GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

  • Grow Salad Greens In Fall And Winter – GF Video

    You can grow salad greens in fall and winter, its not rocket science, even I can do it. Watch the video and read on below:

    Couple of key things to grow salad greens in fall and winter

    • Plant cold hardy lettuces, mustards, kale.
    • Use a mini greenhouse
    • Start seeds earlier than you think
    • Plant in your sunniest raised bed

    Luckily, most salad greens don’t do well in hot weather, they actually like cold weather. You have that going for you when you want to grow greens in winter or fall. I usually have too many packs of mescluns, greens, etc, so I drop them into a shallow row right next to my soaker hoses [video here]. Fedco sells fall and winter salad seed mixes, which make this even easier.

    Be sure the seed rows are on the sun side of the soaker hoses. The way my raised beds are oriented, one side of the hose gets more sun than the other, so I drop seed on that sunnier side.

    Grow Salad Greens In Fall and Winter

    The other key ingredient here is a mini greenhouse, aka hoop house, to extend the growing season [how to videos here]. The mini greenhouse will keep the plants warmer in the fall and early winter months, and can extend the season greatly.

    If you don’t have a mini greenhouse, you can surround the salad greens with hay bales. Lay an old storm window over the bales. The bales will hold in the heat nicely.Grow Salad Greens In Fall and Winter

    In the northeast U.S., where we are, the salad greens will eventually freeze, and stop growing. But if you can manage not to let the frost melt and drown the plants in late winter, you can get the salad greens to start growing again. They may bolt, so plant new seed as well.

    hoop house cold frame

    How do you extend your growing season? Let us know below.

  • A Sailboat Never Sails In A Straight Line – GF Radio 421

    Erin of The Impatient Gardener joins Eric to talk about cordless outdoor power equipment, sailing the Chicago to Mackinac Island Race, and what to do in the garden in the fall.

    Troy Bilt is a sponsor of GardenFork, FYI. Learn more about their CORE cordless products here.

    https://gardenfork.tv/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GFR421.mp3

  • How To Put In A French Drain – GF Video

    I want to show you how to put in a french drain, which will help keep water out of your basement and away from your house.

    A french drain is what i call a surface drain, or a drain just below the soil level. For this one, the gravel is exposed, sometimes the french drain is covered with dirt or sand. I prefer to keep the gravel exposed.

    What you need to put in a french drain

    • Perforated pipe – either PVC or corrugated
    • Filter sleeve for the pipe Avail Here
    • Silt fabric – don’t cheap out on this Avail Here
    • Clean 1/2″ or 3/4″ stone (aka gravel)

    I was fortunate to have my neighbor bring his backhoe over and he dug a trench along the wall of the house where I have a water issue. You can also dig this by hand, its not hard unless there are a lot of rocks. I would dig down a minimum of 8″.

    You want the trench to pitch toward where ever the water is exiting, aka going to ‘daylight’. The pitch can be very gradual, 1/4″ per foot is fine.

    Put In A French Drain

    The first thing to go in the trench is the silt fabric. Run it all the way to the drain exit. Be sure there is enough on each side of the trench so it can fold over on itself after adding half the gravel.

    Then lay in the perforated pipe. If you are using the PVC pipe, the holes along the pipe face DOWN, OK? Slide the filter sleeve over the perf pipe. Close off the filter sleeve at the top end of the trench and tuck the  other end into the pipe itself when it connects to the solid drain pipe.

    Put In A French Drain

    Shovel more stone over the top of the perf pipe about 2″ and then fold the silt fabric over itself on top of this gravel. Then add more gravel to bring it level with the ground. You can also bury a french drain, and grow grass on top of it. Be sure to put a grate over the daylight end of the pipe to keep animals from nesting in the pipe.

    One more thing when you put in a french drain, do not connect any roof gutter downspouts to the drain pipe. The rain water can overwhelm the drain and fill the pipe and gravel with more water, when you are actually trying to drain the water.

  • Rick’s Rescue Road Trip – GF Radio 418

    Rick goes on the road transporting Cairn Terrier rescue dogs around the country and tells us about it. There are dog rescue groups for all sorts of breeds, a web search will show you who they are.

    Rick tells of driving his Prius across the country several times recently, getting good gas mileage and camping in his tent to make it all easier with the dogs.

    You can go camping in NYC! On the far side of Floyd Bennet Field there are tent and RV campgrounds. This reminds Rick of his time as part of the Confederate Air Force.

    Wasted food in the US is a an article from The Guardian we discuss. Go buy the damaged fruit. Its cheaper and sends a message to groceries that we will buy less than perfect food.

    We touch on a GF sponsor, Eco Scraps, who takes food waste and makes it into garden products.

    Rick’s tomatoes are doing much better this year after using plastic mulch.

    We talk about the new Troy Bilt vertical rototiller that Eric made a review video about.

    photo courtesy of Wikimedia

  • Erik Knutzen on Baking Bread, Making Cob Ovens – GF Radio 417

    Erik Knutzen of Root Simple joins Eric to catch up on Erik’s baking bread in L.A. with local grains. He has found that if you use whole wheat bread, you eat less bread, and its more healthy.

    Erik helped found the Los Angeles Bread Bakers meetup, and things have been going very well, he likes the face to face meetings.

    Making a bread oven is not as complicated as it sounds. The  key is to use local clay, which is usually easily dug up in most parts of the world. Cracks will happen in the oven, but the key is the right mix of sand, clay, water to avoid cracks.

    Erik has been using a Komo grain mill for his breads, he gets his grains from Central Milling in Utah and Grist & Toll in L.A. He uses his own yeast starter rather than a commercial brand, he has limited his breads to whole wheat with sourdough starters.

    Eric asks, does home made bread have less of a carbohydrate impact on your diet? Erik says yes, because of the whole wheat, you will eat less.

    Drones are the next topic, and our mutual concern for abuse. Realtors like them for selling houses. We will try to borrow one and see what its like.

    Erik’s recent podcasts include foraging and cooking wild plants, learn more here. One of the over-harvested plants in Erik’s area is white sage, which he suggests one should just grow one’s garden.

    We touch on foraging for mushrooms, watch our videos here, Erik has yet to master this.

    We finish on bees, there are more swarms in LA than Eric’s world.

  • Troy Bilt Rototiller Review Of The Bronco Axis Tiller – GF Video

    Here’s my Troy Bilt Rototiller Review video of the new vertical tine Bronco Axis Tiller. All the rototillers I have used have always been horizontal tine machines that break your back. Watch how this machine goes through sod to make a new garden bed.

    FYI, GardenFork was provided this tiller, but my Troy Bilt rototiller review is my own opinion, I don’t say yes to many companies.

    What is the Bronco Axis vertical tine tiller? Its pretty amazing. The tines are similar to a dual blade food processor that cuts through sod and soil without bucking like most tillers do.

    Troy Bilt Rototiller Review

    I used this at a friend’s house, he wanted to convert part of his lawn into a vegetable bed. We fired up the Bronco Axis and it churned through the grass quite well. I was able to steer the tiller with one or two hands, and it never jumped up and out of the path we were cutting.

    It has a hood that sits over the tines, so the dirt is not flying, and any rocks the rototiller kicks up stay in the dirt.

    Troy Bilt Rototiller Review

    One issue is the tiller stalls on rocks about 3-4″ in diameter. This happened to us a few times. The rock can get stuck in the tines, we used a long chisel or piece of rebar and hammer to drive it out.

    The wheels are powered and pull the tiller along nicely. It has only one speed, slow. But for the most part, that is good. I found I could push the tiller across the yard faster than using the powered wheels, then fire it up to start tilling. Also, this tiller does not require you to be the ballast, keeping the machine in line and digging into the soil like horizontal tillers do. Much easier on your back muscles that way.

    Troy Bilt Rototiller Review

    The tines are powered at all times, so if you are driving the machine across your yard, the tines are rotating. The rear wheels, which are tucked under the rear hood, hold the tines up off the lawn, but it be good if you could turn off the tines when driving it to the job site.

    This tiller is completely different than any tiller i have tilled with, its quite easy to use, and doesn’t destroy your back in the process.

    Teresa of Seasonal Wisdom also checked out this tiller on her site.

    You can find more info on the Bronco Axis on the Troy Bilt site here.

  • Drip Irrigation for a Container Garden – GF Video

    Here’s a DIY project to provide drip irrigation for a container garden, easy to do watch the video to see how.

    Container gardens dry out quickly, which is why I built this system. This is based on using soaker hoses to wrap around the inside of each container, and attaching the hose to a water timer.

    Drip Irrigation Container Garden

    The hardest part of this drip irrigation for container garden system is getting the water. I can’t answer that one for you, as each situation is different. For this rooftop, we were able to bring the water up through a kitchen window in the back of the building. If you are going to bend the hose over a ledge, be sure to provide support where it bends over the wall, it can rub and leak.

    watch more drip irrigationjpgThe first thing to do when starting this is to uncoil the hose in the hot sun, and let it sit there for a few hours. This will allow the hose to straighten and you can work with it easier. Try to find 3/8″ soaker hose for this project. It bends easier.Drip Irrigation Container Garden

    To keep the hose inside the containers, you can use coat hanger wire cut into a U shape and pushed over the hose into the soil. Or use cable ties with holes drilled into the plastic pots. Rocks can also hold down the hose, but then you have to get rocks onto your balcony or roof. Not fun.

    If you have a container garden on a patio, this is perfect. Water is easy to get to. I push the pots together to create a mass planting, and to hide the hose as it goes from pot to pot. As you can see from these photos, this system also works great for urban areas. How are you planning on using this? Let us know in the comments below.

  • DIY Soaker Hose Irrigation System – GF Video

    I put together this DIY soaker hose irrigation system for my raised bed vegetable garden and made a video for you. With this and a timer, I don’t have to spend time watering by hand, and wasting water. Soaker hoses are great for slowly watering your garden while saving water. In another video I show how to run a garden hose underground to your garden beds.

    Steps to build your DIY soaker hose irrigation system:

    The video explains it quite well, I think, but here are some photos and tips to make it all work.

    soaker hose irrigation system being installed

    Soaker hose is available in a few different diameters. Lately I’ve been seeing mostly 3/8″ diameter hose. Buy the hose tubing connectors that match your diameter. Either a farm supply store or a hardware store will probably have the T and elbow connectors.

    soaker hose connection to a garden hose

    Soaker hose is easiest to work with when it has been sitting in the sun for a few hours. Lay it out flat, use some rocks to hold the ends and keep it from curling. It cuts easily with a wire cutters or scissors. Be sure to cut off about 6″ of hose with the feed end of the hose before cutting the lateral lengths that run down the bed.

    soaker hose ends capped off

    soaker hose right angle connection

    If your hose pressure is enough to pop out the elbows and Ts, use wire or cable ties to connect the hoses. At the hose ends, I use a wooden dowel or bend over the end of the hose. Sometimes bending the hose doesn’t work.

    Parts needed for this project:

    Easy To Program Water Timer

    Good quality soaker hose

    soaker hose weeping water

    Here is a diagram of the watering system for my raised bed vegetable garden:soaker hose irrigation system layout diagramFor my beds, I run a hose across the bottom end of the bed for a trellis. I usually plant snow peas or beans on a trellis at both ends, and the lateral soaker hoses don’t do a great job of getting to all the seeds I plant along that edge.

    For connecting the garden hose to the bed, I show in this soaker hose installation video how I bury the hose so the lawn mower doesn’t run over it.

    watch more drip irrigationjpg

    I have found it best to use your soaker hose drip irrigation system once or twice a week in the early morning, you want long deep watering, not short shallow watering. Here is a garden hose timer that works well for automated watering.

  • Best Homemade Tomato Cages – GF Video

    These are the best homemade tomato cages I have made. They hold up every year, and are easy to put away, and they don’t break like those cheap tomato cages. Watch the video to see how to make tomato cages my way.

    How to make the Best Homemade Tomato Cages

    I use concrete reinforcing wire to make tomato cages. These come 9′ long, and we will cut them down. There are two gauges of wire avail for concrete mesh, buy the thinner kind if  there is a choice.

    watch tomato videos 2Lay down the wire on the ground, and cut the mesh in to pieces as shown in the video. Be sure to wear eye and ear protection if you are using a power tool. You can also use bolt cutters to cut the wire.

    Best Homemade Tomato Cages

    I bend the end wires over the adjoining piece of wire mesh, you could also use wire or cable ties to connect them. If you use wire, you could dis-assemble the best homemade tomato cages for storage. Wear gloves when working with the mesh or wire, it saves your hands from cutting cut and being stained with rust from the metal.

    To keep the cages upright, I weave a 1×2 stake through the mesh once or twice. Drive the stake in and the cage wont go anywhere. If you are using raised beds (video to build them here) screw the stake into the side of the bed, works great for stability.

    Best Homemade Tomato Cages

    An alternative is to buy a roll of concrete mesh. You can cut off a length of it and tie it together. My issue with this is that the roll of mesh isn’t very wide, so you get a short tomato cage, and most tomatoes do well in a tall cage, I think.

    I find these cages work really well for cherry tomatoes. Those stalks grow all over the place and tend to get taller than most other tomatoes, and these cages are up to the challenge. I like taller plants because my dogs will eat the cherry tomatoes off the vine at their level, so tall plants are necessary!

  • Make Better Compost With This Addition – GF Video

    You can make better compost by having the ideal carbon nitrogen ratio. Unfortunately, most home compost bins don’t have that ideal ratio. There are several compost accelerators on the market, here is one by our sponsor, Eco Scraps.

    How to make better compost

    The ideal carbon to nitrogen ratio, or browns to greens mix, according to Cornell University, is 30:1 by weight. That means 30 pounds of brown leaves to 1 pound of green grass. Coffee grounds are also high in nitrogen, btw.

    If you compost pile smells like ammonia,  it has too much nitrogen. I worked at a community garden with a large compost operation and found that by adding wood shavings from a local wood shop made a huge difference in the ammonia smell. Plus the curly nature of the shavings helped us make better compost. The woodworker was happy to get rid of huge bags of shavings, saving him carting fees and landfill space. Pretty amazing how they broke down quickly.

    But too much nitrogen is rare, the average home compost pile has too much carbon (browns) in the mix, so a compost accelerator like Eco Scraps adds nitrogen. I suggest layering the accelerator as you add material to your pile. Just tossing it on top of an existing pile wont help.

    make better compost
    From Cornell University

    Another key if you want to make better compost is to provide air to your pile. This can be done just by turning it, but if you have the pile in a bin (like my pallet compost bin) that’s not always easy. You can buy a compost auger, Augers on Amazon link, I have used these and the good ones work well. (You get what you pay for) You can also find a neighbor who is throwing out some 1″-3″ pvc pipe, drill holes in it, and layer these in the pile as you build it.

    more compost videos

    We have a bunch more composting videos here, let me know your thoughts below.

  • Chainsaw Chaps and PPE Gear I Use

    Chainsaw chaps have saved my leg twice. Lots of people don’t wear them when using a chainsaw, and I think those people are not being smart. I am not the ultimate expert on chainsaw safety and PPE (personal protection equipment) but I do cut down trees and cut firewood on a regular basis.

    Chainsaw Chaps
    My chaps saved me from tearing open my leg

    Basically, chainsaw chaps keep your chainsaw from cutting into your thigh or leg. The chaps are filled with a threadlike material. If you get a running saw too close to your leg, the chain cuts into the chaps instead of your leg, and the inner material blooms out and stalls the chainsaw. And you are not bleeding all over the ground in the woods.

    This has happened to me twice when I was not paying attention. The first time I was kneeling and cutting up a felled tree, and my leg slipped right up against the running saw. The saw stopped almost immediately after hitting the chaps.

    Chainsaw Chaps and Tree Felling PPE Gear I Use

    These are links to Amazon:

    Chainsaw Chaps

    Buy chaps a bit shorter than your regular pant leg size, or you will trip over then in the woods. You can get brand name chaps or generic ones. I have both and they both work fine.

    Chainsaw Chaps

    I didn’t have a hard hat for a while, then I whacked my head on a limb as it was coming down. Then I bought a hard hat. Its super easy to take on and off. Plus, with the eye screen, you don’t have to keep pulling off safety goggles. If you don’t get an all in one, buy ear and eye protection separately. Its worth it!

    Chainsaw Chaps

    Steel toed boots are a must. Logs will roll onto your feet, and anything you damage now will become arthritic later in life, learn from my experience.

    chainsaw-chaps-5

    Carry several pairs of gloves, you will lose them, and in all that leaf debris, you wont find them. Plastic wedges make tree felling much more controllable, you wont get your saw pinched in a tree anymore once you buy them.And I am a convert to pre-mixed fuel. Yes it costs more, but it saves on repairs. Its cheaper to buy the fuel than to have your chainsaw in the repair shop for a carb rebuild before it needs it.
    watch chainsaw

  • How To Build A Raised Garden Bed – GF Video

    Learn how to build a raised garden bed in this video we made while building some for our own vegetable garden. This isn’t rocket science, not hard to do at all. Watch the video and start building.

    Steps To Build A Raised Garden Bed

    • Figure out the size of the bed.
    • Purchase the lumber and hardware.
    • Assemble the bed.
    • Add soil and plant.

    I like to build 4′ wide raised beds. The width is good for me, I can reach across the bed from either side. Plus, this width is great if you use floating row fabric or plastic mulch. You can cut the fabric to one width for all your beds. The mini greenhouse I built drops right on top of these beds. So yeah, I like this width.

    Build A Raised Garden Bed

    For brackets to attach the sides of the bed, I use whatever I have. Shelf brackets, angle brackets, or the metal brackets you use for roof trusses, use what you got. They will all work and last longer than the wood itself.

    Build A Raised Garden Bed

    Position the lumber where you want the bed to be, and build it in place. Don’t worry about making the bed super level. You can shovel out high spots, and some dirt will come out the bottom of the bed to fill in low spots.

    After you are happy with the placement and assembly, drive in some pipes or rebar or metal stakes in the middle of each long board and secure with metal banding. This keeps the sides of the bed from warping out. You could use wood stakes, but I wouldn’t, it wont hold as well.

    Build A Raised Garden Bed

    What kind of soil do I fill the raised bed with? I’m a big fan of the lasagna gardening method of filling up raised beds. Again its some of the ‘use what you got’ thing here, but assemble a mess of cardboard, straw, compost, soil. Watch this video.

    If you don’t want to do the lasagna method, don’t use pure top soil, see if someone nearby sells a garden soil, its needs to have a mix of materials, not straight topsoil. Let me know your comments or questions below.

  • Pressure Treated Wood For Raised Beds? – GF Video

    Can you use pressure treated wood for raised beds? Watch our video to find out if pressure treated wood is safe for gardening.

    This question gets asked many times each season, and I thought I should see what new research has been done, and what the current thinking is.

    Part of the issue here is that for years treated wood was infused with arsenic, which is bad stuff. In the last decade, two types of new treated woods have arrived in stores, and arsenic treated wood is no longer sold in the U.S. I don’t know if it is available anywhere else.

    Untreated wood exposed to soil.
    Untreated wood exposed to soil.

    So, Can You Use Pressure Treated Wood For Raised Beds?

    The new pressure treated wood contains an insect repellent and a mold inhibitor. From Wikipedia:

    Alkaline Copper Quaternary (also known as ACQ) is a water based wood preservative method recently introduced in countries where there is a demand for alternatives to Chromated copper arsenate (CCA).[1] The treatment is made up of copper, a bactericide and fungicide which makes the wood resistant to biological attack, and a quaternary ammonium compound (quat) which acts as biocide, increasing the tolerance of treated timber to copper-resistant bacteria and fungi, and also acting as an insecticide.

    In other words, it has chemicals to repel insects and fungus, the two main culprits in rotting wood.

    Copper is the main ingredient in treated wood. If you’ve ever wondered why it has a green tint, its because of the oxidized copper. And we already use copper in our gardens to fight fungus in spray-on products we buy at the garden store.

    Pressure Treated Wood For Raised Beds

    Plus, we are exposed to copper in our home water pipes, many of which are made of copper. I read that one will ingest more copper from their household water than they will from copper from treated lumber.

    From The University of Missouri Div Of Plant Sciences:

    A 2007 study of the safety of ACQ published in Human and Ecological Risk Assessment concluded that exposure to copper from contact with ACQ-treated wood is not expected to have adverse effects on the health of adults or children.

    So there you go. Considering how many airborne chemicals rains down on our gardens from the air, and we haven’t perished from that yet, it looks like its OK to use pressure treated wood for raised garden beds.

    If you are still not convinced, you can line the inside of your raised garden beds with plastic as barrier between the treated wood and the garden soil.

    Thoughts or questions? Let us know below.

     

  • How To Grow Peas – GF Video

    I can show you how to grow peas because they are my favorite vegetable, bar none. So I made you a video about it, watch and let me know your thoughts.

    How to grow peas, what you need to know:

    Peas like cool weather, when the summer starts to heat up, they wilt quickly. So its key to get the seeds starting quick. You have two choices, seed directly in the garden, or start them in seed starting trays or pots. Both have advantages.

    watch seed starting videos

    How To Grow Peas

    I now prefer to start pea seeds in pots and transplant them outside. I have found that the seeds germinate faster and better than seeding them directly. A big reason is that the soil outside is cold, and the seed starting mix is warm, because its inside. Took me awhile to figure that out. I also direct seed a bit when the weather starts to warm up, as a back up measure.

    Have the bottom of your trellis right where the plants are. Peas start to climb right away, or else they will fall over. You can set some small sticks alongside the plants to lead them to the trellis above, if need be.

    how-to-grow-peas-1

    I do not have any problems with insects or diseases with my peas. I mainly plant sugar snap peas and snow peas. Many of them don’t make it out of the garden, we and the Labs eat them standing there in the garden.

    You can shade the pea plants to keep them growing a bit longer, but I have not had much success with this. Part of the problem is the trellis is quite high. There are some pea varieties that don’t grow as tall, you could try those.

    how-to-grow-peas-2

    When the sugar snap peas start to fade, I plant string beans below the trellis, and leave the fading peas on the trellis. The beans will climb up and work just fine. This way you have used the trellis for two plants in one season. Nice.

  • Rick’s New Pup & Podcast Eric Likes – GF Radio 413

    Rick tells us about this new rescue dog, and how it all came about. Never knew dogs got to fly for free in private planes. Nice. There are a bunch of dog photos on the new GardenFork Group on Facebook here.

    Eric talks about a new podcast he likes, Someone Knows Something, from the CBC in Canada. If you like the podcast Serial, you might like this one as well.

    Rick has been listening to Home of the Brave by Scott Carrier, you may know him for his contributions to This American Life on NPR.

    A new 4 part documentary Eric watched is Michael Pollan’s Cooked on Netflix. It shows the universal-ness of cooking food for your family. From the outback of Australia to the streets of Morocco. Neat.

    Finally Rick tells of a report that dogs don’t like to be hugged.

     

  • Is This How To Cut Down A Tree? – GF Video

    When you are learning how to cut down a tree, its best to start with trees smaller than this one, but even after doing this for years, I still make mistakes. Thankfully, nothing bad happened this time. Watch the video to see. And then check out the safety gear that is a must have for chainsaw safety.

    Here are the basics of how to cut down a tree:

    • Use and wear safety gear. (list here)
    • Plan the cut, study the tree.
    • Plan your escape route.
    • Use a sharp chainsaw chain, new is best.
    • Wedge your back cut.
    • Be very careful.

    There are many posts on how to cut down a tree, here I’ll touch on some of the techniques I use.

    If you don’t wear safety gear, you need your head examined.

    Plan your exit from the tree 45 degrees from the back of the tree. Make sure you have a clear path, with no obstacles to trip on. Turn off your chainsaw after making your cuts and before you start your exit.

    I use a 70 degree wedge cut that cuts the front 20% of the tree. The wedge faces the direction you want the tree to fall. Some will cut the bottom of the wedge flat level, I think the longer the tree stays hinged, the more control it has, so I cut the bottom part of the wedge lower.

    How To Cut Down Tree
    Not a perfect hinge, but it worked.

    The back cut is ideally about an inch above the center of the wedge cut. In this chainsaw video, that didn’t happen. Going forward I am going to chalk or spray paint the cut lines on the tree before I start. When you are actually cutting the tree, it can be hard to make sure the chainsaw stays level.

    I use plastic tree felling wedges to keep the tree from pinching the saw or worse, falling back on itself. You can use wedges for several types of tree felling cuts. Be sure to use plastic wedges that are designed to be used with chainsaws, metal wedges will damage the chainsaw if you happen to touch saw to wedge while working the tree.

    A sharp chainsaw chain is so important. Dull saws can hurt you and the saw, and hamper your tree felling. I will buy a new chain for a large tree.

    Chainsaw safety equipmentLearn about the must-have safety gear when felling trees here

    If you have the least bit of hesitation, don’t do this. Hire a professional to cut down the tree. You can then go in and cut it up for firewood.

    watch chainsaw

     

  • No Knead Bread Recipe with Olives – GF Video

    Easy to make no knead bread recipe, this time we add black olives for extra flavor. Oil cured black olives are what a friend of mine calls ‘little salt bombs’ they are that and more. Watch the video and check out the recipe.

    Lately I’ve been doing a whole wheat – white flour mix for my no knead bread recipe. I’m adding more whole grains into my diet, and the whole wheat adds that nice nuttiness to the bread. Making 100% whole wheat breads can be tough, especially no kneads.

    No Knead Bread Recipe

    But the main ingredient here are black olives! Don’t buy the watery black olives in a can, get oil cured olives. These are usually available in a deli or gourmet shop. I have seen oil cured in a jar, but not often. Buy pitted olives, but when chopping them, keep an eye out for pits, you may run across one or two.

    For some time  now I have been using parchment paper to move the dough from the the bowl it rises in into the dutch oven. This eliminates the risks of flopping the formed dough into the dutch oven. Its ok if the parchment paper sticks out of the lid of the dutch oven, it will help with removing the baked loaf when its done.

    No Knead Bread Recipe
    This is what shaggy can look like.

    For my basic no knead bread recipe, the bread is done with the internal temperature reaches 200F. I usually bake the bread for 35 minutes covered and then 15 minutes uncovered. With your oven these baking times may change. Its better to over-bake bread than to under-bake it. Wet dough bread is no fun.

    watch more bread videosEven if you are a big fan of black olives, using less is more here. Olives pack a lot of flavor in a little portion, OK?

    No Knead Bread Recipe with Olives
    Recipe Type: Bread
    Cuisine: American
    Author: Eric Rochow
    Prep time:
    Cook time:
    Total time:
    Serves: 1 loaf
    An easy bread recipe that adds more flavor with black olives. Serve this at dinner, your friends will like it.
    Ingredients
    • 2 cups all purpose flour
    • 1 cup whole wheat flour
    • 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
    • 1 cup chopped & pitted oil cured black olives
    • 1 1/2 cups warm water
    Instructions
    1. Mix together the two flours, the salt, and the yeast. I like to use a whisk for this.
    2. Add in the pitted and chopped olives, be sure they don’t have any pits in them. Bad things can happen.
    3. Add in the warm water and mix together.
    4. The dough will be stiff and will not come together. Don’t worry, it won’t. You want the dough to be ‘shaggy’ like shag carpet, not wet.
    5. Add water by the teaspoon if needed, but a bit too much water will make the dough wet.
    6. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place is a warm place to rise. I use my oven with the light on.
    7. Let the dough rise 12-18 hours. The dough should have strands pulling away from the bowl when its ready.
    8. Flour a board lightly. Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto the board. Dust the dough with a bit of flour and turn the dough into itself to form a ball.
    9. Place the ball of dough onto a sheet of parchment about 18” long. The parchment should be wide enough to sit in the dutch oven and stick out the top a bit, as shown in the video.
    10. Gather the corners of the parchment/dough and put into a bowl with high sides. One similar to the one I use in the video is good.
    11. Cover with a towel and let the dough rise for two hours in a warm place. I use the oven with the light on again.
    12. After 1 1/2 hours of rise, put the dutch oven and lid in the oven and set the oven to 450F.
    13. After 30 minutes, remove the dutch oven from the preheating oven, lower the parchment with the dough into the dutch oven, cover and bake for about 30-40 minutes. It all depends on your oven.
    14. After 30 minutes, remove the lid of the dutch oven, the bread should be starting to brown. Bake another 15 minutes with the cover off.
    15. Check the temperature of the bread, its done with the bread reaches 200F

     

  • Bob of I Like To Make Stuff – GF Radio 412

    I’m a big fan of Bob and his YouTube channel, I Like To Make Stuff, the website, and his mindset is similar to mine: make stuff and share it. Bob was kind enough to take a few moments to go over some tools and techniques he uses to make stuff.

    I like how Bob makes projects approachable and with that ‘you can do it’ theme. With about 700k subscribers presently, I think lots of other people do too. His projects are kinda eclectic, sorta like GardenFork, recent ones include a water ballon cannon and a  homemade arcade game. Not bad.

    We first touch on welding equipment, and whether one should buy a mig welder or a flux core welder to start. I have a flux core welder, which is less expensive, but it has limitations.

    We move on to using micro controllers like the arduino and raspberry pi, which is on my to do list.

    Bob likes to use Trello as a task management app, and we talk about that as well. We finish with our mutual agreement on how the web can be a place for good stuff to happen.

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