GardenFork – Eclectic DIY – Page 29 – How To Videos, A Podcast, and Labradors.

GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

Simple Rhubarb Cake Recipe : GF Video

Make this simple rhubarb cake and and learn how to cook rhubarb in this easy cake video. This rhubarb recipe is based our Peach Dump Cake Dessert Recipe video, link here. What’s great about this recipe is that it doesn’t take long to bake and you’re ready to go out in the yard instead of being in the kitchen.

This rhubarb recipe can be adapted to use most any fresh or canned fruit. Like its cousin, the Peach Dump Cake recipe, it uses a quick cake recipe and adds in fruit. We found that simmering the rhubarb in some sugar before adding it to the cake batter works really well. Our oven usually takes longer than most to bake cakes, so this recipe should take about 30 minutes in your oven.

If you want to make this recipe and its winter, you can buy frozen rhubarb in larger supermarkets now. Neat. I imagine frozen would not need to be cooked as much beforehand, as the freezing breaks it down some.

We have a bunch of how to grow and cook rhubarb videos on our site, here is the link. Our first rhubarb video we did when our Yellow Labrador Henry was just a pup, and she was eating my notes while we were shooting the show. Watch our first rhubarb recipe video here.

Let us know your thoughts and suggestions and ideas in the comments below, are there new ways to use rhubarb in recipes? Have you ever eaten it raw? I have, it has quite a taste!

Simple Rhubarb Cake Recipe
Ingredients
•   1 cup All purpose Flour
•   1 1/2 Teaspoon Fresh Baking Powder
•   1/2 Teaspoon Salt
•   1 stick Butter
•   1 cup milk
•   1 1/3 cups sugar – use less if you want
•   2 cups rhubarb
Cooking Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375F
2. Cut the Rhubarb into 1/2\’ pieces, toss into a small pan with 1/3 cup sugar over low heat, simmer for 5 minutes or until the rhubarb is slightly soft. You may want to drain off some of the water from this to keep the cake batter from being too wet.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients together
4. Add the milk and slightly cooked rhubarb. The batter may look pretty wet
5. Pour the batter into a greased 8 x 8 cake pan. I like to use a glass pan for this. It browns the cake nicely.
6. Bake for 30 minutes and test for doneness. The top of the cake should be nicely browned, but not too toasted.
7. This rhubarb recipe goes well with ice cream.

June 14, 2013
Matty’s Weed Fabric : GF Radio

Rick and Eric talk about using a heat gun to melt the wax caps off of honeycombs

Eric asks if there is an intellectual property lawyer who might help out GardenFork

Then talk moves to spray foam insulation and sheetrock on ceilings

and viewer mail with Matty!

June 10, 2013
Foraging For Wild Garlic : GF Video

Foraging for edible plants in the spring includes looking for edible wild greens like wild garlic, also called spring garlic. This edible wild food is one of the first plants to start growing after the long winter, and is ready for your dinner plate. Wild Garlic looks like a young scallion plant or chives, and is edible. The taste has a slight garlic aroma, but its definitely in the onion taste family. You can find this edible plant growing in lawns and forest edges. Many consider it a weed, however we think it a great addition to salads or meals.

Be Safe In Your Foraging!

Double check with a good plant identification book! At the end of the post are some books we suggest. Always be sure with your plant identification before adding this to your soup.

According to Wikipedia, when cattle eat wild garlic, it can give a garlic-like taste to the milk and beef, interesting. It is native to Europe and considered an invasive here in North America.

I see this edible plant growing in yards a lot. I’m sure the homeowners don’t realize they have food growing in their yard! To harvest the wild garlic, its best to use one of those 3 pronged garden fork hand tools. You have to dig down a bit to get out the bulbs, or you can snip off the green stems and they will grow back. As the plant matures, unfortunately the stems get woody and aren’t good eating. If you pull this plant out of a park or someone’s yard, make sure it hasn’t been sprayed with an herbicide. Not a good thing to be eating that stuff.

Let us know what you know about this plant or any questions below:

June 7, 2013
The Zen of Basic Knife Skills

#PodcastsWorthHearing : the Zen of Knife Skills (vids) – rhkennerly http://ow.ly/lBKkd

First knife fight I ever saw was at Ft. Devens. Oddly it was at breakfast, at the butt-crack of dawn no less, in the chow hall. The fight was over the last cup of Black Cherry Yogurt. Good stuff, I’m sure, but not worth dying over.

And that experience pretty much summed up my knife education for the last 50 years. For me it was: knife as pry tool, knife as first resort aboard ship (where the government buys the line), knife as last resort while sailing (where you buy the line), knife as show of manliness in the Caribbean (the bigger the knife, the better the diver).

In the kitchen, I’ve always been more of a production cook:

…

June 1, 2013
The Future Always Wins : GF Radio

Eric tells about driving the 2013 Ford F150 Limited in downtown Manhattan, as well as using the truck up at the CT house. A big thank you to our Mike and Scott and Mary Beth at Ford for making that happen!

Rick brings up the illegal importation of honey, read more here: http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/02/honeygate-sting-leads-to-charges-for-illegal-chinese-honey-importation

Eric talks about the celebration of the neato factor, the cool stuff people are doing, like Tyler and his severe weather data company, Allison House.

Speaking of the maker world, Rick tells us about WikiHouse, a project to use CNC machines to make housing, very neat. Its a house that is assembled all from plywood cut on a CNC machine.

Eric gives a shout out to Steve at Born To Farm, and his podcast, Growing Your Own Grub

Rick suggests looking outside the US for neat podcasts, you can get his podcast suggestions by following Rick on twitter and his hashtag: #podcastsworthhearing

Spray Foam Insulation comes up at the end

The Cement Truck always wins.

May 31, 2013
DIY: Fixing a Balky HOME button on an iOS device

Well, actually a “work around.”

For some weeks the black HOME button at the bottom of the screen on my iPad 2 has been…let’s say moody, uncooperative. In a word “balky.” Like me, it only works when it wants to and is unpredictable in its work ethic, also like me.

I’d done some research on the interwebs and found this to be a common complaint without a real cure. Some think the problem is actually software related. Some think it’s mechanical. I’ve tried all the simple suggestions I could find about “resetting” the software.

Most of these suggestions were simple and middle-of-the-road. One was more occult than anything else.

“Take your iPad out of it’s case or cover. Rotate your iPad into the Landscape orientation with the HOME button to the right. Rotate your device to the Portrait orientation with the HOME button on the bottom. Immediately put your iPad backdown on a cold, hard, flat surface and leave it over night.”

Well that didn’t work.

I did think about having the mechanical Home button replaced, but I’d read that because of the way the iPad is constructed, there was a good chance of damage. Everyone guaranteed their button and their work, but NOBODY guaranteed the damage putting the new button in.

However, I discovered that in the later iOS upgrades there is a HOME button in accessibility options that will float on your screen and do all kinds of nifty things.

The “soft” HOME button is small, semi-transparent, and dragable to any place on your screen.

When activated, it pops up with this MENU:

from here the soft HOME button accepts 1, 2 or 3 taps, just like the mechanical HOME button. “Gestures” is for recording your own unique gestures and relating them to apps or other events. “Favorites” is where your gestures are stored. Under “Device” is this MENU:

And under “More” is this Menu:

“Multitasking” is for quickly switching between apps.

Activating the soft HOME button does not disable input from the mechanical HOME button, so there’s no reason not to have it on your desktop and ready to use if your iDevice stops answering input from the mechanical HOME button.

Here are the steps for activating the soft HOME button:

May 29, 2013
Rick Falls Out Of A Truck : GF Radio

Rick gets a bee swarm call and ends up on the ground. there are more notes, but i will have to post them later, OK? have to go to work now. thx! eric.

May 22, 2013
DIY Bee Vacuum Video

Make a DIY Bee Vacuum. Usually a beekeeper can just shake a swarm of bees into the bucket and walk away. Every now and then, however, a vacuum is the only way to get the bees. In this short video, Rick shows how he constructed a bee vacuum for less than $25.

May 9, 2013
Just Build and Fail with Mike : GF Radio

Mike and Eric talk bout Mike’s electronics fabrication startup, DK Pinball, and his recent trip to the Midwest Gaming Classic with his PIG pinball interface device. Through this story we learn again that most of us learn by failure, and not to be afraid to try, to not come up with excuses for not doing stuff.

Kinda like the GardenFork mantra, Go Out And Do Stuff.

Because Mike asked, he was able to secure a prime spot at the Gaming Classic to show people his Pinball Interface Gagdet, which allows pinball machines to be modified to flash lights or LEDs, to control motors or servos, signal relays. The PIG makes modifying your pinball machine that much easier. Get more information about the PIG from DK Pinball here.

So remember, the worst they can say is no.

Mike talks about the importance of working for free, either to learn how to do stuff, or be able to trade labor or time in a shop. Mike worked for free at a shop and was then able to use their laser CNC machine, which is a computer controlled cutting machine. neat.

The talk then moves toward starting a small business, and your career in general. Eric speaks highly of Rich Gee, Executive Business Coach. So if you are looking for someone to help with your career with advice and an action plan, Rich is the guy.

Mike talks about the challenge of hiring your first employee, and what a hurdle that is. Its harder than one might think. Eric suggests using a payroll service, even though it may sound expensive, it will save time and headaches for you, allowing you to focus on being in business, not pushing paper around.

we then move on to how you work in your workshop. Do we spend time cleaning our workshop or working in our workshop? Does stuff get stacked up in your workshop, what about de-cluttering your workshop? Mike tells us how to organize the workshop.

Eric talks about the number of cables one has just to connect all the devices one has on a desk, and Mike suggests Spiral Wraps to organize computer cables.

We then close with dog food thoughts and viewer mail.

May 5, 2013
Raised Bed Garden Plans For A Self Contained Garden : GF Video

This raised bed garden plan video is perfect for a school garden project, or for building raised beds on a concrete or asphalt playground. This kind of raised bed is also good for raised beds on top of contaminated soil. This self contained raised bed is a plywood box supported by concrete blocks, a plastic liner keeps moisture away from the wooden sides of the raised bed.

I saw this raised bed at a Whole Foods in St Louis, MO. I like the simple design of the raised bed, one can build it with a few tools and a saw. This kind of bed would be great for a school that wants to build a garden in a playground or parking lot. You don’t have to dig up anything, just build these raised beds and drop in the soil. If you have soil contamination in your yard, yet you want a vegetable garden, this design will work for you. ( we have another video coming up about gardening in or on contaminated soil, join our email list to be alerted to that video post )

This design uses treated plywood for longevity, and the treated plywood is kept separate from the garden soil by a plastic liner. The raised bed is supported by concrete footers that are usually used to build decks. Holes are drilled through the liner and plywood for drainage.

This kind of container gardening requires one to pay attention to the moisture level of the garden soil in the raised bed. This soil will dry out faster than the surrounding earth. I think a soaker hose drip irrigation system – drip irrigation video here – would work great for this bed.

What kind of raised beds do you have? ? Questions, Comments? please let us know below:

May 1, 2013
Easy Window Install & Using Spray Foam

I helped a friend install replacement windows today. The original windows were double hung sash weight windows, quite old. Wanted to show you a few things about how to install replacement windows. To install new windows, you first have to remove the old ones. This is not hard.

We will be using the frame of the original window. The replacement windows slide inside the existing frame. Most replacement windows need to be custom ordered. Its important to measure each window, as they are all slightly different.

Old window removed

To ready the window frame for the new window, you remove the trim from the inside, and the bottom window will tip out easily. There is a thin wooden strip between the upper and lower windows, and once that is removed, the upper window comes out. You may have to disconnect the sash weights, though the sash weight cord is usually broken already. The windows may need to be lowered or raised a few inches to get past the sash weight pulley.

The replacement window then slides into the existing window frame.

Now the fun part: Spray Foam.

Its probably the insulation obsessive in me, but I love to use spray foam. For these windows, we had to insulate a lot of cavities around the original windows, so this called for a lot of spray foam!

There are several kinds of spray foam, different kinds expand at different rates, and some cans of foam can be used more than once. Some cans, once you start foaming, you can’t stop, or the foam hardens in the spray tube. Others you can clean out the spray tube and use it again later.

Cavity Filler and Door Foam

The two main kinds of spray foam for our purposes is cavity filling “Big Gap Filler” and minimally expanding “Door & Jamb Foam” . The names are pretty self explanatory. You may not realize it, but the cavity filler type foam, if used when sealing a door or window, can warp the wood door frame. For doors and windows, we use the minimally expanding foam to fill in the gaps. For big open spaces, we use the big foaming stuff.

Most spray foam cans have to be held upside down when using, if you don’t, all the propellant leaks out, leaving the foam in the bottom of the can. It can be helpful to have an additional stray handy when you have to work up close to a ceiling, the additional straw allows you still tilt the can yet get the foam where you need it.

Cavity Filler Foam on the bottom, and Door & Jamb foam on top

Most important is to wear gloves and clothes you don’t care about. You will get foam on your clothes, and it doesn’t come off. I have ruined a lot of clothing with spray foam. I invented the trash bag work smock for impromptu spray foam jobs.

Trash Bag as spray foam application uniform

What do you use spray foam for? Let us know below:

April 30, 2013
Dandelion Greens : Info, Recipes, Videos

Pulling some dandelions in our of our raised vegetable garden beds this weekend, I was able to pull some of the dandelion greens out whole, with their taproot. wow. The raised beds have great garden soil in them, and they weed easily; with little work the long taproot came out with the dandelion plant. Dandelions can be persistent if one does not get out the taproot, they will grow back if you just snap off the greens; which can be a good thing if you are growing dandelion for food, no need to reseed, just snap off the top.

These dandelion greens were in the wrong place in our garden, so I pulled them for salad. They were in what was our tomato bed last year, peeking out from the side of the black plastic I use as a mulch and thermal blanket to keep weeds down, heat up the soil in the early spring, and conserve moisture in the soil.

Dandelion Greens are super healthy for you, they are high in Vitamin A, C, & K. They taste great in salads, soups, and whatever else you would toss a hardy green leafy vegetable into. The greens can be bitter, and sometimes people blanch them to get rid of some of that bitterness.

All parts of the dandelion plant are edible, most people think of dandelion greens, and dandelion wine, but what about the taproot?

The dandelion taproot can be used to make a coffee alternative, much like burdock root is used to do the same. The taproot is also used to make a British drink called Dandelion and Burdock, and is used in making root beet. Perhaps this is where the ‘root’ part of root beer comes from.

I’ve got burdock growing the the yard near the woodshed, this year I’ll look into making this english drink.

We’ve made a few videos about dandelion greens and how to cook with dandelion with these recipes:

Harvesting Dandelions Greens & Salad Recipe

Dandelion Greens with Bacon

Here is a good book on foraging to get you started;

Order From An Indie Bookstore Here

Buy From Amazon Here

April 29, 2013
Birdhouse Kit Repair

After a year, one of our birdhouses we made from a birdhouse kit had been chewed open by the squirrels to the point where the entrance hole was too large for most birds. The cavity nesting birds we attract to the yard are mainly Chickadees and Nuthatches. In addition to having several kit birdhouses, we also have made several birdhouses, click here to watch out how to build a birdhouse video and get free birdhouse plans.

Chewed Out Birdhouse Hole

I’ve seen number of yards with wooden birdhouses made from kits or birdhouse plans that have had the entrance holes chewed apart by squirrels, and somewhere I saw this simple solution for repairing the birdhouses.
Here I’ve used piece of metal roof flashing, which you can buy a small roll of, to cover the enlarged entrance hole. You could also use some leftover sheet metal, or even a flattened out piece of aluminum from a soda can.

Most smaller cavity nesting birds will use a birdhouse with a 1 3/8 diameter entrance hole, so I happened to have a hole saw that diameter.

I cut the sheet metal to overlap the existing birdhouse entrance hole, and nailed it onto the front of the birdhouse. I then drilled out the sheetmetal hole. I used drill press, but you can do this with a hand drill as well.

Repaired Birdhouse!

While you are doing this repair, check to see if there is any screening on the inside of the front wall of the birdhouse. The young birds need to be able to climb up the side of the wall of the birdhouse to get out of the nest. I put some leftover hardware cloth on the inside of the front of the birdhouse, extending down from the entrance hole to the floor of the birdhouse, to make a climbing wall for the young birds to get out.

Here is a video on how to build a birdhouse

April 27, 2013
In Memory of Mij, Labrador Video Memorial : GF Video

Mij, our neighbor’s Yellow Labrador Retriever who appears in many GardenFork videos, passed away recently. I went through a lot of the video clips we have of Mij and put together a DVD for his family, and then we decided to share it with all of you as well.

Here is 12 minutes of Labradors, also appearing here are Moose and Charlie Pup when they were puppies.

April 27, 2013
Whole Wheat Tuna Dog Treats Recipe – Adorrable Dor

Wholewheat Tuna Dog Treats -Adorrable Dor

Hey Allemaal! -which means everyone in Dutch-
Finally we are getting some decent spring weather, and boy do we need it. I think we are about 3 to 4 weeks behind normal spring growth and my garden is poised to explode with greens and all kinds of flowers. Now comes the really difficult part of teaching Roshi to stay on the paths and grass and out of the vegetable and flower beds. As she is a darling Labrador in full puberty this is a hit and miss experience at the moment. But I already decided to keep the veggies limited to lettuces and legumes this year so if she damages anything in youthful folly it can be replaced easily.
A note about the Sweet Potato dogtreats I made early March, because there is a high moisture content they must be either used within 10 days or so or be kept in the refrigerator. The last couple of treats I made spoiled I’m sorry to say.

These Tuna Treats are also quite high in moisture but should keep 2 weeks without problems, that is if you can keep your dogs from stealing them. That’s what happed to Ellie -Roshi’s breeder- when I made her these treats for her 5 grown Labs. Within half an hour Roshi’s mom Esmer stole the container full of treats from the kitchen counter and all Labs pounced and devoured the lot, destroying the plastic tub in the process. The garlic in this recipe is optional but most dogs seem to have no problems with it and garlic helps with flea and tick control.
The picture shows Rosh enjoying her new bowl rack –is that what you call this contraption in English- so she does not stretch her neck and spine too much when eating. Credit goes to my husband, he cleverly fashioned it from an Ikea IVAR bookcase sidepanel.

Wholewheat Tuna Dog Treats
If you have tuna in water no problem, substitute the 2 tablespoons of water for olive or vegetable oil.
1 small can of tuna in oil
2 tablespoons of water
300 grams or 10.5 ounces of whole wheat flour
2 eggs
4 cloves of chopped garlic

This recipe uses a kitchen blender but you can easily mix and knead this dough by hand, just chop the garlic very finely.
Preheat your oven at 200 C or 395 F.

Blend the tuna, water and garlic in the machine, add flour and eggs. Whizz again until it forms a firm but slightly sticky dough.
Remove from the blender and add a little flour if it is too sticky to roll out comfortably.
Using a rolling pin, glass or just your hands, roll or push the dough to a thickness of about 1 cm or 1/3 inch. It will puff a bit in the oven, so will make a substantial treat.
Distribute the treats evenly on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper. Bake for about 30 minutes until nicely golden brown. You can leave them in the cooling oven for an hour or so, they will crisp up even more.
I use Roshi’s Labrador cookie cutter but you can use any shape that takes your fancy, this is a very well behaved dough.
Of course using a glass or the empty tuna can, even cutting into strips will work just as well.
This recipe is adapted from the Hondenkoekjes met Tonijn recipe from the www.hondenkoekjes.nl site.

April 26, 2013
Birdhouses, Arugula, and Daylilies – GF Radio

Rick and Eric talk building bird houses, removing a swimming pool from Rick’s yard, foraging for daylilies.

And then there is Eric’s secret to inner peace!

Links:

Birdhouse Video

Swimming Pool video

Foraging for daylilies video

How dogs feel pain

April 26, 2013
Filling an Unwanted Swimming Pool

Here is Rick’s pool being filled in:

April 26, 2013
Wood Fired Pizza Oven Photos from Daniel

Daniel watched our Brick Pizza Oven Plans video and built his own. He calls it a Wood Fired Oven, aka wood fired pizza oven.

He tell us a bit about it:

I have constructed a dry stacked wood oven similar to [GardenFork’s} I purchased the cement blocks for the base and the cement board for the sub floor at home depot. After leveling the land, I created a surface onto which I placed the fire brick floor of the oven. These were also newly purchased. From there I built up the oven itself from used clay bricks. The roof is supported by angle iron pieces. I constructed a short chimney from bricks.

My first pizzas were not at all perfect but there is still a lot to learn about maximizing this oven and of course, being that it is kind of rough, to say the least, it may never be able to match the results of a commercially produced wood fired oven. But for those who want to experience a wood fired oven without the commitment of dollars or creating a permanent structure, this might be the way to go. So far, I love it! Dan

I love how Daniel took the brick pizza oven plan we did, and made it his own. The cement blocks make a great base, its clear that pizza oven isn’t going anywhere. He also doubled up the brick walls and roof, so the oven would have more mass and hold more heat. If you have more brick, use it, I say.

Daniel originally posted these photos on http://www.pizzamaking.com/, neat forum if you are into pizza making big time.

Watch our how to build a pizza oven video here:

Have you built a pizza oven? Have Comments or Questions? please post them below:

April 19, 2013