GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

  • Treat what has happened as a gift : GF Radio #338

    “With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.” ― Wayne W. Dyer   via Eric’s Friend

    In the cool DIY portion of our cool podcast, we talk about this neat segway clone, and Eric’s meeting with a Segway driving dot-com startup founder.
    http://www.instructables.com/id/Rideable-Segway-Clone-Low-Cost-and-Easy-Build/

    Couple of interesting things from NPR:
    For the millions of people with allergies, spring can mean months of antihistamines, nasal steroids and avoiding nature….
    http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/03/11/289037074/tiny-in-nose-filters-aim-to-keep-allergies-at-bay?sc=17&f=1001

    Eric’s continuing intrigue with with small scale distilling brings us a post about ocean going bourbon:
    http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/03/11/288780160/for-a-faster-aged-bourbon-you-need-the-motion-of-the-ocean?sc=17&f=1001
    “After his initial revelation, Zoeller sent five barrels of recently distilled bourbon out to sea with Chris Fischer. A high school friend of Zoeller’s, Fischer heads , an organization that tracks sharks and other endangered marine life. He kept the barrels on board his ship for three and a half years. Fischer covered more than 10,000 nautical miles, travelling south of the equator and in and out of the Panama Canal six times.”

    In our geek department, an article in theNY Times about a new app for people who like news.

    Trove app for news junkies http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/test-run-trove-is-a-treasure-for-news-junkies

  • Tiny House Plans : A – Frame Vacation Cabin

    Tiny House Plans for a cheap easy to build cabin from Deek Diedrecksen, who is a brilliant designer and carpenter. This cabin is perfect for that piece of land you have in the country  Easy to build with the downloadable tiny house plans Deek and Joe Everson put together. The photos here just say simple and clean to me.

    tiny house plans from Deek
    Tiny House Plans for a simple A frame

    From Deek’s website:

    The idea was to keep it AFFORDABLE to build, EASY and QUICK to build, and to have it so that it could be altered for different uses, or added to, rather effortlessly.

    The total cost for a cabin like this, soup to nuts, is right around $1200- and that’s using city lumber pricing, meaning, elsewhere, it’d cost less to build. Add in some salvaged, free, or recycled materials, and you could EASILY build this under $1000.

    Purchase these tiny house plans here on Deek’s site

    Deek worked with David Stiles, whose site is full of plans for cabins, treehouses, sheds, etc. They also offer design services. Check out their site here.

    This tiny house plan uses locally available materials, and its simple design makes it a do-able project for the average person. If you have a cordless drill – screw gun, and a circular saw, I think you can build this. The sides could be made out of recycled lumber and metal. Is someone tearing down a building nearby? Go get your materials!

    The plans also has explanations of other versions, such as adding a bathroom or a loft, plus 16 photos of the construction. The cabin was built by Joe Everson of www.TennesseeTinyHomes.com and www.TinyHappyHomes.com, and you can check it out at Deek’s Tiny House Workshop April 11-13 2014 in Memphis, Tennesee.

    Deek joined us on GardenFork Radio, you can listen to the show here.

    tiny-house-plans-2

     

     

     

    Full Disclosure: Deek is a friend of mine, he is the inspiration for one of our most popular videos, the One Sheet Plywood Boat.

  • Refinishing Kitchen Cabinets To Save On Your Renovation – GF Radio 337

    To save money on your kitchen renovation, you can keep your existing cabinets and refinish them. Rick and Eric talk about refinishing kitchen cabinets and other money saving tips when doing a kitchen renovation, inspired by a post on The Kitchn, one of Eric’s favorite sites. Eric suggests using sponge rollers to paint the cabinets, and the cabinets must be clean. We were both curious about the use of cork flooring if anyone has a cork floor, we would like to hear from you.

    refinish-kitchen-cabinetsSalt Cod is the new Bacon : From the Salt blog on NPR, we talk about salt cod, and how one can use it in cooking. One has to be mindful of the impact of cod fishing too. we don’t have a def answer on the viability of salt cod.

    NPR has several podcasts that we like, notably the NPR Food Podcast.

    Viewer Mail:

    You can watch one of our Bread Baking videos here.
    The difference between Artisan Bread & No Knead Bread

    “I just watched your webisode about making bread and followed the directions verbatim and the bread came out better than any bread that I have bought from a bakery and I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. That it saying a lot. Thanks a lot for the postings.
    Tom.”
    “Hi Eric. I watched your video on youtube oh so long ago and then went to this HUGE site you have! WOW! Anyway, if I wanted to do a sourdough but I didn’t want to do the large container of dough in the fridge how do I make that happen? I mean I want a no knead sourdough. I’ll make the starter for the sourdough, I just don’t want that much bread starter. Could you tell me what the amounts would be reduced to for the ingredients?
    I have a cast iron skillet but no lid. Could I use that instead of a dutch oven?
    Thanks!
Beth”

    Rick tells of how he likes the TED Radio Hour and the recent show on Success is inspiring. Rick inspires us, I think.

  • Simple Apple Crisp Recipe : GF Video 12

    A simple apple crisp recipe that you can make for a quick dessert with minimal effort. We visited our local pick your own orchard, Riiska Orchard in Sandisfield, Mass, and picked way too many apples! This is our go to recipe for a quick dessert. You can use store bought apples, but we’re all about local when we can, so please consider supporting your local orchards.

    We usually add a lemon juice or orange juice to the sliced apples for flavor. The juice also keeps the slices from browning, but this isn’t a big deal for us, because its going to be baked anyway. We like to use the apple slicer gizmo – link here – but you can also just use a knife to cut them up. Thinner is better, but the apple slices don’t have to be wafer thin, just thin, OK? I have found it handy to use an apple corer when slicing the apples with a knife, this round handle device cuts out the core of the apple, saving time. Yes it is one of those uni-tasker tools, but I have one.

    apple-crisp-recipe-1

    Avoid using the instant oatmeal in this apple crisp recipe, its cut too thin, and I like the big flakes of the rolled oats, aka old fashioned oats. You can use different nuts, again use what you got, I like walnuts, but pistachios would be neat in this, or almonds or whatever you have.

    This is for a 8×8 pan, but works for something slightly larger. Glass or metal pans work fine. Glass might produce a more crunchy apple crisp along the sides and bottom, not sure why. We served this with our homemade ginger ice cream, but it tastes great alone as well. You can dial back the sugar more , but not too much or the topping wont work as well, I think.

    Simple Apple Crisp : GardenFork.TV
    Ingredients
    • 4 sliced apples
    • 1 tablespoon lemon or orange juice
    • 1 tablespoon lemon or orange zest
    • 5 tablespoons butter
    • 1 tablespoon sugar
    • 1 cup rolled oats
    • 1 handful walnuts
    • 1/2 cup sugar
    • 1/2 cup flour
    Cooking Directions
    1. Slice up your apples, not paper thin, but not chunks either. Use the slicer rig or a knife. Either way core the apples.
    2. Put the slices in a bowl and mix with 1 tablespoon sugar and lemon or orange juice and zest. If you like it sweet, you may add more sugar. Keep in mind a little zest goes a long way with flavor.
    3. Put the oats, flour, 1/2 cup sugar, walnuts, and butter in a food process and give it a few whirls. You want to cut in the butter, but not over mix it.
    4. Grease an 8×8 pan, and put the apples in the bottom.
    5. Top with the flour-butter mixture, and bake in a 350 oven for 45 minutes or when the top starts to brown and a bit bubbly

  • Is It OK To Double Dip? Viewer Mail Video #5

    Double Dipping, Cranky Comments and more on Viewer Mail Video #5

    Karma is boomerang is a big theme in Eric’s life, and we talk about that today. I am aware of what I did, so just move on in life.

    “It’s a great time to be alive” is Rick Kennerly’s life mantra, and we believe in that too. Don’t try to outdo negativity, come back in a positive way.

    A bunch of self help there for you. What do you think? Let us know below.

    We talk about our tapping sugar maple videos and then segue to double dipping, and why it’s ok to double dip.

    If you want to see an interesting photo of Eric’s foot post surgery, you can see that here.

  • Lots Of Reasons To Be Happy – GF Radio 336

    happy_dog_GFR336Pharrell Williams’ Happy song starts our show, as Eric and Rick talk about how they like the song, and as always, its easy to grumble about the world, but there are lots of reasons to be  happy. You can buy Pharell’s song, Happy, on iTunes here.

    Eric talks about watching independent musicians doing cover versions of songs like Happy, and here are a few  he likes, please to go check out there music:

     

    Walk Off The Earth
    Kinna Grannis
    David Unger

    You can check out the entire 24 hour Happy video here : http://www.24hoursofhappy.com

    The companion YouTube channel Other is here.

    Patreon.com is the site Tristan talked about in his email. Here is Jack Conte talking about Patreon.com. The video is long but worth watching.

    The startup satellite article that got us talking about the new space business model from the NY Times is here.

    Great DIY Maker videos by Jimmy Diresta, a fellow NYC resident. Check out his videos on YouTube here. Rick watched 10 of them last night.

     

  • Eric’s Foot Surgery!

    I mentioned in a recent GF Viewer Mail Video that I had had surgery on my foot, and while some may not be interested in that, I thought some might, and some have already asked, so here’s what’s up.

    I don’t know the exact medical term, but the joint of the large toe is arthritic and has a large bone spur on top of it. This makes walking, and home improvement work, very painful. I have had this condition for years, but it finally got to the point that I didn’t want to go on walks with my wife and the pups, so it was time to get the surgery done.

    I should have taken a picture of the x-ray of my foot, but here’s one that shows a normal foot with my notes:

    foot-surgery

    The surgeon cut back the bone spur and then cut the bone that connects to the to joint to change the angle of the joint to give the joint more flexibility. He then screwed the bone back together.

    The surgery experience was fine, a very nice outpatient surgical facility with super nice people. I was able to walk out using a cane and a friend drove us home.

    The post operative care you give yourself is key to any recovery, I think. And I followed the directions I was given. Its good they wrote them all down. Ice packs are key here, they reduce the swelling and that promotes faster healing. Keeping the foot elevated is important as well, keeps blood from pooling in your foot.

    I’m good at doing what I’m told, so I’ve been on the couch more than I want to be, foot up on 3 pillows, trying to work on the laptop. The pain has not been much of an issue, except in the middle of the night. I think the pain being worse at night is more a function of your mind than biology. Its dark, quiet, and your mind doesn’t have much else to focus on. I’ve found that when the pain hits, I make myself relax the muscles in my leg and foot that naturally want to tighten, and do my best at what might be best called meditative focused breathing. And then I put on another ice pack.

    foot3
    Post surgery foot looks good.

    What is the ‘AG’ on my foot? That’s the surgeon marking the foot so we both agree this is the foot we’re going to operate on. Blood pools in the toes from the cutting the bone, this will clear up soon.

    Next time I go to the surgeon I’ll try to get a photo of the x-ray showing the screw in my foot. And I’ll post a few more updates on progress here.

    Foot X-ray courtesy of Clintjcl 20090312 – Clint – foot x-ray – left (“good” foot) Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike  I added text to image.

  • Cast Iron, Maple Syrup, & Cake! Viewer Mail Video #4

    Here’s Viewer Mail Video #4, where we answer questions about Cast Iron, Maple Syrup, and Chocolate Cake.

  • How To Make Moonshine In Brooklyn

    Want to learn how to make moonshine? Here’s the book. Its surprisingly simple, as told by Colin Spoelman and David Haskell.

    I first heard of this book after reading an excerpt in Edible Brooklyn, and then saw it in the local bookstore, so I had to buy it. The bookcover says it all.

    how-to-make-moonshine

    The prologue of the book sets it up for us. The author grew up in eastern Kentucky and tells of visiting the local bootlegger instead of driving to a non-dry county. This is so different than my midwest suburban adolescence.

    We get a history of whiskey in America, learning that until the 20th century, the US government relied heavily on the taxes on alcohol, hence the desire to make it yourself. I didn’t realize how many distilleries there were in New York in the 1800s. There’s a map of downtown Brooklyn showing where legit and illegal stills were.

    We are taken through the country and its explained how geography ( The Cumberland Gap ) and rivers affected where and what whiskey was made of. Bunch of history here I knew nothing about. neat.

    We then learn just what whiskey is. Complete with a detailed graphic charting the various raw materials, processes, and aging to produce different drinks. Clearly these guys know what they are talking about. A chapter of the book surveys current whiskey distillers, and who really makes whiskey and who just packages whiskey. This I did not know.

    How To Make Moonshine

    Then we move to the chapter we all want to know about, in their words, How To Make Whiskey.

    To make whiskey is straightforward, yet easy to mess up. If you have home brewed beer, you are about 1/3 of the way there. You will, of course, need a still, and be willing to technically break the law. But go forward! There are hobby stills available for purchase.

    You make a mash of corn and other grains if you wish, ferment it, add it to your still. Fire up the still, and monitor the condensate, and you have it. Done.

    Now, a lot can go wrong, but lightbulbs are going off in my head.

    After we are walked through how to make whiskey, we then learn what we’ll need to do to start a distillery. Not bad for the price of one book. I’m not sure if Colin and David had me in mind when they wrote the book, but this is exactly all the stuff I wanted to know about.

    I don’t think i’ll go out and buy a hobby  still, but this would be a cool thing to do with a small group at a hacker space, or a distillery meetup.



    // ]]>

    Click Here to Buy On ebay

  • Cutting Firewood With A Chainsaw – GF Video

    We dropped a tree that was dead last fall, of course we made a video about that click here, and we needed to cut the tree up into firewood for the wood stove at the camp, so I had my phone camera with me while we worked. So out come the chainsaws, safety gear, and camera. It took a while to cut this hardwood cherry up, dead wood can wear out your chain quick.

    In this video we use a peavey to move the tree and the logs. Its a great tool to have, makes it much easier to roll stuff and save your back. We talk some about using the peavey here.

    The most important thing when cutting firewood is to keep in mind what it is going to be used for. This is for a woodstove, so we measured the wood stove opening and then marked the tree accordingly to make sure each log was just the right length to fit in the stove. Don’t want to do all that work and then find out the firewood wont fit, not a good thing.

    This tree had been dead a year, so it was good to be split and ready to burn. If you are cutting down a fresh tree, let the firewood dry a year, I say. We used a hyrdraulic wood splitter to break up these big logs, there’s a video about that in the links below.

    I keep two or three newly sharpened chains with me when cutting down trees or firewood. There’s nothing worse than a dull chain, your saw will overheat, and you wear out your saw and yourself. Chains are cheap, buy a few, and sharpen them regularly.

    Always keep safety in mind when using a chainsaw, they are dangerous tools. Note that I am wearing a helmet, ear protection, eye protection, chainsaw chaps, and steel toed shows. Links below to sources for these items. Be smart and be safe.

    chainsaw-video-player

    Click Here To Watch All Our Chainsaw Videos

    An all in one helmet is the #1 piece of gear you need:

     


    Click Here to Shop For Chain Saw Gear

  • DIY Popcorn Ceiling Repair – GF Radio 335

    diy-popcorn-ceiling-repair
    Textured Ceilings are not easy to repair

    A viewer mail on popcorn ceiling repair gets an answer from Eric, but first we have to take into account daylight savings time, which Eric did not this morning…

    Popcorn ceilings are not easy to fix, but Eric takes us through the options and what  he would do. Paint solves many home improvement problems, BTW. Another solution would be to re-drywall the ceiling with 1/4 or 3/8″ drywall covering over the existing popcorn ceiling.

    I was trying to think of who I knew with experience in textured ceilings to ask for their opinion on a problem I have and was drawing a blank until I thought of you (head slap).

    I’ve got to fix or redo the textured ceiling in our kitchen before we put the house on the market. A few years ago the kids overflowed the upstairs bathtub and the water seeped into the ceiling. At first it was just a stain but eventually the popcorn texturing cracked and 18 to 24″ section along the seam came down. I’ve been looking online about textured ceiling repairs and a couple of places have stated its basically impossible to match a popcorn textured ceiling as the thickness and roughness is highly dependent on the operator and air pressure. What is your opinion? Do you think I, as an intermediate level DIY carpenter/painter/dry waller, could match it or would I better off pulling it all down and redoing the whole dinning room/kitchen ceiling texturing at once? I’m confident I can redo the drywall tape no problem but I’ve never done a spray on ceiling before so I’m not sure what the best course is.

    Thanks for any suggestions you might have and thanks for all the great work you do on Gardenfork.

    And about this Daylight Savings Time thing. We talk a bit about it, nothing conclusive, Rick knows more about this than Eric, of course.

    Eric has to do a sefl-correction, once again. This time about how Jacks Farm Radio got its name. Eric thought the farm had been named Jack’s Farm before Daniel bought it, but that’s not true:

    Now for the JACK’S FARM name.
    Here’s a link to our story.
    http://jacksfarm.net/whos-jack/

    My wife, Deb and I started the farm from scratch.
    JACK’S FARM refers to the fact that you need to be a jack of all trades as a small farmer.
    More importantly, Deb thought Dan’s Farm sounded corny!

    So there you go.

    Favorite YouTube Channels of listener LJC:

    Hi Eric,
    Some of my favourite youtube channels (besides GFork) are:

    1. Growing Your Greens by John Kohler

    2. The Horticultural Channel by Sean James Cameron

    3. Clairesallotment by Claire Burgess

    4. RickVanMan by Rick Clarke (watch his allotment progress from day 1 to now!)

    5. GreenGardenGuy1
    A few websites I love:

    1. Self-Sufficient in Suburbia (based out of the UK)…it is a fantastic blog with videos and pics.

    2. Mark’s Veg Plot (also based out of the UK)

    3. Dinner with Julie by Julie Van Rosendaal
    Wishing you a speedy recovery! I hope you do some vids of what you are sowing and growing in your garden this summer. All the best, LJC

    We talk more about Rick’s planned outbuilding, Eric suggested checking out Charlie’s Greenhouse and FarmTek.

    Low-E windows come up, and Eric learns that low-E windows are not good for growing plants. And then we start talking about sailing in New York Bay in the Hudson. Eric would like to learn more about sailing. Rick has joined The Other People’s Boat Club.

  • Plywood Boat Photos from Juan

    Got  great email from Juan, he saw our plywood boat video and built one himself. How cool is that? Juan was nice enough to let us post his plywood boat photos here on the site. Here is the email he sent:

    Just wanted to say thanks for putting up the video on making a small boat it was very fun, me and my dad had a great time doing it and knowing that it works is even better.
    What i really mean to say is that today was a great day!!

    thanks again!! juan

    Not the custom made boat paddle, much nicer and well made than our store bought boa paddle. Nicely done!

    Click Here to watch our Plywood Boat Videos

    plywood-boat-photos-from-juan-1 plywood-boat-photos-from-juan-2

    plywood-boat-photos-from-juan-3

     

  • Tap Sugar Maples for Maple Syrup with Buckets – GF Video

    Its time to tap sugar maples to make maple syrup in our area, and I went out with my neighbors to help them tap with buckets and spouts. This is the traditional method of tapping trees, many people now use plastic taps and tubing. See the links below for our videos on tapping using tubing. My neighbor Bill puts out about 150 buckets, mainly along the roadsides in our town.

    If you are thinking of what method you’d like to use to tap sugar maples, I have no strong opinion between buckets and tubing. The buckets are better for smaller operations, and for tapping on other people’s property. Most tubing stays up year round, and not everyone likes how it looks in summer.

    I use tubing and plastic taps, and I take down the tubing every spring. I tap the same trees each year, and I can put back up the tubing. Its work, but so is hauling sap buckets.

    tap-sugar-maples-maple-syrup-buckets
    This is a hard to find attachment for your chain saw

    I’ve also seen people use plastic bags and milk jugs to tap trees. I have no experience with these, but at least with the milk jugs, i can see how they would overflow easily when the sap is running. That wastes a lot of sap.

    Ask around your town or check on craigslist for buckets to tap sugar maples, I’m sure there are some in a garage. You can also buy them new, though I believe the new buckets are made of aluminum.

    We have a bunch of how to make maple syrup videos, check them out below:

    Click Here To Watch All Our Maple Syrup Videos

     

     

  • Beginning Snowshoe How To – GF Video

    We love to snowshoe and wanted to show you how to snowshoe yourself. When the snow is knee deep, its the best way to get around the yard or go on a hike. Plus its a great outdoor exercise. Watch our video here and read on to learn about snowshoes:


    We bought our snowshoes at the end of the winter season, they were on sale and we saved quite a bit. You can also find snowshoes for sale on eBay in addition to your online stores. Click here to find snowshoes on Amazon.

    Like most things in life, you get what you pay for when buying snowshoes. While you probably don’t need the über professional snowshoes, you don’t want to cheap out either, else they will break when you really need them. I use them a lot to get to the wood shed, it keeps me from falling down in the snow with a load of firewood.

    Our snowshoes have a metal cleat or gripper underneath for walking across ice and frozen snow, and I suggest you be sure your snowshoes have them. Look underneath for a wide claw thing about 4″ wide. You might also consider gaiters or some sort of snowpants to keep snow from falling into your boots  or shoes, real handy when you are throwing up snow as you walk.

    Snow shoes will not keep you floating above the snow, you will still punch down into the snow a bit, but its much less than going completely up to your knees. They can be a bit clunky, so look for shoes that are easy to put on. Keep in mind you will be putting these on in the cold, not inside your house. Ours have easy release clips, makes it easy to take them off at the end of a hike.

    So let us know your snow shoe experiences below, be good to hear from you.

     

  • Triple Chocolate Cake Recipe – GF Video

    Take our chocolate cake recipe, add chocolate chips and chocolate icing, and make a triple chocolate cake! Based on comments viewers made to our original simple chocolate cake video, we added a few things to amp up the cake, and it tastes amazing.

    I love this cake for its simplicity. But then, I love making everything as simple as possible, life is complicated enough as it is. So with a few additions, you can amp up the decadence of the chocolate cake and it still takes almost no time to make.

     

    triple-chocolate-cake-recipe
    Adding chocolate chips on top of the batter makes this decadent.

     

    Snooki said in her comment that her family makes a similar chocolate cake recipe and adds chocolate chips across the top of the batter, so we did that. Simple and done. You could mix the chips into the batter, but this cake doesn’t need it. I like how the chocolate chip layer is on the top. If you wanted to switch it up a little, you could use white chocolate chips, or peanut butter chips. Either one would be a great addition.

    Cathy suggested the chocolate icing or glaze. ( Not sure if its called icing or a glaze, let me know your thoughts below ) Take a half stick of butter, melt it, add in cocoa and powdered sugar and spread across the top of the cake. You could do this just before serving, but I like to do it beforehand and let the glaze settle into the cake a bit. I like the word unctuous, and it fits here really well. Now while writing this i want some cake, and its not even lunchtime yet.

    Do you guys make a cake like this? Let me know in the comments below, we can make a third and fourth version of this going forward

    Check out our original simple chocolate cake recipe video here.

    Triple Chocolate Cake Recipe – GardenFork.TV
    Ingredients
    • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 3 tablespoons cocoa
    • 1 teaspoon baking soda
    • 3/4 cup veg oil
    • 3/4 cup water
    • 1 tablespoon vinegar
    • 1 cup chocolate chips
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla
    Cooking Directions
    1. This is based on our simple chocolate cake recipe, amped up with more chocolate
    2. Heat Oven to 350F
    3. Put all the dry ingredients in an 8 x 8 or 9 x 9 pan.
    4. Mix together well, using a whisk or fork if you like
    5. Make a well or hole in the middle of the dry ingredients
    6. Add the wet ingredients in to the well.
    7. Mix the wet into the dry until it looks like chocolate cake batter
    8. Smooth the top of the batter, and scatter across the top the chocolate chips
    9. Bake on the middle rack of the oven. Check at 25 minutes, you want it moist, not dry.
    10. In our oven, this bakes in 30 minutes, a convection oven may be faster.
    11. Mix up the chocolate icing recipe, pour across the cake, and let it cool.

    Simple Chocolate Icing
    Ingredients
    • 1/2 stick – 4 ozs butter
    • 2 teaspoons cocoa
    • 1/4 cup milk
    • 1 cup powdered sugar
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla
    Cooking Directions
    1. This icing was suggested by one of our viewers, and its great on chocolate cake
    2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan.
    3. Turn off heat and add milk.
    4. Stir in cocoa
    5. Add in powedered sugar
    6. Mix well and then spread over the cake.
    7. Smooth it out if you want and allow cake to cool.

  • Your Feet Touch The Ground – GFR 334

    Eric tells of his toe surgery, and rick talks about his hammertoe, great stuff to start out a radio show. we then talk about being careful with painkillers, and how its easy to overdose on acetaminophen ( aka Tylenol ) , one has to be careful if you’ve already taken acetaminophen and then take a more powerful painkiller, as many of these stronger painkillers also contain acetaminophen.

    GFR334Eric sings the praises of nurses, who make the world go around. “A doctor will save your life, nurses will keep you alive” says Rick.

    The computer upgrade fundraiser is going very well. Eric and Rick both like the refurbished Mac computers direct from the Apple store. These almost new computers come with a full year Apple warranty.

    Why use Apple Macintosh computers? Rick and Eric are self described fanboys of Apple products because they just work out of the box.

    Viewer mail shoutout to KC, who gave us a suggestion on using a SSD solid state hard drive install for Rick. Kevin suggested a hybrid drive, which has a solid state memory chip plus a regular hard drive.

    The maple syrup season is not happening for eric this year, with the foot surgery, its just not possible, but we did just post a how to tap maple trees with buckets video, as Eric went with his friend Bill to tap trees last week.

    Eric asks if people could suggest stuff for Eric could watch and read on the internet.

    we then segue into building a house out of containers, and 2 have been built in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Here is the link to a NY Times article on those houses.

     

  • Restaurant Grade Short Ribs – GFR 333

    Eric talks about the pressure cooker short ribs he made, but first we tangent to beekeeping for a minute. Help GardenFork and you’ll get more videos!

    restaurant-grade-short-ribs-gfr-333But on to the short ribs. Bone-in Short ribs from Whole Foods go in the pressure cooker with vegetable broth and wine, plus some onions, potatoes, and carrots, and out comes a masterpiece. The gravy actually worked, using a fat separator gravy thing to get most of the fat out of the liquid from the pot.

    Rick talks about his history course he is taking through Coursera. It is a MOOC, Massive Online Open Course. Rick likes how people from around the world are taking the class.

  • Turn Off Social Media – Get Things Done – GF Radio 332

    How To Turn Off Social Media, Jump starting your car, seed starting, and can you jump start a car with a Toyota Prius? Listen to GardenFork Radio to find out.

    Rick and Eric talk about seed starting, and what kind of bulbs to use in your seed starting grow light. We have some great seed starting videos, Watch 5 Seed Starting Videos Here, about how to start and grow seedlings.

    Its still a bit early to start seeds here in the Northeast, but you might want to start if you live farther south. Rick is once again going to graft tomatoes, after his tomato success last year. I believe some companies sell grafted seedlings. have to check on that.

    turn-off-social-media-2What kind of bulbs should you use in  your grow light? Can you use regular fluorescent bulbs in a grow light? Rick and Eric talk about what kind of light bulbs to use in your grow lights, and talk about LED lights as well.

    Eric reads a viewer mail from Kent of Grace Note Farm who runs a small scale farm. Kent is also a mac computer expert, and Rick is interested in an SSD, solid state hard drive.

    Eric suggested introducing Kent to Daniel of Jacks Farm Radio podcast.

    Rick talks about a blog post he wrote on his site about how social media distracts one from actually getting things done. Rick likes two programs, one is Freedom, and Anti-Social. These two apps turn off the world of the internet and allow you to focus on getting things done. They turn off the social media, so you can get things done.

    Eric tells how he does not read email in the morning, but makes himself work on GardenFork, creating content instead of consuming content.

    We touch on Beekeeping and Rick talks a bit about africanized bees.

    Rick talks about an app called Last Pass, which he likes, and it also offers credit monitoring. We also share ways to make each password for different sites unique yet ones you can remember.