Grasshopper Problems?

If you don't already have problems with grasshoppers in your Utah yard, you likely will have a problem before the summer is done -- particularly if you live next to undeveloped land.

Grasshoppers come and go in seven- to 10-year cycles, said Larry Lewis, a spokesman for the Utah agriculture department. Grasshopper numbers are usually high for several years and then the cycle goes on the downswing. Right now, there are grasshoppers in different stages of development, but we have a lot of little ones just starting out.

Your options to control these pests?

If you choose chemical poisons, grasshoppers have to be sprayed before they develop their wings and a hard shell. You can have that done commercially or do it yourself.

For those preferring organic methods, there are several things you can do. Larry Sagers, host of the KSL Greenhouse and a USU Extension agent, says that grasshoppers don't like to lay eggs in disturbed soil. So, you might get some control next year by tilling the surface of any undeveloped areas.

You can also use NoLo Bait. NoLo Bait is wheat bran carrying a spore of Nosema locustae, which infects the grasshoppers when they eat the bait. This spore spreads through grasshopper populations, but it is not a quick fix. You probably won't see a lot of die-off fast. According to the experts, you don't want them to die quickly. You want them to become sluggish and stop feeding so other grasshoppers canibalize them and get the disease -- nasty things, aren't they? The following two links tell you how this bait works in a straight-forward manner:

• Frequently Asked Questions About NoLo Bait
• Additional Information about NoLo Bait

I bought NoLo yesterday at IFA in Spanish Fork, and I applied considerably more of the bait than the minimum the package indicated. I want to get all the hoppers I can, and since this is not toxic to humans, it's safe. You'll note that there are more hoppers in certain areas of the yard, and that's where you'll want to put more bait, plus a border around your property to get incoming hoppers. More grasshoppers will come into your yard from the fields, guaranteed, but what you do this year affects what happens with next year's hatch.

You can purchase NoLo Bait at IFA in Spanish Fork. It costs about $15 for 1 pound, but 5 pounds are a bit over $30. So, you would be wise to go in with a neighbor or a few neighbors -- besides, if you handle your own hoppers, the neighbor's hoppers will just migrate into your yard. NoLo Bait has a very limited shelf life, so don't plan to buy a lot and save it. Pay attention to the expiration date, which will only be a few weeks away.

You could spray and/or use the bait and still loose your garden, but with the Nolo bait added in, you have a good chance of infecting next year's hatch with the disease (that is explained in the links above).

Chickens also like to eat grasshoppers -- or you could always pray for seagulls.....

Betta' Think Twice About Canning Butta'

This is an update on the safety of canning butter at home. Every single internet site I've seen saying it is not safe to home-can butter (including the Extension Service) quotes the same source: The National Center for Home Food Preservation. So, what is this group? Here's what their website says:

"The National Center for Home Food Preservation is your source for current research-based recommendations for most methods of home food preservation. The Center was established with funding from the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture (CSREES-USDA) to address food safety concerns for those who practice and teach home food preservation and processing methods."

To read more statements from the National Center for Home Preservation about the dangers of home-canned butter, please click here.

I am convinced that these official sources are all absolutely correct that it is not safe to can butter --- until the USDA and National Center for Home Preservation develop a tested and safe procedure for us. However, from reading their statements, it seems to me that these agencies don't see the need for the consumer being able to can butter, per this statement from the above website:

"Good quality butter is readily available at all times, if butter is needed for fresh use."

Unfortunately, that might be the final word on a safe, tested method becoming available in the U.S. Would it make a difference if consumers offer those agencies some feedback and express interest in this issue?

Who does see a need for canned butter? People in Australia and New Zealand, for one thing. Companies have developed a safe method to can butter (and cheese, too) in those nations. These companies are likely making a tidy profit exporting their products to the United States, Middle East, and elsewhere, if all the food storage, preparedness, and camping websites talking about Red Feather canned butter and cheese are indicative.

Your options in storing butter right now?

• Buy butter on sale and freeze it (FYI: I'm using butter that has been in my freezer at least two years with no loss of quality. We somehow found a case in the bottom of the freezer that we don't remember purchasing -- one of those food storage miracles, we think.)
  
• Buy powdered butter (FYI: baked goods don't taste as good with powdered versus real butter. In addition, there seem to be serious health questions about oxidized dairy products' tendency to cling to the arteries. )
• Buy shelf stable canned butter imported from New Zealand and Australia. Click here for an online review of Red Feather canned butter and cheese. You can find these products many places for many prices. Here is one of them: Totally Ready.com
  

As a mom wanting to be completely prepared (sorry, it's just in my food storage genes), I wish that since commercially canning butter is doable, the government agencies involved with food safety would accordingly test and provide consumers with safe instructions to can butter ourselves. Alternatively, please, can't some enterprising U.S. company can butter and cheese and save us the extra costs involved with an imported product? Alas, for the time being, I stick with my year's supply of butter in the freezer.

Organic Insect and Disease Control

It only took a few raspberry canes wilting and toppling over for me to realize there must be a borer or something in my new raspberries. Shoot! Why don't bugs invest the field bindweed (aka morning glory) or something else I hate? I went looking for some organic/natural control solutions online and came up with a book on Google Books that anyone can access for free for any organic pest and disease issue -- wonderful!

With many full-view Google books, you can download the book to your computer, but since this book is still under copyright, the author isn't letting you do that. Nevertheless, here's a resource for you to use online any time you want, so bookmark it for future use. The organic gardener's handbook of natural insect and disease control

This link will open into an Adobe Acrobat Reader, if you've used Acrobat Acrobat Reader before. If you haven't, go to Adobe.com and download it for free. Let's assume you now have the reader. If you click on the link above, the book will open in the reader. At the top right is a little box with gray letters, "Search in this book". Google Books are every word searchable, so search to your heart's content. The results will appear below that box. If you wish to see the book larger, click on the box icon with arrows going to the corners of the box (this is near the middle of the page in the blue border. Alternatively, you can use the zoom icons.

What did I find for my raspberries? I get to use pyrethrin, which I actually have. I'm crossing my fingers it's still good.

Is It Some Ancient Burial Ground? No!

I confess I've had some amused looks and raised eyebrows with my gardening methods. After all, it just doesn't look the same way Grandma gardened. Moreover, my garden has been strange for more than 16 years and counting. I blame that book I checked out of the library. It described how a Pacific Northwest gardener built his gardens. He loosened his soil deeply, added organic matter, and then he piled the soil up into long mounds-- a Chinese method. I duplicated his methods and have loved the results. I leave walking paths and never walk on the mounds so all that softened soil never gets compacted -- yes, I still have to remind my family not to walk on the mounds, even after 16 years! There is plenty of loose soil for the plants to grow great roots, which equals great and plentiful produce. I plant double rows with row crops (i.e. peas and beans) and single rows with wide and large plants. In essence, it is raised bed gardening with added flexibility and less cost.

How do I water it? I used soaker hoses for a good long time and changed to drip irrigation with 2 gph (gallons per hour) emitters two years ago. Now, my drip system is hooked up to the sprinkler system and comes on automatically. Yes, I'm absolutely spoiled and loving it, too.

Last year, I attended a gardening class taught by expert gardener, Gordon Wells, and I made some modifications to my mounds. Imagine, he's a mound-builder, too! My mounds, like his, now have a bit higher sides, like a banana split bowl.







Here's a photo from last year's garden with my daughter by her squash "Squishie", which she planted late.

Note the rise on the sides of the mounds and the black plastic with holes cut for the plants. The drip system runs in the middle, under the black plastic. Rocks and bricks keep the plastic in place on ends and sides. When the plants are small, the black plastic has a tendency to blow up a bit and sometimes cover a tender plant. A smaller rock beside the plant and on top of the plastic will prevent this.

Most of the mounds are about 36" wide at the bottom and 24" wide on top, including the higher sides. (Gordon Wells uses a little wider mound for crops such as squash and a 10-ft. wide mound for indeterminate tomatoes. He uses the standard width for paste and determinate tomatoes. (Indeterminates sprawl and keep growing throughout the season). When you build your mounds, make sure to leave a good walking path at least 12" wide, and probably a bit wider, between mounds -- it's tough to walk in a narrow furrow. This also adds more soil to your mounds.

I admit that the first year, it is a lot of work building the mounds. Succeeding years, it's much easier than the old methods, and the abundant harvest proves this method works.

A Healthy Self-Reliance

Most of us have learned by now that if we eat whole grains, lean meats, and plenty of veggies, our over-all health will greatly improve. It's amazing how many of the things we've been taught for years (for some of us, it's actually a facet of our religion to eat wisely), are now proven by science and medical doctors. All that said, do we use wisdom in our food choices or do we eat from convenience? Maybe our food choices do more for our health or against our health than we even realize.

Though, in my home we rarely buy boxed foods, there are times when we're in a hurry or I'm lazy (guilty!) and we stop by for fast food. My husband showed me a short Youtube video last week that has forever changed the way I will think about "food" one particular fast-food place. It's entertaining (your children and teens will love it), and I think you'll be amazed if you watch the whole thing: How Nasty are McDonald's Fries?

For the most part, we get to choose our own health path by how we eat most of the time and by the amount we exercise. How much more self-reliant can we get?

Ah, the Sparkle of Clean Canning Jars....

With the shamrocks just over, you probably are not thinking of canning season. Change that! With the economic downturn, you might have heard last fall that all the local stores were out of canning jars. You might also have heard the Extension Service Horticulturist state on recent news that they had been deluged with calls from people planning to garden who had not before had gardens. Put two and two together, and it's not hard to figure out that another canning jar shortage might happen this year, probably beginning much earlier than previous years.

With many dozens of jars, I always think I have enough to can all I need, but there I am every year running to get a few more jars during canning season. I have found that many things store better in glass than they do in plastic -- haven't you noticed those spices in the glass jars stay nicer longer than the spices in the plastic jars? Perhaps there's a reason why the expensive spices are in glass instead of plastic. It's not practical to use glass for everything, but even frozen foods seem to hold better in glass than in plastic. I also have mason jars full of dry storage items such as spices, nuts, and dried fruits and veggies. I'd store chocolate chips in jars if the family didn't eat them so fast there is no chocolate left to store!

By now, you might have figured out that I'm frugal, thrifty ... aka "cheap." That means I'm on the lookout for my favorite style of canning jars every time I hit a yard sale or a thrift store. Who wants to pay $12 and more for a case of new jars when used ones are perfectly good and cost me at the very most 50 cents per jar? A bath in the dishwasher, and all is as good as new -- just make sure the rims don't have nicks. That's why I picked up a box of 20 canning jars at a Deseret Industries thrift store yesterday for 25 cents per jar. Yes, that's $5 for 20 jars. A hint for you is that the price of mason jars varies at thrift stores, even stores with the same name. Another hint is if you wait until canning season, you will pay more per jar at those thrift stores and the jars might well be already snapped up -- they were gone last year by canning season. So, start keeping those eyes peeled and pick up jars over the next few months.

If you want new canning jars, here are your options in March. A few local stores do have a case or two of canning jars, but you will likely have to ask where they are -- stuck high on some shelf, most likely. You can also buy canning jars on the internet. Search for the size of mason or canning jars you want. The cheapest I found was about $10 per case of 12 jars, with most sites higher than that. It won't matter which brand you buy, as long as it holds a standard or wide-mouth lid.

You'll also need canning lids. Last summer, the best price I found buying bulk lids was at Mulberry Lane Farm. It is much cheaper buying lids in bulk than just by the box of 12 lids. Don't cringe at buying dozens of lids, because in a cool place, those lids can be used years later. Incidentally, I've always been a fan of Ball lids versus Kerr lids. Now, the same company makes both lids, and it apparently changed the Kerr lids' compound. So, essentially, you get the same lid wheather it says Ball or Kerr now, and they are packaged virtually the same.

Begin preparing now for summer and fall canning. Just think of those jewel-toned jars of tomatoes and green beans and peaches and... now, there's a sigh of contentment.

Peace of Mind -- It Might Be in a Can

I can't imagine living on just "long-term" storage items like grains and beans without something to add flavor, interest, and nutrition. So, I use our local supermarkets' case lot sales to stock up on tomato sauce, a few kinds of veggies I don't can from my garden, creamed soups, canned beans (for the days you are in a hurry), and pineapple for ethnic dishes we make. Depending on the store, case lot sales are often also your chance to get a good buy on dried milk, sugar, salt, baking soda, etc. -- some of the things you use every day in your kitchen.

If your area doesn't have case lot sales, you can stock up the same way by buying a case when an item is at a good sale price. The clerk might look strangely at you when you ask him/her to get you a case of an item, but they'll go back and get one. You leave the store with a feeling of accomplishment and real satisfaction.

For items that never come on sale, like the coconut milk our family regularly uses in Thai cooking, I find a store with a good price and pick up a half dozen or so cans every time I go in the store. Sure, we could live without Thai curry and we could live without pineapple on our homemade pizza, but why should we when we don't have to?


Why buy canned goods in bulk?

First, price. Consider how much you will save over a year if you purchase most of your canned goods at a dime or so cheaper each can. With a box of 20 cans, you've already saved $2, just on one item you use regularly.

Second, you've made life easier for you, the cook. It's so comforting to know those cans are there and ready when you need them -- no running to the store for a can of tomato sauce you discovered you needed right in the middle of cooking the meal.

Third, find peace by being prepared and self-reliant. With the economic downturn, I don't need to say too much about the value of having a supply of food ahead of time. I will just say that I personally have friends right in this town who have had to live off their food storage when husbands lost what seemed very secure jobs. Those people put that food on their shelves in the good times, never knowing they're really need it soon. Our family has lived off food storage when car repairs went into hundreds of dollars more than planned. Sometimes the financial crunch is short-term and sometimes long-term, but all of us go through at least a short-term financial crunch at some point

Peace of mind just might come in a can... and in the freezer... and in buckets in our basement.