GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

  • Puffballs & Mushroom Identification

    How to identify mushrooms. I get a lot of requests for more information mushroom identification, so i’ve started with this post to show GardenFork readers different mushrooms I run across in the woods and in the city.
    The Giant Puffball can be a common site in urban areas. You might see these large white balls that look like they are from another planet appearing on your lawn, or in a park or meadow. Puffballs like this are common on the East Coast, I’ve also seen them in the Midwest.
    The Puffball Mushroom in the photo here is one I found in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York. It was growing on the edge of a meadow near some trees.

    Puffballs such as this are generally edible, though double check with several references and experts before getting out your knife and fork. I have found them to taste underwhelming, kinda like tofu. So maybe you can use them in a stir fry or saute with other vegetables, or in a soup.

    Homesteaders, Urban Homesteaders, Foragers: Let me know how you cook puffballs.

    how to identify mushrooms
    Giant Puffball Mushroom part of the GardenFork Mushroom Identification series

  • Sneak Preview of this week’s DIY show :

    Does it float? You’ll have to watch this week’s show…

  • Dutch Oven Banana Bread Recipe – Campfire Cooking – GF Video

    Dutch oven banana bread recipe baked in a campfire or using charcoal, nice right?. Either way it tastes like the instant comfort food that it is. Watch the video and then read the recipe below.

    Head up: I now have 4 dutch ovens, and all are well seasoned at this point. You can see our  how to season cast iron video here. But I’ve never used a dutch oven for what they were probably originally designed for, cooking over a campfire. So today we use the cast iron dutch oven for what it is for, cooking outdoors. Watch and learn how to bake with fire.

    How to make the dutch oven banana bread recipe

    Whether for campfire cooking or backyard cooking, the dutch oven comes thru as a great pot for baking. Today we are going to learn how to use the dutch oven you have to bake or cook food outdoors, using charcoal or firewood. There are a couple of tricks here we learned from Gary of Cooking-Outdoors.com, like how to stack coals on the lid of a dutch oven, and how to use a dutch oven to bake breads and cakes.

    Update: Reading some of the great comments, I’ve learned that when fully fired up, each charcoal briquette puts out about 40-50F of heat. I will use this info as I experiment more with dutch oven cooking with charcoal and campfires. What fun.

    If you don’t already have them here are links to buy a cast iron dutch oven, a charcoal chimney, and heat resistant oven mitts.

    Some takeaways from this video and recipe, which was really fun to do.

    • Its not perfect. Is baking outdoors ever perfect
    • Use good pot holders and silicon oven gloves.
    • Charcoal is hot!
    • You will love baking outdoors.

    [tasty-recipe id=”13323″]

    Toad In A Hole Recipe
    Check out our Toad In The Hole Recipe, also made outdoors in a dutch oven.

  • How to remove wallpaper : GardenFork Radio

    Mike and Eric talk about how to remove wallpaper and skim coat walls, then move on to urban foraging and the recent NY Times article about harvesting plants from city parks, then we segue into how to replace a car fender, and the caveats that go with working on a damaged car.

    Temporary email addresses allow to get into sites that require an email address confirmation, but you’d rather not give the site your regular email address.

    Sous vide cooking with a slow cooker, and how to control the temperature of a slow cooker for sous vide cooking comes next, with eric discussing his newest research. Here is the link to the Makezine.com page about sous vide controllers.

    we finish up talking about eric’s newest thing, plywood boats. More to come on that one.

     

    photo by KevinRosseel

  • Bait Hives, Bee Swarms and Swarm Traps, Beekeeping 101 : GardenFork.TV

    I built some honey bee swarm traps, or bait hives, to try to capture any bee swarms that came out of the beehives in our beeyard. Swarm Traps, or Bait Hives are basically boxes you place around near your bees, offering them as convenient homes for new bee swarms. The bait hives – swarm traps I show you how to build  here are made from old bee frames and boxes. When my neighbor called me to say there were bees flying around one of our Swarm Traps, I left work and drove over, excited to video our first swarm! And happy too that we had not lost swarm to the woods, instead we could start a new hive with it, or recombine it with the hive from where it left later in the fall. Here is the video we made for our Beekeeping 101 Beginning Beekeeping

  • First Frames full of honey from new beehives

    we did a beehive inspection last week and found the new honeybees to be in good shape. they have started to fill up their new frames with honey. this honey will stay in the hive to feed the honeybees through the winter.

  • How to keep honeybees basic questions : GardenFork Radio

    Want to know the basics of how to raise honeybees? what kind of beekeeping equipment you need to buy? what kind of beekeeping veil to buy? where is the best place to put beehives? Listen to GardenFork Radio for a Beekeeping 101 , the basics of raising honeybees.

    The idea for this honeybee beekeeping show started when my friend & GF viewer Matt wanted to ask me some questions about starting beekeeping. I suggested we make it into a GardenFork Radio show, as I imagine there are a bunch of people out there with questions about the basic setup needed to start raising bees. We answer questions about the following

    Getting Started in Beekeeping
    Pre-assembled hive boxes – supers or ones you assemble?
    Beekeeper suit – veil features? hats and hood-types
    How many boxes do I need for a hive?
    Plastic frames or beeswax frames for brood and honey?
    how many hive boxes do i need?
    Placement of beehives
    Better types of equipment or things you’ve learned?
    Pests and problems
    Beehive Problems with ants? Mice? Moths?
    How often should you do the powdered sugar treatment for varroa mites?
    Opening the hive
    – How often?
    – Better time of day?
    – Tips?
    Clothing
    Beekeeping gloves Blue Nitrile gloves you wear – sting-proof?
    How many supers – hive bodies do I need to leave for the bees in winter
    How to you remove honey from the honeycomb frames?
    What color do I paint my beehives supers boxes?

    We are going to do a follow up to this first Beekeeping 101 radio show next week. If you have some beekeeping questions, please let us know below or call our GardenFork Radio Voicemail line 860-740-6938 !

  • The best spice rub for pork shoulder BBQ GardenFork Radio

    We are on the road today in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY visiting with Daniel Delaney. Daniel and I talk about if someone can turn on the webcam on your laptop, and relates a story about an artist who did something similar at a computer store, and was then visited by law enforcement

    Eric likes Daniel’s great Bolognese sauce that he did for his What’s This Food show, and we talk about how to can tomato sauces with a pressure cooker, and canning foods from the farmers market. The Karen Solomon book we talk about is Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It And Other Cooking Projects.

    Daniel relates about cooking crawfish and his trip to New Orleans, and how water chestnut flour in a cake is not a great thing.

    Eric tells how to propagate rhubarb, how to grow it, how to transplant it, and whether you can grow it from seed. Then we get into how lobster rolls are regional dishes , how they should be made. Mayonnaise or butter? or a mix?

    Eric was inspired to start salt water fishing by Ben Sargent founder of Brooklyn Urban Anglers Association.

    Daniel talks about the best spice rub to use on a pork shoulder that you are going to smoke. And how to smoke BBQ the quickest way possible using aluminum foil.

    Daniel talks about 110 stories, a kickstarter campaign he has helped promote

    and viewer mail about Moose, the black labrador!

     

     

     

     

  • Water your honeybees

    We just shot another of our Beginning Beekeeping aka Beekeeping 101 videos and I wanted to show you how we water the bees. One of our two beeyards is near a vernal pond, and a stream not far away, but I’m all about making it easy for the bees, so I put out some water buckets for them. Bees don’t swim, so put some wood in the bucket for the honeybees to stand on while taking up the water

    watering bucket for honeybees

     

    i've placed the water outside the bearproofing electric fence

  • Connect A Generator To Your House : GardenFork Radio

    Emergency Preparedness, installing a generator in your home, hooking up generator transfer panels, and how to safely hook up your generator to your house is the subject of GardenFork Radio. We want to thank Barry for his viewer mail that started us off on our Emergency Preparedness show today. more cool stuff on www.GardenFork.TV

    watch-hook-up-generator

    ph0to by roganjosh

  • How to Deer Proof Your Yard : GardenFork Radio

    If you want to keep deer from eating your plants, plant plants that the deer don’t eat. Ruth Rogers Clausen, author of 50 Beautiful Deer Resistant Plants, joins us to talk about how to keep deer out of your yard by choosing plants that are deer resistant or deer proof. Did you know that acorns attract deer? That fact is how-to-deer-proof-your-yardjust one of the ‘aha’ moments I had when reading about how to deal with the deer problem in the garden and yard. The book is full of well done photographs and in addition to the 50 Deer Resistant Plants that are the main theme of the book, Ms Clausen lists additional companion plants to fill out your deer proof yard and garden.

    Win a copy of 50 Deer Resistant Plants! Here is how to participate in the giveaway of this great book on creating a Deer Proof Garden

    First: Add your name to the drawing by filling out the form below
    [form form-1]

    Second: Like the GardenFork Page on Facebook, Facebook.com/GardenFork or follow us on Twitter Twitter.com/GardenforkTV , If you are not liking or following GF already > click on the FB Like icon or Twitter to the right >

     

    If you are not on Facebook or Twitter but want to be part of the drawing, please note that in the above submission form

  • New No Knead Bread – Artisan Bread Recipe – GF Video

    I’ve been making the No Knead Bread recipe, by Jim Lahey, made famous by The New York Times and Mark Bittman for a while now. I have also been making the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day recipe, watch our original artisan bread recipe video here. In this video I show you an improved way to make the No Knead Bread and the Artisan Bread Recipes. Flipping the dough has always been a problem for me, and now I’m using parchment paper. You can watch our original video ‘How to bake bread with the No Knead Bread Recipe” here. Watch the video and let me know your suggestions and thoughts below, thanks!

    Learn how to make pizza dough using the artisan method by watching our video here. Pizza dough is not hard, and this method is an easy pizza dough recipe.

    Our orginal Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day video:

    new-no-knead-bread-artisan-bread-recipe

  • Summer Salad with Maple Blue Cheese Dressing Recipe

    If this salad looks simple, that's because it is! Cool down with a summer salad with Maple Blue Cheese Dressing and lots of crumbled bacon.

    I love Blue Cheese dressing with my hot wings or salad. It’s tangy, salty, and creamy with a rich blue-veined flavor. There’s quite a few varieties available, but Roquefort, Stilton, and Gorganzola work the best. You don’t need much, but do get a good Blue Cheese. I like Danish Saga, it’s less salty and much creamier than Roquefort. I found that crumbled cheese is usually much cheaper than the block since it’s made from what’s left after cutting. Everything else you probably have in the fridge. Let’s get busy.

    Danish Blue Saga has more body than Roquefort, and it's less salty.

    Maple Blue Cheese Dressing

    • 1/2 cup crumbled Danish Blue Saga
    • 1/3 mayonnaise
    • 1/3 sour cream
    • 1 tsp maple syrup
    • 2 tbsp white vinegar
    • 1/4 tsp powdered garlic or 1/2 tsp minced garlic
    • 3 tbsp crumbled bacon (optional)

    In a small bowl add cheese and garlic into the mayonnaise and sour cream and mix. Make sure not to overwork the dressing, you do want some chunks of cheese in there. Then add maple syrup and a little vinegar and mix well. Adjust ingredients to suit your taste. I always add more Blue Cheese.

    Crumbled bacon is optional but I never leave it out. Cut streaky bacon into 3″ strips. Coat a hot skillet with a little oil. Cook the fattiest pieces first to make enough fat for frying. Fry until evenly golden, drain fat, cool and crumble into small pieces. Add about 3 tbsp of bacon to the dressing, reserve the rest for the salad.

    My friend Lindsey says her mother makes some kick-ass Blue Cheese Dip. Mrs. McCosh was more than happy to share her recipe with us. This Midwestern classic dip is made with Roquefort and cottage cheese. It’s light with a hearty texture — guaranteed to take the sting out of any hot wing.

    The bluest of the blues — Roquefort is an age-old classic cheese.

    Mrs. McCosh’s Blue Cheese Dip

    • 1/2 cup Roquefort Cheese
    • 1/2 cottage cheese, small curds
    • 1/2 yogurt
    • 3 tbsp white vinegar
    • 1 tbsp sugar
    • 1/4 tsp dried dill
    • 1 tsp minced garlic

    Dissolve sugar in the vinegar and set aside. Crumble Roquefort in a bowl using a fork then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well, salt an pepper to taste. The cottage cheese hold everything together perfectly, lumps and all. Adjust ingredients to your taste. Pour Blue Cheese dressing into a container and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving. It’s served best the next day — then it’s thick enough to stand a fork.

    For salad, tear Romaine lettuce into bite sized pieces, toss with thinly sliced white onion and red grapes and plate up serving portions. Add hard boiled egg and drizzle Blue cheese dressing, and (optionally) top with more bacon. Diner is served!

  • How to make easy pie & pastry crust by Chez Pim – a video how to

    Trying to actually chart how I find cool people and neat stuff on the web can be interesting. I was showing my sister the Tartine Bread video made by 4SP films, and I saw that 4SP also had produced a video about Chez Pim making a pie – pastry crust. The recipe is super simple, what really interested me was the technique of making the dough by hand on a piece of marble. So many of us – me included – pull out the food processor to make pie crust. Next time I’m using Chez Pim’s method shown here in this well done video:



    Pim has published a book, The Foodie Handbook, information is on her website here.

  • Poached Eggs at the Oakhurst Diner in Millerton : GardenFork Radio

    Tracy joins Eric for a brother sister show, and talk about their recent dinner at the Oakhurst Diner in Millerton, NY , and Eric’s penchant for spaghetti sandwiches. Then we talk about Atomic Ranch magazine, and mid-century ranch homes, furniture, and design. Campers and Trailers from the 50s and 60s come up next, a Vagabond Trailer is in Eric’s neighbor’s field. How to repair your toilet, Tracy tells of how she fixed her toilet tank flapper and tank valve, then we segue into how to repair your vacuum, as tracy tells of how to repair your vacuum. The wonder bar crowbar, a super handy tool, is used by Tracy to pull up and remove the old carpet from her dining room. Then we move into our vampire power video and how your cell phone charger is always using power, not just when its plugged into a cell phone. Smartphone apps Instapaper and Read It Later are discussed, and Eric likes Evernote. Tell us your thoughts on the GF Radio voicemail line: 860-740-6938

    photo by melodi2

  • Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day using a dutch oven update

    I’ve been making bread using the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day method, ( we made a GF video about artisan bread here ) and the original recipe calls for placing the dough on a bread peel to rise, then sliding it onto a pizza stone in the oven to bake. This pizza stone method yields a good loaf, but after baking bread with the No Knead Bread Recipe, ( here’s a video we made about the No Knead Bread Recipe ) I wanted to get that crunchy bread oven style crust on the Artisan Bread, so I thought I’d try using a dutch oven to bake the artisan bread. I’ve been baking the Artisan Bread in a cast iron dutch oven with good success.

    the dough stores in the fridge in this container

    If you are new to the Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day method, you make a large amount of bread dough and it stores in your fridge. The beauty of this is that you don’t have to think ahead if you want to make bread. Just grab a hunk of dough, preheat your oven and dutch oven, and bake.

    risen dough floured and scored

    I had been having problems scoring or cutting the top of the dough to get those neat cuts in the bread, then I read that flouring the top of the loaf before scoring it allows the knife to cut easier.

    not bad for baking in a propane oven I got out of a camper

    I let the dough rise on a piece of parchment paper, then grab the corners of the parchment paper and lower the risen dough into the preheated dutch oven. Its ok to have some of the parchment paper sticking out of the sides of the lid.

    To bake the Artisan Bread in 5 in a dutch oven, I bake it in a 450F oven, and bake the dough with the dutch oven lid on for 30 minutes, then I remove the lid and bake the bread for another 20-30 minutes with the lid off.

    I’m really amazed at the bread I’ve been able to make with this and the No-Knead Bread Method. Check out the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes site here.

    What have your experiences been? let us know below:

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  • How to build a trellis for your vegetable garden – GF Video

    Want to build a trellis for our vegetable garden that uses recycled wood and twine? I made this video to show you how. We grow peas, beans, & cucumbers on this simple trellis. (Want to learn how to grow peas? It’s easy: Watch how to here.)

    Enjoy the video I made for you below, and then read through the steps to build your trellis.

    Are you wondering if you can transplant peas? I finally answered this for myself.
    And here’s an easy DIY soaker hose system video to water your trellised vegetables.

    Build A Trellis, The GardenFork Way:

    To build this simple trellis, you will need:

    • Jute or twine (avoid synthetic twine)
    • 1×2 pine stakes
    • Cable Staple Gun
    • Cordless drill
    • Drywall or wood screws

    If you have raised beds, you can build a trellis by attaching the vertical posts to the sides of the bed. I put the posts just inside the bed and drill into them from the outside wall. Two screws in each post will hold it. Make sure the screws do not jut out past the wood, the point could hurt someone digging in the raised bed.

    If you are not using raised beds, I’ve found it helpful to cut a point at the bottom of your vertical posts, then hammer them into the ground where you want the trellis.

    If you are building a trellis for a in-ground use, attach a cross bar about 18″ above the bottom of the vertical posts and drive the trellis into the ground. You may want to attach some wood triangles where the posts meet the top crossbar to make it sturdier and keep it from swaying side to side.

    top of wood trellis

    For a trellis on a raised bed vegetable garden, I don’t use a bottom cross piece. I staple the bottom loops of the twine right to the wooden sides of the bed. I do screw the top cross piece into the two upright supports. I then cable staple the twine up and down. Pretty easy.

    bottom of wood trellis

    If you want, you can just loop the twine across the top cross support. I’m all about making it simple.

    build-a-trellis-3

    I don’t think you need to use pressure treated wood for to build a trellis. I use regular pine or recycled wood from other projects, and they have weathered just fine. If you have some fallen trees nearby, the limbs work great for this, just cut them to size.

    build-a-trellis-1

    I like vertical gardening like this, it saves tons of garden space. I make sure that my trellises do not shade too much of the rest of the vegetable garden, because sun is already limited in my yard.

    Why do I use twine for the trellis? In the fall, I can easily cut down the string with the plants, chop it up a bit, and toss it into the compost pile. The string will break down. For peas I run the string up and down, for a cucumber trellis, I will also run the twine across the posts, as they need more support. My favorite tool for attaching the twine to the wood supports is a cable staple gun.

    garden trellis with sugar snap peas

    Build A Trellis

    I am all about keeping it simple and use what you got, but if you want to go fancy, see what my friend Erin has done with a super fancy trellis.

    This is only the beginning of how you can DIY make a trellis. Let me know how you build a trellis in the comments below. Thx!

  • Sous Vide In A Slow Cooker : GardenFork Radio

    How to cook sous vide in a slow cooker or crock pot leads to many tangents on GardenFork Radio this week. GF listener Joe wrote in to tell of how he uses an older slow cooker, aka Crock Pot, to cook steaks sous vide. And Eric updates us on the honeybees, re-queening a weak hive. Then we talk about melding baking bread with the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day ( how to video here ) with the Jim Lahey’s No Knead Bread dutch oven method ( how to video here ). and of course, viewer mail.

    Eric got his new honeybee queen from John at Warm Colors Apiary in Deerfield, MA