Indoor Gardening: Grow Your Own Shitake Mushrooms

One challenge for urban dwellers is space for gardening. One easy and fun solution is a Shiitake Mushroom Kit. 

Grow your own fancy mushrooms with our all inclusive kit! A mushroom treasured by many, our Shiitake Patch (Lentinula edodes) is composed of a unique blend of sterlized, enriched sawdust fully colonized with a select Chinese strain. Esteemed for both is health stimulating properties and its culinary value, our Shittake kit out-produces by far that of any known competitor. Shiitake mushrooms can be harvested at two week intervals up to 16 weeks. A 50-80 degree Fahrenheit environment is ideal. Each kit comes with illustrated instructions and is guarantee to produce.

Unfortunately, our kit has never produced as abundantly as pictured above. We have had several mushrooms at a time, but I have been disappointed with the results, even after contacting the company for special instructions. I don't know what we are doing wrong, as I have friends who have had great results with mushroom kits.

Vegan Garden Recipes: Organic Kale Chip

As summer time temperatures are heating up, I am searching for ways to use up the kale in my garden before it starts to bolt. One super easy recipe that kids love is kale chips. This snack is healthy and a good replacement for potato chips.

Organic Kale Chips

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Line a cookies sheet with parchment paper.
• Cut or tear kale into bite size pieces and lay out on cookie sheet. 
• Spritz kale with olive oil and Bragg's Liquid Aminos or soy sauce. 
• Sprinkle lightly salt and nutritional yeast over kale. 
• Bake for 10-12 minutes, depending on the oven.

You may want to experiment with different spices to flavor your kale chips. They should turn out crunchy and sort of melt in your mouth. Of course, you can buy kale chips, but it is much more fun and easy to make your own.

Image: daveeza

Organic Gardening Magazine

Whether you are an experienced organic gardener or someone just learning, Organic Gardening is a wonderful periodical.

What You Can Expect in Each Issue:

• Food: We evaluate new and heirloom varieties of tomatoes and all your favorite vegetables in our nationwide network of test gardens. And we bring you the latest research on how to grow them to the peak of flavor. Each issue also includes hints on serving them simply to show off their homegrown goodness.

• Landscaping: A well-maintained property enhances your home's value and gives you a comfortable space where you can relax with family and friends. We show you how to create a yard that is filled with color and interest in all four seasons, with details on the flowers, shrubs and trees that demand little care and deliver big impact. And we offer expert suggestions for giving your yard that "designed by a pro" look.

• Pest and Weed Control: Toxic pesticides and weedkillers not only harm wildlife and poison our fresh water supply, they threaten the health of people and pets. Organic Gardening readers get solutions that are proven to work, but safe for all living things.

• Soil: The secret to success in gardening is right below your feet. Organic Gardening is the only magazine that gives its readers information they can use to build the most fertile, well-balanced and healthy soil possible. Plus, find out how easy and rewarding composting can be.

From organic summertime lawn care to keeping backyard chickens, the current issue is full of inspiration.  As an avid gardener, I find I need motivation at times. Reading Organic Gardening gets me excited to be in the garden, and the recipes provide further encouragement when it comes to harvesting and being creative with your bounty.

This magazine has been around since 1942. A two-year subscription only costs $23.94 ($2.00 an issue), and it would make a wonderful gift.

Disclosure: I was sent free samples of these products to review. No prior assurances were given as to whether the review be positive or negative.

Really Natural Books: Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Fixes

Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Fixes is written by ethnobotanist James Wong. Wong believes, and I agree, that it's easy to grow and make your own natural remedies. He explained to NPR:

I think so many people have this stereotyped idea of what herbal medicine is. I think they've very much got a big black line in their minds that separates serious, conventional, tested, scientific medicine on one side and slightly airy, fairy, away-with-the-hippies -- you know -- natural-but-probably-doesn't-work, plant-based medicine on the other. To me as a scientist, whether a chemical is found within a pill or the cells of plant is really irrelevant -- that's just packaging.

Wong's book has a beautiful layout with incredible photographs and recipes. Take for example:

A few tablespoons of this garlicky vinegar in hot water make a powerful antifungal foot bath, but don't use it on broken skin -- it will hurt! The vinegar takes 1 month to infuse but will last at least 6 months to 1 year. It tastes good in salad dressings, too.

ATHLETE'S FOOT

Garlic Footbath
10 bulbs garlic, peeled and finely chopped
100 g fresh sage leaves
2 cups (500 ml) cider vinegar

1. Place the chopped garlic and sage leaves in a jar, then add the cider vinegar. Seal and leave to infuse for 1 month, shaking occasionally.

USE Add 5 tbsp to a bowl of hot water, and soak feet for 15 minutes. Use 2 or 3 times a week in conjunction with "Garlic Talcum Powder" (see page 52).

This is a great book for the seasoned herbalist and amateur alike, and it is an incredible resource I know I will refer to over and over again.  The title is pretty unique too!

Disclosure: I was sent free samples of these products to review. No prior assurances were given as to whether the review be positive or negative.

Prince Charles Commissions Music Inspired by his Organic Gardens

Prince Charles, a long-term organic gardener (well, he probably has a lot of hired gardeners) and advocate of the local food movement has commissioned music inspired by his award winning gardens at Highgrove. UPI explains:

Patrick Hawes, one of Britain's leading composers, has completed the four-movement Highgrove Suite, inspired by the gardens at Prince Charles's country home...

Claire Jones, the royal harpist, and the Philharmonia Orchestra will premier the suite this summer at a Highgrove concert to benefit The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts.

The Christian Science Monitor further explains the Prince's commitment to organic gardening:

Long before organic went mainstream, Prince Charles was an avid proponent. He recommended improving soils with compost instead of pouring on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. He also advocated recycling kitchen and garden waste for compost and collecting rainwater to provide moisture for plants. Charles endured years of jokes about his views, which were considered a bit odd - but he didn't back down. And he put his money and personal influence behind them - most notably at his Highgrove estate...

Americans tend to think of organic gardening mostly in terms of vegetable gardens. But Prince Charles shows that following environmentally sound principles in the landscape works just as well with ornamentals, since his estates have the type of landscapes that are typical around European palaces and grand houses: intricately trimmed topiary, towering hedges, and many types of informal gardens - from wildflower meadows, orchards, and lily pools to "productive gardens" of vegetables and herbs.

I imagine the original royal gardens were grown organically before the invention of petrochemicals, and I am sure they were nothing less than spectacular.

Natural Food Friday: Organic Optimum Slim High Fiber Cereal and Farmers Can Be Heroes

Fiber, protein, and whole grains are the secrets behind Nature's Path Organic Optimum Slim cereal. Ingredients:

Made with love and ...
Organic rolled oats, organic evaporated cane juice, organic roasted soy nuts, organic wheat bran, organic whole wheat meal, organic brown rice flour, organic soy protein, organic soy oil, organic flax seed, organic flaxmeal, organic freeze dried banana, organic oat syrup solids, organic raisins (coated with organic sunflower oil), organic almonds, organic oat bran, organic puffed Kamut® Khorasan wheat, organic sunflower seeds, organic barley malt extract, organic cinnamon, sea salt, organic matcha green tea, organic molasses, tocopherols (natural vitamin E) added to enhance freshness, organic rice bran extract.

Cereal doesn't have to just be for breakfast. If you are watching your weight (or not), Nature's Path Organic Optimum Slim cereal makes a great snack.

Nature's Path Organic Foods, Organic Valley, and Organic Gardening have teamed up to support the Farmers Can Be Heroes program. This program recognizes our farmers are our heroes who must feed our world while battling climate change. The program provides online courses for conventional farmers to learn about how to switch to organic agricultural practices.

Great Big Plants: Organic Liquid Compost

I am pretty good about keeping my garden and ornamentals fertilized with local manures, but my houseplants suffer from neglect. In the past when I have tried to fertilize them, my family complains of the foul odor. When I discovered Great Big Plants organic liquid compost, I decided to do a sneaky test on my family. I knew that Great Big Plants would invigorate the soil and result in healthier plant growth, but I was concerned when I read on the label "strong odor". Would my family notice? Would Great Big Plants be banished to outside fertilizing only?

When I opened the bottle of liquid compost, well, it smelled like my compost pile. I don't find that offensive, but I don't want my house to smell that earthy. I mixed the concentrate with water and poured it on my houseplants. When my family came inside, they never even noticed; however, my houseplants did! After one application, my neglected house plants have perked up, and they are as happy as can be!

Great Big Plants can be used inside and out, and convert your soil into a rich and healthy environment.  It can be used for new plants and those in old soil, like my houseplants.  It works great invigoratin fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals naturally!