rick has his opinion, of course.

    And we talk a bit more about geothermal energy, with an email from KC and using a lake as a heat sink to cool building.

    But Eric wants to hear from you about how to behave on a flight, and how to moderate the behavior of other passengers.

  • Cool Your House In Summer – GF Radio 347

    We talk about how to cool your house in summer on GardenFork Radio, reducing your use of air conditioning and lowering the electric bill. And we talk about baking with the no knead bread recipe first, but most of the show is devoted to methods to cool your house in the summer heat.

    We asked on the GardenFork Facebook Page for fans to tell us their methods to cool your house, and we got a ton of responses. Neat.

    Cool Your House Tips from our Facebook Page:

    ‪cool-your-houseGinger‬ My great-Uncle Tom, who lived in Thorp WI, used to keep the shades drawn accept for about 3inches on both top & bottom – then he would crack the window that width too — it would let the breeze in but allow the hotter air out. Don’t remember ever seeing an AC in his house or even a fan. Sometimes it was cool enough to put a shawl on

    ‪Stacy‬ I open all my windows at night to let the cool air in, then keep them closed and blinds/curtains closed during the day. House will stay noticeably cooler than the outside on most days.

    ‪Kevin‬ Open all the windows at night to cool the house, then close them during the day. Assuming nighttime is cool:)

    ‪Mike‬ Setting the thermostat to run on “fan” instead of “auto”. It helps balance the house out. Helps with hot second story and freezing cold basement.

    ‪Tim‬ Saw this DIY AC option the other day. ‪https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF0J8OvDSmM‬

    ‪Glen‬ I don’t have air conditioning in my house so I run flexible duct from my basement into an old heating vent in my house and blow the cool air from my basement into my first floor.

    ‪Alicia ‬ Trees. From the first year we moved into this home, I have been planting beautiful trees all around my house to give us beautiful shade.

    ‪Sharon ‬ Keep doors and windows closed close all blinds & cutains.Use fans as much as possible. Invest in a pool or go to a pool to cool off in during the day.install attic vents to let hot air out.when replacing a roof use a light colored shingles

    ‪Natural‬ i found that drinking lots of water i don’t feel as hot, i feel cooler. It works living here in Arizona.

    ‪Debbie‬ Close yr curtains during the heat of the day.

    ‪Craig Smith‬ I also keep window film in place year round, crappy cheap apartment windows leak energy. White shades inside frame are closed, film over frame box inside makes good thermal barrier.

    ‪Craig‬ Do as much cooking as you can outside. Heat from appliances has only one place to go, into your living space. It doesn’t just disappear, laws of thermodynamics and such.

    ‪Debra Hey‬ Swamp coolers are used often here in Wyoming , but we live in an 4 plex and use a window A.C

    ‪Alice‬ Hi Eric. We have box fans in windows on the east side and on the west side of the house. When the sun is on the west side of the house, the fans on the east side are on bringing in shaded cooler air. And vice versa for the other side of the house. Plus we have put up a tinted cling film to help keep the sun from penetrating into the house.

    ‪Rotty Angel‬ As landlords for commercial tenants, during really bad heat waves, we always tell people to NOT turn off the a/c when they go home at night. It takes a lot of power to crank up the a/c after it’s been off all night and it has to work really hard to get back to a comfortable temperature. Also, we tell them to keep the blinds drawn during the day.

    ‪Brittany‬ Try not to cook meals inside! Either cook on the grill, or a slow cooker. Or make some healthy non-cooked meals! Definitely helps at my house.

    ‪Julia‬ What really REALLY worked was installing a geothermal HVAC system, but that was a pretty big investment.

    ‪Julia ‬ In Wisconsin, we installed a whole house fan. It drew air up and out of the house. Combined with increased insulation, we could fill up the house with cool air in the night/early morning and then close all the windows and shades.

    ‪Romana‬ We keep our blackout blinds closed and have a retractable awning. Also use ceiling fans.