Learn how to use your dutch oven to cook food outdoors, and learn how to grill steaks, meats and all things with charcoal from our guest Gary, editor of Cooking-Outdoors.com, a website about all things related to outdoor cooking. We learn how to light charcoal and how to not use charcoal, and how to cook food in foil packets, like how to cook salmon with dressing cooked in foil. Listen to the show and learn all about outdoor cooking. Call our listener call in line with your best charcoal grilling tips and suggestions and recipes. 860-740-6938
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How to Replace Your Spark Plugs : GardenFork Radio
In the Gardenfork version of Car Talk, Mike talks about replacing the spark plugs, We update Tyler’s Storm Chasing, How to Make Donuts and Doughnut Recipes and we talk about when your food is expired. Your Food Will Tell You When Its Old says a GF viewer.
Eric talked about Gabfire Themes who have a new restaurant wordpress theme.
photo by Alvimann
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How to grow rhubarb & a rhubarb crisp recipe : GardenFork.TV
Growing and Cooking Rhubarb was one of the first how to videos GardenFork made, and as our rhubarb plants are just now popping out of the cold soil, I thought it a good time to pull one of our shows from the archive and repost it for those who may not have watched it.
Eric’s Rhubarb Crisp Recipe
1 quart of rhubarb chopped into roughly 1/2″ pieces
1/4 cup sugar ( you can add more if you like, but i think this works best )
Zest from 1/2 of a large lemon or all of it from a small lemon ( you can also use orange zest of a mix of lemon and orange ) and some juice from the lemon or orange.
3/4 of a stick of butter, cold ( leave in fridge until you need it )
1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup walnuts
1/2 cup oatmeal – old fashioned style, rolled oats is best
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon – Penzy’s Spice has real good cinnamon
mix together the rhubarb, regular sugar, lemon/orange zest, and lemon/orange juice in a bowl and let it sit while you make the crisp, ( the part that goes on top of the rhubarb )
Get out your food processor and put in the cold butter, which you’ve chopped into cubes, add the flour and brown sugar with the cinnamon pulse this until the flour coats the butter and breaks it up a bit. It should still look chunky, not like sand.
Then add the walnuts and oats into the flour butter mix in the food processor , and pulse a few more times to mix them in and chop up the walnuts a bit. Over pulsing is bad here. Err on the side of less mixing.
Grease a 8″ baking dish. The glass ones are best for this, I think. Pour in the rhubarb mix and then cover the rhubarb with the flour oat butter mixture. Don’t over think this, the flour oat mix doesn’t have to be a super even layer over the rhubarb.
Put this in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes. As always, your oven temp and baking time will vary from mine. I think those new convection ovens bake faster than mine. But then my oven was pulled out of a junked camper trailer.
The rhubarb crisp is done when the edges of the pan are starting to get burnt and the crisp is browning and the rhubarb bubbles a bit.
This goes real well with our ginger ice cream recipe, watch our how to make ice cream video here and get the recipe as well.
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How to be an Urban Forager & Locavore with Leda Meredith : GardenFork Radio
Learn all about urban foraging and how to be a locavore in this GardenFork Radio episode where we interview Leda Meredith, author of Botany, Ballet, & Dinner from Scratch: A Memoir with Recipes and The Locavore’s Handbook: The Busy Person’s Guide to Eating Local on a Budget
Urban foraging, Urban Homesteading, & being a locavore plus dance pretty much describes Leda, who is also the subject of two videos by Liza of Food Curated.
Book Giveaway:
We are giving away one copy of both of Leda’s books: Botany, Ballet, & Dinner from Scratch & The Locavore’s Handbook. Here is how to participate in the giveaway.
First: Add your name to the drawing by filling out the form below
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 >
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If you are not on Facebook or Twitter but want to be part of the drawing, please note that in the above submission form
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Eric’s Life Coach Advice : GardenFork Radio
Call us! 860-740-6938 Eric tells of another life lesson learned, whether we want to hear about it or not and Mike ask listeners about his and their commute to work. Is it a commute? Or quality time? Eric wants to learn how to publish a book, and what kinds of books should Eric write? And more about raising winter hardy varroa resistant honey bee queens, how to grow garlic and how to mulch garlic, should you soak seeds before planting them? and be prepared for disasters with Ready.org .
The Sandra Lee article in New York Magazine is here.
Here is Ric Elias talking at TED about his life changing experience of surviving a plane crash
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Easy donut recipe using Pillsbury biscuit dough – GF Video
Looking for an easy donut recipe? here it is: The Super Simple Doughnut Recipe. This is Eric’s version of the Pillsbury Biscuit Doughnut method of making donuts without the time and yeast. We will make donuts the traditional way soon, but I had to try out this cheater doughnut recipe which uses biscuit dough you buy at the grocery store. Next up will be yeast doughnuts and cake donuts, but we have to do the donut hack here first.
This easy donut recipe works best when the dough is cold, so keep the tube of Pillsbury dough in the fridge until ready. It is harder than it seems sometimes to open up the tube. Be Careful!
Kids like to play with dough, and while you have to teach them a healthy respect for hot oil, they could be involved with this easy donut recipe
My favorite donuts are the ones you buy at the gas station on the highway exit ramp. Those chocolate donuts in that little package, six donuts all covered with that fake chocolate. But you know it’s fake but you want to eat them anyway. Recently I bought some of those, it was late at night we were driving up the house and they were really good. But these cheater donuts are really good as well, and they might even be healthier for you than the chocolate covered gas station on the highway off ramp donuts. So let me know what you think below do you make these donuts are you making of the kind of donut would be good to hear from you
Do you have a great donut or doughnut recipe? And what about this spelling issue between donut and doughnut? Let us know below
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Easter Pizza Malfunction! : GardenFork Radio
Eric is joined by sister Tracy to discuss how to make pizza at home, and how not to make pizza at home. Its our home made pizza recipe show, where we debrief and ponder the deep question: store bought pizza sauce or home made pizza sauce? . Tell us your home made pizza secrets: 860-740-6938 or on our site, www.GardenFork.TV
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Red Cabbage Slaw with Jicama Recipe
Can you believe how intense this color of purple is? I love coleslaw, especially when it’s made with sweet red cabbage, jicama, and Granny Smith apples. Jicama is a tropical tuber originally from South America that has made it’s way into Asian cuisine. The cream white flesh has the crisp texture of a pear. It has a slightly sweet flavor that complements red cabbage well. It’s usually eaten as one would a radish. Making a small batch is almost impossible, so I usually make it for picnics or parties. It goes well with pork and lamb dishes, or just as a small salad before the main course. Red Cabbage Slaw has to macerate overnight, so plan ahead.
You’ll need:
- a large non-reactive bowl with a lid
- a food processor, a mandolin, or a large sharp knife
- 1 medium size red cabbage, enough for 4 1/5*4 to 5 shredded cups
- 1/2 red onion, sliced thin
- 1/2 red bell pepper, sliced thin
- 2 Granny Smith apples, diced
- 1 cup jicama sliced into matchsticks
- 1 tbsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp black or toasted sesame seeds
Dressing:
- 1 cup cider vinegar
- 1/2 cup olive oil or mayonnaise
- 4 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp seedless raspberry preserve
- 1/4 cup dried currants, or golden raisins
Remove the outer layer of leaves and slice red cabbage into quarters. Remove and discard the white core and the base, and shred the cabbage. If you don’t have a food processor or a mandolin, use a sharp knife and cut it as fine as you can. Peel, core, and dice two apples into 1/2″ cubes. Slice onion and red pepper into fine strips. Peel and cut jicama into matchstick strips. Place the cabbage, red pepper, onion, jicama, and black sesame seeds into a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and mix well. Let it sit for 10 minute or until the cabbage starts to release some liquid.
In a small bowl add brown sugar, raspberry preserve, and dried currant into the cider vinegar and olive oil. Mix until the sugar is dissolved and the raspberry preserve is evenly distributed.
Pour the dressing into the bowl and mix everything again with your hands, break up any clumps. Cover and place in the fridge over night. Before serving, drain and toss again, adjust salt if needed. Red Cabbage Slaw keeps well in the fridge for abut a week as long as it’s kept covered.
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Checking out the New 2011 Fords
Last night I was a guest of the Ford Motor Company in Manhattan. They invited me to come check out their new cars, trucks and SUVs before the opening of the New York International Auto Show. Really Cool. Craig Patterson and Scott Monty spoke about how they were using social media to introduce the new Ford Explorer. The 2011 Ford Explorer is the North American Truck of the Year, and it gets the best fuel mileage in its class.
Craig Patterson and the 2011 Ford Explorer For 2011 Ford has redone the Explorer. What I thought was interesting are the new inflatable rear safety belts. In an accident the seat belts become airbags and cushion the occupants. There’s a video on the Ford Explorer website you can watch that explains the inflatable seat belts better than I can.
Ford Escape Hybrid The 2011 Ford Escape Hybrid was on the show floor. Ford gave us an Escape Hybrid a while back and we did a review video about it, watch the video here. Our Labradors really like the Ford Escape Hybrid, lots of room in back for them and 34 miles per gallon in the city its pretty cool. The Escape Hybrid has echo friendly seats; biologists at the Ford plant in Chicago have devised a way to make the seat covers out of soy instead of oil-based products.
Eric likes this truck. A favorite part of the Ford exhibit for me was the new 2011 Ford F150 with their Echo Boost Engine. It’s a dual turbocharged direct fuel injected engine that they torture tested full speed ahead for 164,706 miles.
Ford took took a random Eco Boost engine off the assembly line ( engine #448AA ) and started running it. First on a dynometer for 300 hours, simulating 10 years of use, then hauling timber, then running 24 hours on a Nascar track, then trailer pulls against the competitors, and then, Ford took the same engine to the Baja 1000. Ford has a neat series of videos documenting the story of engine #448AA on their site here. Click here to watch the whole series of videos . Well done videos.
Click the play button to watch the Torture Test videos 
2011 Ford F150 with EcoBoost Engine 
Underside of the F150 -
I am a Hipster : GardenFork Radio
Call us! 860-740-6938 Mike and Eric are joined by Monica to talk about home renovation nightmares, or almost nightmares, and how to avoid them. Monica is going through a home renovation right now, so we have first hand experience here for you. Our talk on switching from an iPhone to a Droid phone was inspired by a blog post by Mia Taylor here. We talk about Rescuing dogs from an approved dog shelter organization, PetFinder.com is a good place to start. How to fix your clothes dryer and which brand of paint you should buy for your home and eric being a hipster fill out our show.
Here are Sara’s photos of her home while working in Panama for the Peace Corps
photo by mantasmagorical
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Dead Bees? Beginning Beekeeping : GardenFork.TV
When you walk up to a hive and see no activity, you immediately think, why are my bees dead. Watch here as we do an early spring beehive inspection to see what’s up
You can watch all of our beekeeping 101 how to raise honeybees videos here. -
Storm Chasing with Tyler : GardenFork Radio
Tyler joins us to talk about stormchasing, ham radio, cloud watching, single malt scotch and Irish Whiskey appreciation. We talk about a great bed and breakfast in Ireland, The River Mill, owned by GF viewer Theresa. Tyler suggests the audio podcast Whiskeycast for those of us who appreciate Irish Whiskey, Single Malt Scotch, and all good things. Hiving Bee Packages and raising local queens, harvesting comb honey and bee webinars are all part of our bee discussion.
Tyler’s personal blog on gardening, beekeeping, stormchasing and all things Tyler is My Chicago Garden
The Cloud Appreciation Society website has great photos of different types of clouds uploaded by society members.
The Madagascar Institute is a welding coop in Gowanus Brooklyn that teaches welding classes.
Tyler’s honeybees will be living at Pushing The Envelope Farm near Chicago here is their Facebook Page and their Local Harvest Page
The webinars we talked about can be seen at Brushy Mountain here
photo by Tyler of Allison House, severe weather data when you need it
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Skeletons Under the Plaster
As many of you know, and have thankfully listened to my whining. Jim and I are having the upstairs of our very old house remodeled. One of the things that drew us to this house was that the former owners did very little in the way of updates. Ok, did nothing in the way of updates to the house. We thought that they left us with some nice bones to work with. Under the plaster was, well, a disaster.
Luckily we found a great contractor, Bob Morton. Jim and I work crazy hours and couldn’t handle every little thing ourselves. Bob really stepped up and handled all the plumbing upgrades, weird electrical things, down right lack of adequate duct work and vents, and came up with a cool way to repair the whole roof not really being attached to the house thing.What was a three, four week job is on it’s fifth week, going on it’s sixth. Yes, things have cost more than we expected. Yes, we figured most of this into our budget before we started. I just really want to have a bed room and not sleep in the living room. Jim and I know we’re going to be in this house for a while. We have awesome neighbors and are in a great community. This project is going to make our house much more comfortable for us.
We can see the end, and like we hoped for in the beginning. This little house has potential. You just have to coax it out.
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How to repair a leaking drain trap
A friend of mine called me and asked if I would help him with a plumbing problem. His utility sink in his laundry room was leaking whenever you would turn on the water. The washing machine also drains into this sink and whatever was always leaking. Not a good thing. I crawled underneath and I took a look; sure enough there was what we would call some ‘unprofessional plumbing’ under the sink.
Arrow shows the leak site, notice how crooked the drain trap is. As you can see from this first picture here there’s a 2″ plumbing drain coming out of the wall and then a rubber coupler connected to a huge brass trap that connects to an 1.5″ brass drainpipe. The rubber coupling does not have enough strength to hold that brass trap in place without any support . Rubber couplings are really good for plumbing but they’re not built to hold up that much brass. Looking at the picture here you can see that the heavy brass trap would put stress on the pipe that’s going up to the sink itself and the pipe started the corrode at the point where the brass drainpipe meets the trap. And before you know it just falls apart
So I took apart the trap and the brass drainpipe and the rubber coupling to find that there was a stub of metal pipe attached to the 45° angle pipe that’s coming of the wall.
2" metal stub with no threads. fun. My plan, and of course all great plans never come out how we want them to, but I wanted to remove the 2″ stub pipe and put in a PVC adapter. The PVC pipe adapter I would use has a 2 inch pipe thread on one end to thread into the existing metal pipe, and and then you can glue PVC pipe to the other end of the PVC adapter. I would then connect a PVC trap to the adapter and then connect the PVC trap to the drainpipe coming down from the sink.
Two pipe wrenches in a very tight spot against the wall Because the existing metal pipe stub was not threaded, I had to remove it. I put a pipe wrench on this stub of metal pipe and it would not move. I got two pipe wrenches on there and I could not get the thing to move. Part of the problem being that the drain pipe is coming out of the corner of a very small utility room wall so it was really hard to get any leverage on the wrenches. I even tried what I call a large chain pipe wrench – its a plumbers wrench that uses a chain rather than a regular jaw grip – I couldn’t get the thing the budge.
Chain Pipe Wrench can't budge the pipe Another way to get this to ancient metal stub out of the 45 degree angle piece it was connected to would be to use a reciprocating saw a.k.a. a sawzall. You could take the sawzall and make two cuts or perhaps three cuts from the inside of the pipe out, cutting the stub in the three pieces and it would fall out.
But then I thought of a Plan B that would be much cleaner and simpler than having to use the sawzall to cut out the metal stub.
My plan B was to go to the plumbing supply store and get a rubber coupling that accepts 2 inch diameter pipe on one side and accepts 1.5″ diameter pipe on the other side. my thinking here is that the rubber coupling will attach to the to 2 in metal stub that’s coming out of the wall and then have a short piece of 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe sticking into the other side of the rubber coupling.
rubber coupling allows PVC to connect to metal stub From that 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe I can attach a PVC trap and reattach the sink to the trap with a brass drain pipe i already had.
The trap i used is called PVC solvent weld trap. This kind of trap allows you to connect it to a PVC drain pipe on the drain end, and on the inlet side you can connect it to a PVC or brass 1 1/2 inch drain pipe from the sink with a slip joint. I glued the trap to the stub of PVC pipe that was coming out of rubber coupling and then connected the trap to the 1.5″ brass drain pipe that was sticking down from the bottom utility sink.
its a beautiful thing, this plumbing stuff. I’ve found that sometimes slip joints aren’t always completely waterproof, so I always use some TFE plumbing paste with Teflon. It goes under different brand names but it’s basically it comes in a tube or a jar with a brush and it’s a white plumbing paste that has Teflon in it. I dab this around the circumference of the slip joints and it works really well plus it keeps you from having to take the plumbing apart again to figure out why it’s leaking
So after using the Teflon paste on all the joints I put it all together turned on the hot water and it was a beautiful thing. It did not leak.
So there you go, one of those things where your friend asks you to do something and you actually know what you’re doing, and didn’t blow up on you. Do you have stories about helping your friends and whether went really well or went really wrong/ I can tell you more stories about how someone went really wrong but tell us below about the good and bad one.
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I think I broke the dryer : GardenFork Radio
Call us 860-740-6938 Eric talks with Rick about how to start vegetable seeds, seed starting, grow lights, and how to avoid damping off of seedlings, broadcast seeding of mesclun and lettuces, what kind of fluorescent bulbs to use in your grow light. Plus more than you want to know about Rick’s crawl space and the problems with pouring a slab foundation in sandy soil. Plus a follow up to our How to Deal with a Contractor talk, with Rick playing the role of the customer, and Eric as the contractor. And a few of Rick’s favorite podcasts.
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Rescuing a pup – am I preaching to the choir?
With GardenFork’s audience, I’m sure that I’m preaching to the choir on this, but I still felt compelled to say what I want to say and share the video.
In the video is Waverly, a 9 month old Weimaraner pup. With two Weimaraners already in our home, our cup runneth over long before she showed up. We do love the breed and we love our dogs. Friends of ours know this and when others have Weims, we tend to hear about them.
This particular pup was bought by an elderly couple who thought Weims were beautiful and friendly, which they are. However, they didn’t know how much energy they have and what dangers the breed bring along with them.
Weims are super friendly and VERY attached to their family. However, Weims don’t understand that running up to their 110 pound owner, or 40 pound child to give them a “full body greeting” is, at best, traumatic for the receiver.
Also, these dogs are smart. To a fault. If you don’t exercise them, challenge them, and give them something to do, they’ll find stuff to do on their own — Like dismantling a couch, one thread at a time.
If you decide to cruelly lock them up in order to keep them “good”, you’ll find that a locking up a Weimaraner is like winding the spring on a toy; when you let them go, all of that energy is going to be released at once. And the longer they’re in there, the tighter that spring gets!
Really, this isn’t meant to be a lesson in Weimaraners. It’s meant to be a lesson in preparing for getting a dog properly. Also, if you know about dogs, making sure your friends who are thinking of getting a dog know everything they need to know.
Before we got our first Weimaraner, we read every guide on the breed we could find. They are all over the internet and in book stores. We spoke to others with the breed and we visited as many Weimaraners as we could find.
I knew very well that if I fell asleep on the couch, I would wake up with two 70 pound dogs sleeping on or under me.
I also knew the costs. A spay, shots, licenses, food, toys, crates, and everything else. We made sure we could afford the dog(s).
It’s easy to sympathize when someone can’t keep a dog because of an illness, injury, or worse. It’s infuriating when I feel compelled to take on a third dog because someone didn’t do some simple homework. We were told that “It’s either you take her, or she ends up in a shelter or just released in a field. PLEASE… Take her.” How do we NOT take her?
Sure the people were heartbroken and ashamed, but is that enough? I don’t have the answer to that question, but I do hope this is the last dog we need to rescue. She’s only here temporarily, but in my house, fostering a Weimaraner “temporarily” is like “temporarily” touching one finger to the other when there is super glue on them.
My son has been wanting a third dog, I’ve been saying “No”, but I may be powerless against the cosmic powers behind the prayers and wishes of a 14 year old boy who loves his dogs.
Watching her sleep peacfully with the other two dogs, it’s easy to imagine that some angel brought her to us…
… actually, watching the video again, it may be repayment for something bad I’ve done. I’m not sure yet.
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The BKswappers Food Swap at the Brooklyn Kitchen
This weekend I went down to New York City to go to Brooklyn to be part of Megan’s BKswappers event which was held at the Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg Brooklyn or perhaps it’s Greenpoint – the border there is a bit fuzzy – but it was really fun as you can see from these pictures.
From the potluck snack table The Brooklyn kitchen has a really nice large space that they use for classes and demonstrations and they were nice enough to allow Megan and Jane to host the BKswappers there. They opened the store a little bit early for us on a Sunday morning and we all just moved in. I forgot one detail but the food swap is also potluck and I forgot to bring anything – not surprising – but there was a ton of food there as you can see from these pictures.
some of the foods offered for trade 
Hard Cider being bottled on premise for the swap How does a food swap work? We talked about how to have a food swap on GardenFork Radio with Megan, one of the hosts of BKswappers. To start you can email a group of friends and have everyone meet at someone’s house. Invite your friends to bring foods that they have made that they would like to trade for foods that other people have made. ( As your food swap gets larger, you can use meetup.com for or eventbrite.com to organize your group )
I brought honey, applesauce, pickles Everyone gets together at the appointed time and place ( name tags are suggested ) and they set out the foods they have brought on a table. Each food item, be it an apple pie or a jar of applesauce has a piece of paper ( an ‘offer slip’ ) in front of it describing what the item is and perhaps a brief note about how it was made, or what foods go well with, like hot dogs go well with ketchup. Underneath the description are five numbered lines for swap offers.
An offer to swap is made by writing on the slips Perusing the table of food that is to be swapped, people decide what they would like to trade for and jot down on the ‘offer slip’ next to the food item they are interested in what they want to offer that person in trade.
There’s also a lot of socializing that goes on while everyone is checking out the table, and people are eating all the fun food brought for the potluck. People brought apple pie, donuts with bacon, egg salad, duck rillet, several cheese plates, a citrus salad. All really great stuff.
Bacon Donuts. wow. 
Food-a-rama at the potluck table So while you’re looking at the foods that you want to swap for, you’re getting to eat food as well. nice.
Some people put on the potluck table a sample of what they’re offering to trade. For example, someone brings bags of cookies they want to trade; they might put out one bag of the cookies on the potluck table to give people a taste of the cookies that they are offering up for trade. Which is pretty cool.
There is a lot of socializing the goes on the whole time while everyone’s eating all the snacks from the potluck.
At a given time Megan and Jane announce: okay it’s time to do the swaps. People then look at slips of paper ( the offer slips ) next to the food items that they have offered up and see what people are offering. It is usually five or six people that offer to trade. You pick which one you like to trade for you go find the person and “say sure I’d like to trade my pickles for your applesauce”. Then your trade is done.
An action photo of the swapping of food The BK swappers event is is really well-established now, they were written up in the New York Times recently ( article link here ) and that made the turnout even higher. I think there were about 40 people, from the pictures you can see it’s jam packed with super nice people.
While at the food swap I learned about making sauerkraut from a fellow food swap attendee. I spoke with another guy that made hard cider – there is a picture of him drawing off a little mini keg here. The best item from the potluck table were some little mini doughnut pillows with the icing and bacon on them , yum.
Megan, aka Brooklyn Homesteader, is one of the hosts of BKswappers So a big thank you to Megan and Jane and thank you to the Brooklyn kitchen for hosting as well. you can find out more about BK swappers here.
FYI We interviewed Megan about how to start or host your own food swap and here is a link to that GardenFork Radio episode. -
Late Winter Gardening & Apple Tree Pruning : DIY Video
An early spring tour of the vegetable garden, where Eric talks about using a hoop house cold frame to get an early start on spring vegetable plants, and how to grow sugar snap peas, plus some of eric’s thoughts on how to prune fruit trees like the old apple tree in the yard. Plus the Labrador Retrievers, of course.
In this video we talked about how to make a cold frame hoop house, and you can see that DIY video on our site here
Buy the thermatic vents here: http://amzn.to/2zG4WjC
To learn more about how to start seeds, make seed starting plant pots, seed starting, and growing plants in seed starting trays, watch our video How to start seeds video here.
What are you doing to get a head start on the growing season, what season extenders are you using? Let us know below: