Lemons have captivated us for millennia with their bright yellow globes and sour juices, yet using the whole fruit is uncommon today. Preserved lemons boast their own virtues – its juice is tart and acidic with bright notes, while its fragrant oil lives in the peel, where the essence of the fruit is. Taken together, juice and peel offer a bright, aromatic, sweet-sour jolt of life and interest to any dish they touch.
Preserving whole lemons is a centuries-old tradition throughout India, North Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, and Iran where salt and extra lemon juice mellow the bitterness and create highly addictive sweet, salty, and sour flavors heavy with savory citrus aromas. Finely diced preserved lemons are ideal ingredients anywhere lemon juice is called for, and they are an excellent accompaniment to everything from grilled meat and fish to salads and marinades.
Once preserved, the lemons take on a completely different aspect, almost as if they were a different fruit with enhanced flavors.
Making Preserved Lemons
It’s much easier than you might think! We’ll share the recipe first, then walk you through the process in photos.
A unique way to keep the flavor and aroma of fresh lemons for up to a year, ready to bring a bright lemony note to any dish.
Cuisine: Moroccan
Keyword: Preserved Lemons
Author: Stephen Scott
Ingredients
5Organic lemonsfor preserving – scrubbed and dried to remove any wax
5Organic lemonsfor fresh lemon juice
1/2cupKosher salt
Instructions
Preserving the lemons
Slice juicing lemons in half and juice well, discarding any seeds in juice.
Soften the preserving lemons by rolling them back and forth on a wooden cutting board. Quarter the lemons from the bottom down to within 1/4 inch of the top, open them up and sprinkle salt on the exposed pulp, then close back up.
Pack the salted lemon into a quart glass canning jar, pushing each lemon down with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle salt between each layer of lemon.
Top off with fresh-squeezed lemon juice, making sure that the lemons are covered but leaving an air space of about 1/4 to 1/2 inch before closing with lid.
Leave the lid slightly loose and place the jar in an overflow bowl to catch any lemon juice that seeps out during the preserving process.
Let the lemons ripen and preserve in a warm place for 30 days, turning the jar upside down once a day to distribute the salt and juice. Open the jar and add lemon juice if needed to keep lemons covered.
After 30 days, make sure lemons are covered with juice and store in the refrigerator for up to a year. The preserved lemons will be good for a year, and the leftover pickling juice will be good for another year.
Turn the jar upside down from time to time to redistribute the juice. Make sure that the lemons are covered by juice at all times.
If you notice a lemon has become exposed to air in the jar and has a white lacy substance clinging to it, this is a harmless byproduct of preserving and can be removed.
Using the preserved lemons
Pull out a lemon with a fork, slice off what is needed for your recipe and rinse under cold running water to reduce the saltiness. Return the unused portion to the jar.
Recipe Notes
The amount of salt you use is up to you, depending on your level of salty taste preference. The 1/2 cup listed in the ingredients is the minimum to keep the juice brined enough to preserve and protect the lemons, but you can add more if you like a saltier lemony flavor.
We have fallen in love with the beautifully bright hit of lemon scent and flavor these give with the minimum of salt, and we don’t rinse before use but adjust the amount of salt used in the recipe accordingly.
Adapted from Paula Wolfert’s The Food of Morocco
How to Make Preserved Lemons
Start by making the fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Slice 5 lemons in half and juice them, then remove any seeds but keep the pulp.
Get more juice out of the lemons by rolling them back and forth on a wooden cutting board with the palm of your hand for about 20-30 seconds each, then slice in half.
Sliced Lemons for Juicing
Juice the lemons, removing any seeds but keeping the pulp. Set juice aside to use later.
Juicing Lemons for Preserving
Next, prepare the lemons for preserving by slicing from the bottom end to about 1/2 to 1/4 inch from the top or stem end. Do this twice to quarter the fruit.
Slicing Lemons for Preserving
Open each lemon for salting. The amount of salt depends on your taste preference. We found that we like the flavors especially well when 1/2 cup of salt is used for the recipe. This allows the preserving action to take place but doesn’t impart any extra salt to the flavors. We find that we don’t usually need to rinse the lemons before using them.
Opening Lemons for Salting
Lightly but evenly salt the interior of each lemon.
Pack the lemons into a quart glass canning jar, packing them down to make room for all 5 lemons. Add a light sprinkle of salt on top of each lemon in the jar.
Salting Lemons for Preserving
Four normal-sized lemons will almost fill the jar, so you’ll need to pack the fifth lemon pretty well.
Adding Final Lemons for Preserving
Using a combination of fingers and a wooden spoon, make sure the lemons have enough headspace for the juice to completely cover them.
Packing Lemons Down for Preserving
Add the fresh-squeezed lemon juice, making sure that the lemons are completely covered.
Adding Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice
Fresh lemons are springy, so you’ll usually need to pack them back down with a wooden spoon after adding the lemon juice.
Packing Lemons into Preserving Liquid
Make sure the lemons are covered by juice, tighten the ring and cap loosely to allow for any expansion during the preserving process. Put the jar in a bowl to catch any overflow.
Lemons Starting the Preserving Process
Now you wait! Invert the jar once daily to allow the juice and salt to trickle through the lemons, then set it back in the bowl.
After about a week, give the lemons a sniff test. You’ll notice the aroma starting to change from an overall sour lemon smell to overtones of sweet and almost fruity. It brings to mind the smell of a freshly opened Italian lemon soda – sweet, sour, and sparkling.
The Food of Morocco Cookbook
Let the jar sit out in a warm area for 30 days, then store in the refrigerator. The lemons will be good for up to a year, and the pickling juices will be good for another year. Once you taste them and start using them, they’ll be gone within a couple of months!
Moroccan Preserved Lemons
The rinds soften during the preserving process, allowing you to use the complete lemon – rind, pulp, and juice – in any recipe that calls for lemon zest or juice. We use a finely diced 1/4 inch slice of lemon when a recipe calls for a tablespoon of lemon juice. The preserved lemon adds a glorious citrus perfume with a very pleasing lemony punch that doesn’t disappear during cooking.
After we made our first batch and cooked our first lemon roasted chicken, we immediately made a second batch!
Historically, our soils were developed through the interaction of diverse plant and biology growth but much of this has been lost through large scale commercial agriculture becoming increasingly dependent on chemicals to feed the plants, instead of the soil and its organisms. This “trickle-down” effect has also affected home gardeners and small scale growers, and now we struggle to find ways to bring that plant diversity back to the garden.
Planting a multi-species cover crop in your garden will greatly stimulate the soil life and biology while suppressing weeds, interrupting disease cycles and even supply nutrients for next season’s crops.
We spend a significant amount of time teaching straightforward ways home gardeners can improve their soil, so we are often asked: “How can I manage pest and disease issues in my garden?” The simplest answer is: “Improve your soil.” Immediately followed by: “Plant a cover crop.”
The next question we hear is usually: “How will that help my pest and disease issues?”
Let’s take a closer look, and remember that a diverse cover crop mix can accomplish several of these at once.
We’ll start with a few of our customers’ gardens and let them tell you about their experiences in their own words! Then, we’ll explain how and why planting a cover crop in your garden this season will boost your soil’s fertility.
Crimson Clover
Tomatoes with Crimson Clover cover crop. A perfect illustration of the “no bare soil” concept.
“Experimented in one of my six raised beds (4’W x 16’L) and was very happy with virtually no weeds. Plan to use this as a between plantings cover crop going forward!!”
– Skipper
“I needed a ground cover that would improve my really bad soil and offer the disappearing bees and pollinators a refreshment stand. As usual, Terroir filled the bill. I planted these seeds in several different locations and they sprouted and grew in every one of them – from crushed granite mixed with sandy soil to soil that had been covered for YEARS by heavy green plastic. Full sun, partial shade – it made no difference. They thrived.
And two days ago they started to bloom AND I saw three honey bees land on them. “
“Germination was excellent. I have a beautiful cover crop that the bees are totally enjoying. This mix has been the easiest cover crop I have ever planted, no fuss, very little upkeep, just add a little moisture. It’s so magnificent I spend 5-10 minutes every day just enjoying it.”
– Linda
“I’ve grown vegetables in my 4 4’x12′ raised beds for over 25 year, renewing the soil annually with a layer of compost; yields had become just OK. Two autumns ago I planted the Cover Up Mix, turned it into the soil in spring, covered the beds with the usual compost; happily report last year’s yields were up appreciably. The garden was positively lush (an unusual state in our high desert environment with 2017’s prolonged high summer heat). So I planted your cover crop mix again last fall and am looking forward to this year’s results. Definitely recommend!”
– Kerry
“First time I’ve used a cover crop; planted 6 weeks ago in 1/2 of my garden because the other half was still producing. Easy to plant, grew quickly with great coverage. The best part is that everywhere the cover crop was planted there are NO WEEDS! Morning glory has been my biggest problem and I have none where I planted the cover crop. Seeing the comparison between the two halves has made me a believer… already re-ordered enough for the whole garden for next year, and plan on using it in my flower beds, too. Highly recommend!”
“Great germination, fast early growth and very thick. Really looking forward to better soil.”
– Victoria
“I love this! It is growing so healthy and lush. I love the great variety of plants in it. It will get turned in as a green manure day after tomorrow and I am so looking forward to reaping the benefits!”
Cereal Rye suppressing weeds. I had to open space up just to get the photo – there was no room and no sun for a weed to get started!
Suppress Weeds
The best way to suppress weeds is with a highly competitive crop that quickly forms a canopy and shades weeds out. Summer annual cover crops like buckwheat and crimson clover form tight, dense canopies and will often outgrow many weeds. A diverse mixture of cover crops like our Garden Cover Up Mix – which includes both buckwheat and crimson clover – is much more weed-competitive than a single species.
Reduce Weeds in Next Year’s Garden
Planted in late summer or early fall as part of our Garden Cover Up mix, cereal rye is one of the best weed-suppressing tools if your next crop in that bed will be a legume like beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas, or soybeans as it aggressively ties up nitrogen – leaving little for weeds to use.
The legumes don’t mind, as they just fix their own nitrogen.
If your next crop is nitrogen demanding like corn or green leafy vegetables, a fall legume like hairy vetch can be used to both produce nitrogen and suppress weeds. Vetch does make nitrogen, but when it is cut or frost-killed the nitrogen is a protein and must decompose before it is available to either crop or weeds.
Both rye and hairy vetch form a thick mulch when cut that helps suppress small-seeded weeds like Palmer amaranth – better known as pigweed – by starving them of sunlight after germination so they run out of energy. Both rye and vetch produce biochemical compounds that stunt weed growth, called allelopathy.
Crimson Clover is a strong nitrogen fixer
Fix Nitrogen
This is best accomplished with a diverse mix dominated by legumes like our Garden Cover Up Mix. Remember, mixtures are capable of fixing much more nitrogen in a more stable and plant-useable form than single-species cover crops alone.
Many roots build soil organic matter
Build Soil Organic Matter
As gardeners, this should be our very first priority.
As we have learned more about how soil organic matter is formed, we have come to realize the most important contributor to soil organic matter happens in the root zone through what is known as root exudates – biologically active compounds deposited into the soil through the roots – and not simply the aboveground plant growth as previously thought.
Therefore, the best and fastest way to dramatically improve your soil health and fertility is through significantly increasing root growth of a diversity of species and plant families, along with as much aboveground biomass as possible.
Diversity of plant families makes for a more nutritious diet for the soil organisms that build organic matter in the soil, as some species have root exudates high in sugar, others high in protein, others high in lipids, while others are high in minerals; when combined, it makes a more complex and balanced diet than a single cover crop can provide. In general, since the production of root exudates depend on the level of photosynthesis, the more biomass a plant produces, the higher the root exudates and the faster you build soil organic matter.
To Really Build Soil Organic Matter
Inoculate your first planting with our mycorrhizal fungi – MycoGrow. Mycorrhizal fungi form mutually beneficial relationships with plant roots, extending their reach and monitoring nearby soil nutrients, feeding needed nutrients that are otherwise out of reach of the plant roots.
The soil proteins – called glomalin – produced by the mycorrhizal hyphae is the most persistent form of organic matter known and does wonders for the soil.
Now It’s Your Turn
Hopefully, you have a much better understanding of why and how cover crops can make a big positive difference in your garden, no matter if you have a traditional row garden, raised beds, or large containers. If you have soil, cover crops will improve it!
We’ve watched the skepticism on people’s faces when we talk about the multiple benefits of using cover crops in their garden, but then when they try them, the skeptical looks turn to astonishment when they describe how much better their gardens performed.
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Did this help you understand cover crops better? Do you know a gardening friend who could use this information in their garden?
Please share this with your friends – either with the buttons below or on your social network of choice.
Trap cropping – also called intercropping – is an older pest control approach used by commercial growers that is not widely known or used in home gardens, but it should! Essentially, a trap crop acts as a decoy or sacrificial plant for invading pest insects and luring them away from your vegetables. Once the destructive insects attack the trap crop, you can deal with them there instead of on your valuable food crops. Techniques include removal or spraying with a soap-based solution or natural recipe, all the way up to using insecticides on the trap crop.
Using trap crops isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” approach, as each crop attracts a specific set of pests. However, it fits perfectly into a home garden, no matter how big or small. Almost everyone can take advantage of trap crops, from traditional in-ground rows to raised beds to container gardens.
Trap cropping is one part of an integrated, organic management approach to gardening. Instead of just managing pests, this approach includes attracting beneficial insects that prey on the destructive ones while helping to pollinate your garden better. Other parts of organic management include planting cover crops and companion planting.
Nasturtiums are edible and attract pest insects first, followed by beneficials.
How to Use Trap Crops
There are two main ways to use trap crops: to test for specific pest insects and then to attract those pests to better control and minimize or prevent their damage to your desired food crop.
When testing for specific pests, the most accurate results are obtained by using a border planting approach surrounding the garden. This way, pest insects have to pass through the desirable trap crop to reach your food plants, making it easier to monitor the pests and make better choices about identifying and controlling them.
Destructive pest insects are most attracted to plants in the reproductive stage of growth – flowering, fruiting, or setting seeds. This is why most trap crops are planted before your desired food crop – anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks earlier, depending on how long the trap crop needs to start flowering.
After the insects attack your trap crop, you can be ruthless in controlling them – from spraying aggressive bug solutions and removing leaves up to removing the entire infested plant. Depending on the type of planting, this creates the first line of defense or an added layer of protection for your main vegetable, herb, or flower crop with no chemicals or sprays needed.
Stinging nettles attract aphids, followed by ladybugs who feed on them.
Definitions
Just as there are different ways to grow a garden – traditional rows, raised beds, containers, hoop houses, and greenhouses – there are different ways to plant trap crops that increase their effectiveness and benefits.
Border planting – Just as it sounds, planting one or more pest-attracting crops outside of the garden or area where the desired crop is grown. This can be completely surrounding the garden or between the garden and where the pests come from – for example, between the garden and an open field.
Intercropping – Planting the trap crop in alternating rows or areas within the garden or desired crop. For example, planting a row of lovage on either side of your tomato row will attract tomato hornworms before they get to the tomatoes.
Mixed intercropping – Trap crops are planted among the desired crops with no distinction. This looks exactly like companion planting but for the opposite reason – you attract pest insects to the trap crop instead of bringing in beneficials. An example is planting red giant mustard among your cabbages to attract the cabbage caterpillar.
Buckwheat should always be planted. It attracts pests, beneficials, and pollinators while improving the soil.
Trap Crops Chart
Now that you understand more about trap crops, how they work, and the different types of planting, it’s time to see exactly which crops can be used and what type of pests they help control.
Initially, you may be surprised to see so many familiar, common garden crops listed. However, remember your gardening experience – how many of these crops seemed to attract the exact pests listed here?
This is simply a different perspective or approach to deciding what to plant in your garden, when, and for what reason.
Remember, your main crops – vegetables, herbs, or flowers – are usually entirely different species than your trap crops, but not always. In long-season climates, an early group of cherry tomatoes is transplanted to attract common tomato pests, protecting the main planting 2 – 3 weeks later.
Sunflowers attract loads of bumblebees, along with several pest and beneficial insects.
Concerns and Strategy
To get the most benefits from trap crops, you must be diligent in inspecting them for pest insects and take immediate, decisive action. This often means picking the bugs off, removing leaves, branches, or the entire plant in some cases. Appropriate action can also mean treating the pest insects by spraying, from a mild soapy solution or Garlic Juice Concentrate to our Home Garden Bug Solution.
Improper management of the trap crop can create “pest nurseries” – just the opposite of what you are trying to do!
You must be ruthless in taking action with the trap crop – remember, it is a sacrificial target to protect your valuable crops.
It can be difficult to manage multiple pests simultaneously, as planting multiple trap crops can be larger than your garden. It’s best to use trap cropping to manage your biggest pest insect infestation, then use companion planting to attract beneficial insects to work on the other pests.
As mentioned above, trap cropping isn’t a silver bullet, a one-size-fits-all solution, but it can be a valuable tool in an integrated organic management approach. A diverse mixture of plants makes it far less likely that the destructive pest insects will settle on your main crops, and when they arrive, they will be followed by beneficial insects that feed on them.
A comprehensive organic pest control plan includes –
Diverse planting to confuse pests and prevent them from concentrating in one area.
Including multiple flower species – flower mixes are great – that attract beneficial insects.
Strategically placed trap crops targeting pests that you know are in the garden.
Crop rotations that follow cover crops that improve the soil while avoiding over-wintering soil-borne pests.
How To Get Started
The easiest yet most effective way to get started using trap crops in your garden uses these steps:
Identify the worst pest insect that attacks your garden, causing the most damage.
Choose which crop is most infested by that pest.
Using the chart above, find the trap crop for that pest and which planting method is best.
Determine when to plant your trap crop – how early before your main crop so it is flowering or setting fruit to attract the pest insects.
Plant one trap crop to experiment and learn with.
The level of your success depends on several factors, but you should see significant improvement in the population of pests, the amount of damage, and the health and amount of harvest in the first season you start using trap cropping.
Keep a notebook with your experiment’s details and results, successes and challenges, weather, and other related factors. After a couple of seasons, you should begin to form a clear picture of which direction is best for you and your garden in your particular climate.
This isn’t a quick-fix approach; it’s about understanding your garden better, more of a Systems Approach than a silver bullet. However, if you commit to an organic pest control approach, you will see a steady decrease in destructive pests and a comparable increase in beneficial insects. You will also see fewer damaged vegetables and increased harvests of healthy food from your home garden.
Help Us Help You
Did this help you better understand trap crops? Do you know a gardening friend who could use this information in their garden?
Please share this with your friends – either with the buttons below or on your social network of choice.
It not only helps them have a better garden, but you help introduce us to more gardeners who can use our unique approach to creating a better garden in partnership with Mother Nature!
Fresh, bright and invigorating, the scent and flavor of citrus is most enjoyable for many gardeners, especially where citrus trees are not a possibility. Several different herbs and flowers have a pleasing citrusy scent or flavor – either lemon, lime or orange – either as the main fragrance or as a delicate note that brightens the scent.
Popular for teas, sachets, aromatherapy, and recipes, they bring a bright, cheerful flavor to dishes like pasta, fish, and chicken.
If you are looking to add a lovely citrusy aroma to your garden, here are eight herbs to consider!
Lemon Balm
Lemon Balm leaves
A proud member of the mint family, lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is native to Europe and the Mediterranean and, if allowed, will spread into unwanted areas of your garden. It’s easy enough to contain in a planter or large container, or simply give it an area that it can fill in and be happy. Hardy to USDA Zone 5, it grows to about 2′ tall with abundant crinkled leaves and tiny white or pale blue flowers that attract a surprising amount of pollinators, given how petite the flowers are.
Rubbing the leaves brings out the lemon scent, and walking by the plant on a warm day repels biting insects. The scent is crisp, clean, and forward – you immediately get the heady fresh lemon-rind aroma that is very refreshing. Grow in part shade with moist soil or sunnier spots in cooler areas.
Harvest the leaves like basil with several cuttings during the season, and dry them to preserve that summer flavor into the winter, or chop the leaves and freeze in ice cubes for a lemony punch in iced teas or other drinks.
Lime Balm
Lime Balm leaves and flower
As you might expect, lime balm (Melissa officinalis ‘Lime’) is closely related to lemon balm, except with a flavor tilted towards the lime spectrum. Some gardeners experience it as a lemon-lime, while others comment on it being exceptionally limey, so soil and climate can make a difference in the scent and flavor.
Grow as you would lemon balm to raise the spirit and lift the heart!
Lemon Bee Balm
Lemon Bee Balm flowers
Completely different than the above two balms, lemon bee balm (Monarda citriodora) is both the perfect name and description of this highly fragrant plant. Being downwind of a thick stand will make you think you’ve come across a hidden lemon grove, then multitudes of hummingbirds and butterflies draw your eye to hundreds of minuscule compound flowers, stacked one on top of the other, marching up the stem. As you draw closer, the bees appear, covering the flowers in an intricate dance from flower to flower.
Both the leaves and flowers are used; making refreshing, calming lemon-scented teas and potpourri. The stalks make excellent additions to flower arrangements, both fresh and dried.
This annual native is fairly cold hardy, rarely killed by winter cold, surviving by underground rhizomes. They can spread in moderate climates, so use planters or pots to keep them contained, or give them an area of their own.
Lemongrass
Lemongrass plant
A favorite in Asian cooking, lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) looks similar to bunchgrass but with a pleasantly strong lemon scent and flavor. It has the same volatile oils as lemon rind, with the same fresh, clean, citrus flavor and scent. Easy to grow in pots and containers for cooler climates, lemongrass loves the heat thanks to its tropical origins.
Harvest by cutting a stalk at the outside of the clump near the base, leaving the rest to continue growing. Lemongrass is best used fresh, as it loses some of its lemony pungency when dried or frozen. This is why many gardeners will grow a pot of lemongrass for fresh use, moving it outside in the spring and summer, then bringing it inside for the fall and winter.
We love to ferment fresh lemongrass with chiles and garlic to make a delicious paste for Asian cooking.
Insect repellent booster –
Plant lemongrass and lemon balm together to double their individual insect-repellent powers!
Just standing in arms reach should be enough to fend off the worst of the biting bugs – consider planting a large pot to place near your summer barbeques.
They’re effective against mosquitos, gnats, and wasps, and you can break off a couple of leaves to rub on your skin or clothing to take the protection with you.
Lemon Basil
Lemon Basil leaves and seed pods
All of the flavor that makes basil such a beloved herb with a lemony punch gives lemon basil (Ocimum americanum) an exciting flavor to explore in the kitchen. Lemon and basil go well together, and this combines the best of both.
Heat-loving and repellant to biting insects, it makes a wonderfully different pesto and adds a boost of flavor to soups and stocks. As with other basil varieties, the flavor is at its peak when fresh-picked, but drying will retain some of the citrus aromas. Once it starts flowering, let some of the stalks go to seed to use as a spice and flavoring in salads, on sandwiches, and in summer iced tea.
This is another great candidate for growing in pots or containers that can be brought inside in cold weather to brighten up a winter dish.
Orange Scented Thyme
Orange Scented Thyme leaves and blossoms
A cousin to English Thyme with all of the complex flavors that makes it a garden favorite, yet orange scented thyme (Thymus fragrantissimus) packs a refreshing orange-mint fragrance in every leaf. The orange flavor follows the familiar thyme, adding complexity and interest to summer dishes. Use it in almost any recipe calling for traditional thyme where an orange undertone would be appreciated.
Harvest the sprigs before flower set for the highest essential oil content, allowing them to air dry for storage. Use both fresh and dried leaves to make a traditional thyme tea with a twist to soothe sore throats.
Nutmeg Flower/Black Cumin
Nutmeg Flower/Black Cumin
Rightfully called “The cure for everything but death”, nutmeg flower (Nigella sativa) shows off with blankets of gorgeous tiny blue-tinted flowers that produce the seeds that made them famous. The seeds are used as a spice for flavorings and medicinally for ailments. Also called Four Spice for its lemon-carrot scent followed by strawberry-pepper taste, it has flavored curries, breads, and cakes since ancient times.
Nutmeg flower prefers well-drained soil in full sun, and can often be found growing wild in rocky ground, fallow fields and scrubland. Because of its hardiness, it’s easy to grow and is often recommended for beginning gardeners, children, and low maintenance gardens.
French Sorrel
French Sorrel leaves
Known to many Europeans as the lemonade leaf, French sorrel (Rumex scutatus) is prized by chefs and is indispensable in French cuisine. The sour-citrus taste has been prized throughout the world for thousands of years as a wake-up call for taste buds dulled by bland winter foods.
Very hardy and early growing, sorrel was often one of the first fresh greens people ate each spring in the days before refrigeration. It is still a popular ingredient in spring tonics, and ancient Greeks and Romans used the herb to promote digestion.
Each one of these herbs is easy to grow in a container or pot, so no matter where you live the bright, refreshing flavors of citrus can be yours with little work and lots of rewards!
https://underwoodgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Citrus-background.jpg3991000Stephen Scotthttps://underwoodgardens.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Survey-Header.jpgStephen Scott2019-05-03 19:11:422024-04-30 17:33:59How to Grow Citrus Flavors in Your Garden
One of the most anticipated times of year for gardeners is Spring, with the attendant planting season. Everything is new and fresh, a chance to start over and improve on last year’s garden. A big subject for gardeners is what to do with the soil to prepare it for planting. If you have been reading our articles over the past several years, you know we advocate building the health and vitality of the soil in a natural, biologically safe manner. Soil becomes healthier, more productive, and disease, weed, and pest resistant. It results in an upward spiral where the garden gets better year after year.
Here is a unique recipe for a spring garden elixir that is easy to mix, completely non-toxic, and hugely beneficial for jump-starting your garden’s soil and getting it ready for planting. It comes courtesy of Crop Services International, which has over 35 years of experience helping growers accomplish their goals. They provide a Non-Toxic/Biological/Sustainable approach to growing food, from a full-scale commercial farm to the home gardener. We have read “The Non-Toxic Farming Handbook,” which they wrote to educate ourselves on improving our knowledge and approach.
This recipe is based on a 20′ x 50′ garden or 1000 sq. ft. Adjust for your garden size.
Before You Start
This recipe and applications assume an average garden soil that is basically good but could use some help.
It works in fertile soils by subtracting the lime or gypsum application, adding compost before spraying the elixir.
It helps very poor soils, but won’t give as much effect.
Preparing your garden beds for the elixir will require a couple of things.
First, evenly spread a 50 lb bag of high calcium lime (for acidic soils) or gypsum (for alkaline soils) across your beds. Your local garden center should have this. If using lime, it should be high calcium lime with as low magnesium as possible. 5% or less is great, up to 10% is acceptable, but nothing over 10%. The higher magnesium percentage releases excess nitrogen into your soil, greatly decreasing its fertility. It also overloads both the chemical and biological processes of your soil. Do not buy Dolomite lime, as it has too much magnesium.
Then, follow with 100 lbs of rich, aged compost, spread evenly across your beds, about 2 full-sized wheelbarrows. This can be purchased or from your own compost pile. Again, the best is made by you, and it is easy – “Compost – Nourishing Your Garden Soil” has all the details.
After doing both of these, make and apply the elixir.
Notes on Ingredients
When purchasing the fish fertilizer, if you can find one with kelp or seaweed, even better. If you want the absolute best fish emulsion possible, brew your own! Read our “Best Homemade Fish Emulsion” for the recipe and instructions.
Blackstrap molasses is best for its increased mineral content. Unsulphured is preferred but not absolutely necessary. One of the best sources of inexpensive molasses is a feed store that supplies horses, which can be bought by the gallon for much less than at a supermarket.
Do not buy diet cola, as the Aspartame/NutriSweet used as the sweetener acts as a chelating agent, meaning it ties up the minerals and nutrients in the soil, making them unavailable to the plants. (It also does the same thing in your body!) The cola has Phosphorus to add to the mix along with sugars.
The beer adds B vitamins – no, not vitamin Beer!
The Borax powder adds Boron, one of the most important elements in the biochemical sequence of plant growth.
Cranberry juice is full of vitamins and minerals, acts as an antibacterial agent, and has an acidic pH. Depending on how the juice is processed, it can also contain significant amino acids.
This recipe is based on a 20′ x 50′ garden or 1000 sq. ft. Adjust for your garden size.
Author: Stephen Scott
Ingredients
20-24ozliquid fish fertilizerHome-made is best
1/2cupmolassesBlack strap has more nutrients
16ozbottle of cola – NOT DIET!
24ozbeer2 - 12 oz cans, any beer works
1/2cupBorax powder
1qtcranberry juice – make sure to get 100% cranberry juice, not a dilution
Instructions
Mix well with a stirrer and thin with enough water to enable mixture to be sprayed with a tank type or hose-end sprayer.
Apply the mix evenly over lime or gypsum and compost base with sprayer. If needed, go back over with second application to use up all of the batch, just make sure to apply evenly.
Broad-fork or lightly rototill garden soil. If using a rototiller, don’t go more than 2 inches deep at the maximum. Most of the biological growth happens at the 2-3 inch mark and the soil is turned over an inch or so beyond what the tines reach. Tilling deeper only destroys microbial life in the soil, setting you back in your efforts to create and build biologically active soil.
Recipe Notes
It must be noted that the sprayer cannot have been used to spray any chemical treatments like herbicides, pesticides, etc. as this will put those chemicals onto your soil, killing the microbial life in the soil and feeding the chemicals to the plants, where you wind up eating them!
Seed Planting Elixir
Once you have applied the elixir and broad-forked or lightly tilled the soil, prepare your garden planning and seedlings. We have another planting elixir to use just after planting the seeds and transplanting the seedlings into the garden that we’ll share with you: In a gallon milk jug, mix 1/2 cup of fish emulsion, 1 tsp sugar (preferably raw or brown), and 1/2 cup of cola. Fill the jug with water and shake well. Apply the mixture over the seeds and transplants. Each gallon will treat approximately a 50-foot row.
This is a great start towards sustainable, biological agriculture in your own garden. Remember, though, it is just a start, a good step in the right direction. To continue to make progress in knowledge and soil health, you need to find out where you are starting from. Do more reading, ask questions, and get a complete soil analysis, not just the widely offered NPK and pH soil tests. Spend the money to find out exactly where your garden soil is, and then you can make sound decisions on where you want and need to go. Then you won’t be guessing and shooting in the dark, trying to do what is right but not really knowing if you are making positive progress.
Moroccan Preserved Lemons
Moroccan Preserved Lemons
Lemons have captivated us for millennia with their bright yellow globes and sour juices, yet using the whole fruit is uncommon today. Preserved lemons boast their own virtues – its juice is tart and acidic with bright notes, while its fragrant oil lives in the peel, where the essence of the fruit is. Taken together, juice and peel offer a bright, aromatic, sweet-sour jolt of life and interest to any dish they touch.
Preserving whole lemons is a centuries-old tradition throughout India, North Africa, the Middle East, Turkey, and Iran where salt and extra lemon juice mellow the bitterness and create highly addictive sweet, salty, and sour flavors heavy with savory citrus aromas. Finely diced preserved lemons are ideal ingredients anywhere lemon juice is called for, and they are an excellent accompaniment to everything from grilled meat and fish to salads and marinades.
Once preserved, the lemons take on a completely different aspect, almost as if they were a different fruit with enhanced flavors.
Making Preserved Lemons
It’s much easier than you might think! We’ll share the recipe first, then walk you through the process in photos.
A unique way to keep the flavor and aroma of fresh lemons for up to a year, ready to bring a bright lemony note to any dish.
Slice juicing lemons in half and juice well, discarding any seeds in juice.
Soften the preserving lemons by rolling them back and forth on a wooden cutting board. Quarter the lemons from the bottom down to within 1/4 inch of the top, open them up and sprinkle salt on the exposed pulp, then close back up.
Pack the salted lemon into a quart glass canning jar, pushing each lemon down with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle salt between each layer of lemon.
Top off with fresh-squeezed lemon juice, making sure that the lemons are covered but leaving an air space of about 1/4 to 1/2 inch before closing with lid.
Leave the lid slightly loose and place the jar in an overflow bowl to catch any lemon juice that seeps out during the preserving process.
Let the lemons ripen and preserve in a warm place for 30 days, turning the jar upside down once a day to distribute the salt and juice. Open the jar and add lemon juice if needed to keep lemons covered.
After 30 days, make sure lemons are covered with juice and store in the refrigerator for up to a year. The preserved lemons will be good for a year, and the leftover pickling juice will be good for another year.
Turn the jar upside down from time to time to redistribute the juice. Make sure that the lemons are covered by juice at all times.
If you notice a lemon has become exposed to air in the jar and has a white lacy substance clinging to it, this is a harmless byproduct of preserving and can be removed.
Pull out a lemon with a fork, slice off what is needed for your recipe and rinse under cold running water to reduce the saltiness. Return the unused portion to the jar.
The amount of salt you use is up to you, depending on your level of salty taste preference. The 1/2 cup listed in the ingredients is the minimum to keep the juice brined enough to preserve and protect the lemons, but you can add more if you like a saltier lemony flavor.
We have fallen in love with the beautifully bright hit of lemon scent and flavor these give with the minimum of salt, and we don’t rinse before use but adjust the amount of salt used in the recipe accordingly.
How to Make Preserved Lemons
Start by making the fresh-squeezed lemon juice. Slice 5 lemons in half and juice them, then remove any seeds but keep the pulp.
Juice the lemons, removing any seeds but keeping the pulp. Set juice aside to use later.
Next, prepare the lemons for preserving by slicing from the bottom end to about 1/2 to 1/4 inch from the top or stem end. Do this twice to quarter the fruit.
Open each lemon for salting. The amount of salt depends on your taste preference. We found that we like the flavors especially well when 1/2 cup of salt is used for the recipe. This allows the preserving action to take place but doesn’t impart any extra salt to the flavors. We find that we don’t usually need to rinse the lemons before using them.
Lightly but evenly salt the interior of each lemon.
Pack the lemons into a quart glass canning jar, packing them down to make room for all 5 lemons. Add a light sprinkle of salt on top of each lemon in the jar.
Four normal-sized lemons will almost fill the jar, so you’ll need to pack the fifth lemon pretty well.
Using a combination of fingers and a wooden spoon, make sure the lemons have enough headspace for the juice to completely cover them.
Add the fresh-squeezed lemon juice, making sure that the lemons are completely covered.
Fresh lemons are springy, so you’ll usually need to pack them back down with a wooden spoon after adding the lemon juice.
Make sure the lemons are covered by juice, tighten the ring and cap loosely to allow for any expansion during the preserving process. Put the jar in a bowl to catch any overflow.
Now you wait! Invert the jar once daily to allow the juice and salt to trickle through the lemons, then set it back in the bowl.
After about a week, give the lemons a sniff test. You’ll notice the aroma starting to change from an overall sour lemon smell to overtones of sweet and almost fruity. It brings to mind the smell of a freshly opened Italian lemon soda – sweet, sour, and sparkling.
Let the jar sit out in a warm area for 30 days, then store in the refrigerator. The lemons will be good for up to a year, and the pickling juices will be good for another year. Once you taste them and start using them, they’ll be gone within a couple of months!
The rinds soften during the preserving process, allowing you to use the complete lemon – rind, pulp, and juice – in any recipe that calls for lemon zest or juice. We use a finely diced 1/4 inch slice of lemon when a recipe calls for a tablespoon of lemon juice. The preserved lemon adds a glorious citrus perfume with a very pleasing lemony punch that doesn’t disappear during cooking.
After we made our first batch and cooked our first lemon roasted chicken, we immediately made a second batch!
Cover Crops Beat Garden Weeds
Cover Crops Boost Fertility While Beating Weeds
Historically, our soils were developed through the interaction of diverse plant and biology growth but much of this has been lost through large scale commercial agriculture becoming increasingly dependent on chemicals to feed the plants, instead of the soil and its organisms. This “trickle-down” effect has also affected home gardeners and small scale growers, and now we struggle to find ways to bring that plant diversity back to the garden.
Planting a multi-species cover crop in your garden will greatly stimulate the soil life and biology while suppressing weeds, interrupting disease cycles and even supply nutrients for next season’s crops.
We spend a significant amount of time teaching straightforward ways home gardeners can improve their soil, so we are often asked: “How can I manage pest and disease issues in my garden?” The simplest answer is: “Improve your soil.” Immediately followed by: “Plant a cover crop.”
The next question we hear is usually: “How will that help my pest and disease issues?”
Let’s take a closer look, and remember that a diverse cover crop mix can accomplish several of these at once.
We’ll start with a few of our customers’ gardens and let them tell you about their experiences in their own words! Then, we’ll explain how and why planting a cover crop in your garden this season will boost your soil’s fertility.
Crimson Clover
Tomatoes with Crimson Clover cover crop. A perfect illustration of the “no bare soil” concept.
Garden Cover Up Mix
Soil Builder Mix
How and Why Cover Crops Work
Suppress Weeds
The best way to suppress weeds is with a highly competitive crop that quickly forms a canopy and shades weeds out. Summer annual cover crops like buckwheat and crimson clover form tight, dense canopies and will often outgrow many weeds. A diverse mixture of cover crops like our Garden Cover Up Mix – which includes both buckwheat and crimson clover – is much more weed-competitive than a single species.
Reduce Weeds in Next Year’s Garden
Planted in late summer or early fall as part of our Garden Cover Up mix, cereal rye is one of the best weed-suppressing tools if your next crop in that bed will be a legume like beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas, or soybeans as it aggressively ties up nitrogen – leaving little for weeds to use.
The legumes don’t mind, as they just fix their own nitrogen.
If your next crop is nitrogen demanding like corn or green leafy vegetables, a fall legume like hairy vetch can be used to both produce nitrogen and suppress weeds. Vetch does make nitrogen, but when it is cut or frost-killed the nitrogen is a protein and must decompose before it is available to either crop or weeds.
Both rye and hairy vetch form a thick mulch when cut that helps suppress small-seeded weeds like Palmer amaranth – better known as pigweed – by starving them of sunlight after germination so they run out of energy. Both rye and vetch produce biochemical compounds that stunt weed growth, called allelopathy.
Fix Nitrogen
This is best accomplished with a diverse mix dominated by legumes like our Garden Cover Up Mix. Remember, mixtures are capable of fixing much more nitrogen in a more stable and plant-useable form than single-species cover crops alone.
Build Soil Organic Matter
As gardeners, this should be our very first priority.
As we have learned more about how soil organic matter is formed, we have come to realize the most important contributor to soil organic matter happens in the root zone through what is known as root exudates – biologically active compounds deposited into the soil through the roots – and not simply the aboveground plant growth as previously thought.
Diversity of plant families makes for a more nutritious diet for the soil organisms that build organic matter in the soil, as some species have root exudates high in sugar, others high in protein, others high in lipids, while others are high in minerals; when combined, it makes a more complex and balanced diet than a single cover crop can provide. In general, since the production of root exudates depend on the level of photosynthesis, the more biomass a plant produces, the higher the root exudates and the faster you build soil organic matter.
To Really Build Soil Organic Matter
Inoculate your first planting with our mycorrhizal fungi – MycoGrow. Mycorrhizal fungi form mutually beneficial relationships with plant roots, extending their reach and monitoring nearby soil nutrients, feeding needed nutrients that are otherwise out of reach of the plant roots.
The soil proteins – called glomalin – produced by the mycorrhizal hyphae is the most persistent form of organic matter known and does wonders for the soil.
Now It’s Your Turn
Hopefully, you have a much better understanding of why and how cover crops can make a big positive difference in your garden, no matter if you have a traditional row garden, raised beds, or large containers. If you have soil, cover crops will improve it!
We’ve watched the skepticism on people’s faces when we talk about the multiple benefits of using cover crops in their garden, but then when they try them, the skeptical looks turn to astonishment when they describe how much better their gardens performed.
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Trap Crops – Organic Pest Management for Gardeners
What Trap Crops Are and How They Work
Trap cropping – also called intercropping – is an older pest control approach used by commercial growers that is not widely known or used in home gardens, but it should! Essentially, a trap crop acts as a decoy or sacrificial plant for invading pest insects and luring them away from your vegetables. Once the destructive insects attack the trap crop, you can deal with them there instead of on your valuable food crops. Techniques include removal or spraying with a soap-based solution or natural recipe, all the way up to using insecticides on the trap crop.
Using trap crops isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” approach, as each crop attracts a specific set of pests. However, it fits perfectly into a home garden, no matter how big or small. Almost everyone can take advantage of trap crops, from traditional in-ground rows to raised beds to container gardens.
Trap cropping is one part of an integrated, organic management approach to gardening. Instead of just managing pests, this approach includes attracting beneficial insects that prey on the destructive ones while helping to pollinate your garden better. Other parts of organic management include planting cover crops and companion planting.
How to Use Trap Crops
There are two main ways to use trap crops: to test for specific pest insects and then to attract those pests to better control and minimize or prevent their damage to your desired food crop.
When testing for specific pests, the most accurate results are obtained by using a border planting approach surrounding the garden. This way, pest insects have to pass through the desirable trap crop to reach your food plants, making it easier to monitor the pests and make better choices about identifying and controlling them.
Destructive pest insects are most attracted to plants in the reproductive stage of growth – flowering, fruiting, or setting seeds. This is why most trap crops are planted before your desired food crop – anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks earlier, depending on how long the trap crop needs to start flowering.
After the insects attack your trap crop, you can be ruthless in controlling them – from spraying aggressive bug solutions and removing leaves up to removing the entire infested plant. Depending on the type of planting, this creates the first line of defense or an added layer of protection for your main vegetable, herb, or flower crop with no chemicals or sprays needed.
Definitions
Just as there are different ways to grow a garden – traditional rows, raised beds, containers, hoop houses, and greenhouses – there are different ways to plant trap crops that increase their effectiveness and benefits.
Border planting – Just as it sounds, planting one or more pest-attracting crops outside of the garden or area where the desired crop is grown. This can be completely surrounding the garden or between the garden and where the pests come from – for example, between the garden and an open field.
Intercropping – Planting the trap crop in alternating rows or areas within the garden or desired crop. For example, planting a row of lovage on either side of your tomato row will attract tomato hornworms before they get to the tomatoes.
Mixed intercropping – Trap crops are planted among the desired crops with no distinction. This looks exactly like companion planting but for the opposite reason – you attract pest insects to the trap crop instead of bringing in beneficials. An example is planting red giant mustard among your cabbages to attract the cabbage caterpillar.
Trap Crops Chart
Now that you understand more about trap crops, how they work, and the different types of planting, it’s time to see exactly which crops can be used and what type of pests they help control.
Initially, you may be surprised to see so many familiar, common garden crops listed. However, remember your gardening experience – how many of these crops seemed to attract the exact pests listed here?
This is simply a different perspective or approach to deciding what to plant in your garden, when, and for what reason.
Remember, your main crops – vegetables, herbs, or flowers – are usually entirely different species than your trap crops, but not always. In long-season climates, an early group of cherry tomatoes is transplanted to attract common tomato pests, protecting the main planting 2 – 3 weeks later.
Concerns and Strategy
To get the most benefits from trap crops, you must be diligent in inspecting them for pest insects and take immediate, decisive action. This often means picking the bugs off, removing leaves, branches, or the entire plant in some cases. Appropriate action can also mean treating the pest insects by spraying, from a mild soapy solution or Garlic Juice Concentrate to our Home Garden Bug Solution.
Improper management of the trap crop can create “pest nurseries” – just the opposite of what you are trying to do!
It can be difficult to manage multiple pests simultaneously, as planting multiple trap crops can be larger than your garden. It’s best to use trap cropping to manage your biggest pest insect infestation, then use companion planting to attract beneficial insects to work on the other pests.
As mentioned above, trap cropping isn’t a silver bullet, a one-size-fits-all solution, but it can be a valuable tool in an integrated organic management approach. A diverse mixture of plants makes it far less likely that the destructive pest insects will settle on your main crops, and when they arrive, they will be followed by beneficial insects that feed on them.
A comprehensive organic pest control plan includes –
How To Get Started
The easiest yet most effective way to get started using trap crops in your garden uses these steps:
The level of your success depends on several factors, but you should see significant improvement in the population of pests, the amount of damage, and the health and amount of harvest in the first season you start using trap cropping.
Keep a notebook with your experiment’s details and results, successes and challenges, weather, and other related factors. After a couple of seasons, you should begin to form a clear picture of which direction is best for you and your garden in your particular climate.
This isn’t a quick-fix approach; it’s about understanding your garden better, more of a Systems Approach than a silver bullet. However, if you commit to an organic pest control approach, you will see a steady decrease in destructive pests and a comparable increase in beneficial insects. You will also see fewer damaged vegetables and increased harvests of healthy food from your home garden.
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It not only helps them have a better garden, but you help introduce us to more gardeners who can use our unique approach to creating a better garden in partnership with Mother Nature!
How to Grow Citrus Flavors in Your Garden
Citrus Flavors From 8 Easy to Grow Herbs
Fresh, bright and invigorating, the scent and flavor of citrus is most enjoyable for many gardeners, especially where citrus trees are not a possibility. Several different herbs and flowers have a pleasing citrusy scent or flavor – either lemon, lime or orange – either as the main fragrance or as a delicate note that brightens the scent.
Popular for teas, sachets, aromatherapy, and recipes, they bring a bright, cheerful flavor to dishes like pasta, fish, and chicken.
If you are looking to add a lovely citrusy aroma to your garden, here are eight herbs to consider!
Lemon Balm
A proud member of the mint family, lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) is native to Europe and the Mediterranean and, if allowed, will spread into unwanted areas of your garden. It’s easy enough to contain in a planter or large container, or simply give it an area that it can fill in and be happy. Hardy to USDA Zone 5, it grows to about 2′ tall with abundant crinkled leaves and tiny white or pale blue flowers that attract a surprising amount of pollinators, given how petite the flowers are.
Rubbing the leaves brings out the lemon scent, and walking by the plant on a warm day repels biting insects. The scent is crisp, clean, and forward – you immediately get the heady fresh lemon-rind aroma that is very refreshing. Grow in part shade with moist soil or sunnier spots in cooler areas.
Harvest the leaves like basil with several cuttings during the season, and dry them to preserve that summer flavor into the winter, or chop the leaves and freeze in ice cubes for a lemony punch in iced teas or other drinks.
Lime Balm
As you might expect, lime balm (Melissa officinalis ‘Lime’) is closely related to lemon balm, except with a flavor tilted towards the lime spectrum. Some gardeners experience it as a lemon-lime, while others comment on it being exceptionally limey, so soil and climate can make a difference in the scent and flavor.
Grow as you would lemon balm to raise the spirit and lift the heart!
Lemon Bee Balm
Completely different than the above two balms, lemon bee balm (Monarda citriodora) is both the perfect name and description of this highly fragrant plant. Being downwind of a thick stand will make you think you’ve come across a hidden lemon grove, then multitudes of hummingbirds and butterflies draw your eye to hundreds of minuscule compound flowers, stacked one on top of the other, marching up the stem. As you draw closer, the bees appear, covering the flowers in an intricate dance from flower to flower.
Both the leaves and flowers are used; making refreshing, calming lemon-scented teas and potpourri. The stalks make excellent additions to flower arrangements, both fresh and dried.
This annual native is fairly cold hardy, rarely killed by winter cold, surviving by underground rhizomes. They can spread in moderate climates, so use planters or pots to keep them contained, or give them an area of their own.
Lemongrass
A favorite in Asian cooking, lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) looks similar to bunchgrass but with a pleasantly strong lemon scent and flavor. It has the same volatile oils as lemon rind, with the same fresh, clean, citrus flavor and scent. Easy to grow in pots and containers for cooler climates, lemongrass loves the heat thanks to its tropical origins.
Harvest by cutting a stalk at the outside of the clump near the base, leaving the rest to continue growing. Lemongrass is best used fresh, as it loses some of its lemony pungency when dried or frozen. This is why many gardeners will grow a pot of lemongrass for fresh use, moving it outside in the spring and summer, then bringing it inside for the fall and winter.
We love to ferment fresh lemongrass with chiles and garlic to make a delicious paste for Asian cooking.
Lemon Basil
All of the flavor that makes basil such a beloved herb with a lemony punch gives lemon basil (Ocimum americanum) an exciting flavor to explore in the kitchen. Lemon and basil go well together, and this combines the best of both.
Heat-loving and repellant to biting insects, it makes a wonderfully different pesto and adds a boost of flavor to soups and stocks. As with other basil varieties, the flavor is at its peak when fresh-picked, but drying will retain some of the citrus aromas. Once it starts flowering, let some of the stalks go to seed to use as a spice and flavoring in salads, on sandwiches, and in summer iced tea.
This is another great candidate for growing in pots or containers that can be brought inside in cold weather to brighten up a winter dish.
Orange Scented Thyme
A cousin to English Thyme with all of the complex flavors that makes it a garden favorite, yet orange scented thyme (Thymus fragrantissimus) packs a refreshing orange-mint fragrance in every leaf. The orange flavor follows the familiar thyme, adding complexity and interest to summer dishes. Use it in almost any recipe calling for traditional thyme where an orange undertone would be appreciated.
Harvest the sprigs before flower set for the highest essential oil content, allowing them to air dry for storage. Use both fresh and dried leaves to make a traditional thyme tea with a twist to soothe sore throats.
Nutmeg Flower/Black Cumin
Rightfully called “The cure for everything but death”, nutmeg flower (Nigella sativa) shows off with blankets of gorgeous tiny blue-tinted flowers that produce the seeds that made them famous. The seeds are used as a spice for flavorings and medicinally for ailments. Also called Four Spice for its lemon-carrot scent followed by strawberry-pepper taste, it has flavored curries, breads, and cakes since ancient times.
Nutmeg flower prefers well-drained soil in full sun, and can often be found growing wild in rocky ground, fallow fields and scrubland. Because of its hardiness, it’s easy to grow and is often recommended for beginning gardeners, children, and low maintenance gardens.
French Sorrel
Known to many Europeans as the lemonade leaf, French sorrel (Rumex scutatus) is prized by chefs and is indispensable in French cuisine. The sour-citrus taste has been prized throughout the world for thousands of years as a wake-up call for taste buds dulled by bland winter foods.
Very hardy and early growing, sorrel was often one of the first fresh greens people ate each spring in the days before refrigeration. It is still a popular ingredient in spring tonics, and ancient Greeks and Romans used the herb to promote digestion.
Each one of these herbs is easy to grow in a container or pot, so no matter where you live the bright, refreshing flavors of citrus can be yours with little work and lots of rewards!
Growing Delicious Carrots from Seed to Harvest
Discover the secrets of growing perfect carrots in your backyard. Our guide covers everything from seed selection to harvest time.
Spring Garden Soil Elixir
Soil Elixir Jump-Starts Your Garden’s Soil
One of the most anticipated times of year for gardeners is Spring, with the attendant planting season. Everything is new and fresh, a chance to start over and improve on last year’s garden. A big subject for gardeners is what to do with the soil to prepare it for planting. If you have been reading our articles over the past several years, you know we advocate building the health and vitality of the soil in a natural, biologically safe manner. Soil becomes healthier, more productive, and disease, weed, and pest resistant. It results in an upward spiral where the garden gets better year after year.
Here is a unique recipe for a spring garden elixir that is easy to mix, completely non-toxic, and hugely beneficial for jump-starting your garden’s soil and getting it ready for planting. It comes courtesy of Crop Services International, which has over 35 years of experience helping growers accomplish their goals. They provide a Non-Toxic/Biological/Sustainable approach to growing food, from a full-scale commercial farm to the home gardener. We have read “The Non-Toxic Farming Handbook,” which they wrote to educate ourselves on improving our knowledge and approach.
This recipe is based on a 20′ x 50′ garden or 1000 sq. ft. Adjust for your garden size.
Before You Start
Preparing your garden beds for the elixir will require a couple of things.
First, evenly spread a 50 lb bag of high calcium lime (for acidic soils) or gypsum (for alkaline soils) across your beds. Your local garden center should have this. If using lime, it should be high calcium lime with as low magnesium as possible. 5% or less is great, up to 10% is acceptable, but nothing over 10%. The higher magnesium percentage releases excess nitrogen into your soil, greatly decreasing its fertility. It also overloads both the chemical and biological processes of your soil. Do not buy Dolomite lime, as it has too much magnesium.
Then, follow with 100 lbs of rich, aged compost, spread evenly across your beds, about 2 full-sized wheelbarrows. This can be purchased or from your own compost pile. Again, the best is made by you, and it is easy – “Compost – Nourishing Your Garden Soil” has all the details.
After doing both of these, make and apply the elixir.
Notes on Ingredients
This recipe is based on a 20′ x 50′ garden or 1000 sq. ft. Adjust for your garden size.
Apply the mix evenly over lime or gypsum and compost base with sprayer. If needed, go back over with second application to use up all of the batch, just make sure to apply evenly.
Broad-fork or lightly rototill garden soil. If using a rototiller, don’t go more than 2 inches deep at the maximum. Most of the biological growth happens at the 2-3 inch mark and the soil is turned over an inch or so beyond what the tines reach. Tilling deeper only destroys microbial life in the soil, setting you back in your efforts to create and build biologically active soil.
It must be noted that the sprayer cannot have been used to spray any chemical treatments like herbicides, pesticides, etc. as this will put those chemicals onto your soil, killing the microbial life in the soil and feeding the chemicals to the plants, where you wind up eating them!
Seed Planting Elixir
Once you have applied the elixir and broad-forked or lightly tilled the soil, prepare your garden planning and seedlings. We have another planting elixir to use just after planting the seeds and transplanting the seedlings into the garden that we’ll share with you: In a gallon milk jug, mix 1/2 cup of fish emulsion, 1 tsp sugar (preferably raw or brown), and 1/2 cup of cola. Fill the jug with water and shake well. Apply the mixture over the seeds and transplants. Each gallon will treat approximately a 50-foot row.
This is a great start towards sustainable, biological agriculture in your own garden. Remember, though, it is just a start, a good step in the right direction. To continue to make progress in knowledge and soil health, you need to find out where you are starting from. Do more reading, ask questions, and get a complete soil analysis, not just the widely offered NPK and pH soil tests. Spend the money to find out exactly where your garden soil is, and then you can make sound decisions on where you want and need to go. Then you won’t be guessing and shooting in the dark, trying to do what is right but not really knowing if you are making positive progress.